While driving in cruise control, NOT AUTOPILOT, my car phantom braked. The road was clear, the weather was clear. I'm thankful there was not a car behind me. I was doing the speed limit at the time 70mph when the incident occurred. the date lised below is an approximate date. It has occurred several times. I drive 45 minutes to work Mon-Thurs and cruise control helps for the long drive
2022 Tesla Model 3 brakes complaints
Page 3 of 7: complaints 41 to 70 of 169, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Car has phantom stops on cruse control three times in six months
When we're traveling on the highway at 55 mph plus and have cruise control engaged, the car will unexpectedly and suddenly brake for no reason. The problem is happening more often. This has even happened when there are vehicles behind us, but thank God they were not following closely. We may end up with whiplash, or worse, being rearended. We have complained to Tesla at least 3 times since February 2022 about this problem. The first time, they changed the front camera and said they thought that might help. It didn't. The next time, the service dept. said that there was no fix for the problem, but Tesla was working on it. Most recently in April 2023, the service tech., said there was no fix and he did not expect that there would be one anytime soon. This is unacceptable.
I was driving my car north on I15. Suddenly the car applied full breaks when there was no objects on the road. I could no longer control the car. Even when my foot was on the accelerator the car automatically depressed the break pedal. Luckily there was no vehicle behind me. I was also fortunate that we were going on a straight section of road. If this happened mid turn I would have completely lost control. These cars are a danger to society. It is impossible to drive them safely when they take control away from the driver.
While driving on the highway on a clear day using what I call cruise control that also adapts to the speed of vehicles in front of my vehicle, as well as to extreme weather conditions, with no other vehicles around me, the car randomly decided to apply the brakes without provocation which slowed the vehicle from the setting of 74 mph to 49 mph before I could react and correct the aberrant braking. This is the 4th time this has happened in this vehicle. Previous incidents occurred in heavier traffic, so I suspected the aberrant breaking was an overcorrection relative to the other vehicles around me. After this most recent occurrence, I am confident there was no other reason for the car to suddenly brake other than due to a fault with the car.
Our 2022 Tesla Model 3 has "phantom braked" three times on the highway. During each episode, the vehicle slowed from 75mph to 45mph in about half a second - with no vehicle or obstruction in front of us. This was a 4-lane highway all three times. If a car was behind us, it likely would have collided with us. No precipitation, the car was clean and cameras clear. I took the car to the Latham Service Center at 326 bOld Niskayuna Road near Albany, New York, to have the sensors and car checked. The tech took the car for a 10-minute drive, didn't experience phantom braking, and said that since he "could not duplicate the concern" no repairs were needed. After several messages expressing concern that this did indeed need to be fixed, neither the owners Scott and Carolyne nor the tech responded.
Nearly every time I use the "Traffic-Aware Cruise Control" on my Tesla, I experience a phantom braking event. Nearly all the time it is when the road is clear, in the daytime. I use this feature infrequently because I cannot rely on it at all and I'm concerned it will cause someone to hit my from behind.
On a two lane road with no traffic approaching and no traffic behind us on us95 in the Nv desert, the model 3 slammed on the brakes and slowed from 60mph to 30 or less. This is with the adaptive cruise control engaged, not auto steering. This happens several times. There were several times when large semi trucks were approaching in the opposing Lane and the model 3 slammed on the brakes also when adaptive cruise control was engaged. When we reported this to Tesla they said they need the exact date and time of each incident, or they could not help us. These breaking incidents happened during a 12 hour trip between Carson City and Rancho Cucamonga. This is an unbelievable safety hazard as if someone is following too closely and the car suddenly decide to apply the brakes. The person behind you is going to be caught off guard and crash into you. I cannot believe this is been going on for over a year as I have read several articles about the problem. There is no warning whatsoever when the car does this.
During normal operation vehicle suddenly engages braking system l. This has nearly caused 2 accidents. Tesla insists there is no fault with the car.
