2024 Tesla Model 3: brakes engage by themselves (phantom braking)

Filed Jul 23, 2026 · SC

COMPLAINT SUMMARY: CRITICAL SAFETY REGRESSIONS IN TESLA FSD SOFTWAREI am filing a formal safety complaint regarding severe, high-risk behavior regressions introduced across the last three consecutive builds of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software. These defects create immediate collision hazards, cause major route disruptions, and require frequent, urgent driver intervention to prevent accidents.1. INTERSECTION AND TRAFFIC CONTROL VIOLATIONSRed Light Violations: The vehicle correctly identifies a red traffic light and comes to a full stop. However, after a brief pause, the software erroneously treats the steady red light like a stop sign and attempts to accelerate directly into active cross-traffic.Green Arrow Dead-Stops: When approaching a dedicated turn lane with an active, protected green turn arrow, the vehicle frequently applies aggressive braking and comes to a complete stop, creating an immediate rear-end collision hazard for drivers behind me.Phantom Braking: The vehicle aggressively brakes without warning for empty crosswalks, shadows, or distant roadside elements.2. ILLEGAL LANE NAVIGATION AND ROUTING ERRORSErroneous Turn Lane Diving: The vehicle frequently dives into dedicated left or right turn lanes even when the navigation route explicitly commands the vehicle to continue straight. This behavior forces improper turns, requiring backtracking and causing significant destination delays.Incorrect Lane Turning: The system regularly misses dedicated turn lanes entirely. It then attempts to execute sharp left or right turns directly from middle lanes or straight-only lanes, cutting off adjacent vehicles.Turn Signal Failures: The software initiates a turn signal to merge but then cancels the action, or conversely, attempts to execute a physical turn blindly after disabling the turn signal.3. RESTRICTED SPACE TARGETINGHandicap Parking Violations: Upon arriving at destinations, the automated parking software fails to recognize painted stencils and act

Filed Apr 20, 2026 · Driver assistance · MA · 1 injury

On March 21, 2026, the vehicle’s Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) and Traffic-Aware Cruise Control (TACC), suffered a severe "phantom braking" failure. While driving, the vehicle engaged in a violent, full-force emergency brake application without any external hazard or driver input. This unprompted deceleration caused the seatbelt to exert extreme pressure and trauma on my abdomen. As I was [XXX] pregnant, this abrupt stop was medically treated as a high-force accident. The trauma caused pregnancy abnormalities, requiring a 20-hour hospital admission for observation and fetal monitoring. I contacted Tesla customer service multiple times. Initially, I was told a service check was necessary, but the Service Center stated they could not provide assistance for "automatic behavior" issues. A corporate representative (Angel) admitted the vehicle should have been flagged for a formal medical claim and instructed me not to visit the service center. Despite this, I took the vehicle to the Service Center on April 15, 2026. Technicians confirmed they had no findings or solutions regarding the phantom braking event. No warning lamps, audible alerts, or system messages appeared prior to the failure. Upon requesting the vehicle data logs for the date of the incident, I noticed that the specific timeframe of the event was "missing" from the record. The manufacturer cited a VIN-matching error as the cause for the data gap. On April 20, 2026, Tesla corporate denied that a claim had ever been filed and stated they would not take responsibility for injuries related to pregnancy or a fetus, claiming these do not meet their internal threshold for medical injury. The vehicle remains available for inspection. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Filed Mar 26, 2025 · Driver assistance · MI

Multiple instances of phantom braking, car will suddenly slam on brakes without any indication of danger or anything to avoid. This has happened at least a dozen times and we are fearful that it will cause an accident. Vehicle will also alert lane departure and attempt to automatically adjust, turn to another lane while in the appropriate lane. Multiple incidents, at least 30 in 6 months of ownership. No collisions as of yet, concerned there could be.

Filed Mar 6, 2025 · Driver assistance · CA

Phantom braking occurred three times with this vehicle, all three times, the car abruptly stopped while driving for no reason: 10/30/2024 at 8:03am 2/10/25 at 7:47am 3/6/25 at 5:55pm

Filed Dec 29, 2024 · Acceleration, Driver assistance · TN

the car consistently has phantom braking. the speed will drop around 15 miles of speed immediately. it also will slow on rolling hills and random long turns on cruise control. most recent date listed

Filed Dec 29, 2024 · TN

the vehicle consistently has pillar camera blockage warnings. I have had this repaired once but it still happens. this would not be a problem except the vehicle offers no other cruise control than adaptive. my concern is the vehicle consistently has phantom braking ( listed in a separate complaint I have made). I am concerned the two issues are related. the last time this happened is reported below.

Filed Nov 2, 2024 · Brakes, Driver assistance · NV

About two weeks ago with driver set cruise control, the phantom braking was so severe that it took me down from 75 to around 15 if I remember correctly. The braking was so severe and at the same time self steered to the edge of the road along the guard rail that my body was unable to move quicker to correct the vehicle. Your system gets jolted violently without notice which takes a couple seconds to recover from and I decided to report this one after watching the San Francisco video. Fortunately, the two vehicles behind me were far enough away. This is absolutely not OK, I have had several severe braking incidents and each time it not only takes about 2-3 seconds to correct but also created back pain.

Filed Oct 13, 2024 · Acceleration, Driver assistance · NV

Driver set cruise control has FSD imbedded that causes the vehicle to slow down drastically on its own. The car has brake tested several following vehicles so far. I’ve seen this before many times of other Teslas but thought it was the driver and now I know it was not. This causes a chain reaction of braking and smoking tires. I am positive this has created accidents but the ones involved have no idea how it started many vehicles ahead. The lane keep assist pillar cameras do not work in the dark, this has taken me by surprise already. The phantom braking on highways is awful, it is so bad that I am afraid to drive in the winter. The torque of the wheel sensor is not safe, when auto steer disables it can take you by surprise causing you to swerve into on coming traffic. The car accused me of using a cheat device one time so I decided to try it and surprisingly I found that it is actually much safer than using my body weight. These are extremely unsafe for busy traffic and slippery roads. I have videos showing it and will get more.