Yesterday I test drove a Model S for the first time and I was exposed to the one pedal driving system and lack of brake usage. After driving the car, I was thinking about the safety issues of hardly ever using the breaks/brake lights. I am wondering if anyone has heard of Teslas being rear ended more than other cars because of this one pedal driving system?
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One Pedal Driving and Brake Lights
- Thread starter cmurphy
- Start date
The brake lights operate with regen, so no one behind you know you aren't using the brake. The lights are triggered by an accelerometer, so come on as they would with "normal" braking.
RclKag
BC CND P85+
Brake lights DO come on when you lift off the 'go' pedal.
You can check this by looking at the rear camera when driving at night.
You can check this by looking at the rear camera when driving at night.
deonb
Active Member
Press the "T" (Tesla) sign at the top of your display (the place where you see your software version number).
The car picture in there will show you when your brake lights come on.
The car picture in there will show you when your brake lights come on.
paulkva
part of the supercharge.info dev team
I had wondered the same thing recently. You used to be able to see the brake lights illuminate in real time on the picture of your car within the "about Tesla" screen (touch the "T" logo at the top for a pop-up). That doesn't happen any more (I think as of the 5.0 software update), but it still does show brake lights in real time on the charging screen (touch the battery icon at the top for a pop-up). I simply drove a few times with the charging screen showing to get a feel for when the brake lights come on; now I'm pretty sure I have a feel for it.
strider
Active Member
Welcome to TMC cmurphy!
For your reading pleasure:
Regen and Brake Lights - Highway Issue
Bottom line - just enjoy the car. Tesla has thought of these things
For your reading pleasure:
Regen and Brake Lights - Highway Issue
Bottom line - just enjoy the car. Tesla has thought of these things
I hate this so-called "feature" and is at the top of my wish list for Tesla to offer a software option to disable it. Everyone behind me thinks I'm brake checking them and I get the finger a lot (yes, the middle one. I do get thumbs up a lot too, but the middle finger does get extended occasionally in response to the regenerative brake check).
Frankly I think it's an instigation for a road rage incident.
I think you're driving too aggressively if this is the case. And yes, I'm being generous with a soft word like "aggressively".
I don't know - when following a Model S I've often found that the brake lights tend to come on more frequently than others when driving in typical traffic. It does seem to be a bit more sensitive than it needs to be.
Is regen strong enough in the low-regen setting for the brake lights to trigger?
I just don't see how this is possible. The Model S will slow down faster than an ICE can without illuminating the brake lights. I actually feel the opposite way -- where I'm slowing down in traffic and my brake lights don't come on and the car behind me doesn't get any indication that I'm slowing down (more than I would be from coasting, like I would be in an ICE by lifting off the accelerator).
that's because you're the one driving and you're not the one driving behind you getting regenerative brake checked , lol
ditto. I've been behind a few in moving traffic and while everyone else is just cruising around I see the Model S's tap on and off frequently. Typically when I get behind any car doing this (aka a non-regen car), I figure they are either driving with two feet or they are putting makeup on or some other dangerous crap. Like it's been pointed out before, these types of drivers have this "trickle effect" of brake lights. First guy pops brakes on, guy behind him does, guy behind that guy does, and so on, and thus causes traffic to slow up and eventually results in traffic jams. I do my best to get in front of these cars ASAP. And that is exactly what I see happening to me now - everyone trying to get in front of me.
not that I'm aware of. I don't think the brake lights will come on at all in the low-regen setting. However I found that I was hitting the brake pedal too much just like any other car and figured I'd end up burning through brake pads quickly so I'd rather have regen on.
yes I drive in and out of Manhattan daily. if you're not on top of the guy in front of you matching their speed, you'll be cut off over and over and over again taking you forever to get anywhere. you must be aggressive or have the patience to take twice the time as it should to go places. If there is 1 car length between you and the car in front of you, thats a half a car length more than enough for someone to start butting in. yes this is NYC driving. get used to it. I even got clipped by a white van last friday who just kept driving. Again, as expected in NYC it's not like the van stopped or anything. AFAIK he probably didn't even know he clipped me. Surprisingly there were no marks on my car - it must rubbed against some sort of plastic or rubber on the side of his van. Sort of good timing anyway as I had planned to thoroughly detail my car the next day with a DA polisher to get out the factory swirls so even if there were any marks on the paint it's def not there now. Anywho I'm side tracking. For this kind of driving, which I consider normal around these parts, the "regenerative brake check" is a road rage hazard IMO.
SCW-Greg
Active Member
YobigD, I know the driving you're talking about, but if you're driving like that to essentially tail-gate the guy in front, I don't know how you can't be constantly riding the brakes in an ICE anyway. Not sure it would be all that different, unless you're driving a stick.
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yes, please. get me out of here. lol. I would be in heaven if I were out on the west side like in S.F. (especially as a software engineer...)
swaltner
Active Member
If you leave a little gap in front of your car, you're just injecting a little anti-traffic into the traffic.
TRAFFIC WAVE EXPERIMENTS
Just like anti-matter will destroy matter, anti-traffic will destroy traffic!
TRAFFIC WAVE EXPERIMENTS
Just like anti-matter will destroy matter, anti-traffic will destroy traffic!
And guess what, your brake lights come then as well. I've definitely checked before, and for me the brake lights come on only when I would have had to use brakes in a normal car. Adjusting speed in freeway traffic never brings them on except when the person in front of me also has their brake lights on. I think some people pull their foot too quickly off the accelerator.
caddieo
Member
I think this is key. When driving at night, one can check the brake lights with the rear view camera. One can then (preferably without following traffic) experiment with the gentleness or rapidity of accelerator release and then get a feel for the move which makes the brake lights come on.
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