Tesla model 3 dual motor-with autopilot addition to purchase vehicle has repeatedly demonstrated aberrant behavior when in “autopilot” mode. During freeway driving the vehicle has “missensed” lane spacing and unexpectedly attempted to diverge or swerve, exit or turn out of or off of the lane we have been driving in. This has occurred when an offramp or change in the lane definition occurs and is not “regular”. Such as a lane that for some reason is not marked with a normally defined width, or a break in the lines that define the lane. During freeway driving this vehicle has suddenly and for no apparent reason, drastically reduced its set speed during autopilot driving. We were driving in relatively straight, clear and unobstructed lanes on open highway with no traffic obstacles. On multiple occasions our vehicle has accelerated backwards when set in drive. This has occurred when we are backing up to make a 3 point exit up our driveway. After backing up, stopping with our foot on the break, and setting the car in drive, it repeatedly moved backwards. We had to reset the power, on multiple occasions, physically get out and push car forward in neutral to avoid backing into our garage. This concern was reported with video examples to tesla repair center. We took the car there, they examined it and did not find out why it was doing this. Since it was examined, the car has repeated this behavior. I have not yet reported the repeated incident, as I have 0 confidence that they will solve this concern. I could not upload videos that I have of the car behaving this way.
Cruise control thinks it detects a pending collision and abruptly brakes. Following cars almost rear ended us. This happens every time at exactly the same bridge overpasses on the NJ Garden State Parkway south.
While driving, had cruise control on, not full self driving, the car suddenly breaks. No one was around us. This happened on two occasions a few hours apart.
I was on I-15 in Utah on 1/29/2023 appoximately 2:00. I was attempting to pass in the left lane so the cars behind were following quite closely. I entered into some Snow Flurries and the car hit the brakes. I barely avoided a 3 car pile up because of this behavior. It appears that this feature for Emergency Braking encountered a false Positive which my family and I barely survived.
Driving across Texas, cruise control with traffic assist was enabled in the 2022 Tesla model 3 long range sedan. The vehicle suddenly braked and went from 84 mph to 68 mph in a matter of seconds. There were no cars in sight, no weather conditions or obstacles around the highway. Unsure of what or why that happened the first time, cruise control was re-enabled and the same thing happened very shortly after re-engaging cruise control.
While driving the car suddenly the car applied sudden breaks & moved opposite road. luckily no traffic opp side otherwise we are having the same day as last day.
After purchasing my Model 3, I have experienced numerous times of what they call "Phantom Braking" and have tried to have it repaired and have been told that there is not anything Tesla can do at this time, but inform the driver to be aware! I was never told/informed/warned about this issue when I ordered and picked up my car. I have almost been in accidents at least 3 times while using my cruise control on the interstates.
Phantom braking. Driving down 395 going the speed limit, no other cars or any obstacles in the road whatsoever, the car would slam on the brakes hard to the point I almost lost control of the vehicle. This happened 3 times in a row before I turned off adaptive cruise control. This is the most glaring obvious example of a vehicle safety hazard that should be recalled that I’ve ever seen on a new car. If someone was driving behind my car I have no doubt this would have caused a rear and accident.
While driving with Adaptive Cruise control on a two lane highway, as I was entering a curve in the highway and there was another car in the opposite lane, my Tesla rapidly decelerated to the point that it almost caused an accident. The car following me had to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting me. I just learned that there is ongoing deceleration problem with Tesla's and don't feel it is safe to drive with this technology on.
since ownership phantom braking has occurred while the adaptive cruise control, autosteer and/or autopilot have been engaged. IT is completely random and occurs at both high speeds and during local street speeds. It doesnt matter the terrain either. It has happened while on a straight and even road as well as curvy and rolling hills. It also doesnt matter if its daytime or night. The applications will also disengage (turn off) if the rolling hills are frequent.
While driving back from San Antonio TX, I engaged autopilot on the hwy. Multiple times my vehicle would experience phantom braking with no other cars on the road and would slow down drastically from 75mph to 20mph. This sudden braking for no reason could have caused an accident if there was another vehicle behind me. This phantom braking has also negatively affected my safety score for my insurance.
Multiple times traveling on Interstate 70 at 75 mph the car would brake itself without warning while the “Autopilot” (driver assist) was engaged. This probably happened 4 times over the course of 1 hour. I recalibrated the cameras after the 3rd event, but it did not help. This was very dangerous and unsettling. I verified no-one was close behind when engaging the autopilot in case the system “decided” to brake unexpectedly. If someone was behind me traveling at interstate speeds, they would have hit me.
