Rear-end trend?

[K.I.T.T.]

I spotted two rear-ended Teslas in front of my house, few meters apart. Just a coincidence or an emerging safety trend?

Months ago, I was reading about people complaining that regen braking often delays the onset of brake lights.
I started looking at my screen more often, to see when brake lights go on, didn't notice particular anomalies.

Then I started looking at other Teslas and noticed that older M3 and MY during the day don't fully lit the brake lights, only a tiny inner segment, barely noticeable in very bright sunny days. While at night they should lit up the whole perimeter, making the braking action more evident.

What's your view on this? Ever experienced sudden braking of other Teslas without braking lights?

 

[ffMathy]

Could also be autopilot. In the EU, autopilot will often slam the brakes way too hard and too soon, especially on the highway. But yes, the delaying of the brake lights is also a good guess, and probably doesn't help either.

 

[PrescottAZRichard]

ANY rear-end accident, ANY, you can assume the person hitting the back to the car is at fault and I'd blame cell phones over anything Tesla is doing. Start looking at all cars.
That said, there are *super rare* occurrences where the rear ender isn't totally at fault or not at fault at all. SUPER rare. If the car in front of you stops you should always have enough room to react and stop your car.
Also- they're probably waiting for parts!!

 

[K.I.T.T.]

Could also be autopilot. In the EU, autopilot will often slam the brakes way too hard and too soon, especially on the highway. But yes, the delaying of the brake lights is also a good guess, and probably doesn't help either.

Phantom braking doesn't occur as often as before, although it still does. More often than not, because the car AI senses a parking car moving, when clearly it's not.

 

[K.I.T.T.]

ANY rear-end accident, ANY, you can assume the person hitting the back to the car is at fault and I'd blame cell phones over anything Tesla is doing. Start looking at all cars.
That said, there are *super rare* occurrences where the rear ender isn't totally at fault or not at fault at all. SUPER rare. If the car in front of you stops you should always have enough room to react and stop your car.
Also- they're probably waiting for parts!!

There aren't other cars in similar conditions. I would agree if 2 in 2 weren't Teslas with similar damages, and it's not that there are as many Teslas in Milan as there are in San Francisco. There might be 20 teslas in total in my neighborhood, out of... thousands. If I see 2 after a month being away, I think I might be the next, statistically.

And - yes - I have no problem blaming neither lawmakers, carmakers or drivers, if there is evidence supporting.

For instance, in Europe the madness of DRLs (day-running lights), with the legitimate aim of making cars more visible during the day from the front, makes them invisible from the rear at night or in galleries, because of an incomplete regulation and implementation.
Neither the regulator, nor the carmakers, could foresee that:
- drivers would be unaware that having a light in front doesn't mean you have it on the back ("important is what I see, who cares about the ot"... SLAM, rear-ended, guilty)
- the carmakers (often the French) wouldn't separate the indicator for the low beams and the running lights, so having either on, just shows a reassuring the very same green light on the dashboard (again, who can even look if the back glows red or not - if not when braking).
So probably 5% to 10% of cars in Europe are circulating at night, or in galleries, without any light from the back other than reflective surfaces. I can easily post a video from my dashcam.

If a car with a dashcam (hey, our Teslas!) rear-ended one of those, it could be a matter of shared guiltat worst, but no way the car in the back would be getting all the blame, by proving in a video that the car in front didn't have any light on.

 

[phxazcraig]

That white one looks like it backed into a post.

 

[K.I.T.T.]

That white one looks like it backed into a post.

The bumper protrudes more than the trunk, it would have been hit before and be showing a much deeper dent.