Phantom braking: the cars that brake by themselves, according to owners
2,209 owner complaints about 2015 and newer vehicles describe the car braking hard on its own, with nothing in the way. These are the models with the most reports.
- The Tesla Model 3 has the most phantom braking reports: 588.
- The worst single model year is the 2022 Tesla Model 3, with 226 reports.
Models with the most phantom braking reports (2015 and newer)
Model years with the most reports
How we did it
Source: owner safety complaints filed with the federal safety agency, as published in its public data files.
A complaint counts as phantom braking when the owner describes the brakes or the automatic emergency braking activating by themselves, for no reason or with nothing in the road. We read the complaint text with a fixed list of phrases, so some reports written differently are missed.
Counts are not adjusted for sales: models with many cars on the road and with automatic emergency braking as standard will have more reports.
You are free to cite or republish these figures with a link to this page. Updated November 8, 2026.