My car while in auto pilot will sometimes randomly on highways at highway speed, slam on the brakes. It’s dangerous because you will be doing 75+ mph and the car will just slam on the brakes and you have to take over control quickly to keep up speed. It has happened to me on I-25 in Colorado and I worry sometimes that I could get rear ended. It doesn’t happen all the time just randomly.
2022 Tesla Model 3 driver assistance complaints
Page 13 of 20: complaints 341 to 370 of 559, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Was driving at highway speeds with adaptive cruise control on. The speed was set around 75mph. Came around a turn and was going downhill when all of a sudden the car slammed on the brakes to 55mph or less. My husband began to manually hit the gas pedal to bring the car back up to the proper speed but there was no response from the vehicle. The car all of a sudden corrected itself back to the proper highway speed. Luckily there was no one behind or in front of us.
Phantom braking occurred multiple times while driving on hot days in the Desert. Traveling at around 70 mph, the car would apply the brakes hard and slow down until the driver takes over and disengages autopilot.
While driving at high speed on a freeway the car started braking without driver touching the brake pedal. Adaptive cruise control and lane departure were on. Fortunately no one was following close or it could have cause a serious accident. This happened twice on one day.
When using the cruise control or assisted cruise control, the car will brake suddenly and without warning as if there’s an obstacle in front of the car. In every case (more than 20 times) no obstacle is present yet it brakes regardless. In one recent case we were being closely followed and the trailing car had to suddenly maneuver around us into the oncoming lane. Thankfully there was no oncoming traffic. When I reached out to Tesla they acted like it was not common yet now I’m reading that it’s becoming extremely common.
What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? Autopilot; yes. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? On several occasions while using "Autopilot", the vehicle attempted to come to a complete and sudden stop on the highway while driving at highway speed. On each occasion I've either had to quickly intervene by disabling "Autopilot" and accelerating or overriding the system by utilizing the accelerator pedal to keep moving then disabling "Autopilot" to avoid being rear-ended by the vehicles behind me. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? No. Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? No. Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? No.
Multiple Phantom Braking incidences Nearly rear ended Have reported to Tesla on several occasions. First time reported Tesla replied back that the problem has be remotely solved. Not at all. Have experienced Phantom Braking many time since. Manufacturer has repeatedly replied with “our engineers are working on it”. No warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure. Been happening for several months
The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving approximately 80 MPH, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 1,200.
I have a 2022 Tesla Model 3, VIN # 5YJ3E1EBXNF115096, and anytime I use adaptive cruise control or auto pilot on a 2 lane road, I run into issues with phantom breaking. It also happens on 4 lane divided highways, but not as consistent. I’ve submitted “bug reports” via the voice commands every time it happens, but have not gotten a response. This is extremely dangerous as it can cause my car to be rear ended, or cause me to react incorrectly to the phantom breaking.
When driving down the highway with autopilot active the car will randomly slam on the brakes. This seems to happen especially when going under or driving on overpasses with the autopilot feature enabled. When this happens the display indicates the max speed available for autopilot is 25 or sometimes 50mph which causes the car to slowdown rapidly from cruising speeds of 70-75mph. I understand there are limitations with the new vision only autopilot system but in these situations this rapid braking could cause someone to rear-end me or cause other drivers to think I'm brake checking them which could result in a road rage incident.
While driving on the highway and using the tesla version of cruise control, the car abruptly brakes with no obstacles in the area and the car is within the lane. The braking so abrupt that I think the car is about to cause an accident. This happens consistently in both the cruise control and the autosteer function engaged. Today I had the car set to 75mph with autosteer and no other car on the highway (4 lanes wide) and me traveling in the hov lane. Suddenly the car slowed to 65mph in less than a couple seconds before I was able to deactivate the cruise control. The feature is not stable and frightening to use.
When using Adaptive Cruise Control, my vehicle has experienced phantom breaking when cars are approaching from the opposite direction. It is so disconcerting, that I don't want to use the cruise control ever again. There is definitely a problem.
