Electric fry sound and screen goes black

[Midway99]

was driving down the freeway this evening and hear static and a pop through the back speakers, then my screen shut off....all while going 70 down the freeway. About 30 seconds later the Tesla logo appeared and the system restarted. The car never slowed down or stopped and it stayed in autopilot throughout.

Sounded like something shorted out and I’m sure yet another service visit is in order, #5 since taking delivery in December.

Anyone have a similar experience? Pretty nerve wrecking when your car goes completely black while driving itself at 70 miles per hour.

 

[Tam]

...Pretty nerve wrecking when your car goes completely black while driving itself at 70 miles per hour.

It has happened to all my 3 Tesla Cars since 2012. Not very often but that does happen because it's a computer.

I wouldn't worry about it as long as it doesn't affect propulsion.

For Model 3, if it goes black and you can't manually reboot it, you can still get a consolation prize of pulling out your cell phone app for a speedometer and other controls like HVAC...

 

[RTPEV]

was driving down the freeway this evening and hear static and a pop through the back speakers, then my screen shut off....all while going 70 down the freeway. About 30 seconds later the Tesla logo appeared and the system restarted. The car never slowed down or stopped and it stayed in autopilot throughout.

Sounded like something shorted out and I’m sure yet another service visit is in order, #5 since taking delivery in December.

Anyone have a similar experience? Pretty nerve wrecking when your car goes completely black while driving itself at 70 miles per hour.

Nerve wracking, definitely. Fortunately it's just the UI computer rebooting and not any of the critical systems, but not being able to see your speed temporarily is a bit concerning when on the highway. This happened to me just the other night.

As for the sound, when the UI computer (that also handles the car's audio system) goes down, it may just have been some audio crackle, particularly if you think it came from speakers. But you would have to be the judge of whether you think it was an actual short or not. I'm guessing if it was an actual short you would have detected an ozone or burning plastic smell as well.

 

[YZCohn]

It has happened to all my 3 Tesla Cars since 2012. Not very often but that does happen because it's a computer.

I wouldn't worry about it as long as it doesn't affect propulsion.

For Model 3, if it goes black and you can't manually reboot it, you can still get a consolation prize of pulling out your cell phone app for a speedometer and other controls like HVAC...

What an excellent suggestion, turning to a cell phone for a speedometer.
My M3 screen went black twice this week, and rebooted within a minute, or so. Then briefly I got message that navigation was being provided without traffic information. That message went away within another minute, or so.
I’m about to embark on a 8,000+ mile road trip, and I hope this never happens at night. If it does, I hope the lessons I learned from years of flying a small plane, about keeping calm from the instant an emergency arises, kick in.

 

[MrJeffWilson]

This just happened to me on a highway. This is the 2nd time it has happened in the past 2 months. I was one off ramp away from a Tesla service station so I stopped by. By the time I parked the car in the lot, the screen had returned to normal. Talked to the head service representative and was told to request a service appointment and not the day and date that the event happened so Tesla can look through my logs.

 

[DocHolliday]

I just had an interesting one. I got in to drive and started playing my phone through bluetooth. It was crackly and staticy and dropping out every ten or so seconds, when I would hear a faint buzz from the rear of the car before the crackly sound came back on. I tried different sources (Spotify and radio) and the result was the same. It even affected the turn signal and shift sounds. Parked and left the car for a few minutes, then went back to try the two-thumb salute but it was back to normal. I entered service mode to see if there were any alerts or issues with the LV or infotainment, and nothing was reported. Hopefully just a momentary glitch.