Periodically my car slams on the brakes for no apparent reason. This typically occurs on Interstate highways at normal highway speeds. Sometimes there are bridges or other objects observable but sometimes it's on the open road with no cars or visible reason to rapidly slow down. This is very scary especially for my wife that has back pain all the time. We have chosen to not use the automated driving feature FSD because this seems to be where it occurs most frequently. Although we don't drive that much it has happened enough times that we are very concerned that it could cause a rear end collision if we are in heavy traffic.
2020 Tesla Model Y driver assistance complaints
Page 5 of 5: complaints 101 to 129 of 129, newest first, as owners wrote them.
The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while driving at various speeds with the adaptive cruise control activated the vehicle would erroneously reduce speed. The failure occurred on multiple occasions. On another occasion, while driving 70 MPH, the vehicle abruptly decelerated to 50 MPH. The cause of the failure was not determined. The manufacturer and local dealer were not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 3,000.
While using the Tesla auto pilot in highway conditions the car would suddenly break or slow down as if the car was trying to avoid another car. There were no other cars in the area. This has happened several times but only in auto pilot.
We experienced multiple (4-5) "phantom" braking events while driving cross-country using Adaptive Cruise Control & Lane Keeping Assistance on open Interstate highways during the summer of 2021. There were no vehicles or other obstacles in our driving lane ahead. Sometimes it seemed like it happened when we approached a shady underpass. Other times we couldn't see anything that might have confused the Adaptive Cruise Control. We did not have full Autopilot engaged during any of these times, only Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Keeping Assistance.
I saw the article today that other Tesla Model 3 and Model Y drivers were reporting phantom braking. My model Y has been doing this at a specific spot on the 5 Fwy south in the carpool lane in Santa Ana, CA. I now avoid that spot. I thought if it helps to be able to repeat this problem for investigative purposes I can duplicate it at this location. [XXX] INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
Phantom Braking constantly. Forward collision whole on Autopilot. Tried recalibrating the camera and the problems persist.
It's called phantom braking and it's absolutely dangerous. It happens when on auto pilot.
Whenever I have my car on cruise control on the highway it will randomly brake hard almost causing an accident behind me. I’ve noticed it does it more in express lanes with thin cone dividers / traffic on the other side. I worry it’ll cause someone to slam into me one day.
The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed with the cruise control set at a designated speed, the cruise control feature would malfunction and reset the speed to 20 MPH slower than desired. The contact stated that no warning lights were illuminated whenever the vehicle would suddenly decelerate. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. Neither the dealer nor the manufacturer had been notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 20,000.
While using the autopilot the car will suddenly slow itself even though there is nothing in front of the car. It happens most often when approaching a large vehicle or truck that is in the lane next to the car. It seems as though the autopilot system is spooked by the truck even though it is staying in its lane. Similarly, there are 2 spots on I-25 in Colorado where the sudden braking happens regardless of what is around the car. It may to do with recent construction because in both places the car slows suddenly at the same point nearly every time I pass through. It was happening at one of these spots after the construction had moved the lanes. The lanes were marked very well and the car had no problem before or after this point. But when passing through the car suddenly slows. The danger is that a car driving behind me would not expect the car to slow down for no reason. A potential rear-end collision danger. Happy to give more detail to add context.
The car was almost parked and the parking button was about to pressed when the car suddenly accelerated hitting a light pole in front on the passenger side and the car ended up on a lane in a four lane local road perpendicular to traffic flow. The accelerator was definitely not pressed. I have been driving the car for last year and three months and have 26000 miles on it. There was no warning of nearby obstacles or any beeps.
The Traffic Aware Cruise Control will suddenly and inexplicably agressively slow down or even slam on the brakes for no reason. If someone were following me close on the freeway, I would be rear ended. This behavior has been happening to me for almost 3 years now and has not improved, even though it is controlled and upgradeable via software. This is a known and far reaching problem that lots of Tesla drivers have experienced and have named "Phantom Braking". I have video of some of my incidents as well as Canbus data, showing how aggressive it can be in slowing a car down, for no reason. Unfortunately, many Tesla owners now refuse to use TACC or AutoPilot since we feel it is too dangerous to use when other vehicles are nearby. I've opened support tickets with Tesla in the past for this, but they claim that there is no problem, and others have heard the same thing as well. Please look into this major safety issue with Tesla's so that we can feel safe fully using our vehicles again. Tesla likes to say that their AutoPilot feature is safer than a human, but clearly this is not the case when it has such a major software fixable bug as this. Thanks for listening and I hope that you can both see what a safety issue this is and help persuade Tesla to fix it, for the safety of us and every other driver around us.
Side cameras have terrible glare which make them useless
Turn signal causes excessive glare effect on the side repeater cameras during nighttime use. Driver is unable to view blind spot camera feed properly when engaging in a lane change.
Backup camera intermittently fails to activate/engage when the vehicle is in reverse.