We are on a cross country trip departed Rancho Mirage Ca on May 25th) for Hobart Indiana We have experienced phantom braking using cruise control at least 4-10x a day) On return trip while in ColorDo on I 86 June 1st @ 2pm the most serious and dangerous phantom braking occurred I had cruise control set att 75 ( speed limit) Road well marked, flat with no car ahead of us within a mile. The car had been experiencing phantom braking for last hour bringing speed down to 69-70 for no apparent reason A car was traveling immediately behind us when my Tesla suddenly braked to 58 mph. The car traveling behind us had to make a sudden and violent swerve around us, barely missing our car The other car quickly passed us as we stayed slow at 58 mph for a few seconds after the other car passed us This car needs to be recalled and use of cruise control suspended until recall remedies problem If this was my gasoline Escalade exhibiting such repeated cruise control malfunction , it would be taken off the road I am not new to owning a Tesla. This is our 3rd Tesla but we never had this problem with our Tesla S and only a few times with our X. This issue is a major safety problem and I am notifying media and newspapers of this problem, to ensure the NTSB addresses this serious problem. All data should be in cars computer system for verification
Frequent incidents of phantom braking when autopilot is engaged at highway speeds. Usually occurs on 2 lane roads, but has also happened on divided highway as well.
The vehicle while in adaptive cruise control or autopilot will brake hard at high speeds on wide open highway. It has always done this from day one but while on a Kansas open highway it almost caused a major accident 3 times in a short period of time. After the third incident I discontinued any driver assistance. The speed limit was 75mph, the autopilot was set at 75mph, in under 2 seconds we were at 35mph for no reason 3 times in row. I contacted Tesla after a few days after purchase and they said they know about it and it will get fixed in the future but its been 4 months. I had my 4 year old in the car and this is a very concerning issue.
Driving at 80 mph down divided highway, with emergency braking disabled on system and using only adaptive cruise control, when car slams on brakes so hard speed goes from 80 mph to 65 mph, causing the tires to screech from breaking so hard, and nothing in the road ahead of me, and nothing on the sides of the road.
When in cruise control and no obstacles in site, about every 10 minutes the brakes come on in varying degrees, sometimes a very hard brake. Once a vehicle was behind me and it nearly ran into me. It does not happen when anything is in front of me, such as following behind another vehicle, which I found I need to do to stop this from happening.
Vehicle brakes randomly when in autopilot or cruise control. It happens at least every 15 miles. There seems to be no cause or current emergency which would cause this to happen. Vehicle brakes hard, which is dangerous to myself and all traffic behind me. Was reported to manufacturer as a warranty item. Was told that this is not a defect or broken component, and could not be fixed.
The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving approximately 5 MPH in reverse, the Back Over Prevention camera lost connectivity and became inoperable. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The contact related the failure to the federal safety agency Campaign Number: 22V296000 (Back Over Prevention, Equipment) for which the VIN was included. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 3,724.
In the past month, I've experience at least four sudden breaking experiences: 1. About a month ago I experience a sudden dramatic deceleration on Interstate 70 driving 67 mph. No vehicles in close proximity. 2. 5/8/22 on Hwy 7 driving 65 mph when car suddenly hard breaked. There were no vehicles near by. 3. A few miles later a red car driving 75-80 mph, at least, pasted me and as as soon as the car was ahead of me, the Tesla breaked. This was not as hard as (2) 4. A few minutes later a white car passed much like (3) above. Again a sudden break as (3) Other info: Mid nineties, bright sun, strong headwind and dry pavement.
Driving down Highway 54, a divided highway in southern New Mexico with adaptive cruise control set at 85 miles an hour, speed limit 75, with automatic emergency braking disabled, my car slammed on the brakes so hard, that the tires were screeching, with multiple vehicles traveling similar speeds to me approaching from behind. I had to press the gas pedal immediately to resume speed. When I looked at my speedometer, it showed a decrease in speed instantly of approximately 7 to 10 mph. While using adaptive cruise control, this frequently happens, despite automatic emergency braking being disabled. There was nothing in the road ahead of me to cause this breaking to occur, to include no animals, no humans, no items in the road, no other vehicles in front of me For at least half a mile in front of me, And the other car was not even in my lane, and not crossing the center markings. I have made a report through my in car system, however Tesla refuses to address the situation at this time directly with my vehicle. I called to schedule an appointment so they could download the data from my car to see what happened in the event, and they refused to provide service, nor an explanation.
I was using Tesla's Traffic Aware Cruise Control. I was traveling at approximately 75mph on a highway. There was a car approximately 6 car lengths ahead of me traveling at approximately the same speed. There may have been cars next to me on both sides. For no apparent reason, the Tesla braked and the speed was reduced from 75mph to approximately 35mph. I disengaged the Traffic Aware Cruise Control and accelerated back to approximately 70mph. My safety was put at risk because the car behind me had to slam on their brakes and I assume the car behind them had to do the same. This was dangerous for my safety and the safety of the people in the car(s) behind me. The vehicle has not been inspected. There were no warning lamps, messages or other symptoms prior to the issue.
