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Brain impact from launches ?

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I was talking with someone today about Tesla's and offered them a ride in mine. They gave a quite emphatic no and said that they'd ridden in someone else's P85D a few weeks ago and had an achy feeling head for nearly a day afterwards and said that it'd begun after a launch (and said that they had their head back against the headrest prior to the launch so it wasn't a head jerk). Any neurology types on here that can share some expertise?
 
Doubt that it's a brain issue, more likely a cervical strain issue equating to something more of a muscle tension headache. I suppose one could slam their head back against the headrest hard enough to sustain a very minor concussion if you were predisposed to them (like from many prior closed head injuries/concussions), but the normal healthy person I don't think that is likely.
 
Most likely acute hypochondria.
The 1g of acceleration when you "launch" the P85D is literally the same magnitude of force constantly applied the brain by gravity. And that 1g is exceeded by many other activities like jerking your head around during active exercise, skiing, etc.
 
Most likely acute hypochondria.
The 1g of acceleration when you "launch" the P85D is literally the same magnitude of force constantly applied the brain by gravity. And that 1g is exceeded by many other activities like jerking your head around during active exercise, skiing, etc.

Well, yes and no. IIRC, it is closer to 1.4G on acceleration. And a major difference is that when you're just standing there that 1G of force is a smooth steady pressure. But if you hold your head 1 foot off the ground and drop it to the ground with 1.4G of force (as it would be for your head being slammed back against a headrest on launch) then you have risk for the brain being sloshed around and sustaining a potential coup and contracoup type impact injury from the inside of the skull. If you fall from the 2nd floor of a building it's "only" 1G of force...until you hit.

This is more a F=MV squared type issue than a gravity issue.

That said, I agree that it's more likely hypochondria.
 
Not an MD - just a mathematician with a bit of physics knowledge...
The force to be worried about shouldn't be the 1.4G of acceleration, but instead the deceleration as your head hits the headrest. That could be significantly higher than those 1.4G.
Current research seems to indicate that repeated exposure to deceleration of 4 - 10G could cause long term negative effects (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC155415/).
But my understanding of what a bit of googling showed me seems to indicate that the likelihood of trauma from deceleration with less than 4G is rather unlikely. And if the passenger really had their head on the headrest the deceleration would equal the acceleration so a maximum of 1.4G. So I'd go with hypochondria as well. Or more likely the head wasn't really on the headrest and a soft tissue issue resulted which caused a head ache as a side effect.
 
If this gets out, we will see a rash of lawsuits from all the people who were given testrides in a D and who will seek compensation for every headache they will ever get for the rest of their lives due to that traumatic experience ...
 
This falls in the bucket of #firstworldproblems (or #teslaproblems) if there ever was one :D
And which part of the topics mainly discussed here in the Model S sub forum on TMC does NOT fall into the #firstworldproblems category, exactly?
(I restricted this to the Model S sub forum to avoid the immediate discussion of climate change and the discussion on whether it exists and the snippiness that come from going down that rat hole)
:)
 
My father, son, and I went on a P85D test drive. He complained, having being seated in the back seat, of having some sort of headache. I definitely did not do any kind of "insane" acceleration. Maybe due to some EMF?
 
My father, son, and I went on a P85D test drive. He complained, having being seated in the back seat, of having some sort of headache. I definitely did not do any kind of "insane" acceleration. Maybe due to some EMF?

The first few days with my car I had headaches... this was due to the seal on the hatch not being proper and thus creating a 'pressure' in the car. There were a few other poster here who had similar issues... some slight adjustments of the rubber stoppers and problem solved!
 
The first few days with my car I had headaches... this was due to the seal on the hatch not being proper and thus creating a 'pressure' in the car. There were a few other poster here who had similar issues... some slight adjustments of the rubber stoppers and problem solved!
I had that problem initially. It caused a "womp womp womp" pressure pulse at certain speeds. I was glad when service fixed on my first appointment.
 
This is your brain

holding_egg.jpg


This is your brain after a P85D launch

EggPan.jpg


Any Questions?
 
Well, yes and no. IIRC, it is closer to 1.4G on acceleration. And a major difference is that when you're just standing there that 1G of force is a smooth steady pressure. But if you hold your head 1 foot off the ground and drop it to the ground with 1.4G of force (as it would be for your head being slammed back against a headrest on launch) then you have risk for the brain being sloshed around and sustaining a potential coup and contracoup type impact injury from the inside of the skull. If you fall from the 2nd floor of a building it's "only" 1G of force...until you hit.

This is more a F=MV squared type issue than a gravity issue.

That said, I agree that it's more likely hypochondria.

The person in question had their head firmly planted against the seat, so there wouldn't have been any impact force. It sounds like the launch may have scared the guy, causing him to tense up. If the driver took his foot off the peddle all of a sudden, that might be enough to wrench a neck. I like the way we are all "wracking our brains" and "banging our heads against the wall" to figure out his hypochondria ;)
 
I had this experience when I test drove the P85D. I knew this would happen to me, though. I have a highly sensitive equilibrium/vestibular system, and rapidly changing lateral or longitudinal acceleration will always give me a long-lasting weird headache and/or bring on motion sickness.

After I did a P85D launch I had a mild, foggy headache for the remainder of the day as I expected.

In fact, this was actually one of the reasons I ended up ordering an 85D vice a P85D. I would probably only rarely use the insane mode because I don't want the headaches.

However, this has nothing to do with the Tesla specifically. This is just my body's idiosyncrasies, and I've experiences this on many things including roller coasters, go-karts, aggressive curvy roads in a performance vehicle, and a few others. Oddly, it's only these rapidly changing acceleration patterns that do it. Slow-changing motion like boats or planes doesn't bother me.
 
I don't know what causes this but it happened to me. My friend came down to visit me and we were in the area of the Tesla Gallery. We stopped to see if they had a P85D demonstrator. They did and we went for the demo ride. I was well aware of the forces that would be on my body (watched videos and read different threads about it) and thought I prepared for it. The first launch was like a semi truck had run into the back of the Tesla at about 50 MPH. In my wildest dreams I wasn't ready for it. After the second launch I was feeling a little strange and my friend in the back seat said he had enough. I didn't think too much about it at the time but felt really tired after we left the Gallery and headed to lunch. I mentioned how I felt to my friend at lunch and he said he also felt tired and a little bit strange. It seemed to persist for the remainder of the afternoon and then went away.
 
+1

I didn't order a P85 because I would get a head rush-buzz feeling then feel nauseous, This past weekend I had a P85D loaner & went for a couple of "drives" & just couldn't enjoy the car...had to get out & walk around for a few minutes. Pisses me off that I am only 48 years old & can't even floor the damn car.