Bolt Failed to come to complete stop in Low

[PeterTMiller]

This evening, I drove my new Bolt to a special meeting where we displayed Evs. During my drive there, I was using one-pedal driving in L and the car was successfully stopping at intersections and stop signs.
However, an hour later, while demonstrating the car, it continuously exhibited 'creep' and failed to stop, when I removed my foot from the accelerator.
On the drive home, the car performed flawlessly coming to a complete spot without need to touch the brake pedal.
What might have been the cause of that period of creep?

 

[Sigmasailor]

Forgot to select L?

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

Downhill grade? It's designed to creep. Manual tells you L will not always stop it.

 

[ChevyCustomerCare]

This evening, I drove my new Bolt to a special meeting where we displayed Evs. During my drive there, I was using one-pedal driving in L and the car was successfully stopping at intersections and stop signs.
However, an hour later, while demonstrating the car, it continuously exhibited 'creep' and failed to stop, when I removed my foot from the accelerator.
On the drive home, the car performed flawlessly coming to a complete spot without need to touch the brake pedal.
What might have been the cause of that period of creep?

Hi PeterTMiller,

Thanks for reaching out! This "creep" can be caused by the following when using One-Pedal Driving:

- The driver's door is open.
- The driver's safety belt is unbuckled.
- The vehicle has remained stationary for five minutes.

More information can be found on page 220 of your owner's manual under the "Driving and Operating" section. Please feel free to shoot me a private message if you have additional questions about "L" Mode or One-Pedal Driving.

Best,

Amber G.
Chevrolet Customer Care

 

[GetOffYourGas]

Hi PeterTMiller,

Thanks for reaching out! This "creep" can be caused by the following when using One-Pedal Driving:

- The driver's door is open.
- The driver's safety belt is unbuckled.
- The vehicle has remained stationary for five minutes.

More information can be found on page 220 of your owner's manual under the "Driving and Operating" section. Please feel free to shoot me a private message if you have additional questions about "L" Mode or One-Pedal Driving.

Best,

Amber G.
Chevrolet Customer Care

Really? So if you come to a stop in L and sit there for five minutes, the car will suddenly start to move forward? This seems like a really poor choice for safety.

 

[ChevyCustomerCare]

Hi PeterTMiller,

Thanks for reaching out! This "creep" can be caused by the following when using One-Pedal Driving:

- The driver's door is open.
- The driver's safety belt is unbuckled.
- The vehicle has remained stationary for five minutes.

More information can be found on page 220 of your owner's manual under the "Driving and Operating" section. Please feel free to shoot me a private message if you have additional questions about "L" Mode or One-Pedal Driving.

Best,

Amber G.
Chevrolet Customer Care

Really? So if you come to a stop in L and sit there for five minutes, the car will suddenly start to move forward? This seems like a really poor choice for safety.

I'm sorry for any confusion my post may have caused, GetOffYourGas. If the vehicle is stopped (or stationary) for five minutes during One-Pedal Driving, the EPB (Electric Parking Brake) will apply. Your BoltEV will not suddenly creep forward.

Let me know if you have additional questions!

Amber G.
Chevrolet Customer Care

 

[GetOffYourGas]

Thank you for the clarification, Amber. That makes a lot more sense now!

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

It's actually page 209 and the things Amber listed may cause the car to apply the emergency brake or go into park, if stopped, not creep forward. I guess if you try to get out of the car while forgetting to put it in park?

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

The Leaf drives like this too, but I always use the brake at a stop, just to be safe.

 

[Posatronic]

No you are correct that in "L" it didn't come to a complete stop. Because I use the paddle exclusively and 2 times in 6k miles it has failed. So I am guessing others have experienced the same thing. As you get close to 0 mph you should apply the brake anyways. So it. It that big of a deal but just so amber knows it does happen. Not sure why but it does.

 

[PeterTMiller]

" The driver's safety belt is unbuckled." Eureka! Yes, we were simply driving around the empty parking lot and hadn't bothered with seat belts. Of course, on the road there and back I was buckled up.
"Elementary, my dear Watson.", as Sherlock would have said. ;-)

Thanks,

Peter (who has spent the day driving all over town, without needing to touch the brake pedal - even on slopes.)

 

[JeffN]

In my experience this is an issue when coming to a one-pedal "stop" on a downhill grade.

GM does not use active motor torque to hold the car and therefore it may creep a bit on a downward slope. The Bolt EV does use motor torque to keep the car from creeping or slipping backwards so if you are on an incline it will keep the car from going backwards after bringing the car to a stop.

If you use the brake pedal in 'L' to come to a complete stop on a downward slope and then release the brake pedal allowing the car to begin creeping forward again due to gravity it will automatically apply the electric parking brake after creeping a short distance.