On open freeway, I 76 between 7 am and 8 am Tuesday November 16, between Ogdallala NE and Brush CO. Using adaptive cruise control with autopilot steering (as well as without autosteer), multiple episodes of severe "phantom breaking" where the car slams on the breaks for no apparent reason. No other cars around. Flat, clear open freeway. Reported the issue to Tesla service. Even though there were multiple (>10 episodes in one hour) they have demanded to know the exact time stamp. I was able to give time within 1 hour period, vehicle location. Service says if there is a hardware issue they will look at it. If it is "firmware" it will need to wait for a firm ware update. This is dangerous. What if the car slams on the breaks at 80mph, with someone following close behind? You might be rearended. Really serious safety issue. My car has latest FSD beta 10.4. This is much worse than before this "upgrade"
I installed the Full Self-Driving Beta on my Tesla Model Y the morning of 10/24/2021. Immediately after the update installed I began experiencing issues with the Autopilot and TACC systems, as well as spurious forward collision warnings. These warnings involved the standard warning beeps and red indicators on the driving display, and at one point included an unnecessary emergency braking incident when no obstacle was in front of me. As such, I had reverted to driving the car in manual mode, not on autopilot, but left the option to use the autopilot systems and associated safety features enabled. I was driving in full manual mode on an interstate in the left lane approaching a tunnel, with no vehicles or obstacles in front of me. The car indicated a forward collision warning with the loud beeps, and the car applied brakes and started to swerve into the lane immediately to my right, in which another vehicle was driving and had to swerve as well. The car detected the event and saved the camera footage to my installed SSD. I have reported the incident to Tesla, including providing the video of the incident. I am awaiting response from Tesla.
I put the car into the Parking mode to back into a stall between two cars. The car backed into a shopping cart at the rear of the car to my left. There was a woman putting groceries into her trunk standing next to the shopping cart. I was able to stop the car before any damage to the cart or my car. The woman was never in danger of being hit. I asked the TESLA service department to check out the sensors but the said that there was nothing wrong with the car and refused to check out the sensors unless I paid to have the check them out. They also refused to make a report of the issue. They said that the sensors "probably" saw through the cart and that it was my responsibility to make sure that the auto-park worked properly.
The car suddenly picked up the speed in the parking lot, went over the car stopper, curb and hit the Tree. The airbags never got activated, OR the sensors were nonfunctional. I received a call in less than 1 minute from Tesla Roadside if I was safe. Paramedics took me to the ER by 911. I had some injuries because of a malfunction of airbags, brakes, and warning systems. The car is towed to the nearby Tesla-approved repair place. I am somewhat concerned about the cause, and I believe Tesla knew what had malfunctioned in their car. I have been a safe driver without traffic tickets and accidents ever in the last 45 years.
Backup camera appeared in on screen window as usual when I put the car in reverse to back into my parking spot. The camera looked clear and trajectory lines moved appropriately when I turned the steering wheel. However, main backup view in center of screen did not update as I moved the vehicle backward, it remained on a static, still frame of video. I reversed into a low fence post that I knew was behind me somewhere but could not be seen when looking out the rear window or using any of the mirrors. I usually look to the backup camera to show me where this post is and help back up close to it. There is a large blind spot behind this model of car that is well covered by the camera, but now that is has happened to me I have found many reports of the issue happening to others. Video of issue: https://youtu.be/CC_0JKObpIk
In the process of filing a claim court against Tesla for garage door closing on my vehicle (because of Homelink). Multiple damages and no help from Tesla at all. Homelink was installed on my Tesla Y in February and the door closed twice on my vehicle while I was parking the car. Email me ASAP: [XXX] PARTS OF THIS DOCUMENT HAVE BEEN REDACTED TO PROTECT PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
My vehicle fail to stop when another vehicle was in the middle of the road. My 2020 TESLA MODEL Y did not stop and did not alert me in a upcoming collision incident. My vehicle fail to make a full stop with and without using autopilot.
I was driving East on May 7, 2021, on I-94 toward New Buffalo, MI, on a clear day; no rain. A semi-truck was going 60 mph in the center lane of three lanes. I moved to the left lane to pass as I was going about 70 mph, the posted speed limit. There were no cars ahead of me in my lane for as far as I could see. Another car pulled up behind me very close—way too close—tailgating me. I was passing the truck and was parallel to the truck when suddenly the Tesla automatically slammed on my brakes!!! The idiot who was tailgating me fortunately reacted quickly and also slammed on his brakes and simultaneously swerved hard left onto the shoulder—thereby averting what could have been a fatal accident!! My car could have been pushed into the wheels of the truck on my right and we could have been killed!! I was badly shaken but, fortunately, we were not injured and there was no crash. When we arrived at our destination I phoned the salesman at the Chicago Tesla sales office and described the incident. I asked him if I could disable the automatic braking feature and he talked me through the procedure. The Tesla has a rear-facing video camera. I believe Tesla should program that camera to see a tailgating car and make certain that no automatic braking be engaged if a car is following too close!! I believe Tesla should investigate why this happened and should reprogram the software yo prevent it from happening again. I sent the Tesla Company two electronic messages through the Tesla Phone App as the Tesla salesman suggested, but I have not received any response more than one week later. This is irresponsible!! We could have been killed yet Tesla has ignored my two messages! If Tesla does not fix this problem, it is certain that people will die in a parallel situation. We were just very lucky.
