We have noticed an increase in phantom Braking while using cruise control and/or auto pilot. Prior to November it would happen randomly and only on single lane highways. Now it happens every time we try to use cruise control. It is very dangerous as we may be rear ended it stops so fast with nothing in front of us. We have reached out to Tesla more than one time and they just suggest we disengage use if cruise control if we experience this random phantom braking. We have reported this is not rare or random it’s constant and every time we attempt to use this product we paid $10,000.00 for. We are not safe with this braking and Tesla basically says they are working on it.
2021 Tesla Model Y acceleration complaints
Page 5 of 7: complaints 101 to 130 of 163, newest first, as owners wrote them.
While driving from Tucson to Denver the vehicle suddenly decelerated and/or braked no less than hundreds of times with varying rates--sometimes just a couple miles per hour and other times more than 30 miles per hour. These events were generally on a divided interstate highway with clear visibility, flat, straight roads without precipitation and oftentimes without another vehicle within 1/2 mile or more. These events even happened 3 times within 3-4 minutes while I was speaking to Tesla roadside service trying to disable all sensors/interventions. More than once there was a vehicle behind me at highway speeds that thought I was "brake-checking" them and would anger them and cause them to honk and give me a few finger symbols (road rage)... there was no reason for the car to suddenly brake; no cars merging or in front of me other than light vehicle traffic in the opposite direction of the DIVIDED interstate. I asked several times if there is a way to turn off all the "assistance" (unsafe interference) and just have it function as a normal cruise control without "traffic aware" and other automatic braking features--but the answer was no. I am not exaggerating when I say this happened hundreds of time during my trips. I always turned off the speed control when the roads were curving because I knew that it would suddenly brake during a mountain pass curve and upset the vehicle--make it difficult to control, and potentially cause an accident at high speed for NO reason. My risk tolerance is fairly high, I have been driving cars with "Eyesight" and radar speed control and advanced safety features for over 10 years and have never felt less trusting or less safe than I do now in my Tesla Model Y. I think Tesla should disable the "safety" feature until they can resolve the issue--I believe it will cause accidents even when someone is fully aware of its sudden, random braking issues. I have many video clips/pics of when the events occurre as Tesla asked me to record.
While driving 50-55 mph down a two lane highway, with adaptive cruise control in place, the vehicle suddenly slowed and signaled a front collision by beeping. It was terrifying as there was nothing in front of us. It was a clear day and we were lucky that there was no car behind us, as it could have easily caused an accident. We are now not wanting to use our cruise control or the autopilot that we purchased for this vehicle, until more is understood about the cause.
On Friday February 25, 2021, while driving on Florida’s Tamiami Trail (41), my Tesla repeatedly experienced extreme phantom braking, even though there were no vehicles in front of us or behind us either in our lane or the oncoming lane. It was a sunny bright morning between 9:30 and 10:00 AM.
Car will suddenly brake hard when a pickup truck or semi truck is in the oncoming lane at highway speeds when adaptive cruise is engaged. This happens nearly every time a larger vehicle is in the oncoming lane, mostly only on two lane highways. Will also [XXX] occasionally brake for apparently no reason with adaptive cruise on. Tesla service knows of this problem and claims there is no fix. The hard braking happens every drive multiple times and nearly causes us to get rear ended by following cars. INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
I was on a road trip and no less than 20 times over 10 hours, my car when standard cruise control was set, the car applied the brakes HARD for me without any warning. It went from scary to nearly resulting in a rear-end collision. The cause ranged from absolutely no reason except for maybe a slight dip in the highway(? weird) to oncoming traffic - standard, nothing close to an emergency situation. I had ALL auto features disabled and was just using the set speed feature. I've submitted a service request but the next appointment is in two weeks and in the meantime, I'm frankly scared to drive the car. It happened at 70 miles per hour and immediately dropped me down to 40 on the highway and I just about had to take a break from driving I was so shaken. It also happens on local backroads when I have the feature set to just 35 miles per hour.
