2018 Tesla Model 3: jerking or lurching

Filed Feb 15, 2026 · Driver assistance · CA

There is no checkbox for Full Self Driving (Supervised): 3 times in the last 4 weeks, my Tesla has become impatient at long red lights and lurches out into the intersection. I am very concerned because one of those times (first time) it did not creep forward, but just took off thru the red light. I had to accelerate thru to get ahead of those cars that still had the green light. Fortunately, nothing untoward happened, except scaring me! The other two times, I recognized what was happening and put on the brakes and removed from FSD mode. I have complained to Tesla and am asking for them to verify my FSD is up to date and this issue will be fixed. Needless to say, I have stopped using the FSD (Supervised) until this is all addressed.

Filed Dec 28, 2024 · Acceleration, Brakes · CA · crash

I was at a stoplight behind a Toyota Tacoma. I must have stopped around 8 feet behind it. I was not using FSD and I was not one-pedal driving. My foot was on the brake. I must have been at a complete stop for approximately 10 seconds when my Model 3 suddenly accelerated full throttle on its own and rear ended the Tacoma, directly hitting its trailer hitch, causing my car's driver-side airbags to deploy. When it happened, the light was still red and my foot was still on the brake. I never touched the accelerator. Luckily I was driving alone. After the inital contact, my car sort of bounced off of his hitch then slowly lurched forward before it stopped. After that, it was immobile, leaving me stuck in traffic until it was towed away.

Filed Aug 23, 2023 · Steering, Suspension · CA

Only when driving on HWY speeds 65 mph and above the steering pulls, while correcting to drive safely the car jerks and is very unsafe during hwy speeds as if i'm fighting to keep straight on the road. Tesla confirmed it was the lower lateral links which was replaced but did not fix the issue. the vehicle continues to have the same issue and now Telsa is saying the steering rack may need to be replaced. seems this is a common issue with this car!

Filed Apr 25, 2023 · Seat belts, Steering · CA

I purchased this car used 12/05/2022. The seatbelt /driverside, doesn't catch on sudden stops, lurching me forward. I've almost hit the steering wheel with my face and head. Tesla says they are not responsible for replacing seatbelt. I have to pay for it. I don't know previous owners knew about this issue prior to selling it , but according to tesla, this issue doesn't fall with in their purview. Also the sealed control arm bushings on steering are squealing & after squeaking 10,000 miles of my driving this car and purchase. That too isn't covered.

Filed Feb 20, 2023 · Driver assistance, Electrical · CA

This is a report of suddent unintended acceleration on a 2018 Model 3 performance with 47,800 miles on the odometer - the first known occurrence on this car. At 50% state of charge, I drove the Tesla on a 10 minute trip and pulled into an underground parking garage with 3 lanes of valet parking. At about 5-10 MPH, the forward collision warning came on as I was driving towards the cones and stop sign. I brought the vehicle to a full stop with the friction brakes (not regenerative braking, which was set to LOW). The drive mode was set to HOLD, which lets the car roll forward but not backwards and doesn't CREEP when foot is off the brake. About 15-30 seconds after coming to a complete stop, my foot was hovering over the brake with maybe slight pressure up to 5%. The car suddenly lurched forward with wide open throttle type acceleration. It has over 450 electric horsepower from 2 motors. The car moved between 2 feet and 5 feet. My passenger noticed and asked what I did, if anything. I did not ever once touch the accelerator. Since my foot was on the brake pedal but not pushing hard on it, I was able to depress it with my foot and stop the car. There was a concrete wall perhaps 25 feet in front of the car. No people were in the front of the car. I was at the stop sign in the garage where valet takes over. I do not know if the car would have kept accelerating if I wasn't able to engage the brakes hard.

Filed Jan 16, 2023 · Fuel system · CA

On December 27, 2022, in light evening street traffic, my car accelerated briefly without the accelerator pedal being applied. I took my foot off the accelerator pedal to decelerate for an upcoming red light. While my foot was off the pedal, the car accelerated and lurched forward. The car was towed to the Tesla Sacramento Service Center. The technician incorrectly cited the "creep mode" as being involved. The car was in motion when it unexpectedly accelerated. "Creep Mode" only engages when the car is close to or fully stopped. Tesla technician was unable to determine an accurate reason for the unexpected acceleration.

Filed Aug 31, 2022 · Brakes · CA

Phantom braking is extremely dangerous and a cause for disaster! While in Autopilot, it will unexpectedly brake while driving on the freeway. This causes a jerk to the human body and cause a possible rear end accident. This is quite frequent.

Filed Jun 10, 2022 · Acceleration, Driver assistance · NC

The optional "Self Driving Option" we purchased for an additional $8,000 when we purchased this vehicle has never worked properly. The adaptive cruise control will brake for no reason, often multiple times per mile. It seems to be affected by shadows on the road and the vehicle mistakes these shadows for obstacles. The "Self Driving Option" will abruptly jerk the steering wheel in the direction of oncoming traffic and violently disengage. My wife and I find it to be unusable. Multiple service requests to Tesla have resulted in no actions.

