Have you ever been in a situation where your car suddenly stops for no obvious reason?
But in the case of a Tesla or other electric vehicle, this is not always possible.
Well, this happened to Alan Puccinelli, who shared his experience on Twitter.
I recommend readingthe whole threadpublished a few hours after the event.
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
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 brake/ emergency override.
The car is bricked in the middle of a 6 lane highway.
There was no time to even get to the shoulder.
Im dead in the water in the middle lane of southbound traffic.
Youre probably thinking, oh shit, about now.
I spoke to Alan to find out more.
Fortunately, the hazard lights worked in his Model S Tesla, and the doors opened.
This is a problemNOTlimited to Tesla.
Accordingto Jason Torchinksky, this is an industry-wide problem with EVs.
Every EV has some way to get the car into neutral.
Tesla rates as one of the safest vehicles on the road.
Who you gonna call?
I cant just open up a glove box and refer to how do X.
Alan thankfully had his phone.
Tesla roadside support is only available through text chat support.
Yep, youre stuck in the middle of a highway frantically typing on your phone.
There is no number listed anywhere.
Alan shared:
I was fortunate that the tow truck driver had received more training than the average.
I imagine moving forward, this is going to be more common and will require training.
We cant get the basics right.
What does this mean for the future of vehicle automation?
If the dashboard is not functioning correctly, we have no means to reach the manual.
If our car needs towing, we risk damaging the engine in the process.
To say its a woeful scenario for EVs is an understatement.
It bodeseven worse for autonomous vehicles.
It should be able to send a message to road services to send out a crew.
These basic safety capabilities are just not there yet in an unpredictable scenario.
So what was wrong with Alans Tesla?
A Tesla service advisor attributed the failure due to an isolation fault in the rear-drive unit.
Nor did they seem to know how pervasive this issue could be with newer/other models.
Alan sent a letter to Tesla explaining the incident.
The issue has been escalated to corporate, but hes still waiting for a response.
Do EVs excite your electrons?
Do ebikes get your wheels spinning?
Do self-driving cars get you all charged up?
Story byCate Lawrence
Cate Lawrence is an Australian tech journo living in Berlin.
