I'm reporting a "phantom braking" incident that occurred while driving approximately 75 mph in the left lane of Interstate 10 just west of Casa Grande, AZ. (This section of the road had two westbound lanes.) "Traffic-aware cruise control" was set at approximately 75 mph. The Tesla slammed on the brakes for no reason (no vehicles were in front of me.) This was terrifying - luckily the vehicle that was directly behind me noticed and reduced their speed while I quickly pushed down on the accelerator. A collision was thus avoided. However, this could have been deadly for both my vehicle, the vehicle behind me, and so on. There was absolutely no reason for the car to apply the brakes - there were no obstructions in the road. My passenger can confirm the situation. I have had "phantom braking" occur with this Tesla including slowing down almost to a stop when a semi truck is in the coming lane of a two-lane road. The "traffic-aware cruise control" is inconsistent in its performance and travelling at high speeds, incredibly dangerous. We could not operate this function during the rest of our travels on the interstate due to this issue and limited operation of "Traffic aware cruise control" to 55 mph & under roads when there was no traffic behind us. I've been reading up on the Tesla "phantom braking" phenomenon and am really disappointed in this very unsafe safety feature which I didn't know about before purchasing my Tesla. My Model 3 is newer and has "Tesla Vision" instead of radar like older Model 3's. I think "Tesla Vision" is messed up and needs more work. This "automatic braking" could have caused a serious collision.
2021 Tesla Model 3 driver assistance complaints
Page 9 of 16: complaints 221 to 250 of 431, newest first, as owners wrote them.
There is serious issue with automatic emergency braking. My Tesla Model 3 2021 applied automatic emergency braking while on auto steer or cruising on single lane highway as well as on 4 lane freeways without anything ahead which required to brake. Fortunately, we were not being followed or tail gated closely. The speed reduced from 65 mph to 30mph suddenly on a freeway. This has happened to me 3 times. twice on single lane highway and once on 4 lane freeway. Tesla's cruising and self driving is worthless if I can't use them.
This vehicle's basic "autopilot" and adaptive cruise control is dangerous. The vehicle is unable to pass a truck on the highway while either system is active without slamming on the brakes. This is major safety hazard on the highway as following cars do not expect any vehicle to slam on the brakes at highway speeds. Further, using the cruise control on two lane road is also dangerous. Any large vehicle in the opposite oncoming lane will cause the vehicle to slam on its brakes. These systems are essentially unusable and are very dangerous to use.
I was driving on interstate 8 from Tucson to San Diego. In a matter of 2 hours my Tesla activated the brakes on its own 5 times, sometimes in a rapid series of 2 to 3 times, causing me to lurch while going 75 mph so I immediately disengaged the adaptive cruise control. I was on a 2 lane divided highway with no cars in front of me, see picture attached. Since taking possession of my new 2021 model 3 in November 2021, it has happened about 11 times. I just had my wife research it. I will not be using this feature. A semi truck behind me almost swerved off the road because of my braking. This is unacceptable that Elon Musk is not recalling vehicles. His arrogance is going to kill people for this clear safety issue. Please take over and do the recall. They sold me this car knowing this was an hazard since June 2021.
Was driving and automatic braking system engaged when there was no impeding incident.
Phantom braking occurs often when using traffic aware cruise control. I have not been able to determine a pattern, as the malfunction is not consistent. It can occur on a 2-lane road (with lines) as well as on a 6-line divided highway. I can tell the difference between phantom braking and the vehicle adjusting speed for an upcoming curve, as normal adjustment occurs in the same spot each time. Phantom braking is unpredictable, and may not occur in a location that it previously had. There are days it never happens, or sometimes once a day, or has occurred 5 times in an approx 6 mile trip. During a phantom braking event, the car unexpectedly applies the brakes hard. I react by pressing the accelerator, which usually results in a speed greater than the speed limit. I use the bug report feature each time it occurs, so Tesla would be able to view each event. As I'm sure you can tell from the VIN, this is a camera-only Tesla system. I do not have full self driving.
We just took our first road trip from Minneapolis to Denver in our 2021 Model 3 and experienced about 14 phantom braking events in about 900 miles. Two happened at night and the rest in broad daylight with perfect visibility on the Interstate. There was nothing I saw in or by the road that would explain any camera confusion. In all but two events, there were no other cars within 100 yards. In the first 200 miles we had 2 minor braking events and one severe one (hard breaking that required steady accelerator pressure to regain and maintain speed). There were no events in the next 300 miles. Then we had a moderate event which I immediately corrected. The next event was the most severe -- rapid deceleration followed by acceleration then deceleration, then a few seconds of speed fluctuation before I took full control (I purposely allowed this event to play out without intervention since there was no one around us and I wanted to see if it would correct itself--it didn't). Unfortunately, my wife hurt her neck in this one which resulted in neck pain and headaches for the rest of the day. Our dogs were in the back seat and were tossed around but OK. I then pulled over and rebooted the car. Within 5 minutes we had another moderate event. I pulled over again, cleaned the windshield, and reset/recalibrated the cameras. We understood this might take up to 100 miles, but in our case it only took about 5 miles. We tried the autopilot again and had a minor event within minutes and another minor event a few minutes later, and then a third a few minutes after that. I thought maybe the cameras didn't properly recalibrate since the process was so fast, so I pulled over and recalibrated again. As before, recal was done in a few miles. At this point my foot was hovering over the accelerator so I was able to intervene quickly to mitigate the severity. Over the next 20 miles there were 5 more events--a mixture of minor and moderate. We gave up and drove the last 100 miles manually.