Filed Jun 10, 2022 · Driver assistance · IN

The recent full self driving update that was received approximately one week ago has resulted numerous, substantial, and dangerous Self driving errors. The Vehicle struggles greatly to understand lanes and has on multiple occasions suddenly and without warning jerked the wheel to completely change lanes and then re-jerking the wheel to change back into the Original Lane. There has also been a shocking increase in phantom breaking while driving at highway speeds which is unsafe because other nearby drivers may slam on the brakes. The behavior of the vehicle has a times been so erratic that I could’ve gotten a ticket from an officer. Finally, the vehicle increasingly does not understand lanes and has several times veered into a left turn lane despite having a follow vehicle and despite being on a navigational Straight path, subsequently the vehicle then suddenly jerks the wheel back into the correct lane. This all happens very quickly and is not preventable by the driver even when hands are on the wheel and the driver is fully alert. I love my Tesla car. It is the safest car in the world. However, I feel very strongly that the company has been negligent and has definitely not been safety testing updates appropriately before wide release. I strongly recommend that guidelines be put in place to require Tesla to publicly report the number of FSD disengagement‘s every week. I also feel strongly that Tesla needs to permit drivers to roll back software to a prior version of full self driving. In addition, in order to send a video directly to Tesla regarding self driving errors the driver presses a video icon; however, this prevents the driver from storing the video and sends the video directly to Tesla. Therefore, drivers have to make a decision between documenting the dangerous error for themselves or to contribute to fleet learning. Each time videos pressed video must be saved to the usb drive too.

Filed Feb 4, 2022 · Brakes, Driver assistance · DC

I drive twice a week from Washington DC to Charlottesville, VA, a distance of 117 miles each way. 35 miles are on an interstate and 82 miles are on a divided 4-lane state road. Since I restarted this commute in September 2021 after Covid shutdowns and summer break, I have experienced recurring, frequent problems with the car's vehicle warning system, adaptive cruise control, and forward collision notification system. When I drive on the interstate (where there is currently a great deal of construction), the adaptive cruise control keeps automatically adjusting my speed when there is no speed limit change. So I might be traveling at 65 mph when my speed is suddenly lowered to 30 mph. There are no warnings, either visual or audio. The speed just changes. This is incredibly dangerous and requires me to be hyper-vigilant to avoid a rear end collision, or to turn off the cruise control system. When I travel on the state road, I receive frequent visual notifications of a collision risk ahead of me. I received four of them yesterday, and there was nothing in front of me at all. But sometimes, all automated systems disengage, a visual warning appears on my vehicle screen, and a loud klaxon sounds. This happened twice yesterday. It often occurs when I'm driving on a hilly stretch of road, when I'm ascending towards a crest in the roadway. It happens more at night than in daylight, but it happens without warning under a variety of conditions. The car also has an automatic lane change feature, which used to work reliably, but now seems more capricious, for no apparent reason. I engage the system, the screen shows it's safe to change lanes, the vehicle initiates the lane change, and then the car suddenly lurches back into the lane I'm leaving, saying the function isn't available. This has happened in all traffic conditions, from an empty highway to one with moderate traffic. I don't use the system when there's a lot of traffic.

Filed May 5, 2020 · Acceleration, Driver assistance · 24,500 miles · CA · crash · 1 injury

Several ongoing issues with touch screen failure (black outs) malfunction, has been repaired more than 3 times continues to be issue * ongoing accelerometer malfunction * all of sudden receive error message stability control disabled * --regenerative braking disabled * --automatic emergency braking is disable * ongoing phone key and connection issues, antenna issues, unable to connect to bluetooth. Repeated issues have not been resolved by tesla service dept * touch screen failure (black outs)and consistent issues with connectivity wifi. * mass malfunction of internal hardware * voice control barely works * seatbelt sensor malfunction * issue with breaking noise, screeching * uncontrollable acceleration while ongoing chronic unintended acceleration problems, such a accelerate out of control, jerking, braking all of sudden while driving. Suddenly acceleration * these are ongoing issues with our tesla model 3. Several of these malfunctions have been addressed with tesla service department more than 3 to 4 in the last six months. Filed complaint on 8/30/2019 the federal safety agency id# 11301634.

Filed Mar 19, 2020 · Acceleration · 7,076 miles · CA

While reversing into my 2 car garage into the center of the garage space, I came to a stop (auto hold after braking to a stop but with the rear camera view on display) when I reached far inside (to be able to close the garage door). Using the homelink, I closed the garage door (waited till it fully closed 2 ft from the front nose of the car). While I had both feet flat on the driver floor mat, I tapped the right side gear stalk down to switch from reverse to drive, the car jerked forward and the display screen closed the rear view camera. I normally drive forward slowly to put the nose of the car about 1 ft from the garage door (this allows me walking space at the rear of the car while parked). In the past I have noticed less severe 'jerking/lurching' forward when going from reverse to drive while leaving my garage when I would maneuver in the garage space with two cars parked, I thought it was my imagination. In retrospect this car has done it several times over the span of a year. *ln consumer states that vehicle seems to be activating the cruise control feature when the car is at a complete stop.