Weird Model S freakout in parking lot

[Dan Baldwin]

I backed my '18 P100D out of a parking space, the car was close enough to adjacent car to set off proximity alarm. I cleared the parking space, put the car in "D" and proceeded to drive across the parking lot. The alarm continued to sound and the backup camera was still displayed as if I was in reverse.. I pulled in another parking space and put it in park. Alarm is still beeping and screen went blank and then big 'T' appeared. I waited one minute and nothing happened so I did the double scroll wheel reboot which finally silenced the alarm. Reboot was successful and everything was normal after that.

Has anyone ever experienced a similar malfunction ?

 

[strider]

My car is too old for that exact problem but welcome to driving a rolling computer! Sometimes it gets into a weird state and you have to reboot it, just like a PC or Mac.

 

[Kipernicus]

Good thing is that all the driving systems are well separated from the UI stuff, so no matter what's going on with the center screen or dashboard, I am confident that the car will still drive ok.

 

[P100D_Me]

Sometimes it gets into a weird state and you have to reboot it, just like a PC or Mac.

The acceptance of this as 'normal' for Tesla is really bad, these are top end cars not desktop computers.

 

[Eevee]

Did you get out of the car and go look at the rear where it was saying something was? Maybe it was dirt or something

How do you do the scroll wheel reboot?

 

[mikey23]

Hold down both scroll wheels until the screens turn off. This reboots the MCU and the IC

 

[gt2690b]

...these are top end cars with desktop computers inside.

Ftfy

 

[Economite]

The acceptance of this as 'normal' for Tesla is really bad, these are top end cars not desktop computers.

The problem isn't that this sort of thing is happening on a "top end car", but that it's happening on any car. Unlike a computer or a phone, a car need to just work. Extremely predictability and reliability are necessary in the controls for heavy equipment.

 

[iCharge]

Did you get out of the car and go look at the rear where it was saying something was? Maybe it was dirt or something

How do you do the scroll wheel reboot?

Step on the brake pedal
Hold down the scroll wheels on both sides on the steering wheel, push-in until the screen goes black
Wait for systems to reboot

 

[strider]

The problem isn't that this sort of thing is happening on a "top end car", but that it's happening on any car. Unlike a computer or a phone, a car need to just work. Extremely predictability and reliability are necessary in the controls for heavy equipment.

Keep in mind that those MCU and IC reboots do not affect the drivability of the car in any way. The car still goes and stops, brake lights and turn signals still work, etc. I have NEVER lost control of a Tesla with 8 years in a Roaster and 6 years in a MS. Sure, you lose the speedometer and nav for 10 seconds or so but you can use brain power for that.

Step on the brake pedal
Hold down the scroll wheels on both sides on the steering wheel, push-in until the screen goes black
Wait for systems to reboot

No need to step on the brake pedal. It will happily reboot while driving

Also, if the IC behind the steering wheel freezes up you can hold down both of the upper buttons on the steering wheel to reboot that screen.

 

[Doanster1]

Hold down both scroll wheels until the screens turn off. This reboots the MCU and the IC

This only reboots the MCU. As @strider said, press and hold both upper buttons to reboot the IC.

 

[Economite]

Keep in mind that those MCU and IC reboots do not affect the drivability of the car in any way. The car still goes and stops, brake lights and turn signals still work, etc. I have NEVER lost control of a Tesla with 8 years in a Roaster and 6 years in a MS. Sure, you lose the speedometer and nav for 10 seconds or so but you can use brain power for that.

At the very least, unexpected software behavior distracts attention that could otherwise be used for driving.

 

[BLKTSLA]

@Dan Baldwin I too have a 18' P100D and can say that this is not common but not unexpected either. I have had something similar where the backup screen wouldn't go away until I closed it manually or put it back in park.

That said a couple of observations to note for you and anyone coming from an older car to the newer ones:

1) Rebooting (hold both scroll wheels) solves mostly all glitches like this so you did the right thing there. The new MCU2.0 is such that it actually reboots both screens instead of just the touchscreen. Old MCU1.0 allows you to reboot the touch screen and Instrument cluster independently which is what most are accustomed to.

2) The new MCU2.0 also does not have an energy saving mode so it always goes to sleep when the car turns off, and thus when getting in the car the car needs to power up and boot and resume everything by the time you put your car in gear and that is where I see glitches like this happening. This is also why the Dashcam USB drive gets corrupted, but thats another topic. Old MCU1.0 has power management so the car doesn't fully go to sleep and you can get it in and go seamlessly and lessen the likelihood of a glitch like that.