I have a lot of unexpected braking problems for no reason
Phantom braking, the vehicle will stop unexpectedly while using adaptive cruise control even if there are no vehicles or objects on the road for miles.
When The auto pilot is activated I have experienced many times that the car randomly stops. This happened when I was on the highway and I was almost rear ended
When driving using either the "traffic aware cruise control" or "autopilot" (I do not have full self driving), the care frequently slams the brakes when there is no instance of an obstacle in-front of the vehicle. This has happened consistently and frequently causing instances with cars having to go to the shoulder to not rear end me. Most commonly this has occurred on rural 2 lane roads when a vehicle is coming from the other direction. As the vehicle from the other direction approaches the Tesla will suddenly emergency brake unexpectedly. This issue is even further exacerbated at night when this can happen with almost every passing vehicle. This issue has occurred enough times with either near rear end incidents or catching me so off guard I struggle to maintain my composure I often do not use the feature and am looking at getting rid of it due to being unusable even with the basic cruise feature. The date and speed below are the most recent but this has occurred many times in 2500 miles (easily 50 or more).
The automatic emergency brakes would go off while driving on autopilot at highway speed, when there is nothing in front of the car. The brakes are very unexpected and aggressive, potentially putting the car at risk of being rare ended. Tesla states that I should press on the accelerator to override the brakes, but most times the braking is so aggressive that the override isn’t affective. Moreover, my car would give false forward collision warning if the car in front of me slows down even a little bit, even when there is at least a 5 car distance from me to the car in front of me, and we are no where near colliding. Tesla would use these false forward collision warnings to drive down my “safety score” and raise the premium of the insurance they offer me.
I was on I-470 east of I-25 going east. I was traveling at 83 MPH, therefore the car was not in Autopilot, only had cruise control on. I signaled a lane change, made the lane change, and then the car applied brakes hard, going from 83 MPH down to 66 MPH. This happened in front of a late-model full-size pickup truck. The driver of the truck was not happy and tailgated for about 2 miles. I reported this problem to Tesla. They first don't want to even allow a service visit on the issue. Second, they want to charge me over $80 for a service visit on a car that is under warranty. When we had FSD beta in January 2022, we didn't face these issues except once or twice. Tesla advisor even admitted to me that cars with FSD beta and cars with Autopilot have different navigation software. Therefore, Tesla has a fix for this issue.
We were traveling at about 75 mph on Intestate 94 in Wisconsin (same speed as the other cars around us) using adaptive cruise control when our car suddenly hit the brakes, the display showed the speed limit sign of 70 MPH, but the display where it would have shown the max speed we set, instead showed maximum speed of 40 mph. I used the accelerator pedal to return the speed to that of the surrounding traffic without problems. During other parts of the journey cars came up close behind us as they wanted to go faster and had this happened then we would have been the lead car in a severe rear end collision. This happened several other times during the same two day road trip, including once about a minute before the incident described above, but none were this severe, perhaps "lightly" tapping the brakes even though there would not have been a need to.
Drivers side camera not working making cruise control (adaptive & regular) unavailable also left turn blind spot visualization not available.
While using autopilot or cruise control on the highway, the vehicle frequently brakes for no reason and without warning. This occurs repeatedly throughout the drive.
The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds with the cruise control activated, the vehicle would independently slow down without warning as vehicles on the opposite side of traffic would pass by his vehicle. The dealer nor the manufacturer had yet to be notified of the failure. The vehicle had yet to be repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 1,000.
When the cruise control is activated, phantom braking happens within about 20 seconds. Also, when autopilot is engaged, phantom braking also happens within about 20-30 seconds. The phantom braking happens when there are no obstacles in the road or other traffic.
When either in autopilot or in cruise control especially in long drive car perform phantom breaking creating a risk of rear-end collision with following vehicles. Car vision system at times recognize cars coming in the opposite way as imminent collision and performs emergency phantom breaks.03/
Three times, while using cruise control with autopilot, my Model 3 rapidly braked with no one in front of me while driving on the interstate at 70-75MPH. Luckily I was paying attention and quickly accelerated to avoid traffic following me from running into me. One of the times was a severe “brake check” on a following car. I don’t use the option in traffic anymore.
When the cruise control is set at a speed or the line centering cruise control is used the car will slam on it's brakes and go from the set 75 to between 50-60mph then back to the set speed. This happens almost every time I drive the car on the highway and a few times in town(35mph) it happens so often I stopped using cruise control because I am afraid of getting rear ended. I have been looking online and others are calling this phantom braking.