My car is brand new. When in Autopilot mode (not full FSD), the vehicle does u expected braking apparently randomly. There are no road obstructions or potential road obstructions visible at all to me as driver. Yet, the vehicle will brake suddenly. It does this so frequently that I no longer use Autopilot unless I know the road has no other vehicle driving behind me and is very clear ahead of me. I never, ever use it on the highway. In one incident, I was using my Autopilot and a motorcycle was traveling at a much too close distance behind me on a curve on a busy roadway, with a large RV driving in the lane next to me. As all three of our vehicles approached the curve in this cluster, my vehicle suddenly braked and the motorcycle behind me almost crashed into my vehicle’s rear end. It was terrifying. After that incident, I severely limited my use of Autopilot and take pains to ensure my foot is resting on the accelerator in case I need to apply a little pressure to counteract the unexpected braking while in Autopilot mode.
The car slammed on the brakes while we were using auto pilot on the freeway, even though there was no one braking in front of us. This was the 2nd time this has happened. The ac and radio shut off for the rest of the ride and the ac has been working intermittently since. We have a baby and she was not in the car but she is in the car with us often. We have submitted a service request for this week.
Everyday I drive on highway i-10 I get severe Phantom Breaking, when I have auto pilot on or just my cruise control. Sometimes it’s as hard as you can brake. 30+ mph before I can push the gas and stop it, with absolutely nothing around me, and all my software updates are up to date. Extremely unsafe and needs to be corrected.
While using auto throttle (cruise control) on a recent trip I had several instances of uncommanded slow downs. These ranged from slowdowns from the activation of regenerative braking to actual hard breaking. It occurred on both two lane highways and interstates. More often on two lanes. Often it occurred on topping a hill and some thing in the distance was misinterpreted as a hazard. At other times I could not determine what set it off. It ranged from a slight slow down to hard breaking. It could easily have led to a rear end collision had someone been close to me. I finally had to stop using the auto throttle as it seemed unsafe.
i was driving through an intersection in san francisco on a green light and the car suddenly braked hard with no object in front of me to brake for. fortunately the car behind me managed to brake without rear-ending me. this was totally without warning and completely unneccesary. this was a "safety feature" that engaged to make me and the pedestrians and cars around me less safe! if the automatic emergency braking doesn't work (and is more dangerous to human life and property when activated as opposed to not), it should be able to be disabled for safety's sake. i can disable it for a trip, but then i have to remember to disable it every time i drive the car or it could put my life in danger! this is dangerous! the control panel informed me that the automatic emergency system was to blame for the dangerous stop. there was no warning before this happened. the vehicle has not been specifically inspected for this issue, but this appears to be a known issue for this model of car.
We just went on a longish trip, covering a total of about 2,500 miles. While driving on interstate highways and using cruise control, the car would occasionally brake for no reason. The first several times it happened, the car braked mildly and we tried to explain it away. ("It must have seen the guardrail/traffic cone/butterfly," etc.) However, the last time it happened, with absolutely nothing anywhere near us to the sides or front, the car braked FREAKING HARD. I was driving, and it scared the $hit out of me. If the 18-wheeler behind us had been a little closer, we would have been toast. After that, we disabled the automatic emergency braking every time we started the car, and we'll continue to do that.
While going at 75 mph, no obstacles or cars ahead of us, on US30 W in Texas, the car applied a sudden strong brake (phantom braking) that almost caused a severe accident.
On our trip from San Diego to Sacramento yesterday 9/21/2022; while cruise control was on, the Tesla braked for no reason on 3 different occasions causing great alarm and emotional distress to all of us in the car. We were traveling at freeway speeds on the 5 north and thank goodness no one rear ended us when these events happened.
I rented a Tesla model three and have driven 5000 miles on it since I got it three weeks ago. In that time this car has done some very dangerous things that concern me about my safety. I stopped using the auto pilot function after one time when it tried to pull me off the road at highway speeds into the emergency lane. I have also started experiencing the phantom braking issue that you read about online. For some reason this car can’t go more than 10 or 15 miles without slamming on the brakes even though there are no cars anywhere close to me or any objects on the road that might trigger the automatic braking. I am afraid that this car is going to slam on the brakes when there is somebody behind me and cause an accident.
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