3) As @strider mentioned rebooting the car has no impact on the ability to drive the car so you can do this while driving with no problem. Tesla did a wonderful job here separating the UI and MCU from the rest of the driving mechanics.

 

[P100D_Me]

Tesla did a wonderful job here separating the UI and MCU from the rest of the driving mechanics.

This attitude of acceptance is the issue at large and why stability will probably never happen, if they did a 'wonderful job' then the MCU wouldn't need regular reboots just to stay functional, sorry I totally disagree with your statement.
In once sense you are correct, the stability and operation of the drivetrain is perfect, well it has to be, no give or take on that one. So why can't they just get the MCU more stable? Unfortunately this is some of the silicon valley culture coming through to the end product, the software engineers know the system is unstable, they see failure rates are high, yet instead of 100% focussing on fixing this they write Atari games and Santa mode because they think they are writing phone apps or computer games and not working on a VERY expensive car.

 

[RAW84]

This attitude of acceptance is the issue at large and why stability will probably never happen, if they did a 'wonderful job' then the MCU wouldn't need regular reboots just to stay functional, sorry I totally disagree with your statement.
In once sense you are correct, the stability and operation of the drivetrain is perfect, well it has to be, no give or take on that one. So why can't they just get the MCU more stable? Unfortunately this is some of the silicon valley culture coming through to the end product, the software engineers know the system is unstable, they see failure rates are high, yet instead of 100% focussing on fixing this they write Atari games and Santa mode because they think they are writing phone apps or computer games and not working on a VERY expensive car.

I wouldn't characterize the MCU as unstable at all. If it happened with any regularity it would be highly annoying so I'd agree with you. However, for me, I've needed to reboot so infrequently that each time I've done it I've had to Google how to reboot the big screen instead of the dash (or vice versa).

 

[strider]

This attitude of acceptance is the issue at large and why stability will probably never happen, if they did a 'wonderful job' then the MCU wouldn't need regular reboots just to stay functional, sorry I totally disagree with your statement.
In once sense you are correct, the stability and operation of the drivetrain is perfect, well it has to be, no give or take on that one. So why can't they just get the MCU more stable? Unfortunately this is some of the silicon valley culture coming through to the end product, the software engineers know the system is unstable, they see failure rates are high, yet instead of 100% focussing on fixing this they write Atari games and Santa mode because they think they are writing phone apps or computer games and not working on a VERY expensive car.

Well, you nailed it. This is the state of software engineering today. Most engineers don't like writing crappy code but they aren't given the time and resources to do it right. It's too easy to throw hardware at the problem as it constantly gets cheaper and more powerful. Also, since everyone does it this way the users are becoming accustomed to unstable code. This has permeated every desktop OS, even web-based applications. People want (or leadership THINKS that people want) new features. Elon is the worst about it at Tesla. Always wanting gewgaws and more features instead of stability (or even fulfilling promised features that were never implemented). Witness the utter disaster that is the media player. Nobody with any power gives a flying frick about it. As you said, instead we get Atari games. -<sigh>-

 

[strider]

I wouldn't characterize the MCU as unstable at all. If it happened with any regularity it would be highly annoying so I'd agree with you. However, for me, I've needed to reboot so infrequently that each time I've done it I've had to Google how to reboot the big screen instead of the dash (or vice versa).

It happens monthly for us - the typical symptom is map tiles not loading/traffic not updating. And lately the IC screen has started rebooting several times per drive.

 

[whitex]

Keep in mind that those MCU and IC reboots do not affect the drivability of the car in any way. The car still goes and stops, brake lights and turn signals still work, etc.

Uhmm... not entirely true. I've had hung central computer preventing me from driving with "systems are powering up" message which didn't disappear until the main screen rebooted. Also, main screen controls HVAC, so if your windows are fogged up you can't drive, or worse, when one of the software updates had a bug which turned the defrost button to frost button, turning foggy windshield into iced windshield.

 

[mikey23]

This only reboots the MCU. As @strider said, press and hold both upper buttons to reboot the IC.

Not if he has the newer MCU. It reboots both screens

 

[iCharge]

Not if he has the newer MCU. It reboots both screens

This is good to know