The vehicle was in cruise control and had a phantom braking event. The vehicle was going at 70 mph and suddenly braked even though there was significant distance between the car in front and nothing on the road. The sun was glaring on the road and possibly the car detected the shadow on the road as an object and braked because of it.
2018 Tesla Model X: brakes engage by themselves (phantom braking)
5 of the 193 complaints about the 2018 Tesla Model X describe brakes engage by themselves (phantom braking).
- owner complaints
- 5
- of this car's complaints
- 3%
- recalls
- 0
Is there a fix? No recall or service bulletin covers this area of the car yet.
Brakes engage by themselves (phantom braking) by model year
What owners say
On May 15. 2022 at 4:25PM while traveling north on highway 395 about 14 miles south of Bishop Californa. While traveling with little to no traffic, using adaptive cruise control (NOT SELF DRIVING) the vehicle suddenly stopped for no apparent reason in the middle of the highway. Fortunately, there were no cars behind us otherwise I probably would not be writing this. I have registered a similar complaint back in March for the same issue. We have had a total of 4 “phantom braking” incidents since buying the car in October 2021
Our Tesla has had the “phantom braking” on 3 occasions. The first incident happened on southbound interstate 5 near firebaugh. right after we purchased the car. The car suddenly stopped from 70 MPH to about 25 MPH in the middle of the freeway. The second event on northbound 395 at 2:45pm 3/20/2022The car went from about 60 mph to about 25 with out warning. It happened once again at about 4:03PM the same day. All of these events occurred while the car was in adaptaive cruise control, it in self driving mode. I have one event on video, that showed skid marks ahead at the same time the braking occurred.
The contact owns a 2018 Tesla Model X. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 70-75 MPH with the cruise control activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, but the dealer could not duplicate the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 41,200.
The contact owns a 2018 Tesla Model X. The contact stated while driving at various speeds in self driving mode, the vehicle would experience phantom braking during events when a vehicle was not in front of the contact’s vehicle. The contact spoke to a dealer and they informed the contact that they were unable to assist. The manufacturer was not informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 31,000.
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the 2018 Tesla Model X phantom braking
Is brakes engage by themselves (phantom braking) a common problem on the 2018 Tesla Model X?
5 of 193 owner complaints about the 2018 Tesla Model X (3%) mention brakes engage by themselves (phantom braking). The model year with the most reports is 2018.
Is there a recall or service bulletin for this on the 2018 Tesla Model X?
There is no recall or service bulletin for this area of the car on record.
Other symptoms on the 2018 Tesla Model X
Adaptive cruise 13Sudden acceleration 13Grinding brakes 7Screen failure 6Loss of power 6Ball joint 5
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