Recently on a trip between Wichita Falls and Quanah Texas, my Tesla Model 3 while on autopilot repeatedly braked hard while traveling at 75 mph in moderate traffic. While this is a frequent occurrence with my model 3, this is the first time I felt at risk of an accident due to how hard the vehicle was breaking.
2021 Tesla Model 3 driver assistance complaints
Page 4 of 16: complaints 71 to 100 of 431, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Driving on I-5 North from Los Angeles to San Francisco with adaptive cruise control activated. Suddenly and without warning car activates emergency braking as if it sees an obstruction on the road but obviously road was clear of any obstructions. This happened 4 times then I finally decided to no longer use cruise control. This happened on a clear sunny day around noon time 9/8/23.
While driving on a divided four lane interstate state highway, during daylight hours, sunny, clear, dry, minimal crosswind, the car spontaneously braked while under cruise control from approximately 75mph to 45mph. There was no oncoming traffic or mirages. Fortunately no following traffic either because they would have either struck us or run off the road. This happened three times in a very short period and we haven’t used it since.
While the Traffic-Aware Cruise Control was engaged, my car abruptly tried to stop 8 times on the interstate while traveling at 80mph (the speed limit on the open stretch of road in central Utah). The weather was clear, no clouds, no wind, very light traffic, very good roads, no debris on the road, about 85 degrees, no shadows were cast on the road and during the day. I was on a 5 hour road trip. Out of the blue on at least 5 of the occasions, with a vehicle about a half mile or more ahead of me and no vehicle next to me my car abruptly braked - like emergency breaking - for no apparent reason. Two of the phantom braking occurrences happened when after passing a vehicle and I signaled and pulled back in to the right lane with at least a 3 second space, and my car emergency braked. This about caused an accident and thankfully it did not cause a road rage incident. Two of the times we were snacking once on vegetables when the car phantom braked and the bowl and vegetables went flying forward. Thankfully none of the times did I have my cup to my mouth as I would have gotten hot coffee on me and could have burned myself or have caused some destruction to my car. The passenger in my car safety was at great risk as well as everyone on the road near me. No warning that the car saw something or was going to emergency brake. My vehicle is available for inspection. I have not taken it to a dealer or elsewhere for replication nor has the vehicle or component(s) been inspected. There were never any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure. Also, the problem occurs 100% of the time I am at one particular place on a local freeway so it can be replicated. I do know that it will occur there so I plan for it. When I travel this road south bound there is never a problem but when I travel north bound 100% of the time my car will phantom brake regardless if it's day, night, clear or wet. Tesla needs another option for cruise control now!
Major phantom Braking at 70mph on interstate 5, 4 times the brakes slamed on as if yo had done an emergency stop from 70mph to 20mph fortunately we were not rear ended as I had my son and grandchildren in the car. The car was in cruise control on each occurrence I finally had to stop using it for fear of a major accident
Intro: This is a well known problem with Tesla cars. It's referred to as "phantom braking" in the Facebook Tesla groups and is wide spread. Using only cameras since around 2021 for adaptive cruise control, the car will "slam on the brakes" even though the road is completely clear ahead. This can easily cause an accident if there is a car following you. It has occurred several times since I bought the car Jan 2022. - malfunction component adaptive cruise control. yes available for inspection - a rear end collision could occur when the car's brakes are activated so hard that the car decelerates from 70 to 20 in seconds - the problem is well documented - no, no inspection by any entity. Tesla knows the problems exists - no, no warning of any kind
I was driving west bound on I4 August 12th 2023 at 1236pm at mile marker 45-47. I was in the left hand lane with the cruise control set at 73 mph. all traffic was moving well. there was no car in front of me. there was a car passing me slowly on the right. there was a retaining wall to my left. My car for no reason changed the setting on my cruise control from 73 to 35mph. this caused my husband and I to be thrown forward and I had to jam on the gas to try to regain speed. This was the 4th time this happened and the second time I have reported to Tesla who insists that there is nothing wrong with the car. I am scared if someone is following me closely I will be rear-ended at a high rate of speed. They continue to quote information from the manual and in the invoices insinuating that any incident occurring from this would be my fault. This is a terrifying thing to happen when there is no reason for the car to slow for any reason.
My Tesla Model 3 Phantom Brakes when using Cruise Control, particularly in the morning when the road is clear, no cars or obstacles in front or behind me. the federal safety agency KNOWS THIS IS A PROBLEM AND I HAVE PREVIOUSLY MADE THIS COMPLAINT. I contacted Tesla to no avail. They did nothing. WHY HASN'T the federal safety agency DONE ANYTHING ABOUT THIS ISSUE. THIS IS DANGEROUS AS AN ACCIDENT IS WAITING TO HAPPEN.
