Sudden soft steering and acceleration with no pedals depressed

jered

(he/him)
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Joined
Mar 30, 2025
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Location
Somerville, MA
Cars
'26 Gravity DE, '19 X-LR
Gravity DE Number
084
Referral Code
8ORU2BU2
This seems bad:
IMG_8064.webp

I was driving down the street, slowly thankfully, and suddenly the steering got all soft and wobbly and the car started speeding up even with no pedals pressed. As indicated, the vehicle rolls backwards on an incline, and when stopped rolls forward regardless of if creep is enabled or not. Rebooting did not fix. I have an appointment scheduled for the end of the month for other issues, but I guess I'm going to call and see if they can fix this more urgently.
 
I called Support to see if they could diagnose remotely after dinner; I had plugged in the car to charge and it was still showing this behavior an hour later. (It also didn't auto-restore the seat position on brake pedal depression.)

They suggested unplugging the vehicle and letting it sleep. That seems to have cleared the state and I was able to drive it around the block without a problem. I asked them to download logs to see if there is an actual issue as I don't want to drive it any long distance if this is going to happen again.

Software, man. I still am sticking with my original theory from last July that someone forgot to terminate the communication bus between all the ECUs and it gets all noisy and glitchy that causes all this random behavior.
 
I called Support to see if they could diagnose remotely after dinner; I had plugged in the car to charge and it was still showing this behavior an hour later. (It also didn't auto-restore the seat position on brake pedal depression.)

They suggested unplugging the vehicle and letting it sleep. That seems to have cleared the state and I was able to drive it around the block without a problem. I asked them to download logs to see if there is an actual issue as I don't want to drive it any long distance if this is going to happen again.

Software, man. I still am sticking with my original theory from last July that someone forgot to terminate the communication bus between all the ECUs and it gets all noisy and glitchy that causes all this random behavior.
Computers were a mistake
 
Computers were a mistake
Tell me about it. Today also my mother's cable is out and that company just didn't show for their appointment and I had to call and reschedule. Also my wine fridge is intermittently failing; I replaced the control board yesterday because with refrigeration it's almost always the relays, but that didn't fix it so the next guess is the refrigerant valve (which I don't have the tools to replace). Too many things that break around here, I'm almost ready to move to a shack in the woods with no electricity.
 
Tell me about it. Today also my mother's cable is out and that company just didn't show for their appointment and I had to call and reschedule. Also my wine fridge is intermittently failing; I replaced the control board yesterday because with refrigeration it's almost always the relays, but that didn't fix it so the next guess is the refrigerant valve (which I don't have the tools to replace). Too many things that break around here, I'm almost ready to move to a shack in the woods with no electricity.
Can we be roommates
 
But, seriously, it feels like every major Gravity issue has to do with different ECUs not talking to each other. This can't be a coincidence.
 
But, seriously, it feels like every major Gravity issue has to do with different ECUs not talking to each other. This can't be a coincidence.
I suspect it’s an order of operations thing. Rather than being built with an ecu boot failure in mind, I suspect it doesn’t handle random ECUs failing to boot gracefully or in the wrong order.
 
Can we be roommates
I think we need to check with our spouses on that. It's probably not a very large shack.

I spent last week at an off-grid dive eco-lodge in Panama, though, and it was hard to leave. There was solar power, and Starlink, and it's not -really- sustainable because it's a 2.5 hour drive to the hardware store, but most of the time the most advanced device I used was my dive computer.
 
I think we need to check with our spouses on that. It's probably not a very large shack.

I spent last week at an off-grid dive eco-lodge in Panama, though, and it was hard to leave. There was solar power, and Starlink, and it's not -really- sustainable because it's a 2.5 hour drive to the hardware store, but most of the time the most advanced device I used was my dive computer.
sounds blissful
 
Tell me about it. Today also my mother's cable is out and that company just didn't show for their appointment and I had to call and reschedule. Also my wine fridge is intermittently failing; I replaced the control board yesterday because with refrigeration it's almost always the relays, but that didn't fix it so the next guess is the refrigerant valve (which I don't have the tools to replace). Too many things that break around here, I'm almost ready to move to a shack in the woods with no electricity.
Won’t the wine get warm in the woods? I mean, we’re not living in the Stone Age! 😋
 
I just realized they were supposed to call me back today with an update on the logs; I'll set a reminder to call on Monday. The problem has not recurred after a full sleep cycle.

Off-grid cabin with no electronics looking more attractive.
 
I got an update that this is a software issue observed in the latest update and should be fixed in the next update; there is a not a hardware fault that makes the vehicle unsafe to drive.
 
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