Parking sensors unreliable?

[Gizmotoy]

Hmm, mine aren't that bad. Not great but better than nothing. They're really helpful backing into my garage.

The main issue is that they're not reliable. I can approach the exact same wall a dozen times and get a failure once or twice, with no warning even if the bumper is practically touching the wall. It happens often enough that I can't trust them, and if I can't trust them to at least work repeatably, they're of little use. I'm afraid one day I'll wait for a ding that never comes and hit something (though truthfully, that already happened once in the front).

Since they can't be fixed I kind of wish I could have them disabled.

 

[DBG]

For what it is worth, my parking sensors failed. It took two weeks to get an appointment due to service backups in Denver but they looked at it, found that one (at least) had failed for no apparent external reason and they replaced it.

 

[ZsoZso]

On Thursday we had a big snow storm here in the Toronto area, so my morning commute took me 2.5 hours (normally little over half an hour) driving in heavy snowing. This was the first time driving my Tesla during heavy snowfall and the parking sensors have given me false alarms several times (red stop warnings with beeps) simply due to snow flakes while driving with nothing else around the car that could trigger the sensors. This is a bit annoying, looks like the California engineers did not think about snow when calibrating the sensors...

 

[RiverBrick]

Since they can't be fixed I kind of wish I could have them disabled.

I wouldn't go that far, but I have disabled the chimes a few times this Winter.

 

[hiroshiy]

I wonder why American companies, except Google and Apple, don't place their R&D resources in various parts of the world just to get correct feedback from the regional market. I saw many failures from incorrect assumptions in regional adaptation such as this.

In addition to snow here in Japan there are several times a day false alarms from parking sensors every day, maybe due to the height and shape of curbs. the front sensors do not work in reverse, which is absolutely necessary and even $10K Japanese cars have that.

One engineer in each focus market is enough. Give him a Model S and have him/her drive it daily.

I hope Tesla won't make more mistakes in non-Californian and international markets.

 

[artsci]

Unfortunately that is the way the factory Model S parking sensors work.

Not mine. They indicate the distance from an obstacle and beep when I get too close. I have the OEM system but self-installed one year after my car was delivered (VIN 8950), in spite of the fact that many people said it couldn't be done.

I've had zero problems other than the fact that they misread very low obstacles like a low curb. Of course, with the front camera I see those on the touchscreen, so not a problem.

 

[Todd Burch]

I had read somewhere here that there's a bug in the current software that leads to extra false alarms, particularly when stopped at stoplights. What I read said it's supposed to be fixed in an update soon. (Maybe the next one?)

 

[ecarfan]

@artsci, your post was apparently in response to my post saying that the parking sensors only work in one direction (forwards or rearwards) at a time, which I said in response to another post that said "Another issue I found was that it only works in one direction?"

So I think maybe you got confused about what I was responding to, and I think we are in agreement that the parking sensors will only detect objects in front of you when the car is in Drive and behind you when the car is in Reverse. They don't work both directions at the same time, unfortunately.

Mine have been pretty reliable and accurate, they just miss low curbs.

Not mine. They indicate the distance from an obstacle and beep when I get too close. I have the OEM system but self-installed one year after my car was delivered (VIN 8950), in spite of the fact that many people said it couldn't be done.

I've had zero problems other than the fact that they misread very low obstacles like a low curb. Of course, with the front camera I see those on the touchscreen, so not a problem.

 

[jcaspar]

Mine have been pretty reliable and accurate, they just miss low curbs.

Mine too. Never have had a false alarm. They do miss low curbs.

 

[artsci]

@artsci, your post was apparently in response to my post saying that the parking sensors only work in one direction (forwards or rearwards) at a time, which I said in response to another post that said "Another issue I found was that it only works in one direction?"

So I think maybe you got confused about what I was responding to, and I think we are in agreement that the parking sensors will only detect objects in front of you when the car is in Drive and behind you when the car is in Reverse. They don't work both directions at the same time, unfortunately.

Mine have been pretty reliable and accurate, they just miss low curbs.

Right and I stand corrected.

 

[AMPUP]

I went the same route as artsci with an OEM retro fit. Two things need to be upgraded IMHO.

1) Both front and rear sensors should operate when reversing.
2) Sensor feedback is too slow and needs to be a little more responsive.

Other than that, they work great and I'm glad I had the job done.