While the car was parked in a parking lot, I get two notification stating “Sentry mode has turned off due to a sentry system error.” When I checked out the car, the car has completely failed to do any of the computer related task, leaving only the gear, AC, and Bluetooth was working. None of the cameras, GPS, sensors, brightness mode and many others were completely stuck. This continued until the next day. This happened without prior symptoms or warnings. I would have been in deep trouble if I have been driving at the time of the incident. When I took the car to the shop, tesla didn’t update the status for a week. After a week, Tesla told us that the Turbo A, Autopilot main processor chip failed. This caused the autopilot to go on loop. Therefore the whole motherboard needed to be replaced. This happened to a brand new purchased Tesla 2021 standard range. Which cost me $2404.00.
The vehicle was traveling in excess of 75 mph with only the autopilot system enabled. The vehicle brakes engaged by itself enough to squeal the tires and the rear end momentarily broke free from the pavement. I disengaged autopilot and drove for approximately 5 minutes. I reengaged autopilot and approximately 5 minutes later the brakes engaged again. I left autopilot disengaged for the remainder of the trip (~ 4 hrs) There were no other vehicles nearby but the breaking was severe enough that if another vehicle had been behind me, it could have caused a collision. The dealer acknowledges that this unintended breaking does occur on other vehicles. There was no warning that the vehicle would severely brake. The weather was clear with bright sun on route I25 south of Denver.
Just completed a 2week trip and the car attempted to stop on its own over 37 times (stopped counting) on the highway. 2times I had a semi within a block of my rear of the car. Since this occurrence is not anticipated it worries me that it's going to cause an accident. Reported to Tesla and it's days the feature is beta, I don't believe that for a second . This my 3td car with adaptive cruise control. I was not using the auto guidence feature.
When cruise control is activated at highways speeds, vehicle sometimes brakes abruptly for no reason whatsoever. Issue is phantom braking. No other cars in sight, no changes in speed limits. Happened repeatedly on CA Hwy 46 between Interstate 5 and US 101 on 7/31/23 and 8/2/23. Similar instances observed on other highways, too.
My 2021 Tesla Model 3 is having MORE occurrences of phantom braking than ever before when I drive with the Tesla Autopilot/Full Self Driving system activated. I paid extra for Full Self Drive (FSD) and engage it mostly on highway driving. A recent software update from Tesla pops up a message on my screen any time I DIS-engage the FSD asking me "What Happened?" and offers me the chance to record a 10-second voice message regarding why I turned off the FSD. Yesterday, on 07/31/2023 between 12pm PST and 2pm PST I must have made at least five such recordings, each time for phantom braking suddenly jerking my car slower while I drove on major highways. In each case I was on a 55 mph highway (or faster). In all the cases, my lane was wide open with NO cars even remotely close to me. Sometimes there was oncoming traffic in the approaching lane of traffic, but not always. It certainly should not be braking due to oncoming cars in THEIR CORRECT LANE. Yet the car slowed down suddenly over and over again. This is a repeated problem, but I haven't had so many instances in one long drive. Yesterday I got fed up and resorted to driving without Autopilot for a large portion of my 150 mile trip home. Sudden braking - for no reason - substantially increases the risk of getting rear-ended by the car behind and frankly causes near-panic with people in the car itself.
“Phantom Braking”. Driving on the interstate approximately 75 mph using cruise control, auto steer, not auto pilot. Within a span of three hours today we experienced at least six episodes of the car emergency braking for apparently no reason. Immediately going from 75 to 40 mph. Thankfully no one was close behind us. We finally stopped using the cruise control. Now afraid to use it at all.
The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while using a self-driving mode at 50 mph, it would not stay in the lane and drive slowly into the next lane. The contact stated on April 9, 2023, while using a self-driving mode at 15 mph, a pedestrian walked into the lane and the vehicle did not detect the person and hit the pedestrian. No air bags deployed. The contact did not sustain any injuries. The pedestrian sustained an unknown fractured leg and a fractured arm and sought medical attention for his injuries. A police report was filed. The vehicle was not drivable. The vehicle was towed to a Tesla collision shop and had the front windshield replaced. The contact took the vehicle to the local dealer but was informed no failure was detected. The vehicle was not repaired and continued to experience the failure. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was 48,570.
Electrical system rebooted in the middle of driving: screen went off couldn't signal i swayed to the side and waited till the screen came back on after 3 minutes.
Constant phantom breaking
When vehicle is in cruise control or autopilot the car will suddenly brake without warning. It will do this numerous times and could cause an accident if a vehicle is following close behind.
