Got into an accident. Cautionary PSA about one pedal driving

[metroshot]

I’m driving multiple gas vehicles weekly and the Lightning. Never had an issue switching between them.

That's pretty amazing!

I must be very old and set in my ways & muscle memory ?

I come from driving traditional brake & accelerator ICE vehicles for the past 35 years so it's very difficult for me to use 1PD on my Lightning as the regen is very aggressive & harsh for my taste.

Muscle memory being that seems to dictate my driving, plus the fact that I drive other ICE vehicles at home and work which do not have 1PD makes it easier to do the old fashioned "cover the brakes" driving which is normal for safe driving IMO.

I drive in an urban jungle where 1PD would not work anyways - low speeds, constant jumping on brakes, lots of drivers cutting in front and can't rely on 1PD - at least my foot says so.....

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[toby_d]

I only have a few hundred miles on my Lightning, and this is my first EV and first time using OPD. I am generally liking it, but it has surprised me several times when decelerating to a stop. Two or three times now it has not decelerated / braked like I expected it to, and it coasted in much faster than I was expecting.

I almost rear-ended someone and avoided an accident by pulling to the side of them. By the time I got across and hit the brake and came to a stop, I was about 1 foot past their rear bumper. Would have been ugly.

I'm not sure if it was something I did in the lead-up to the event, like applying more pressure than I thought to the gas pedal, or that I should have done my decelerating sooner, or if the vehicle behaves differently from situation to situation -- I simply don't have enough experience with it to know.

I have also found myself creeping forward at a stop several times because I have stopped with my foot on the accelerator pedal, and must have been applying a tiny amount of pressure. Since then I've tried to get myself to just move over to the brake pedal when stopped, but it's not intuitive yet.

 

[stickyfingers]

I have also noticed inconsistencies with OPD. I, for one, thought that if it detects a vehicle in front, it would slow down significantly more than without anyone in front. I tested this coming into a stop sign with no one in front and it shot past the stop sign (I made sure no one was around and it was on side streets in my neighbourhood). So I am not sure how it determines the level of slowdown. Does it work in conjunction with the pre-collision assist/radar to get it to slow down more with a vehicle in front?

 

[jimfigler]

That's pretty amazing!

I must be very old and set in my ways & muscle memory ?

I come from driving traditional brake & accelerator ICE vehicles for the past 35 years so it's very difficult for me to use 1PD on my Lightning as the regen is very aggressive & harsh for my taste.

Muscle memory being that seems to dictate my driving, plus the fact that I drive other ICE vehicles at home and work which do not have 1PD makes it easier to do the old fashioned "cover the brakes" driving which is normal for safe driving IMO.

I drive in an urban jungle where 1PD would not work anyways - low speeds, constant jumping on brakes, lots of drivers cutting in front and can't rely on 1PD - at least my foot says so.....

I drive a normal Chevy Equinox work vehicle 3 to 4 times a week and drive the Lightning about the same amount in one pedal mode. I just get in and drive. Just seems normal.

 

[WoodduckMN]

Parts are very slow. My wife was hit head on and the front clip needs to be replaced ($40,000 in parts and labor) at the end of November, still awaiting for 6 parts to arrive before they can start the repairs.

 

[Roy2001]

Parts are very slow. My wife was hit head on and the front clip needs to be replaced ($40,000 in parts and labor) at the end of November, still awaiting for 6 parts to arrive before they can start the repairs.

Wow, $40k repair. I assume frame is fine

 

[WoodduckMN]

Wow, $40k repair. I assume frame is fine

No issue it was low speed and icy out. Front clip push back about 1/8”. I have a tread out there showing photos.

 

[stickyfingers]

Parts are very slow. My wife was hit head on and the front clip needs to be replaced ($40,000 in parts and labor) at the end of November, still awaiting for 6 parts to arrive before they can start the repairs.

Wow. Did the airbags deploy? That cost seems extremely high for the insurance company and I figured they would just write it off.

 

[WoodduckMN]

Wow. Did the airbags deploy? That cost seems extremely high for the insurance company and I figured they would just write it off.

Every air bag went off. Minnesota is a 75% value state before it is considered totaled.

 

[stickyfingers]

Oh wow. I was told that if one had gone off it would have been a write off. That’s Toronto for you.

 

[roddiaz1]

Nothing new. John Denver got killed reaching behind him to change a fuel valve. He stuffed a rudder pedal and crashed his varieze airplane.

Yeah, the worst part of that was that fuel valve was notorious for being near imposible to change in-flight.

 

[ATLJoker285]

Don't know about you all but with 1PD on, I have to press the accelerator with more force to accelerate. That helps somewhat with accidental acceleration (although as OP said, wet/rain totally changes the scenario as it would even when walking). For me it's like switching between a manual car vs automatic. But if I had to do it often I would probably not use it.

 

[FirstF150InCasco]

Approx. 1 month of ownership and I rear ended someone. It was wet, my shoes were wet. I was behind another truck waiting for the lights and I decided to reach back and grab the tissue box on the back seat. As I reached back, my foot slipped and hit the accelerator pretty hard. Truck had no chance to warn me. In my ICE truck, my foot would be on the brake. With 1-Pedal drive, I am now used to just hovering my foot on the accelerator. Not an excuse by any means as it's totally my fault.

No injuries to either party, thankfully, just a massive blow to the ego.

Insurance is going to cover the repairs however the body shop told me that the parts are hard to come by and I will likely have to wait weeks, if not months. In the meantime, the truck is drivable. As you can see it's mostly cosmetic from what I can tell (no frame damage).

While I am still able to drive the truck, my ACC/pre-collision/Blue Cruise is no functional because the sensor is dangling by the harness. The sensor itself is fine. The bracket that holds it is busted. Does anyone have access to the shop manual and maybe able to share the diagram with the part # of the bracket? I would like to use ACC/Blue Cruise, if I can secure the sensor to the back bracket (the plastic pieces are busted so it won't snap in place).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for sharing. I have not used One-Pedal; it just felt too weird to me. Now I've got another reason -- your story; it's the kind of mistake that I would definitliy make!! -- not to use one-pedal. Good luck on getting the things fixed.

 

[BennyTheBeaver]

I exclusively use 1PD, I switch between my truck and my wife's van every other day. I have no issues going back and forth. I also have no issues going between an auto and a manual, everyone's muscle memory is just different.

 

[toby_d]

I drove my truck for a week before I moved over to 1PD, I wanted to get a feel for how it moved around 'normally' first. I have been surpirsed at how I do still need to use the brake pedal in traffic. I was originally thinking 1PD would do it all, but it's probably an indictment on how I drive that it's not giving me enough regen to stop from about 30 mph.

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