Auto-presenting front doors - will they stop? Yes!

A TM member did post that the sensors appear to be at or near the trailing edge of the front doors. They were standing in the arc of the mid point of the door and the door opened into them. Their suggestion was to take care parking near poles or other objects that do not present within or very near the door's trailing edge arc.

Did it avoid the side view mirror of the other car or just the side of the other car? Hard to tell in the video...

EarlyAdopter said:

We did it a second time with the mirrors on the Model S folded (the car on the left) and the Model X door opened a bit wider. Coincidence? Sensors? Not sure. More testing needed.

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Cool, will wait for more data points, this is a real concern for me as I will rely on this sensor in all circumstances or always be 2nd guessing. Also, if it does happen to hit a side view mirror or a pole or something and damages the car I'd bet that the operator (not Tesla) is liable.

Would also like to know that it can handle slopes, but the side view mirror seems much more difficult.

Yeah, if it doesn't work 100%, I'd be paranoid and would end up not using it.

CHG-ON said:

Yeah, if it doesn't work 100%, I'd be paranoid and would end up not using it.

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Exactly.

99.9% = FAIL

It`s going to be interresting to see how automatic front doors and FWD work here in Norway.
With snow, ice and road debree covering the side of the car. And ice/snow on the roof.

I understand that the sensors work through metal/glass, but with an extra layer they might give false positive? Like the radar problems that occur if the radar is covered in dirt, or the parking sensors beeping when covered in snow/ice.

Or are the sensors unaffected by snow, ice and dirt from the road?

The door ultrasonics work through the metal doors, I can see no reason why they would not work through ice and dirt.
The radar is a very different technology and we know that it can be impaired if the face of the unit is covered with ice and snow.

lolachampcar said:

A TM member did post that the sensors appear to be at or near the trailing edge of the front doors. They were standing in the arc of the mid point of the door and the door opened into them. Their suggestion was to take care parking near poles or other objects that do not present within or very near the door's trailing edge arc.

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So when I stood next to the door (that's me in the Model S in that video), the door would bump into me. But it stopped at a nice safe distance of my car. So the sensor must be looking for hard objects (and correctly classify me as "not a hard body" :-D).
But I agree, a pole might be a different issue.

Now that there are a few X's out in the wild can someone please post pictures or a video of the front door and Falcon wing hinges? I'm curious to see the mechanisms in action. Are there pistons visible in the front doors? Are the pistons or actuators inside the doors themselves or mounted to the body and push the door out? I've seen the Falcon wing schematic from the first responder manual that shows the loaded springs but I need more info.

My engineering mind is driving me nuts wanting to see this stuff in action!!!

Thanks

EarlyAdopter said:

There have been some questions about whether the auto-presenting front doors will detect and stop short if another car is parked close. We know the falcon wing doors have ultrasonic sensors and will adjust before hitting anything, but what about the drivers and passenger doors?

Some say they are just resistance sensors and won't stop until they hit something. They normally swing open 45 degrees on their own. What happens when another car parks too close?

Well, we got to try with forum member Kittylitter's brand new Sig X this morning. Either they were extremely brave, or extremely oblivious to the goings-on. Either way, they were extremely generous with their time and car. I filmed the results:

It stops!

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Curious....were the falcon wing doors on that side also able to open in the tight space? The reveal showed similar spacing, but I wanted to double check that it would still open. Thanks!

akordz said:

Curious....were the falcon wing doors on that side also able to open in the tight space? The reveal showed similar spacing, but I wanted to double check that it would still open. Thanks!

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Yes, we tried that, too.

Thank you!

ecarfan said:

The door ultrasonics work through the metal doors, I can see no reason why they would not work through ice and dirt.
The radar is a very different technology and we know that it can be impaired if the face of the unit is covered with ice and snow.

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Of course the sensors have been calibrated so that they work through material if they need to. The question is how the computer interprets feedback from snow, ice and dirt when it`s on the doors/roof.
If ultrasonic sensors are completely unaffected by snow, ice and dirt (these substances create absolutely no feedback), or programmers already have takens such substances into account, then there`s no problem
Nothing would be better than doors working perfectly here in Norway, unaffected by winter. It`s not unusual with a few frozen centimeters of ice and snow on the roof during winter. If one need to scrape the roof before opening the doors I`d never buy the car. And Teslas winter testing of the Model S has been quite poor. Hopefully much much better with the X!

The parking sensors have serious problems with snow, but that`s a different tech.

Is there any actual figure on clearance needed for the FWD to open ? Since in my place, all the parking spaces are so right, and we are talking about only few inches between cars, not to mention mirror to mirror may be as little as an inch.

msxsnow said:

Is there any actual figure on clearance needed for the FWD to open ? Since in my place, all the parking spaces are so right, and we are talking about only few inches between cars, not to mention mirror to mirror may be as little as an inch.

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Just curious but how do you get out, even if the doors could open? Getting out of the fwd might be easiest

I'm curious if its because its parked next to another Tesla and they talk to each other