Driving on cruise control (not autopilot), in the following conditions: on an interstate highway with all lanes in the traveling direction clear, no obstructions and no traffic to the front or to either side of the car, on a straight road with no bridge or on or off ramp in front of the car, daylight and no rain or or other participation, the car can unexpectedly and without warning aggressively brake. If the driver does not immediately regain control of the speed (by pressing the accelerator, or turning off the cruise control) the braking has caused the speed of the car to go from 75mph to 30mph. Unlike other Tesla accident avoidance features, the braking occurs with no indication that an obstruction is being avoided. I have owned the car since it was new and until Saturday 8 October 2022, the adaptive cruise control worked as expected. Since that Saturday (less than a week) the braking has occurred several times. Each time it required a sudden depress of the accelerator pedal to recover speed control of the car. The first photo I've attached shows a screengrab of the moment of one deceleration on Monday 10 October saved as a dashcam video. As you can see there is no obstruction and no other traffic around the car at the time. The second photo is a snapshot of the chat session I had with Tesla service where they claim that this behavior is caused by a curve, off ramp, a bridge, a two lane road. As you can see in the first photo, none of this is the case.
2020 Tesla Model 3 acceleration complaints
Page 3 of 3: complaints 41 to 70 of 70, newest first, as owners wrote them.
The other driver hit the rear of my tesla model 3 which cause the car accelerate fast about 40-50 miles, the brake is not working either. I can not brake or slow down the car.
Cars computer froze and I was stuck in cruise control. Hitting the brake would not disengage. Pressing up on the stalk would not disengage. I could manually slow/accelerate the car with the brake/accelerator but after letting off the car would continue on at that speed while everything else remains frozen. No turning signal function. I was afraid to attempt to stop the car fully as it would not disengage. Screen eventually went black and reset after what felt like forever. Functions returned to normal.
The car exceeds the speed limit with adaptive cruise control/autopilot, despite all the available settings being set to strictly obey the speed limit. Driving on the highway in a 60mph zone enabling autopilot will set the speed to 60mph, as expected. If the speed limit increases, the car will change to the new speed limit, e.g. 70mph. Now, if the speed limit drops back down to 60, the car will NOT slow to 60, although the correct speed limit is displayed. Also happens on streets.
The emergency automatic brake, cruise control and auto pilot feature gets disabled frequently. All 3 features gets disabled at same time. Contacted tesla service center in decatur-GA. They are saying they cannot find the problem and hence cannot solve it. They say the engineers are looking into it, and my car needs a firmware update. No estimated time to fix these issues is given. The service center advised that the car is safe to drive! Please help. Thanks.
Vehicle was at a stop with brake engaged and then it proceeded to go full speed into a vehicle two meters away without acceleration pedal engaged. Emergency brake did not activate during or slightly before the collision. The brakes had to be engaged manually, but vehicle was already past a certain velocity on its own accord to be able to stop properly without damaging property or harming pedestrians.
My Tesla Model 3 is equipped with standard auto pilot (no full-self driving) and traffic aware cruise control (TACC or otherwise known as adaptive cruise control). While engaged, I experience, on average, per 60-mile trip a minimum of 1 phantom braking event. Note this is not on residential, county or state roads, this is on divided highways. The vehicle will slam on the brakes for no reason and will at times activate the forward collision warning system. It's so bad I've disabled many of the safety systems for fear I will cause an accident. Traffic aware cruise control on a two lane road (this does not steer or lane center the vehicle), is unusable because it constantly brakes for oncoming traffic in other lanes, or aggressively brakes for vehicles turning in front of you, even with plenty of distance to clear. The system will even continue to brake, after the turning vehicle has fully cleared the road. This requires the driver to slam the accelerator to cancel the braking action. When I first purchased the vehicle in February of 2020, there were no issues with Phantom braking. This issue has become worse with over-the-air updates. I canceled my full-self driving subscription because the phantom braking was even worse with that software. Additionally, Tesla uses a driver safety score to determine insurance rates if you are using their branded insurance program. When these phantom braking events occur it sometimes registers as an emergency braking event which deducts from your overall score and can ultimately cause your rates to increase. When I enrolled in FSD, before Tesla would release the software, they required a certain safety score over a week's time. During that time the system falsely reported running red lights, emergency braking events, and aggressive stopping, while only using the regenerative braking system. They system will also flag you for tailgating with auto pilot engaged.
There is a complete failure of the Autopilot (cruise control) feature and sudden braking when using. There is an extreme risk to personal safety when using this feature. On several occasions, I have been using this feature on the highway while going the posted speed limit of 65 or 70 mph. Suddenly, the vehicle will decelerate aggressively and violently causing any vehicles behind me to slam on their brakes to avoid a collision. This feature of the vehicle is not recognizing road signs, or other inanimate objects, correctly and mistakes them for some hazard that requires braking. Very dangerous.