The other day I was stopped at a red light, awaiting green in a left turn only lane. It was a long light and I may have been distracted by a conversation with my passenger. I am 99% certain that I did not have my foot on the brake pedal because I rarely use it now-a-days with regenerative braking and tacc. The green light chimed and I instinctively pushed upward on the right stalk, double checking (in my mind) that I had disabled tacc and autopilot, knowing that I was about to turn left. Unfortunately this 'conditioned' behavior of mine inadvertently put the car in reverse!! I pressed the accelerator and nearly backed into the car behind me. It completely caught me off guard since my expectation was that the car would move forward. Obviously I was wrong. The driver behind me was disturbed, however I did avoid making contact by hitting the brake pedal. While I certainly realize that I am fully responsible for the confusion, I do believe that tesla safety engineers might want to explore this scenario and seek out a preventive safe-guard. Perhaps software can prevent car from switching to reverse unless the brake pedal is depressed. Or maybe a much larger "r" indicator that blinks and beeps. I'm sure it is an easy fix.
Autopilot/cruise control disengage function should not be on activated by selecting up/reverse on the gear selector. Car inadvertently went into r reverse when disengage was commanded. Narrative: car was on interstate at highway speed with navigate on autopilot and adaptive cruise control on. An accident occurred on the expressway and the state police began to shut down the road. The car successfully and safely automatically stopped behind traffic in front. Police began directing stopped traffic to move off roadway. I selected "up" or disengage on the gear selector and the car instead went into reverse. I stepped on accelerator and car moved backwards without warning. Disengage autopilot/adas needs to be a separate function and different control motion from selecting r reverse like on model 3. Very dangerous.
I realized that model y 2020 doesn't not have pedestrian warnings speakers even though my car built is from 2020 (between june-august). I took this delivery of model y in early first week of september. I am wondering the federal safety agency mandate this law in september of 2019. Since my car do not have even produced in 2020. I am really concerned about pedestrian popping out from no where. There were some times I almost near miss pedestrians. This mandatory feature could have helped.
My car is a 2020 model y, delivered on june 27, 2020. This fall, I've had an issue crop up that looks like it's been addressed in the past (at least for models s, x and 3 before march 31, 2019). The problem is that on several occasions (specifically on 11/26/20) while driving on city streets and with humid and cool weather (here in iowa) I've had a report on my display indicating that the b pillar camera is obscured. This, of course, would disable auto drive (including auto lane change) but I'm also concerned that this blind spot may mean that lane change protection during traffic aware cruise control (I.e. *not* auto drive) will not work, or not be very effective, either. The only formal reference I can locate for this problem is service bulletin sb-20-12-002 but the remedy proposed there has apparently been implemented on all production vehicles starting on march 31, 2019. Well, that solution for this design defect clearly does not work. On november 26, 2020 (the date of the first occurrence of this issue on my model y), I requested a service appointment. This was based on the seriousness of the problem given the display warning I received which requested that I stop the vehicle and clear the obscuration immediately. Upon stopping, a glance at the b pillar camera location showed that the issue was one of condensation on the inside of the protective glass over the camera (see attached). From online forums, it's clear that I'm far from alone in having this issue. My service appointment date was originally set for december 17, 2020 but has been canceled as of today. The service center handling my requests is saying that this is "normal" operation of the vehicle and, while the camera may be operating as designed, I disagree that it should be working this way since it removes blind spot awareness from the vehicle's software system and the occurrence is random.
My 2020 model y lunged forward while sitting at a red light behind a pickup truck. I did not touch the accelerator ans the brake would not stop the car. I impacted the pickup truck and damaged the left center of the car front sliding under the pickup bumper. It was as though the car took over on it own. There was no reason for me to have my foot on the accelerator and I was stopped 6 feet back from the pickup in front of me. I am now afraid something is wrong with the car causing this to happen and it should be evaluated by tesla. I reported this to tesla and was told I would hear something back in 3-5 weeks. The damage can be fixed to the car but I am now fearful of driving it.
We recently purchase tesla model y on 29th september 2020. We notice more than twice while driving model y on freeway at 65mph and the car decided to randomly slam the braked (panthom braking) while in autopilot in middle of the freeway. We were on garden state parkway in nj. We did reported to tesla via voice command but no we been scare driving the tesla on cruise control or auto pilot and worried about rear end accident. Its very dangerous and safer issue. There has been no response from tesla. While researching about panthom breaking in tesla, I found so many tesla car customer having same issues. It's been happening with all the tesla cars since 2016. Seems like there has been no action taken from tesla. We notice auto pilot will brake at same spots on the highway near shadow of light in night. This seems to be at exits and it really dangerous. I also read on the net that phantom braking is happens shadows under bridges phantom, I have no reason to suspect it has been fixed. Please take a look into this issue. Its been out there and it is very scary when driving car on auto pilot or cruise control.
VIN decoder
See the problems and recalls for an exact car
Buying a used 2020 Tesla Model Y?
Check the exact car before you pay: accidents, salvage or flood titles, odometer readings and previous owners.
Check its history