2013 Tesla Model S: Stuck on the Freeway
edmunds.com
edmunds.com
Secondly calling tesla roadside is great but the first call should be to 911 for a cruiser to come and at least add some safety with their lights. A stalled car on a freeway on ramp is an emergency situation and by not calling 911 the author was endangering the lives of himself, his son, and anyone else using the on ramp.
edit my first point was a bit off. If you can exit the vehicle and exit the road without crossing active traffic that can be safe too. Second point still holds.
I don't think it's so cut-and-dry, as your edit suggests. Your decision should be based on traffic and visibility conditions.
This tragic incident caused a fair amount of debate about the issue in Seattle last year:
http://www.king5.com/news/local/Should-you-stay-or-leave-a-s...
(2) Services/companies like On-star will typically dial 911 for you. Presumably Tesla's level of service is comparable. In any event, if it was not already...this should be reason to add better service rather than criticize the author.
The 12V system has a conventional lead-acid battery which is kept charged when the vehicle is running by an inverter running off the propulsion battery.
Presumably, the 12v inverter failed in this story so the lead-acid battery ran down. You'd get results similar in a conventional car where the alternator failed: gradually dimming lights, then suddenly no engine power.
Indeed, you could imagine the system being able to give an earlier warning for this class of failure. Perhaps they'll be able to add it in a future software update.
It's probably possible to build a sensor that tracks all this, but normal cars with the same 12V system don't have that sensor either. If the alternator goes the way mine did, you won't even see a battery indicator on the dash (even though it has such an indicator), you find out about it when your car stops moving in the middle of the road.
In general, there have been a lot of liars asserting ridiculous things about the car that are eventually proven to be false. It seems like he just ran out of battery.
I'm an EV driver (Fiat 500e), I'm generally a Tesla fan (would love to be able to afford one), and I am tired of articles like this (where any failure of the car is somehow newsworthy) but treating it like a conspiracy is nuts. Of course there are going to be individual Teslas with problems or system failures.
These articles are nothing compared to the owner's forums. Go read what the RAV4 EV drivers think of Tesla (who provides the drivetrain for Toyota). There is definitely a suprising number of RAV4 EVs that have had this exact same power failure.
With the amount of negative news coverage that the Tesla has received in relation to automobiles in general, I think it's safe to say that they are being targeted. I don't think there is necessarily a conspiracy, however, a car salesman is quite possibly the least trustworthy character to trust for honesty in this matter.
Same thing applies here. It's valid to bring up his background, and considering his background I don't expect him to be unbiased in his assessment. I wouldn't even be surprised if he's actively working against Tesla.
The 12V battery system is not the lithium battery pack that runs the motor which you can run out by driving too far. It's the big lead acid brick battery all cars have that runs your headlights and dashboard panels. It also typically runs the computer that controls your throttle and transmission; if the battery goes, your car stops moving, whether you have fuel (conventional or electric) or not.
In an older car, even if there's an engine failure, it should be possible to get the car into neutral and either let it roll or propel it with the starter motor to the side of the road. Similarly the brakes will still work, although they'll be very heavy once the assisted-braking is depleted.
Once everything is electronic and drive-by-wire you lose this redundancy - I've heard of new Range Rovers, as one example, being very difficult to tow because if the electrics fail then it's impossible to take it out of gear and to remove the parking brake.
Even if it is true, as the technology advances, I think it is normal that it needs different and more complicated tools for support.
Name a car that supports this. Genuinely curious.
It's not exactly healthy for the starter motor but can be useful in emergencies for getting the car over to the shoulder or out from the middle of a junction.
I'm not sure how it'll work with automatic gearboxes (a small minority of cars here in the UK) but no reason why it shouldn't work on any car with a manual gearbox and key ignition.
Note that it is possible (with some luck) to start a car with a clutch that won't disengage this way and you might be able to limp to a garage.
I have actually tried this before, in a 1972 J-4000 with a 258. The starter on that truck would make most other starters look like wind-up toys, but the truck would lurch, but not roll.
> Name a car that supports this. Genuinely curious.
Over six decades of driving, I cannot tell you how many times I have successfully moved a misbehaving car a short distance by doing this -- a car that had a healthy battery attached to an unhealthy engine or out of fuel.
All cars have issues. Tesla is new-ish tech, so I'd expect a these things to happen for a bit. Furthermore, I think given the cool-factor and price tag, we're just more likely to hear about a greater proportion of the issues than with other cars.
It goes to show, even with advanced technology, low-tech items like road flares can be life savers.
Not sure if I'd try that stuck on the left lane of the freeway (or Autobahn).
edit: It wasn't clear, I was talking about California, where this story takes place.
(and Spain and Switzerland require 2 triangles)
Probably Austria, according to http://shop.theaa.com/content/driving-in-europe triangle and high-vis jacket are not mandatory in Germany (they are in Austria)
Ideally speaking, an electric car should be simpler and less prone to failure than a gasoline vehicle (after all, a gasoline vehicle needs a battery and a starter motor), but it seems that the Tesla has many single points of failure. It probably needs to have at least two completely independent battery systems so that if one fails you at least have half power. The idea that the car could go from drivable to being unable to power its hazard lights in half an hour is truly scary.
It seems to me that Tesla needs to incorporate some of the ideas from Space-X (in terms of redundancy) into its cars.
The need to continue on to orbit when an engine fails [http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/spacex-s-non-fatal-failure] > The inconvenience of having to get a tow. Cost/benefit tradeoff.
With that said, I see Tesla replacing the 12V battery with a Lithium pack at some point (vs a lead acid battery), not just for capacity but also for deep discharge durability.
BTW the 12v battery was the last thing to go.
Your car breaks down in the highway in California? Call CHP (911 should go there)?
Leaving your car visible only from 4-way hazards is...questionable. Flares and/or LED flares and/or marker triangle placed behind the vehicle would allow drivers to notice your disabled vehicle before being a threat. Emplacing flares can be dangerous, though, if traffic isn't already stopped. CHP will do this for you, and is the safest/default option. In civilized parts of the country, commercial truckers or good samaritans may stop to help you if you pull over and have your hood open (I'd personally definitely stop for a Tesla driver, even in LA, just to see what the problem was, and my trunk has emergency stuff like flares, hi-viz jacket, etc..)
Getting out of your disabled car stopped in the roadway or on the shoulder is often unsafe, too, although it depends on where exactly this was; if you could walk off the roadway entirely, sure. Otherwise, getting rear-ended while sitting in a car is far better than being run over outside it.
Tesla died. Suddenly, in a bad location, after dark, on the first ride. What else do you expect him to say? He is actually quite gallant in how he describes the incident. As pro-Tesla as the situation permits.
Anyway, it's one thing for that to happen when I'm browsing reddit, it's another thing when you're cruising down the highway at 70mph.
Since the 12v battery is (presumably) powered from an alternator from the drivetrain the only way it could get flat while driving is if there's a fault with the car.
That would be a rather small smile right?