Phantom braking can occur when vehicles are passing at night and during the day for no reason. There is no adequate control to enable the windshield wipers. Many menus to access the wiper controls. Not safe
On Tuesday 2/1/2022 approximately 9:20am EST, as I was sitting in a stop-and-go traffic, as the traffic was freeing up and started moving going roughly 5 to 10 mph, the vehicle automatically applied phantom brake - with a notification of emergency braking applied. I was not on cruse control or autopilot. i was in full control of the car yet it suddenly applied the ebrakes nearly causing someone to rear end me since the traffic had started moving.
Using either cruise control or Full Self Driving mode, driving on divided highway, experienced sudden hard braking not due to any highway obstruction, road hazard, other vehicle, or weather. Without warning car dropped out of assisted control and abruptly applied brakes. This happened yesterday at 2:10 pm, 2:53 pm and 3:01 pm.
The contact stated that while idling and waiting to pick up the elementary school kids in their vehicle, a 2020 Tesla Model 3 suddenly experienced unintended acceleration causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle and crash into the rear of the contact's vehicle and trailer. During the incident, the contact sustained a lower back injury and the driver of the Tesla Model 3 suffered a chest injury. A police report was taken at the scene. No further information was available. The failure mileage was unknown.
The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving in the rain with the autopilot engaged the vehicle accelerated without warning and was incontrollable, flipped two times, and hit the curb. The contact sustained neck injuries and medical attention was provided at the hospital. All the air bags deployed. There was no reported fire. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to an independent body shop. The local dealer was contacted who referred the contact to the body shop. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 29,000.
The contact owned a 2020 tesla model 3. The contact stated while driving 25 MPH, the vehicle accelerated independently and jumped forward and hit another driver that was standing outside in between the driver's side front and rear door. The hood opened and obstructed his view which caused him to crash into another vehicle. There was no injuries sustained by the contact. The two other drivers sustained unknown injuries. One driver received medical attention and was transported by ambulance. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to a body shop and deemed to be a total loss. The vehicle was currently at the contact's place of business. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 2,500.
I was parking at a trader joe's when the car suddenly accelerated by itself without giving me any chance to break to avoid colliding with the curb. My car got scratched underneath.
Just purchase the auto pilot, when coming to a stop, sometime it pass the white line. While going stright,when signal to change lane to bypass the slow car, it merge into left turn at the stop light. When the vheicle is going around a left corner, it veer to the right and drove on the should lane. The same thing happen going to the right corner. When take off from the green light, sometime it slowly,slowly,slowly increase speed even though there is no car in front of it. When slow down, it wait the last minute and turn the car. All my stuff on the seat fly every where .when approaching a corner, it would speed up and make a quick turn.. When using a navigation, it turn intoi a dead end instead of the right route.
I was driving straight on a highway using traffic aware cruise control when the car suddenly braked hard. If someone had been driving behind me too closely I would have been rear ended at a high speed. I've seen online that people refer to this as "phantom braking," and it seems to be a common issue with tesla cars.
My wife and I live on a two-lane state route in the country. We were headed home from the farmers' market this morning around 10 a.m., headed down a hill with three cars behind us. There was an 18-wheeler headed up the hill. I had the cruise control on and traveling 55 MPH in a straight line with no curves in sight. When the 18-wheeler coming up the hill was 7 car lengths ahead of us in the opposite lane, my car automatically braked hard enough to bring our speed down to 35 MPH before I could override and accelerate. My spouse said, "I hate this car. It's going to get us killed one day. We could have been rearended." I have used conventional cruise control to drive for more than 20 years, even in town, to keep from inadvertinly speeding. Normal cruise control doesn't behave in this manner. This is my first report of a recurring problem.
Slowed down to make a left turn and the car suddenly speed forward when I put my foot on the brake. I let go my foot and slammed the brake once more. It took a second to respond
I took delivery of my tesla at the beginning of april 2020 - I have not been out much because of lockdown. On one of my early journeys the car spontaneously accelerated. I was shocked but thought I had inadvertently done something eg cruise control or heavy foot even though I believed it was totally unprompted yesterday I was driving at slow speed about 20- 25mph approaching a pedestrian crossing when the car spontaneously accelerated- it was undeniable ! I took my foot off the pedal but it didn't slow - I jammed on the brakes to halt the acceleration. When I arrived home I googled 'spontaneous acceleration ' to see what had caused it and was horrified to discover there is a lot of allegations to tesla which have been denied. I rang tesla and they said they'd send a mobile engineer within 4 days!!! I live in uk but am aware you are collecting data on the matter - I live in uk so filing the form didn't allow a uk phone number- +[xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6). *cc
See attached for details. We have experienced at least two unexpected hard braking incidents in our 2020 tesla model 3 equipped with autopilot. In one incident, just as autopilot was engaged, the tesla braked suddenly from 65 MPH to 50 MPH. Other drivers were forced to brake hard to avoid collision. On the same day, while in adaptive cruise control, the tesla suddenly braked hard at a speed of 78 MPH, down to 60 MPH. Tesla has been notified by others who have had similar experiences, so they are aware of this hazardous problem. The issue has been reported by many on tesla social media sites since at least 2018. It still has not been corrected. I plan to send a copy of this report to tesla.
