Lost power (resolved: accidentally put car in neutral)

I haven't seen this issue on the forums yet before. You are going to get the always important question of whether you talked to Service yet as this sounds like a serious issue. Sorry I cannot give further context as I haven't had this problem.... but thats because my car comes in next week

Call your local service center, they'll be able to check your logs and see what happened. If it's outside business hoursc call the roadside assistance number on the card in your glove compartment.

Carguy949 said:

So I was driving on the freeway cruising around 70. I was using cruise control and adjusting the speed every now & then, when I noticed my speed started drifting lower. I tapped the cruise control stalk up and nothing happened. Pressed the accelerator and nothing happened. I was just coasting, but luckily regen was not engaging so I wasn't losing speed too quickly. I was able to coast to an offramp and pull over. I put it in park, waited a minute or so, then put it back in Drive, and it was fine again. I turned around and came home.

I had about 180 miles of range showing and it was about 65 degrees out. Anyone else experience this particular set of circumstances?

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are you sure you didnt accidentally shift to Neutral? Would be same effect.

I had a case similar to this, but with a message to pull over. After a shift from neutral back to drive, I was able to continue. My initial reaction is that I had the same failure many others had... but without the loud "clunk" that often accompanies it.

It turns out there was a fault in the accelerator pedal position sensor logic somewhere. I ended up up with a drive line change as a result, as apparently part of the logic is integrated there.

I wondered this as well, since I've accidentally shifted into neutral (when intending to wash the windshield in the way that it works in my Audi--it took me a few seconds to realize what had happened.)

Andvib said:

are you sure you didnt accidentally shift to Neutral? Would be same effect.

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eelton said:

I wondered this as well, since I've accidentally shifted into neutral (when intending to wash the windshield in the way that it works in my Audi--it took me a few seconds to realize what had happened.)

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I've did that a couple of times when the car was new. I think thats is where the windshield wiper switch is on most, if not all, of my previous cars.

On the other hand, now when I drive any of the other cars, I aways turn on the windshield wipers when I mean to put it in drive.

Carguy949 said:

So I was driving on the freeway cruising around 70. I was using cruise control and adjusting the speed every now & then, when I noticed my speed started drifting lower. I tapped the cruise control stalk up and nothing happened. Pressed the accelerator and nothing happened. I was just coasting, but luckily regen was not engaging so I wasn't losing speed too quickly. I was able to coast to an offramp and pull over. I put it in park, waited a minute or so, then put it back in Drive, and it was fine again. I turned around and came home.

I had about 180 miles of range showing and it was about 65 degrees out. Anyone else experience this particular set of circumstances?

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I've never heard of this before, tag to hear what the Service Center has to say...

This happened to me - I accidentally bumped the stalk to neutral - bumped it back into "D" and kept on cruising.

Doug_G said:

If there was no warning message, then you most likely bumped it to neutral without noticing. That said it could have been a glitch; Tesla will be able to tell from the logs.

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Are the logs available to us, or it's cryptic and only the Tesla folks can read it? The logs will track each step taken with the car? Like Volume adjusted higher, then lower, then switched gears to Neutral, then lowered A/C, etc?

I did it once without realizing it, and it almost threw me into a panic thinking I had a major problem! It was probably within a couple of weeks of getting the car and I think I was trying to clean the windshield.

Btrflyl8e said:

I did it once without realizing it, and it almost threw me into a panic thinking I had a major problem! It was probably within a couple of weeks of getting the car and I think I was trying to clean the windshield.

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I'm curious. Does the car give any warning that you are in neutral going 60 mph? You would think this is would be a nice update to the car to do this. If its a common enough problem maybe it could give a ding and a warning message "Car in neutral" but only when you are going above a certain speed.

Makes sense to me. Not sure why you would want to go neutral faster then 10 miles per hour.

I was only doing 25 mph when I did it but no, there was no warning. I've never done it again, though.

Bardlebee said:

I'm curious. Does the car give any warning that you are in neutral going 60 mph? You would think this is would be a nice update to the car to do this. If its a common enough problem maybe it could give a ding and a warning message "Car in neutral" but only when you are going above a certain speed.

Makes sense to me. Not sure why you would want to go neutral faster then 10 miles per hour.

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I agree. A warning light or exclamation mark (like you get if charging with a bad cable, or have a door open) would be nice to have. I've put my car in neutral once, and wasn't sure what was happening. Shouldn't be too hard to code it to show the exclamation mark.

It happened to me while stopped for a red light. I unconsciously bumped the lever to neutral then almost panicked when the car refused to move as the light turned green. Fortunately I saw the N on the dashboard and corrected it, but not in time to stop the guy behind me from blowing his horn.

I have made the same mistake and accidentally put the car in neutral and thought I was losing power. There was no warning light, however it shows clearly on the dash that the car is in neutral, just have to look.

imherkimer said:

I have made the same mistake and accidentally put the car in neutral and thought I was losing power. There was no warning light, however it shows clearly on the dash that the car is in neutral, just have to look.

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Sometimes it comes into sheer panic mode though, so I can understand. With some troubles with the "thunk" sound I have heard about, it wouldn't be hard to panic and ask yourself "Did my car just die?". I think a little sound/warning sign would be helpful, even if its an option you can turn off and on. You know, for the panic attack in all of us.

EDIT: Also let us all admire the granularity and time stamp efficiency of the Model S. Holy cow, they were able to tell you not only what you did but WHEN. That is crazy good from a service point of view. Trying going to the service center for one of your ICE cars... "Yeah it was making this TKTKTKTKTRRWWWWRRTKKKKTKTKT" noise.. you know?"

I mean imagine the next level service they are able to give when they can clearly pin point How When What Where and Why without even asking you.