Consistent "phantom breaking" when autopilot is engaged. There is not an option for a regular cruise control, rather, Tesla activates an autopilot feature when the cruise is activated - the adaptive breaking is consistently applying the breaks when there is no reason. This is a safety issue as people following behind could hit my car when it tries to stop for no reason on a highway going 65-70 mph.
2019 Tesla Model 3 driver assistance complaints
Page 8 of 9: complaints 191 to 220 of 224, newest first, as owners wrote them.
when using cruise control the car will suddenly brake without warning and for no obvious reason. This happens with regular Cruise Control as well as Adaptive Cruise Control. It happens at low speeds (in town driving) and at Interstate speeds (65+mph). No warning lights or sounds. Most recently, today. Tesla has not been responsive to date. At higher speeds, there is a strong chance of either being rear ended or forcing the car behind me to take evasive action if they are too close which could result in an accident.
Car has too many phantom braking issues while using autopilot and cruise
Phantom breaking on highways when approaching an overpass during daytime. Abrupt breaking on 5 fwy from 65mph Limit to 45 mph Limit when it is 65mph Limit.
My Model 3 Tesla while in cruise control initiated braking while on a highway approaching an overpass. There was no obstruction on the road. I believe the cameras deduced the shadow of the overpass as an object and tried to stop. This incident has been termed ghost braking.
I start noticing when you stop at stop light or traffic light and soon you start drive and before it’s get speed it’s break for second you feel and notice something stop for second and this start happening since last 10 days
My radar-capable Tesla Model 3 is in the FSD beta program. As part of the program, Tesla disabled radar functionality. Unfortunately on vision the car brakes aggressively (10+ mph decrease) approximately one time per five miles on the local undivided highways of Central Oregon. This is not safe for me or for other drivers. I have contacted Tesla repeatedly to opt out of the FSD beta program and reenabled radar, but they have not responded. Customer service and service centers are not empowered to fix the situation. This situation puts me and other drivers at risk and could be easily remedied by Tesla by adding a process for FSD beta program removal. Clearly their current approach is not working.
While driving with autopilot engaged (adaptive cruise control + automatic braking) the vehicle abruptly slams on the brakes even when there is no vehicle or objects in its path.
Every time I am on a two lane road, and sometimes even on divided highways, I experience numerous instances where the car seems to think there is an imminent collision, where the brakes are immediately applied excessively and for seemingly no reason. This issue is present with either the FSD beta engaged or simply having cruise control engaged at all. The issue is far worse at night, and in a 1 hour drive it is likely to happen several times. In addition to the above, the car also forces the auto high beams back onto auto when re-engaging the system after I've had to take control to stop it from stopping or swerving unnecessarily. Since the auto high beams are really bad, the car often will flash oncoming drivers on its own, and again for seemingly no reason. I usually remember to disable it every time, but have also forgotten and flashed oncoming drivers due to this as well. In addition to the above, the FSD system will make swerves that make no sense at times as well. For instance, it turned into what it thought to be the turning lane a block early, but maintained speed for the actual intended turn. When it saw the lines ending, it abruptly made a 90 degree turn a block early as it didn't know what to do. While I feel competent enough to be MORE alert than an average driver should expect to be when driving, I feel it is a matter of time, if it hasn't already happened, where Teslas cause a rear end accident, injury, or even death, from their seemingly random and sudden movements by a driver that doesn't understand the limits of the cars. For the approximate date field below......it happens every time I drive on a two lane road, and even more so at night. It's not a one time instance. It's every single drive. I'll put the date the last time I drove longer than a couple miles from home, but want to emphasize that everything described above can be easily reproduced on every single drive.
Location: 5 Fwy North (Solana Beach area) Situation: 5pm Rush hour traffic. Speed 30- 40mph Incident: Emergency braking system engaged for no reason resulting in all 4 wheels locking up. Scared the s#!t out of me but no injury or accident. No warning lamps or messages before the incident. Outcome: Looked like an idiot to my fellow commuters. When I arrived home I turned off the feature and never used it again. No inspections.
Two problems 1. vehicle breaks randomly on the road when on assisted driving is enabled on freeways 2. new vehicle steering makes creaking/ clicking noise when turning. reported to tesla and vehicle was repaired, but same issue again.
Automatically activated Blind Spot camera system view is filled over 50% with glare from blinker while driving at night. This renders the driver safety feature unusable during nighttime driving and creates additional driver distraction with the bright light flashing on the vehicle display every time the turn signal is activated at all driving speeds.