44E east of Joplin car braked hard while on autopilot. Pressing the accelerator would override but as soon as you let up it would hard brake again even though the car was below the cruise control speed
While I’m adaptive cruise control or Autopilot the vehicle has phantom braking which occurs. Vehicle will slam on the brakes for no apparent reason.
When driving with the cruise control on, the car suddenly and rapidly brakes for no apparent reason. Nothing in front of the car. Problem has happened multiple times. Very hard Braking that if someone was behind us it would likely have caused an accident. We no longer use the cruise control because we are afraid of it causing an accident.
On a cross-country trip from Washington, DC to Oklahoma City on Feb 5th and 6th (Saturday and Sunday) I tried to use the "adaptive cruise control" for the first time. Terrifying. The car would be driving along at 80mph, and then it would suddenly slam on the brakes, seemingly without provocation... with a 30-35mph sudden deceleration (absolutely nobody/nothing in either of the lanes in front of me). This was not while using the "full self-driving" feature, as I did not pay the extra $10k for this functionality, only the adaptive cruise control. Another very disturbing thing was that when the adaptive cruise control was enabled, it would not allow me to turn off the windshield wipers... and every so often the wipers would just start frantically wiping despite only a small bit of rain hitting the windshield (again, disturbing, as it is very startling when it happens out of nowhere). Needless to say, after this happened 5 or 6 different times over these two days, I turned off adaptive cruise control and kept it off. Tried to contact Tesla service, but they kept dodging the issue so I stopped trying.
We have had multiple incidents from July through Dec 2021when the vehicle is operating in cruise control and brakes hard for no good reason. Most of these are on highway 86 between Tucson and Sells. For some of those incidents there was an oncoming school bus, which may have been the visual trigger. For others we do not know the cause.
On multiple occasions the car triggers emergency braking when no obstacle is in front of the car, often at high speeds. The car is not equipped with radar, and relies entirely on camera-based adaptive cruise control. this is a safety risk and possible rear end collision cause. Due to the lack of radar, the vehicle also accelerates to desired speed slowly when using adaptive cruise control while on interstate. Often times resulting in traveling under the speed limit for an extended amount of time, causing a safety hazard.
When using autosteer or adaptive cruise on I5, our car performed a phantom brake that cause the truck behind us to nearly flip over in order to miss hitting us. We were not in the lane by the divider, there were wide open lanes in front of us to the left and right by half a football field and no overpasses at the time. We slowed from 69 to about 39 before I could correct the braking. This happens so often we do not feel safe using the cruise control at all.
This has happened multiple times. I am on the highway and have the cruise control set. The car suddenly decelerates but there is nothing in front to cause this. It is very jarring to me as the driver and to those behind me. When it happened during the day time I think it reacted to a shadow in the road from an overpass. It happened last night when it was dark. I had stopped using the cruise control because of the uncertainty, but decided to try it again on my trip yesterday. I received the car in September and I believe this has happened four times. I am reporting this now because I heard of the investigation. Now, I will keep closer track of the times, conditions and other facts. I have not reported it previously to Tesla, but will do so now. I looked on the Tesla forum and it is clearly a known issue.
While driving on the interstate (divided) highway at 73 mph with adaptive cruise control engaged, the vehicle abruptly braked. There were no other vehicles or obstructions within 250' at the time of braking. No warning lights or messages appeared. To correct the situation, I immediately pressed the accelerator to increase speed. Conditions: daylight, dry road surface. If another vehicle was following close by this could have caused an accident. I've had the car about 7 months and this type of braking has occurred 7 times, all with no vehicles nearby. It has happened both in the daytime (6) and night (1) at similar speeds mention above. I brought car in for service at Tesla on two occasions for this problem and they could find no faults in the software or braking. Basically, I was told Tesla continues to update software.
While driving with cruise control engaged my car has now on several occasion suddenly and without warning applied the brakes on its own when there was no reason for the brakes to have been applied. Sometimes it has done it when a truck is approaching in the opposite direction, but sometimes it does it for no reason at all. Recently it did it with such severity that it was clear to me that if a car had been behind me I would have been hit from behind. Also, it was startling to the point where I could have lost control of my vehicle.
