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Putting the car in Park while driving
- Thread starter austinEV
- Start date
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- Driving Dynamics Model S
I've done two: one was for car control (where we drive in our own cars, learn about things like oversteer and understeer) was part of the BMW Car Club of America. You don't have to be a member to take the courses, or drive a BMW:
Car Control Clinics | BMW Car Club of America
BTW, the reading is online and free:
http://www.wmc-bmwcca.org/documents/curriculum.pdf
The other was more of a safe driving course, aimed at teens (I went with my 17 year old son who just got his license) but great for anyone. In this type of course they provide the cars, and it's more emergency/safety oriented than pre-racing/autocross. Not sure they're available in TX yet, but something similar probably is:
In Control Family Foundation
Also similar is another teen oriented course sponsored by Tire Rack and BMWCCA:
http://www.tirerack.com/features/motorsports/street_survival.jsp
Before you take a course, here are the two biggest things to know about driving safely you can do right now:
1. Following distance: Three seconds or MORE. Not two seconds, and not "car lengths". Three seconds. Under perfect conditions. More seconds for worse conditions.
2. Watch the road ahead as far as you can see. Don't look just beyond your hood, don't look at the car in front of you or even the car in front of him. Look 10, 20, 30 if possible cars ahead. Works in autocross, on the track, and in real life driving. It's like having a time machine and knowing what will happen in the future. Gives you much more time to be aware of and react to events.
Do just those two things and chances of ever needing to do an emergency maneuver are greatly diminished.
+100000. That's what I learnt on my advanced driving class (in the UK). Pass under a bridge or by a pole and count to 3. Simple rule. Ain't happening here in Tx though, you leave a 3 second gap and the guy in the truck behind you will undertake, flip you you off and cut in front of you. Drives me nuts.
According to the thread "What you may not know about your Tesla" (or something like that) you CAN shift into Reverse at speed and use the accelerator to slow the vehicle down. Suggested use was at the top of a long decline. Admittedly, I have never tried this.
Model S park and reverse while driving
Ok, I experimented and here is the deal:
1) the behavior of the park button.
2) the behavior of switching to reverse while driving.
I doubt holding reverse would do that engine braking trick since the regen is the maximum engine braking already.
Ok, I experimented and here is the deal:
1) the behavior of the park button.
- If you stab it briefly, like you thought it was the wiper fluid button, the small red "Park" indicator flashes on the dash and nothing else happens. If you stab it over and over like a video game, still nothing more. Just the red indicator flashes over and over.
- If you push and hold it for like 1s, the light indicator remains on and you get one of the rolling warning messages and the warning tone. The message says something about how yes, the parking brake is engaged now. It slows you down reasonable aggressively.
- If you continue to hold it, it either steps up the braking force after a few seconds, or it steps it up when you decelerate below a certain speed, not sure which is triggering it. But once I get below about 20mph, the braking steps up and you slow down much more until you come to a complete stop. At that point you are in park.
2) the behavior of switching to reverse while driving.
- If you are driving and attempt to switch into reverse, you get a rolling warning message and tone, and the car goes into neutral.
I doubt holding reverse would do that engine braking trick since the regen is the maximum engine braking already.
The three second or more rule gets really reinforced when you drive a Land Rover. Five drum brakes--the fifth is the parking brake, which is a drum brake attached to the drive shaft. Mostly, you try to avoid using the brakes because they don't have a lot of stopping power on their best days. Watch "The Gods Must Be Crazy" for an example that's not far from reality.