The screen on my Tesla fails routinely (everyday) while driving and then reboots after about 3 minutes. This happens abruptly with no warning. Tesla has told me (verbally) that it was reproduced in their service location in Palo Alto. During this time, I have no idea of my speed or any other vehicle status, such as lane keeping, collision warning, navigation, heating, etc. I have tried to remedy this issue with Tesla service repeatedly over two months, and the interactions have been unsatisfactory. Tesla does not seem to appreciate the potential seriousness of this issue and the risk to ourselves and others. Tesla Service at Sunnyvale, CA, encouraged me to continue driving, even though I pointed out the risk of "driving blind". My family is very wary of this vehicle now.
During autopilot driving on highway, the car applied the brakes hard 2 times during my drive for no apparent reason. I was fortunate that no one was close behind me. This is a significant safety hazard.
We have two Tesla Model 3s - 2019 and 2020. Both vehicles are experiencing increased issues with phantom braking where the car unexpectedly applies the brakes for no apparent reason when using cruise control or AutoPilot. Often times the braking is sever and abrupt. There have been incidents where we were nearly rear ended by the car behind us because of this. This is a major safety issue and I am asking the federal safety agency to investigate.
On three occasions while driving on the expressway the vehicle slammed on the brakes while TACC was enabled. One occasion the vehicle behind me had to swerve onto the shoulder to avoid hitting my vehicle. There was no threat or obstacles in the road, it was totally random. I’m afraid to use TACC and have no option for traditional speed based cruise on my vehicle.
June 2021 I had an accident while Tesla Auto Pilot was engaged. I was paying complete attention to the road, there was vehicle merging to the highway from right. Neither Tesla slows down neither it have any warning and vehicle collided. Tesla Auto Pilot is misleading, and have serious safety concerns. I reported this issue to Tesla, its been months I have not heard back. I am enclosing the incident video below. https://youtu.be/orB5qq3XsJU I will be happy to share more details. [XXX] INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
After getting a shingles vaccination and eating lunch, a vaccine side-effect suddenly caused me to become extremely sleepy while driving. But AutoPilot drove me safely to my destination parking lot where I took a two hour nap. AutoPilot saved my life and car from an accident.
I was driving on I-80 eastbound at between Dixon, CA and Davis, CA with the Tesla Autopilot engaged (adaptive cruise control and lane assistance, NOT full navigation), hands on the wheel, in the rightmost lane. The autopilot suddenly started drifting to the left and the car partially entered the lane to the left of me before i disengaged autopilot and resumed control of the vehicle. At the same time, the center console display froze and "glitched" and became unresponsive. The car steering, acceleration and braking worked as normal, but turn signals did not work and i couldn't see my speed (the display had frozen). After a few seconds, the display turned off (still unresponsive). I pulled over to the shoulder and put the car into park and the display seemed to automatically reboot (the screen turned back on and displayed the tesla logo). After a minute, the car had completed rebooting and appeared to operate as normal again.
Ever since I have owned the car, there have been intermittent bouts with what most Tesla owners refer to as phantom braking while using the Traffic aware cruise control (TACC) or autopilot (AP). In all instances, I'm driving along the I-15 highway in Southern California at or near the speed limit with the flow of traffic, with no visible obstacles to safe driving in my lane or lanes adjacent to me, the car suddenly slams on the brakes out of nowhere and it is absolutely terrifying and unsafe. Today, had someone been tailgating me at 80mph and this occurred, I am certain I would have been rear-ended. The deceleration was so sudden and aggressive that I felt the blood rush to the front of my face and I became dizzy momentarily. I can't remain silent on this any longer as I hoped Tesla would have fixed this through software updates. I no longer have trust in the system. I've reported phantom braking to Tesla numerous times through their in-car bug report feature and there still is no fix. No other automakers are experiencing this with their ADAS systems and yet Tesla is apparently leading us into Full Self Driving. Please look into and investigate this for the safety of all drivers out there today. Thank you.
I was going 45 mph with autopilot engaged and in fact the autopilot actually caused the accident. The car suddenly turned to the right and hit the curb then spinned 180 degrees midair, landed on the sidewalk and then rolled back fishtailed a wooden pole.
1. In three occasions while using FSD I approached red lights but the vehicle did not initiate a stop. I took control to do so. 2. Yesterday the car seemed to reboot. It was about 9PM, quite dark at 70 or 80MPH on I80 in a construction area. The headlights stayed on and the car continued driving but the dash went black as it seemed to fail, and then seemed to reboot with the "T" coming back up before the full dash came up again.
We were driving our Model 3 on autopilot on the LIE from Southampton to New York. We have the “Full Self Driving” software from Tesla. We drove past a parked SUV about halfway through the ride, but the Tesla did not notice. It drove straight through the side of the SUV, ripping off the side mirror and skullcap from our car. We checked and the SUV driver was totally fine, scared. We called Tesla immediately and told them that in our opinion, our car had gone crazy and did not see the but my wife and I were other car stopped in the shoulder as we drove by at 60 mph. We have the invoices from Tesla service documenting this issue and their repair of it, but we were then and remain now really scared when a car has its hazards on in the shoulder.
