from Hacker News

Sudden Tesla acceleration attributed to voltage spikes

by rstarast on 7/9/23, 7:00 PM with 6 comments

• by MochaDen on 7/9/23, 8:36 PM

  The theory seems to be that a voltage spike can mangle an ADC re-calibration which results in large "corrections" to the acceleration position sensor resulting in unintended accelerations which "look" just like someone pushed down hard on the gas pedal.

  Perhaps a better article here: https://www.carscoops.com/2023/07/feds-assess-allegations-th...

  A very detailed paper by the fellow mentioned in that article here: https://www.autoevolution.com/pdf/news_attachements/breaking...

• by schmidp on 7/9/23, 9:28 PM

  Isn’t this old (few days) debunked (https://twitter.com/wk057/status/1676634778622197763?s=46&t=...) news?

• by abracadaniel on 7/9/23, 8:38 PM

  Well, dang. I was skeptical of these after the ones in Toyotas proved to be people hitting the wrong pedal, but props to these researchers for continuing to dig after everyone else decided the case was closed. They’ve almost certainly saved lives with this discovery.

  *edit: looks like this may have been debunked

• by Kirby64 on 7/10/23, 5:34 AM

  FTA: "This similarity lies not only in the large amplitudes of the two signals, but also in the similarity of the two rise times; namely, a slow one lasting for about 0.8 seconds followed by a faster one that rises to a maximum in less than a half a second. Are we to believe that two drivers of different sexes and in two entirely different driving situations could press the accelerator pedal inadvertently at · almost exactly the same rates of movement with a slow depression first followed by a faster· occurring at almost the same time later?"

  This seems easily explainable by someone pressing on the "brake" (actually accelerator) slowly, then panicked slamming on the "brake". Not sure what'd be strange about that at all.

  Not saying there isn't any there there, but seems like it could be explained pretty easily.