Thread by @repkord

The joys of living on the bleeding edge- a thread:

On the way to dinner tonight my @Tesla literally locked up IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HIGHWAY! A message Ive never seen before popped up saying "Vehicle May Not Restart: Service required"

Well thats no good I think...

...no sooner do I have that thought than the car starts beeping madly saying "pull over immediately! Insufficient power" and then everything just locks up. No ability to shift to neutral. No releasing parking break/ emergency override. car is bricked in the middle of a 6 lane hwy

There was no time to even get to the shoulder. Im dead in the water in the middle lane of southbound traffic. Thankfully the hazards still work and the door still opens. Dont know for how long though. I roll all the windows down just in case i need back in and its time to bail...

I run over to the shoulder and contemplate my next move. Is this 911 worthy I think? Its dark and if my hazards die My car will get plowed for sure. I look down the road about 300 yards and luckily theres a @CaltransDist3 crew just coming on shift for the night... i jog over...

Hey guys... my car is dead in the road just down the way there (I point) I cant get it in neutral we cant push it. Is there any way you can get cones or flares out and help divert traffic before I get creamed? Without hesitation "we got you" and they go to work setting a break...

Ok... now to call Tesla roadside... wait what? Theres no phone number immediately obvious on the app... i have to schedule through the app?! I do that. Immediately I get a text. Are you safe? Can you tell us whats happening? I proceed to TEXT the story to them. 😳...

"F-This" I think... "This is too urgent for text. Im googling for a Phone number... all the while though the @Tesla agent is being responsive and addressing the issue, calling a tow company. I tell them "Its unsafe and urgent... please escalate!" sorry... "90 min ETA"...

"90 min?! I need something to happen faster than that! Im backing up traffic big time here"

(Car drives by just then)
"Thanks for blocking the road asshole! Where's your Electric Car now?!"
😳
"Sorry sir 90 min is the best we can do. You can call 911 if you need help sooner."😡

"No, CalTrans has me safely blocked please send the tow as soon as you can." ...sigh

... and the waiting begins...

CalTrans foreman walks over. "Can we push it to the shoulder?"

"No. Its locked up. Theres no manual override. Cant shift." I bring him up to speed.

We wait more

"Should we call CHP?" i ask CalTrans foreman?
"I don't have any direct line to them."
"You don't?! I thought you guys work with them all the time?"
"Yeah I don't have their number"

More waiting...

Tow truck arrives after about 45 min... thankfully not 90... all in all, not bad I guess. The system works. Off to the service center. Tomorrow we find out how bad it really is. 🤞🏻

<UPDATE 9/23>: Roadside assistance dropped the car off at the local service center without further incident last night. When I said "The system works" I was referring to the bizarre app / text based communication for arranging that. To be clear I think this is still a...

... fail on Tesla's part in not allowing for a good means of emergency escalation that doesn't involve calling 911. Its weird and unfamiliar but the text system was actually faster in getting a tow dispatched than me waiting on the phone, so in normal / safe conditions...

...it appears effective albeit not everyone's preferred mode of communication. Regarding what's actually wrong with the car: All I know at the moment is they're investigating and have a rough eta for in-warranty repair of 9/28. Given the gross safety issue exposed here...

...its frustrating there's not a way to escalate this up the chain and talk to someone at Tesla about what happened & can be done to mitigate repeat failure in the future. Will keep pressing service advisor on that more and update if I make any headway. </UPDATE 9/23>

<CLARIFICATIONS>
1. Highway != Freeway. Incident was on Grass Valley Highway 49 in Auburn, CA. 45mph limit in this area. Very busy road but I was not playing frogger on the freeway. Statement of facts, not diminishment of severity.

2. When I said "Locked Up" I meant the systems that allow getting the car in gear & E-Brake not the wheels locking up and causing me to skid to a halt at full speed. When power cut it did still feel like regen was working and slowed the car quickly, at about 5mph the E-Brake...

...auto engaged and never released again.
3. "The system works" means their app based roadside assistance system not the car's systems.
4. Car is 2015- bought CPO direct from Tesla in 2018 88k mi. Still under CPO warranty...

5. "Bleeding Edge" does not refer to car itself but the EV ecosystem and the new ways things like maintenance and support are being handled too. Doesn't mean I endorse taking chances with unproven or unsafe features in a car. I most certainly DO NOT.

6. I am VERY concerned about this problem and it 💯% needs to be addressed. Definitely needs to be awareness of this issue which is why I've shared this story. I still very much look forward to hearing from Tesla on this and seeing how they handle it.
</CLARIFICATIONS>

<UPDATE 9/24>Finally received a call back from Tesla. Diagnosis is rear drive unit completely crapped out. HV and battery system checked out as ok. Asked what I should have done to get it into neutral? Will this continue to be an issue with a new unit? Advisor didn't know...

...escalating to get more technical details and will get back to me this afternoon. Hmm... we'll see. Will continue to push, I do not want this swept under the rug. </UPDATE 9/24>

<UPDATE 9/24-2>Service advisor followed up as promised later that afternoon with more technical details: Failure due to isolation fault somewhere in the rear drive unit. They confirmed based on this failure and how the car locked down there was nothing I could have done to get...

...the car to roll despite my repeat efforts to activate tow mode and release the e-brake via the console while it was still available. They didn't know if this failure mode could still occur with a new drive unit or if a software fix can be pushed. Nor did...

...they seem to know how pervasive this issue could be with newer/other models. I consider the answer to these questions and how Tesla continues to address it critical to my continued faith in the car and the brand. </UPDATE 9/24-2>

<UPDATE 9/30>Sent letter to Tesla explaining the incident & need for them to investigate/address this beyond replacing bad parts and hoping it doesn't happen again. Informed it has been escalated to corporate. Still no one outside of service has reached out to me. ETA for...

...replacing the faulty drive unit has moved from today to "Mid Next Week" due to being "backed up in the shop."
The waiting continues.
</UPDATE 9/30>

<UPDATE 10/17>Got my car back with a brand new rear drive unit on 10/4. Has been driving fine for the past two weeks but was hoping to hear back from corporate on some of my outstanding concerns on what's being done to address the failure I experienced. Sadly I've received no...

...communication from Tesla since, despite being told my concerns have been escalated to their engineering team for evaluation. While the service team did a great job at getting the car running again it's unfortunate that there hasn't been better communication from higher up...

...given that the root of my concerns go way beyond simply getting the car rolling again. I've submitted a request for my car's log data in the hopes of having a better record of what happened from the car's perspective but it's rather annoying the way Tesla guards this data...

...and makes you request it. Feels very much like the fox guarding the henhouse. Most frustratingly, when speaking with the service manager he claims the logs failed to show any attempts by me whatsoever to release the parking bake or put the car into tow mode which is utter...

...BS given I had over an hour in the middle of the road to try everything under the sun. He of course could would not share these logs so you can see why I'm skeptical about the depth of data they'll actually reveal. Says it takes up to 30 days to get logs to me, 🙄 we'll see..

...Since the incident I've also purchased glass breakers and roadside emergency blinkers that will stay in the car at all times. Things I should have had originally but given the revelation of how utterly reliant the car is on power for just about everything I'm leaving as...

...little as possible to chance now. I still think Tesla needs to do the right thing here and add numerous improvements to both how the car responds to these kinds of failure as well as develop proper overrides so that the car can always be made to roll with or without power...

...Lastly, here's a fun little tidbit that makes me suspect this goes deeper than we think. Have a look at this other car that was sitting right outside the service entrance when I went to pick up my car. Apparently some Teslas love skateboarding too these days.🤔 </UPDATE 10/17>