Drive-Through Car Wash Was Too Much for Tesla Cybertruck | Hacker News Reader

Drive-Through Car Wash Was Too Much for Tesla Cybertruck

gizmodo.com

32 pointsnickthegreek31 comments

> The Cybertruck’s owners manual does caution against ever washing the truck in direct sunlight, and there is a section expressly mentioning that the truck has to be switched into “Car Wash Mode” before washing to avoid damage to parts of the vehicle.

Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmqeZl8OI2M

Hilarious, I had the same exact thought and deleted my comment when I saw you'd beat me to it 3 hours prior.

For all people make fun of Elon, you've gotta hand it to him, a truck that can only be washed in the cover of darkness is a true innovation.

"Car wash mode" sounds like such a crazy hack. They probably realized bad things would happen after a test, and the fix was probably a project-killing overhaul, so they patched it somehow. Just incredible.

All Teslas have this. There are several "helpfully automatic" features that do not make for good times in a car wash: windshield wipers, folding mirrors, touch to open charging port, regenerative/automatic braking (on the moving track car washes). Can even temporarily disable the touch screen for cleaning. Car wash nice just disables a bunch of stuff so the windshield wipers and charging port don't get ripped off by spinning brushes and you don't have to remember where all the settings are.

Lots to make fun of on the Cybertruck but this is actually handy.

Disabling the touch screen for cleaning is amazing - I've long desired a simple switch or button that would do that, for both touchscreens and keyboards.

Most commercial touch screens for the last 20 years have that. I've watched janitorial staff activate it, scrub the screen, and deactivate it. (not in cars obviously)

Amazing? You can power off the screen in every car I've ever owned to clean it..or do it with the car off.

Car wash mode here is about pulling in mirrors and the like, not about protecting the car from some insane issue like bricking after a wash. It's probably also a big CYA thing.

My wife’s BMW has it. I assume it closes the active air dampers and the grill vents.

My Bolt EV has a car wash mode, but it is only necessary for car washes where you put the car in Neutral, then get out while the car is pushed through the tunnel. As far as I can tell, all it does is override a safety feature that puts the car in Park (or maybe engages the parking brake) after a a short time in Neutral. I have never had the need to use it, but it's there.

I can't fathom the reason to need both a car wash mode and the warning not to wash the car in the sun.

Well, I can't fathom them releasing a car which cannot be washed in the sun. Being rained on in direct sunlight is not uncommon. How can that be fine but not if you throw in some soap? How is this thing going to handle salty wet roads in the winter if it can't handle a bit of soap in direct sunlight???

No car with paint you care about should ever be washed in the sun. If you look around some detailer forums for basic car washing instructions staying in the shade and carefully drying your car are very important to avoid water spots, swirl marks, and similar damage. Cars with dark colors are particularly notorious for this type of damage.

I've owned many cars over 20 years and outside of cosmetic water marks due to evaporation on a hot car, have never heard of paint damage this way.

Ever own any cars with the flat/plain color(without sparkle/glitter)? I'm kind of wondering whether water drops can magnify the sun's ability to fade paint in a detectable way in those types of paints. I don't imagine it could unless the drops were forming in the exact same positions every time.

> No car with paint you care about should ever be washed in the sun.

Are you being serious?

I have never heard of cars being washed in any other way.

>> No car with paint you care about should ever be washed in the sun.

> Are you being serious?

Probably given "If you look around some detailer forums". I've seen the don't wash in the sun part, but it is about getting the "perfect" clean and not damage. The damage prevention parts usually involve reducing the amount of dirt and grit be rubbed against the paint like foam cannons, multiple buckets/clothes/mitts, grates, clay, etc.

> I have never heard of cars being washed in any other way.

I have a feeling you two are looking at it from vastly different perspectives. You seem to have a more utilitarian view of car washing. You know your car is going to receive damage as you use it. Minor scratches and fading that you have to inspect for are the least of your worries. The other person seems to view cars as important status symbols and any "easily" seen imperfection is a blemish.

> water spots, swirl marks, and similar damage

Water spots and swirl marks from being washed in the sun are not damage. It's just material left around from water drying. The grooves in the paint type of swirl marks are from rubbing the dirt and grit against the paint and nothing to do with the sun.

> No car with paint you care about

The Cybertruck is bare stainless steel with plastic trim, isn't it? So paint damage shouldn't be a concern.

It's not actually clear that this has anything to do with the car wash. The car apparently stopped working sometime later, and that is the guy's best guess.

Still, the owner being unable to reboot the car? The reset taking 5 hours? Those are both unacceptable.

Other cars have similar but different issues:

https://www.toyota.com/owners/warranty-owners-manuals/digita...

(credit ricardobeat)

I don't see the similar issues there. Ripping off a mirror sure, bricking the car like a bad phone? Not so much.

The link is describing issues during car washes that damage the radar and other sensors and which will (probably) not brick the car but cause substantial damage and make the safety features worthless. Not just tearing off a mirror. They're in my Toyota manual too.

dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40084903

Five hours?

Are you implying that’s not long enough to be a real issue?

Because even as someone who doesn’t drive much and likely wouldn’t even notice if my car stopped working for five hours, I’d be pretty pissed if it had to take a multi-hour break because I got it wet

Must not have an SSD

Problems with memory chips are there from the first generation of Tesla, number of writes just exhausts and guess what happens with the Tesla car with no free memory.

I've implemented some terrible hacks to work around hardware issues in shipped products. I wonder if this is simply a 5hr artificial delay to allow some hardware issue to settle, e.g. to allow water to drain out of some compartment.

Yeah, imagine if you need to drive to the hospital and your $100,000 truck is “rebooting”. This is part of the reason I’m not ready for an EV - I don’t want my vehicle depending on software. Lots of things could be broken inside or outside the traditional car and it could still push itself just enough to get you there in an emergency.

> This is part of the reason I’m not ready for an EV - I don’t want my vehicle depending on software.

I’ve got bad news for you about ICE vehicles.

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