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The braking and tire performance is fine.
The 60 to 0 distances are excellent.
If someone on the highway suddenly slams the brakes in front of you, there is not much you can do. Even maintaining the recommended two second or three second rule will not help in that situation.
In my experience, most cars on the highway are driving much closer than the recommended safe distance.
That really sucks. I'm really glad that a**hole in the pick up got caught by the Police.
That being said, I agree with James. If the Tesla driver had his eyes off the road for one sec (looking at one of the mirrors for example) and the pickup driver did just slam on his brakes, it doesn't matter what car you have. A crash is almost inevitable.
-Shark2k
True. I'm just wondering aloud about the normal things that get talked about after such an accident. Of course these were extreme circumstances.Originally Posted by James
With only 200 cars on the road, is 4 such accidents a large number? It seems high to me, but that's just my perception. I don't know the statistics for a proper comparison. Cold brakes and having to stomp harder on the pedal than the driver is used to might be contributing factors.
Rereading the article, perhaps the driver of the stolen pickup slammed on the brakes for the purpose of damaging the nice car that was traveling behind him. Wouldn't be too much of a stretch.
Last edited by doug; 02-18-2009 at 07:20 PM. Reason: typo
The Tesla has mediocre braking performance compared to other high-performance cars, but it still performs well above the average car. Most new cars have a longer braking distance than the Roadster. And that's only for new cars! Imagine how terrible the brakes perform on the millions of decade-old, unmaintained cars. The driver is the safety hazard, not anyone's brake pads.
"Success is 99% failure" - Soichiro Honda
I wonder if that means that Roadster drivers tend to be worse at braking than the general populace, or our sample size is still too small to draw any conclusions.
I have wondered before if getting used to regenerative braking might lull a person into being a little slower to hit the manual brakes.
Thankfully the driver wasn't hurt. Safety features seem to be functioning well.
This situation demonstrates the importance of knowing what's going on in the lanes around you. I don't know if it was possible for this guy, but I've been in a similar situation but was able (barely) to change lanes.
I do agree with Joseph that the Tesla brakes are pretty mediocre for the level of performance, but better than the average car. It brings a tear to my eye to think of a Tesla totalled.
Given that a large part of the car's value is in the drivetrain, it might not actually be totaled. That was just the CHP Officer's opinion. We don't even know if the airbags deployed or if there is frame damage. Probably some more details will come out soon.
Does Tesla have emergancy brake booster?
Brake distance might be short but such distances are measured under controlled circumstances and with driver just slaming the brakes. In normal driving there is that reaction time and also time to press the pedal to the max before brakes start to really brake. That "emergancy brake booster" adds a sensor to brake pedal and monitors the speed of deppresing. If you jump on it, it applies max brake pressure even before the brake pedal is fully depressed. It shaves quite a few meters from braking distance under normal driving situations.
Anyone knows if Tesla Roadster has such a thing?
I believe in Tesla as a concept, a brand, and a suite of products. No matter who conceived, started, runs, or maintains, I hope it ultimately prevails and lasts.
-- TEG
Yeah and now they have a Radar Sensor that is put in the front of the car that if it senses that you are closing in on the car in front of you TOO fast it will start appling the brakes before you do. In this case that would have happened. They are also using this tech in addition to the emergency booster and in conjunction with each other. The technology is leading to the idea that in an emergency situation the car might actually be able to stop without driver input if necessary. So if the car in front of you slams on its brakes and you do not see it for a split second when you go to stop the car will actually be ahead of you in the process. It also can apply the MAXIMUM brake pressure with out locking up the wheels. In like 90% of emergency stops the driver is not really applying enough brake pressure to stop as fast as the car is capable. That was the statistic behind the use of the booster. Pretty soon we will not have to drive at all
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