Multiple phantom breaking events while driving at highway speed. Luckily there were no cars behind us, otherwise there could have been a collision. Caused driver and passenger whiplash and items in car to be forcibly displaced. There were no advance warning. Tried to report to manufacturer but they seem to be closed for the holiday, will try again to report after holiday.
Car “Phantom brakes” constantly when going over a hill when it does not have vision. The braking is aggressive at freeway speeds and poses a risk for rear end collisions or road rage incidents if people think they are being brake checked.
1:Brake fail when trying to stop the car after the accident. The car is available for inspection at Arrow towing service Oklahoma City. 2: After the car accident the car keep going can't stop got Tee boned and my passenger broke his legs and ankles, elbow. 3: No, the problem has not be discussed with the dealer or manufacturer yet. 4: No one, including police, insurance have been inspect it. 5: No warning lamp or any kind of warning.
When driving the Tesla model 3 in cruise control, It will without warning apply the brakes. I have to then accelerate and then take it out of cruise control. The issue has happened about a dozen times and only happens while in cruise control. It happened most recently today but has happened in previous days.
The incident first happend (and has been happening ever since) on I-8, I-10, I-20 east bound 2 days ago. Driving on EB I-8 with speed limits 75MPH, engaged Tesla's well touted onboard Enhanced Auto Pilot (EAP) with Auto Steer control. There was no one ahead of us for over a mile. The weather was clear and sunny, time of incident around noon. Max speed was set to 75 on EAP. All of a sudden, we felt a jerky motion, and realized the EAP has activated brakes, dropping speed from set 75 to about 50mph. No visual or audible alarms, the EAP did not disengage. The driver took over to speed up to avoid being rear ended by vehicles coming behind us. It happened several times more during our trip and then we decided to manually drive. We have video documentation available.
On May 22, 2023 driving south on I-580 through Reno with the Tesla adaptive cruise control, there's a 55mph construction zone. As a result, I use the right scroll wheel to adjust the speed from 65 to 55mph. The scroll wheel didn't work. As a result, I turned off the cruise control with the right steering wheel stalk. At the same time, I noticed the vehicle speed indicator on the upper left of the CRT display was malfunctioning; both failing to respond to changes in the car's speed, and then indicating erroneous speeds (at one point indicating 34mph when I was going around 60mph. These issues continued. I took the exit on Double R Blvd to turn right. As I got into the right lane on the freeway to exit I attempted to turn off the cruise control and it didn't work. Approaching the exit, I then applied the brake. The regenerative braking function did not apply. As a result, it felt like the cruise control didn't turn off. However, I braked to a stop at the intersection in the right lane with no issues. When the traffic cleared, I attempted to turn right and proceed east on Double R Blvd. The car didn't move. Using the right stalk, I tried shifting into drive, reverse, and back. All this time, the drive (D) and reverse (R) indications on the CRT did not show. I let off the brake and the car inched forward. I turned right immediately into the Maverick gas station entrance to get off RR. The CRT display now showed the back-up camera displays (a normal indication of the car being in reverse). I cautiously let off the brake and applied the accelerator pedal to see if I backed up, but the car was in drive and proceeded normally. I continued to drive and the CRT screen went completely black. I soon realized the car's computer was rebooting with the faint Tesla logo on the black screen. Within a mile or so, everything came back on the screen and worked normally. I then reached my destination. When I returned to the car, it was as if nothing had happened.
Was using cruise control on a road trip, traveling through Arizona and the car jolted to stop three different times without advance notice or anything in the road. It was like slamming on the brakes. I was afraid to use it anymore, so now it’s like having a vehicle without cruise control feature. There were cars all around. We are fortunate no one hit us. This needs to be addressed. Googled and discovered it is called “phantom braking.” Hoping this serious safety issue will be fixed and no one gets hurt or dies because of it. Thank you
Using cruise control or auto pilot and then the car randomly brakes.
The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at 70 - 75 MPH with the cruise control activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 31,043.
While using the autopilot or cruise control feature The vehicle slams on the brakes without driver intervention. I found this appears to be a common problem called “ Phantom Braking” I opened ticket with the local Tesla facility but they required an accurate time storm of the incident to be able to troubleshoot the issue. This is a major safety issue and I request it be investigated as soon as possible. I read some news reports that Tesla Phantom Braking has caused major accidents and I don’t want to be in one.
While on Autopilot, the car suddenly phantom brakes when there is no risk of any collision ahead. This has happened multiple times on high speed highways. Within 1 hour, this happened 5 times and caused near-collisions with the car following my car.
My full self driving computer has crashed for the 3rd time since owning the vehicle which controls all of the cars safety features.. Tesla says they won’t do anything because the car is past the warranty by 9,000 miles.. so I’m basically stuck with a 1980’s Tesla.
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