I experienced phantom braking on multiple occasions when using either the cruise control or the autopilot. I experience various levels of braking force, and am unable to discern any pattern. The vehicle exhibits this unexpected braking most days that I engage those functions. Yesterday, on an approximately 350 mile cross country trip, the vehicle phantom braked on probably 10 different occasions. Two of those were what I would consider maximum braking effort. If another vehicle was following closely at those times it is very likely I may have been rear ended.
While driving on the highway with standard autopilot engaged and speed set, multiple times the car would apply brakes suddenly without warning. This typically would happen while cresting a hill. This is dangerous and could cause an accident if cars are following too closely behind. Also with standard autopilot engaged and while in the rightmost lane on the highway any time a road merged on the right side of the vehicle it thinks the lane got wider and will swerve to the right then left to try and maintain the center of the lane. This unnecessary turning could cause an accident or confuse other nearby drivers. During both of these events no warnings are displayed or heard in the vehicle. Both these issues are well known and discussed on Facebook, reddit and teslamotorclub forums.
I also shared this on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaLounge/comments/ubcbuc/phantom_brake_occurence/ My brand new, (February-2022), Model 3 Performance Phantom Braked hard yesterday and almost killed me and my daughter. We were on a road-trip driving from Arizona to California, on the 8 freeway westbound. It was running Tesla software version. 2022.12.3.1. Conditions were ideal. Clear sky, open road, no opposing traffic since the opposing lanes were across about 200 feet of desert. No cars in front of us for any visible distance, road was straight for miles, no shadows, no reflections, just open road. I had the cruise control on and locked at 75 MPH. I wasn't using Auto Pilot, just cruise control, (single press down on the drive stalk). After cruise control had been on for a few minutes suddenly, the car hard braked, throwing myself and my kid forward. Decelerated from 75 to 30 MPH in about 2 seconds. Scared the shit out of both of us. We were just sorting out the confusion when we hear honking horns, cars would be on us soon. I slammed the accelerator to move. I later checked the outside of the car wondering if maybe a camera had become obstructed but nope, all the cameras had perfectly clean surfaces. This phantom braking issue is going to kill someone.
I have taken 3 road trips in my car since taking ownership, and on every single one of them, I have had multiple instances of severe phantom braking. They are quite alarming as the vehicle will drop 10-20mph on the freeway in an instant. These were always on large divided interstates (OH and PA turnpikes), and almost every time, there were ZERO cars around. I don't feel that I can even use the autopilot system at this point, for fear of getting rear-ended at 70 mph.
The car suddenly breaks while in the highway apparently for no reason. It happened multiple times in the last two months. It may cause accident by a following car.
I was driving southbound on Interstate 5 in California mid-morning on Friday, April 15th. Adaptive Cruise Control (Tesla "Autopilot") was set somewhere near 75mph. There was no other traffic anywhere near our vehicle (at least 1/2 mile clear both ahead and behind). There was no debris of any kind on the road or on the side of the road. The car suddenly and unexpectedly began heavy deceleration. It felt as if the vehicle was performing an emergency braking procedure to avoid a front collision. Fortunately there were no vehicles around, so other than startling me, there was no other incident caused. Had this occurred with a vehicle behind, it very likely would have caused a rear-end collision.
On traveling to San Diego on 4/13/2022 we had three Phantom braking events one severe enough that if a car was following a accident could have happened. Two on the return trip all with no indication of any vehicle or obstacle nothing but open road clear road ahead this is going to hurt some one at some point and time we need help this is my Fourth report of this problem to the federal safety agency I know better than to follow a Tesla to close but the public doesn't Thank you please help [XXX] Note VIN [XXX] INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
Since taking delivery of my new car on 2/8/2022, I have experienced at least 3 instances of phantom emergency braking, all while cruise control was in use. The vehicle suddenly brakes hard for 1-2 seconds. In two of these cases, a vehicle or person was visible off to the side, but not in my lane, and not where I would have had to brake. I am concerned that cars behind me could be unprepared for this sudden slow-down. While the car's software does allow for turning off the emergency braking capability, that action must be taken each time the car is started if you plan to use cruise control. For this reason, cruise control becomes a danger to use.
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