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Our Tesla Model 3 Suffered a Failure While Parked

caranddriver.com

121–130 of 173 posts

Re: Our Tesla Model 3 Suffered a Failure While Parked

#121
Speculating in the failure cause here...

I would guess the Tesla constantly checks the isolation between the high voltage system and the car chassis. If it is ever compromised, it blows single-use pyrotechnic fuses as a safety measure (to protect a person who may have their hands in the high voltage system).

That event then makes the car useless till serviced.

Since it is a kind of 'catch all' event, it happens quite frequently, so it was worth Tesla building an error message into the app for it.

Re: Our Tesla Model 3 Suffered a Failure While Parked

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My cousin drives Tesla model x, a friend and I drive model S. We have not had any issues so far. Let’s not freak out at every Tesla is bad story. Simply drive one and see how much it changes your life as it has mine. Then decide what’s good or bad for you. Always remember doom and gloom stories sell more than successful ones.

> Simply drive one and see how much it changes your life as it has mine. Either you had a very boring life or you always talk like you are in a TV advert.

They do drive themselves though.

Re: Our Tesla Model 3 Suffered a Failure While Parked

#123

Whilst Tesla's engineering is impressive, their customer service is terri-bad. As just one example, I was unable to start my new model 3 on a cold morning after owning it for 3 months (which in itself is horrendous). The entire system shut down and would not start. This was particularly problematic for me as I am required to get into the hospital in under 30 minutes in order to treat stroke patients. As such I ended…

*Typical for Tesla

Re: Our Tesla Model 3 Suffered a Failure While Parked

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an interesting story, and I did some quick research to compare the two models. It looks like the Toyota Highlander sold almost twice as many cars in the US in 2019 (~219,000 vs ~114,000) and costs about $20,000 less for the most-expensive model. This is, in my opinion, not an apples to apples comparison. I know most of us at HN--me included!--want Tesla to succeed, but I am again surprised that people are so q…

> and costs about $20,000 less for the most-expensive model That's not the price of the top-end Highlander, which is the AWD Platinum, which is $48,800 (without any options). https://www.toyota.com/configurator/build/step/accessory/yea... The highest priced Model 3 is the Performance, at $56,990 (before $1,875 tax credit)

Every time I see this kind of comparison I'm reminded of how little effort Tesla seems to make relative to other manufacturers to make their cars price-competitive in non-US markets.

Equivalent pricing for top-spec (non-hybrid) Highlander and Model 3 in Canada is $52,100 and $75,990, respectively.

Re: Our Tesla Model 3 Suffered a Failure While Parked

#125

Whilst Tesla's engineering is impressive, their customer service is terri-bad. As just one example, I was unable to start my new model 3 on a cold morning after owning it for 3 months (which in itself is horrendous). The entire system shut down and would not start. This was particularly problematic for me as I am required to get into the hospital in under 30 minutes in order to treat stroke patients. As such I ended…

> When I finally got hold of someone I was told that in order to prevent this, I should prewarm the car using the app prior to using the car.

They gave you a bullshit answer - the car would have had to start to pre-warm too.

The advice I would give is not to park with a low battery in cold weather, since it will lose range.

That said, the car should warn you:

  Battery Low

  There will be significantly less energy available
  from your battery if it gets colder.

  We recommend charging now.
Of course, regular cars have cold weather problems too. Never park a gas car in freezing weather with an almost empty tank (since there is some water in the tank, and it might freeze the fuel pump or lines).

Re: Our Tesla Model 3 Suffered a Failure While Parked

#126

To me, the scariest part of the article is the last image showing the Tesla screen: "Schedule an appointment on your Tesla Mobile App". No ability to take it somewhere else, no ability to diagnose and attempt a fix yourself, you just have to hope that Tesla will fix it quickly for you. I like Tesla as much as anyone else here, but that last image, imho, takes a bit of ownership/agency away from the owner of the car.…

> To me, the scariest part of the article is the last image showing the Tesla screen: "Schedule an appointment on your Tesla Mobile App".

>No ability to take it somewhere else, no ability to diagnose and attempt a fix yourself, you just have to hope that Tesla will fix it quickly for you

Why would a message on a screen prevent you from doing any of those things?

Re: Our Tesla Model 3 Suffered a Failure While Parked

#127

Speculating in the failure cause here... I would guess the Tesla constantly checks the isolation between the high voltage system and the car chassis. If it is ever compromised, it blows single-use pyrotechnic fuses as a safety measure (to protect a person who may have their hands in the high voltage system). That event then makes the car useless till serviced. Since it is a kind of 'catch all' event, it happens quite…

What's worse, your car won't move or your car gives you a 400V shock when you touch it? It's obvious what the better solution is so that's how it was designed. Things happen sometimes and its always better to fail safe.

Now if the failure mode had been the opposite this would be an entirely different story, even possibly brand ruining.

Re: Our Tesla Model 3 Suffered a Failure While Parked

#129

I rented a 2018 Ford Explorer AWD with ~8k miles on it last year. It suffered a persistent "Terrain Management System Fault. Service AdvanceTrac." error while parked, stranding me on a mountain for 2 days. This is apparently a shockingly common problem with Ford vehicles equipped with AdvanceTrac. It's getting tiresome that any similar issues Tesla encounters are somehow newsworthy... For example fires - according to…

OTOH it’s a car and driver long term test car, so one would hope that entropy wouldn’t affect it much. If you’re saying it’s common for many vehicles to just die while parked, I don’t think that’s really a thing yet.

I'm saying if they had a Ford Explorer (or any other mundane model) that suffered a similar failure they would likely not bother to write an entire article highlighting that event. It just isn't quite the click bait that a Tesla article brings.

Re: Our Tesla Model 3 Suffered a Failure While Parked

#130

Recently my bothers Ford Focus had service engine light that had come on and vehicle was shut down. He had it towed to ford. which let him know that they recently had a recall on the model and they knew the exact issue. He was neither given rental nor Uber or loaner etc. he had to talk to his insurance company which also did not include recall as a clause so he had to rent. This sort of shit happens to all cars. Alth…

> his insurance company which also did not include recall as a clause so he had to rent

But he didnt leave car for recall, his car shut down. Sounds like a fob off excuse.

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