 

[DDotJ]

I had read somewhere here that there's a bug in the current software that leads to extra false alarms, particularly when stopped at stoplights. What I read said it's supposed to be fixed in an update soon. (Maybe the next one?)

I have that problem. SC said that my car would be added to a software priority list and it would be fixed. The sensors in front of the car go off randomly at empty intersections when there is clearly nothing around me. It occurs when I press the brake pedal at the light and release a bit of pressure on the brake. Then the sensors go bonkers. Not terribly common, but a tad bit annoying.

Also I do find the parking sensors a bit unreliable. There seems to be a bit of delay with the parking sensors when going into a parking spot. I did hit a wall due to the delay of warning, but thank goodness the car had a rubber lip in the front so no damage. You just have to remember to slow down quite a bit when going into a space.
When going head in, the graphic and chimes goes from red, to green, to yellow quite erratically so they are kind of useless when parking in a space. Hopefully Tesla can improve the software a bit.

 

[4SUPER9]

For those of you who clearly understand that the front sensors should stay on when in reverse, please contact ownership and ask that they correct this. I did. At first, they thought I was wrong. Then, I pointed out the simple fact that when parallel parking, we need to see if the nose of the car can clear the vehicle in front of us. I also pointed out that when backing out of a spot in a lot, we need to know that the nose of the car will clear the post or car next to us. No one backs completely straight out. We have to turn the car at some point. The few people that I spoke to were like "Oh, yeah. That's right!" Well, each time they said that they'll pass it on.

Anyway, if more of us point this out, they could come up with a software fix. It's totally doable.

 

[Gizmotoy]

I mentioned that a couple times at my SC, but they were apparently unable to interest engineering in making a change. I doubt we'll get any modifications now that the sensors are discontinued.

My car goes in for service this week. I still have my fingers crossed they'll be able to fix them. They still malfunction for me 3 to 4 times a week under ideal conditions (tall solid concrete wall in front of the vehicle).

 

[DDotJ]

I mentioned that a couple times at my SC, but they were apparently unable to interest engineering in making a change. I doubt we'll get any modifications now that the sensors are discontinued.

Parking sensors are now standard equipment as part of the active safety and driver assistance hardware. They have not been discontinued.

 

[AMPUP]

Parking sensors are now standard equipment as part of the active safety and driver assistance hardware. They have not been discontinued.

I think what he means is that these particular type of sensors have been discontinued and have been replaced with different sensors as part of the new safety features.

 

[mknox]

I think what he means is that these particular type of sensors have been discontinued and have been replaced with different sensors as part of the new safety features.

Is that the case? I thought the four front and rear sensors were the same with just the new front and rear side sensors being new. Are those original four different somehow?

 

[Gizmotoy]

I think what he means is that these particular type of sensors have been discontinued and have been replaced with different sensors as part of the new safety features.

Is that the case? I thought the four front and rear sensors were the same with just the new front and rear side sensors being new. Are those original four different somehow?

That is what I meant. I was told that the new sensors are different. Unlike the previous sensors, they're long range and operate at speed. Those of us with the existing sensors can attest they're awfully slow to react. They'd be unsuitable for the autopilot usage noted. The Tesla blog claims, among the changes, are "12 long range ultrasonic sensors positioned to sense 16 feet around the car in every direction at all speeds."

So based on what I've been told so far, and what's been said by corporate, they appear to be completely different parts despite being installed in the same locations. I'll admit that's not definitive, though.


I'd feel very unsafe in an autopilot vehicle if the sensors intended to keep obstacles at a safe distance are the same sensors I have in my current vehicle. Over the past year they've proven extremely untrustworthy, even in the most simple of conditions.

 

[Thud]

I don't have experience with the older sensors, but the new ones seem to work as expected. If anything I get more false positives, but no false negatives.

 

[Gizmotoy]

My car was in for its annual service this week and I again had the sensor issues on my list of requested fixes. I was told on the phone they were able to replicate the issue once in the shop, but the tech made note of the issue and got out of the vehicle. This resets the sensors to their working state, and it sounds like they were later told that Engineering needs to log in and look at the car *while* it's happening. They couldn't get it to happen again, so while they believe me now, there's no fix.

They do want to keep the car for a week in January to try to replicate, which I doubt any other manufacturer would even consider doing. I'm hopeful this will get resolved eventually.