Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Will Automatic Emergency Braking work during dust storm?

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.

Patrick W

Active Member
Mar 17, 2015
1,524
943
SLC, UT
We had a dust storm pass through northern Utah today. Winds so strong several 18 wheelers were blown on their sides. The winds also kicked up so much dust that visibility went to zero in places.

One of those places was I-80 west of Salt Lake City where a big rig slowed to a crawl when the visibility got bad. Unfortunately vehicles behind the truck continued at high speed (despite not being able to see ahead) and the result was a chain reaction involving 6 or so big rigs and 12 to 15 cars. One dead, 25+ injuries.

Can Tesla's systems see through stuff like dust storms and slow and/or turn the car to avoid a collision?
 
Automatic Emergency Braking does not avoid accidents. It is designed to lessen the impact in an unavoidable collision.

It can and should avoid accidents. Someone has already had it avoid an accident, kind of. Unavoidable means "the meatsack can't react quickly enough". The car will be gaining over a second in reaction time, which makes a substantial difference.

If it works using radar then it might work through dust. But I wouldn't be depending on it.
 
AEB Does avoid collisions, but that's not it's stated goal in Tesla documentation, they say that it will only lessen the impact of an unavoidable collision. I agree though that avoiding the collision (as it does now) is a better option. That said, nobody should EVER rely on it doing so, and one should always manually brake when they think there is a reason to do so, regardless of if AEB would have saved them or not.

The only time I would ever intentionally wait for AEB to do it's thing rather than braking manually first is on a test track when facing a cardboard box (possibly covered in tinfoil for the radar) as a test of the system where failure has zero consequences.

That's not to say I don't want AEB, I think it's an amazing safety feature. I just won't be testing it on the freeway the same way I don't test my airbags on the freeway. I want both to be there, and I don't want either to ever be used.
 
According to Tesla, the feature applies brakes in a situation where a collision is unavoidable in order to lessen the impact. The feature is not designed to avoid accidents. That's what your other safety features are for.

I wouldn't be surprised if it were designed to avoid collisions, but Tesla might claim only to lessen impact in order not to incur liability for injuries in a truly unavoidable event.
 
Still no car (but it went into production Monday) so downloaded the owners manual and it answered the question:

"Forward Collision Warning cannot always detect vehicles, bikes, or pedestrians, and you may experience unnecessary, inaccurate, invalid or missed warnings for many reasons, particularly if:
Visibility is poor (due to heavy rain, snow, fog, etc.).
 
I wouldn't be surprised if it were designed to avoid collisions, but Tesla might claim only to lessen impact in order not to incur liability for injuries in a truly unavoidable event.
It seems clear to me that Tesla has to phrase it that way because the system cannot be perfect nor can it overcome physical principles: if someone runs in front of the car from a sidewalk a few feet away it is impossible to stop the car's forward motion quickly enough to avoid collision unless the car is only going 5mph or so.
There are many real world examples of possible situations where today's collision avoidance technologies can only mitigate the consequences of a collision, not avoid it completely.
 
People need to start thinking of AEB as a safety feature, and not a convenience feature. It's in the same category as seatbelts, airbags, and crumple zones, things we don't want to rely on whenever we are driving. Any time AEB kicks in, that means that you as a driver have failed to do your job correctly and the car is doing it's best to keep you alive. Much of the time the AEB will manage to avoid a collision, but relying on it to do so is akin to relying on your crumple zones to stop you safely instead of using your brakes.