A recent accident involving a Tesla Model X depicted what could happen when drivers of the Falcon Winged-SUV do not heed the constant safety warnings of the vehicle. In a recent YouTube video, a driver could be seen crashing his Model X’s Falcon Wing door into the side of their house as they try to park the car in a garage.
The video started with the Model X driver casually walking towards the vehicle. The owner opened the rear trunk of the electric SUV before heading over to the driver’s side Falcon Wing Door, which he also promptly opened. From what could be seen in the short clip, the Model X owner seemed to be looking at something on the second-row seats of the SUV before opening the driver’s side door and putting the vehicle on Drive.
As soon as the driver started the vehicle, a series of loud warning beeps could be heard coming from the Tesla. Despite these warnings, however, the driver of the Model X attempted to drive the car into the garage anyway. A couple of seconds after, a loud and painful crash could be heard, followed by the owner backing up and examining the damage to his electric car’s Falcon Wing Door. Looking at the damage, the owner promptly took a picture with his smartphone before lamenting about his Model X.
Considering the events in the video, members of the Tesla community are speculating that the car’s owner might have been severely distracted, having forgotten entirely that his electric SUV’s FWD was open before driving the car.
Here’s a video of the incident.
After all, the Model X does warn its drivers about the status of its Falcon Wing Doors. As could be seen in this video from our friends at Like Tesla, the Model X issues audible and visible warnings when a driver attempts to drive the electric SUV with its FWD open. During Kim and her husband’s demonstration, the couple noted that visible warnings were prominently appearing on both of the Model X’s displays. Apart from this, loud beeps could also be heard unless the doors were closed.
Despite these incessant warnings, however, Like Tesla also explained that it is still possible to drive the Model X with its Falcon Wing Doors open. The speed of the vehicle, however, would be limited only to around 30 mph. As could be seen in the recent Model X FWD accident, however, it only takes a little speed and a considerable amount of neglect to damage the Tesla SUV’s most iconic feature.
Since the Model X’s release, Tesla has been continually improving the sensing capabilities of the Model X’s Falcon Wing Doors through the release of over-the-air updates, as we noted in a previous report.