 

[phil0909]

If you use the brake pedal in 'L' to come to a complete stop on a downward slope and then release the brake pedal allowing the car to begin creeping forward again due to gravity it will automatically apply the electric parking brake after creeping a short distance.

No, not always. Sometimes it will, and sometimes it won't. I have had the creep continue indefinitely, for a long distance, in exactly that situation. And other times, the car did apply the parking brake.

 

[JeffN]

If you use the brake pedal in 'L' to come to a complete stop on a downward slope and then release the brake pedal allowing the car to begin creeping forward again due to gravity it will automatically apply the electric parking brake after creeping a short distance.

No, not always. Sometimes it will, and sometimes it won't. I have had the creep continue indefinitely, for a long distance, in exactly that situation. And other times, the car did apply the parking brake.

But did you bring the car to a complete stop with the brake pedal first?

 

[ChevyCustomerCare]

" The driver's safety belt is unbuckled." Eureka! Yes, we were simply driving around the empty parking lot and hadn't bothered with seat belts. Of course, on the road there and back I was buckled up.
"Elementary, my dear Watson.", as Sherlock would have said. ;-)

Thanks,

Peter (who has spent the day driving all over town, without needing to touch the brake pedal - even on slopes.)

Never a problem at all, Peter! I'm glad I could provide some clarification and answers.

Reach back out if you ever have additional questions/concerns!

Best,

Amber G.
Chevrolet Customer Care

 

[Posatronic]

" The driver's safety belt is unbuckled." Eureka! Yes, we were simply driving around the empty parking lot and hadn't bothered with seat belts. Of course, on the road there and back I was buckled up.
"Elementary, my dear Watson.", as Sherlock would have said. ;-)

Thanks,

Peter (who has spent the day driving all over town, without needing to touch the brake pedal - even on slopes.)

Never a problem at all, Peter! I'm glad I could provide some clarification and answers.

Reach back out if you ever have additional questions/concerns!

Best,

Amber G.
Chevrolet Customer Care

Can't figure out how to pm you. Please forward my comment on the regen to a stop has failed twice on 6,000 miles. Not a big deal but the engineers should know this. Thanks.

 

[oilerlord]

I see one-pedal driving not only as somewhat of a gimmick, but also being potentially dangerous.

My car has lift-off throttle regen dialed in about right, but I'd prefer if it would instead do a neutral coast. I have all the modulated regen I need in the brake pedal. My wife once had a situation where she encountered a patch of ice. The "right" thing to do to maintain control is lift off the throttle, and NOT brake. She did exactly that but got an unexpected result - the car started sliding.

Until we're all just passengers automated self-driving pods, I think having faith that our cars are going to automatically stop / brake for us, and at the exact time we need them to, is at best naive and at worst irresponsible to everyone else on the road.

 

[phil0909]

I see one-pedal driving not only as somewhat of a gimmick, but also being potentially dangerous.

Perhaps, but also potentially safer.

I get the ice example, and it would be nice to quickly and accurately 'coast' in such situations. With Bolt, you would need to back off the accelerator but keep it partially depressed in order to coast, which is less than ideal.

On the other hand, there are many emergency situations where immediate braking is helpful rather than harmful - e.g. when someone cuts in front of you and you release the accelerator, the Bolt will start to slow even before you can get your foot over to the brake pedal. I would expect that these types of situations substantially outnumber the cases where immediate braking is undesirable. Especially in geographic areas like mine, which never have icy roads.

 

[oilerlord]

Perhaps, but also potentially safer.

Potentially dangerous is dangerous. Potentially safer isn't safe.

Automatic braking is a feature that protects the rest of us from the stupid, but at the same time, turns the public into stupid drivers. I can already envision a lawsuit where the plaintiff was texting, ran over their kid on their driveway, and the defendant is GM being blamed for not having an absolutely infallible automatic emergency braking system. Perhaps she didn't read the part of the manual that stated it only works if you have your seat belt on.

 

[phil0909]

Potentially dangerous is dangerous. Potentially safer isn't safe.

Everything is relative. There is no such thing as absolute safety in a car, or in life. More safe is better than less safe.

Automatic braking is off topic. Regenerative braking is entirely manual - initiated, controlled, and terminated by the driver's right foot and left index finger.

As it happens, I agree with your concern about automatic braking. More generally, autonomous vehicles will someday be safer than human-driven vehicles. But until the cars are better than we are, the not-quite-autonomous capabilities create serious risk by lulling drivers into a false sense of security. Or stupidity, if you prefer.

One-pedal driving is a completely different issue. It is not automated. It is fully manual, requires 100% driver alertness, and as I said above, can improve safety in many (though perhaps not all) situations.