Should the Model S better notify you when driving with the trunk open?
Christmas morning, I loaded my trunk up with a few presents and hopped in the car. I threw the car in drive, pulled forward.... THUD THUD THUD. I slammed on the brakes and immediately realized I forgot to shut the trunk and it was banging off things hanging from my garage ceiling. Luckily there was basically little-to-no damage (a mark the size of a cookie crumb), but I was immediately baffled why the car let me do this so easily.
I was given no audible warning and my eyes were out the windshield (paying attention to where I was steering), apparently missing the ever so subtle image notification with a slight shade of yellow that my trunk was still open. Heck, the car yells at you more if you leave the charge port open (which is unlikely to cause any issue with you driving with it open, unlike a trunk). Given that I was pulling forward out of my garage, I did not get the other possible implicit notification by noticing my rear backup cam was facing the ceiling. Given it's a liftgate and not a standard trunk, your rear view is not blocked by the trunk being open. It looks almost exactly the same with it open and closed.
The thing I'm asking is, should the car do something more? How frequently does a driver mean to drive with their trunk open? Rarely ever. I can only guess that the majority of the time, driving with your trunk open is unintentional and a mistake. Maybe once in a blue moon would you want to drive with your trunk open (e.g., you stuffed a Christmas tree in your trunk and tied it down). That's why I'd love to see a confirmation when putting the car in drive with your trunk open. "Warning: You are trying to put the car in drive with your trunk open. Proceed? Yes. No."
I e-mailed Jerome and he feels there are already various notifications and "we need to be sensitive to adding too many chimes that aren’t truly necessary as that would start to affect the calm of the Model S."
What do you think?
Christmas morning, I loaded my trunk up with a few presents and hopped in the car. I threw the car in drive, pulled forward.... THUD THUD THUD. I slammed on the brakes and immediately realized I forgot to shut the trunk and it was banging off things hanging from my garage ceiling. Luckily there was basically little-to-no damage (a mark the size of a cookie crumb), but I was immediately baffled why the car let me do this so easily.
I was given no audible warning and my eyes were out the windshield (paying attention to where I was steering), apparently missing the ever so subtle image notification with a slight shade of yellow that my trunk was still open. Heck, the car yells at you more if you leave the charge port open (which is unlikely to cause any issue with you driving with it open, unlike a trunk). Given that I was pulling forward out of my garage, I did not get the other possible implicit notification by noticing my rear backup cam was facing the ceiling. Given it's a liftgate and not a standard trunk, your rear view is not blocked by the trunk being open. It looks almost exactly the same with it open and closed.
The thing I'm asking is, should the car do something more? How frequently does a driver mean to drive with their trunk open? Rarely ever. I can only guess that the majority of the time, driving with your trunk open is unintentional and a mistake. Maybe once in a blue moon would you want to drive with your trunk open (e.g., you stuffed a Christmas tree in your trunk and tied it down). That's why I'd love to see a confirmation when putting the car in drive with your trunk open. "Warning: You are trying to put the car in drive with your trunk open. Proceed? Yes. No."
I e-mailed Jerome and he feels there are already various notifications and "we need to be sensitive to adding too many chimes that aren’t truly necessary as that would start to affect the calm of the Model S."
What do you think?
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Fortunately the Model S with the tech package lets me set the opening height...