I made a right hand turn from a full stop out of the parking lot into the farthest left lane intending to turn left. There were a line of cars ahead of me. As I was turning into the lane and let my foot of the accelerator pedal the car accelerated rapidly into the back of the vehicle ahead of me. It happened very quickly. It felt as though the vehicle took over on it's own. The car hit the vehicle once and then continued moving and it the vehicle again - so twice in all.
Tl* the contact owns a 2020 tesla model 3. The contact stated that while his wife coming to a stop sign, the vehicle accelerated independently without warning and crashed into the rear of a pickup truck. The air bags failed to deploy. A police report was filed. There was no injury information provided. The vehicle was towed to independent mechanic but not diagnosed. The contact mentioned that tesla performed a diagnostic testing remotely but refuses to inform the contact of the results. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that after an internal investigation the contact would receive a callback. The failure mileage was unknown.
First of all, I was pulling the tesla out of our garage. I was completely out maneuvering the car to make it parallel to the right side of the street when suddenly, I felt the car moved extra backward. Fortunately, it did not hit the neighbors' parked cars. The move startled me. And surprised my husband and son who are passengers at that time. My husband blurted, "what are you doing?". I replied, "I'm driving, I did not do anything extra to make that move. I wondered and also asked, "how did that happen?" and my husband said "I don't know you're the one driving, be careful." my response was, "I am being careful!". My husband thought I pressed the accelerator hard but I know I did not. The conversation almost lead to an argument but we somehow diffused the topic. I don't want to argue and ruin the mood because we were on our way to our son's soccer game that morning. To make the story short. I continued driving until we reached our destination. I chose to park on the right side of the parking lot. As I was slowly pulling the car in, I felt the car suddenly accelerated. At the blink of an eye, our car hit another car parked in front of us and the car next to it. I felt that the car controlled my move before I could even react. For 20 years of driving, I have never hit an accelerator by mistake or caused any collision. I have driven this vehicle a couple of times before this incident happened and I drove and parked it the way I did previously. The unintended acceleration was something new that day. I am deeply concerned with the safety of this vehicle for my family and others.
When I shift the car into drive and use the accelerator pedal to move the car forward and it works fine. When I release the accelerator pedal, the car accelerate and requires me to brake. This occurs at low speed. I have taken the car into tesla and they said user error. The cruise control engages when I shift into drive. This has occurred several times since I have purchased the car
When on cruise control or autopilot, car stops abruptly going from 65 MPH on the highway to 38 MPH before I can override and take control. There is no apparent reason. This happens on a clear open highway.
On 1/17/2010, at 12:12pm, I departed my house in norwell. After 1.65 miles, between 99 forest ave and river street (approximately 50 feet from river street), I released my foot from the friction brake, and the car accelerated on its own toward river street. I put my foot back onto the friction brake, and it stopped. The car was not in auto-pilot mode. I am not aware of cruise control being on. In any case, if it was on, I did not put it on on purpose, and further, it should not have been on since I had my foot on the friction brake pedal just before the event. Enclosed is an image of my trip log showing that my drive started at 12:12pm. Also enclosed is a map showing that it was 1.65 miles from the start of my drive. I do not have dash-cam footage of this since more than one hour has passed and I did not manually tag it when it occurred because I did not know of an investigation at that time.
Tl* the contact owns a 2020 tesla model 3. The contact stated that while attempting to park in a parking space, the vehicle unintendedly accelerated crashing into a parked truck and pushing it some distance. The contact confirmed that no air bags deployed. The contact sustained minor injuries such as bruising to the back and neck that did not require medical attention. No police report was filed. The contact was able to reverse out of the parking lot and drive to the her residence. The dealer was not contacted about the failure. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and informed the contact no recall was under the VIN. The failure mileage was approximate 407.
While navigating on autopilot on the freeway the car took the intended exit ramp, however never slowed down until I had to intervene. Reminiscent of the characteristics which LED to the recent fatal crash reported over the last week.
Driving in freeway fast lane in light traffic at 10:30 am on overcast morning with tesla adaptive cruise control set for 70 MPH and 4-car following distance. The car in front moved 1 lane to the right leaving no cars ahead. My car accelerated gently to 70 and then as I approached an overpass the car suddenly braked (or went to regeneration) and slowed instantly to about 40 MPH when I was able to apply the accelerator and return to surrounding traffic speed and move right to the next lane and recovered from the shock and surprise of what other tesla owners refer to as "phanton braking". I was fortunate that no other cars weren't following me or they likely would have crashed in the back of my car. I spoke with other tesla owners who report the same random, surprise, powerful braking when approaching overpasses.
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