This vehicle phantom brakes during our last 2k miles trip. Happens while passing under pass, bridges, on coming vehicles on 2 way lanes, and just randomly when i was the only car on the highway.
The car randomly and violently applies the brakes, this occurs when it is in cruise control. It may occur due to shadows, oncoming cars both on two and four lane highways. Also occurs if I pass a semi truck on a 4 lane highway. It occurs nearly every time I use the cruise control. I have had cars in back of me nearly hit me due to the sudden and unexpected braking at highway speeds.
On several occasions (probably around 10 times) since I purchased the car in November of 2021 I have experienced phantom braking while using adaptive cruise control. Most have been minor with a couple instances of severe braking that could definitely have caused a rear end accident if there were cars behind me. These have occurred on busy city streets while traveling 40-50 mph. None have occurred on freeways. I have not notified Tesla but see that others are having problems too. Software appears up to date.
The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving approximately 75 MPH, the vehicle decelerated inadvertently. The contact stated that the vehicle would detect a non-existent road hazard causing the vehicle to slow down dramatically, almost causing a rear-end crash. The contact stated that there were no warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that while researching online he became of similar failures. The dealer and the manufacturer were contacted; however, no assistance was offered. The approximate failure mileage was 10,000. On a recent trip up the same two-lane segment of US-95 where chronic incidence of my 2021 Tesla Model 3 suddenly removing acceleration causing a very dangerous unexpected drastic slowing from high speeds, recurrence of this problem indicated what might be causing the problem. There are certain times of day when on a mostly level asphalt roadway it appears there are patches of water or grease on the pavement when seen from a distance.
Our company Model 3 is having repeated phantom braking issues either in Traffic Aware Cruise Control (TACC) or in Autosteer mode. Through time we have determined some expected situations but there are also many other times totally unexpected. The most common situation is while driving in TACC mode (standard cruise control) on a standard highway (one lane each direction) and passing a semi-truck. This situation results in phantom braking about in about 50% of instances. Beyond semi's, phantom braking can occur from other vehicles, shadows from trees, going up or down small inclines, changes in road coloration (going from cement to black top), and even when no obvious reason is present on a totally clear, flat road. During a 2-3 hour drive the average is about 20 instances of phantom braking. This has been reported to Tesla. They have apparently reviewed the information and determined nothing is malfunctioning with the vehicle and reminded us that Autopilot functions are all Beta and they are not responsible to resolve the problems. Attached below are reports completed for Tesla to describe information about phantom braking instances during a test period which was about an hour of driving.
Tesla Model 3 Phantom Braking while on cruise control. This car is a daily driver mostly expressway miles and cruise control is used every day for the majority of the drive. While driving on cruise control at 70 miles an hour the car will randomly brake hard enough for all items on the car seats to be sent to the floor. This happens in wide open situations with no other cars around in broad daylight. This has been occurring about twice a month since purchase. I am worried someday I may be rear ended or the car may brake hard into a slide. This has been mentioned to Tesla multiple times at service calls and they say they are working on it
Tesla offers a blind spot camera, standard on the vehicle, which activates automatically when the turn-signal is active on the appropriate side. The blind-spot camera feed appears on the center screen. The feed comes from each of the side cameras mounted to the external portion of the car. Since the side turn-signal is mounted right above the same blind-spot cameras, the light from the turn-signal often 'bleeds' into the camera feed used by the driver to determine if the appropriate lane is clear. At night, this causes the blind-spot camera video difficult to view since the video feed alternates between 'normal' video and a bright, flushed out video, matching the turn-signal timer. The end result is often times I, the driver having difficulty observing cars on the side of my vehicle at night. More specifically, several times I have missed the headlights of cars in the lane next to me because the turn signal light, bleeding into the camera feed, obscure or hides the car and/or headlights (since they driver's eyes have to chateaubriand adjust between a bright andrark video feed flashing). This causes me to start merging into a lane which I believe is clear, only to have to quickly swerve back into my original lane when I realize the lane is not clear. Both the driver in the new lane and myself are put at risk, unnecessarily when this occurs. I have reached out to the manufacturer for this complaint. In writing, they have admitted this is a problem and even though my car is only 10 months into a 4 year warranty, they will only fix this safety issue if I pay for a replacement part. This seems unacceptable to me to force customers to pay for a safety fix. The failed component is available for inspection. I have sample video available to demonstrate the problem. There are no warning lights for any components. The manufacturer does not need to inspect the component since they already know, and admit to the shortcomings, per my written conversation with them.
Phantom Braking
Phantom braking while cruise control engaged. I do not have Full Self Driving, was only using the basic cruise. Appears to be worse when approaching large semi trucks, but has also happened numerous times when absolutely nothing is around (no cars, animals). No warning provided. Example: car will go from 75mph to 60mph in 1 second, then “recover” and go back to 75mph.
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