Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has accepted the flaws in the Tesla Model 3’s emergency braking system, after denying it for a very long time. Musk has promised that a firmware update will soon be uploaded to the cars in the coming days to fix the solution. The issue with the braking in the Model 3 came when a magazine declined to give the car a full-throated recommendation. The magazine stated, “The Tesla’s stopping distance of 152 feet from 60 mph was far worse than any contemporary car we’ve tested and about 7 feet longer than the stopping distance of a Ford F-150 full-sized pickup.”
Stopping distance is an important safety factor for any vehicle on the road. Without the understanding of the distance which is required to stop the car, a crash has more chances to occur. Tesla also disputed Consumer Reports numbers and told the magazine that their own measurements have shown a stopping distance from 60 to 0 mph was an average of 133 feet. This wouldn’t put the Model 3 in the top 20 lists of the cars with the best stopping distance of all time but it would still be a very respectable number. The company said that Consumer Reports’ testing might have been affected by the weather conditions on the road.
Looks like this can be fixed with a firmware update. Will be rolling that out in a few days. With further refinement, we can improve braking distance beyond initial specs. Tesla won’t stop until Model 3 has better braking than any remotely comparable car.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 22, 2018
Many other testers found that the Model 3 braking abilities are odd. The car and driver declared the Model 3 to be the overall winner in a stopping distance competition. The magazine stated that a “bizarre amount of variation in our test, which involves six consecutive panic stops—the third of these stops took an interminable 196 feet.” Musk finally admitted that there is something with the Model 3’s braking system which needs fixing. Fixing the braking issues with a firmware update is a new concept which hasn’t been heard of before. Musk claims that a firmware update will fix the car within a few days. The comment shows the level of control that Tesla maintains on its cars even after they are purchased. Another example of this control was seen in Florida last year when the company expanded the range of the cars remotely while the drivers were fleeing a hurricane.