On June 6th, 2021, we were driving home in our 2019 Tesla Model 3. We were at the intersection of 7th Street and 36th Avenue in Moline, Illinois. We were stopped on 36th Avenue heading east trying to turn north onto 7th street. We were stopped behind another vehicle when our Tesla started creeping slowly forward toward the vehicle in front of us. My wife, who was driving, stepped on the brake. But instead of stopping, the Tesla suddenly accelerated, careening off the car in front of us and then heading into the intersection at full speed. My wife was able to avoid hitting two vehicles on 7th Street in the intersection, but then hit a steel stoplight pole across the intersection. The right front passenger tire was torn off the Tesla and the airbags deployed. No one was hurt. But we damaged two other vehicles and totaled our Tesla. My wife insists that she did not hit the accelerator pedal. I believe I remember when she attempted to stop the car, she might have accidentally bumped the control behind the steering wheel that activates the adaptive cruise control. I do not know. But the adaptive cruise control should not activate under 35 MPH. The Moline Police department investigated the accident and issued report number 2021005635. You can download this report on https://buycrash.com. I have seen other reports on sudden unintended acceleration from Tesla's and wanted to report this incident.
Front facing camera, used by autopilot, obscured by contaminant on the inside of the windshield. Autopilot engaged without warning, even though the front facing camera was significantly impaired due to the contaminant. Contaminant appear to be glue residue based upon tackiness. The front facing camera is surrounded by an anti reflection enclosure. Upon inspection, the anti reflection enclosure was significantly degraded and broke into many pieces while being serviced. As this enclosure is designed to absorb light, it’s likely getting extremely hot during the summer months in a car parked facing the sun.
When I'm driving on an interstate highway with hot lane to the left of my direction of travel, the car erroneously senses the speed limit as 65 MPH (the speed limit for the adjacent hot lane) rather than the actual speed limit of 55 MPH in my lane. The result is that when I am using the adaptive cruise control in the situation described, the car suddenly and without warning accelerates by at least 10 MPH over the posted speed limit. This has happened repeatedly and makes use of the adaptive cruise unsafe.
B pillar cameras tend to get condensation in them causing them to work intermittently.this has been reported to tesla service in rockville, md, to no effect. According to tesla, they do not have a solution for it, yet the cameras continue to intermittently fail to provide coverage, especially in weather conditions when they are most needed. Usually, the car is in motion when this issue arises and while driving at highway speeds.
My son was driving on the golden gate bridge when the auto pilot applied the brakes. He said a traffic cone appeared on the screen. There was no traffic cone or any other object in the road. This issue caused an accident behind him because of the sudden brake application. This also happened to me while driving on the freeway. I had the car on cruise control. All of a sudden the brakes were automatically applied without anything in the road.
White block appeared on screen, would not clear. Blocked visibility of any displays under the block, including gear selector, speed, energy status, turn signals, most of any other display, such as maps, camera display. Block remained when we left the car, and returned. Only could clear w/ display reset, which I uncovered once I returned home and looked online. White block did not appear to impact driving, but obscured basically every driving feedback you'd expect from a dashboard.
Driving on highway 280, the auto-pilot stopped working and driving became erratic and unsafe with random accelerations/decelerations. I had no choice but to keep on driving. Tesla kept confusing me with their service arrangements while I needed to use the car every day. It took a week to arrange for service. The car sat for a week at the dealership with no communication from tesla. Then they sent a laconic request to pay them $1,070 --- while I know my car, being 10 months old is under warranty. Mice ate a wire within the auto-pilot cables. Tesla claims this damage isn't covered by warranty! The damaged cables are in a compartment which is completely unprotected against mice or anything. It should have been protected with at least a metal mesh. I asked why isn't that compartment protected to prevent rats/mice from entering it; after all, 300+ million american garages have cars and mice co-located... Their answer: 'that's the auto-industry standard'. My reaction: "I did not buy my car from the auto-industry standard; I bought it from tesla (which completely deviates from the "industry standards!)" I am requesting tesla to issue a 'recall' for installing a metal mesh around the sensitive auto-pilot cabling compartment. Also, I am requesting a full refund of my expenses, plus compensation for the frustration and for the various troubles I had to go through. The no.1 problem with tesla's supposed 'service' is that they obviously believe that tesla cars do not need any service. Here is their email to me from 10/15/20: "your tesla service invoice is ready for review. Please review and accept the tesla service invoice for your visit. Review and accept ". I cannot access that contents anymore. The email simply said accept this charge of $1,070 without explaining anything about the reason for the damage. Thank you, yair barniv
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