I have already reported this to TESLA and they did nothing for the following except to ask for a "time stamp". As I'm driving in Auto or Full self drive mode the car will suddenly brake as though there is something on the road in front of the car and at the time there is nothing present on the road or coming out into traffic. The car will make an alarm noise (internally) as though I did something wrong and as I said will decrease in speed dramatically and scare the driver behind me if there is a driver present.
While driving at highway speeds I have recently had repeated unexpected breaking events occur while using adaptive cruise control. It happens without warning and for no apparent reason. The breaking is significant and could easily result in a rear end collision.
When the traffic aware of cruise control or auto pilot is engaged, particularly on two-lane roads with opposing traffic, phantom breaking occurs with about 90% of the approaching semi tractor trailers, and perhaps 25% of the approaching automobiles.
The cruise control on my Model Y frequently slams on the brakes for no apparent reason (no obstacle or vehicle in my lane). This happens at all speeds (from 30mph to 75mph). The cruise control is so unsafe and scary that I will not use it at all with other passengers in my car or when I have a car following me. My car slams on the brakes so hard it makes it completely unsafe for me and the people following me. In my opinion, it drastically increases the chances of being involved in a rear-end collision. There is no ability in the Model Y to use cruise control that is not adaptive-based. Until this problem is fixed, Tesla needs to offer a cruise control option that is 100% controlled by the driver (standard cruise) where the speed and brakes cannot be changed by the car. My car has not been inspected by the manufacturer and this has not been reported to the manufacturer because it is a widespread and known problem, and Tesla is not currently doing anything to help others who have reported the issue.
The adaptive cruise control and lane assist on the Tesla Y models are defective and pose significant risk to drivers, occupants and surrounding traffic. Phantom braking and sudden slowing are common place and many times unpredictable. Countless times when oncoming traffic in the other lane approaches, sudden braking and aggressive slowing will occur especially if this happens to be a logging truck or larger vehicle. Coming under any overpass or bridge will also produce phantom braking. This will happen countless times in a single trip rendering the adaptive cruise useless. I complained to Tesla and was called by the corporate office in Denver and told that this is a reality and it was my responsibility to "teach the neuro-net" that it's phantom braking was an error by accelerating aggressively during those episodes and producing "bug reports" to Tesla! I have had this Tesla 3 months now and have stopped using the cruise control and lane assist because of safety concerns. My attempts at "teaching" the computer the correct response has utterly failed. I have had 3 episodes that I know of that someone following closely behind me had to take evasive action which precipitated "road rage" type behavior on their part for no fault of my own. Tesla has made no effort to correct this defect and have even cancelled my repair appointments stating it was"not needed". Every Tesla owner I discussed this issue with has a similar experience. Eventually someone will get injured or killed due to this defect.
When using basic Tesla Autopilot (AP) on side roads or highways the car will experience “phantom braking” with no other vehicles around. Phantom braking is where the car will slam on the brakes because it sees a safety issue ahead. I was driving on a highway at 60mph and engaged AP after about 5 miles the car brakes hard and fast down to around 40mph and then sped back up to 60mph after about 50 yards. It did this twice on the drive home. If we have an 18 wheeler behind us and they’re not paying attention they would definitely rear end our car.
Two phantom braking incidents on loop 202 Wednesday night
Several times (at least 4 times) on various trips, I was driving on the interstate going at least 70 mph and I had cruise control on. I DO NOT have autopilot. If the highway was blacktop and I approached a white concrete bridge deck, the car suddenly brakes. Also, twice I was next to a tractor trailer (I was in the left lane and the tractor trailer was in the middle lane to my right) and the car braked suddenly. I thought the car “anticipated” that the trailer was coming into my lane. Regarding the white concrete bridge deck, I wonder if the car “saw” a wall ahead and that is why it braked.
While using TACC ( traffic aware cruise control) the car would suddenly break and beep warning sounds. Happened randomly and at various speeds but seemed to correlate most with trucks in the left lane. Some colors seemed to be picked up more than others. Bridges and shadows also triggered it. It was my first long trip in the Tesla Y and so experienced these horrible, unpredictable episodes around 40 - 60 times during an 8 hour drive mostly on highways - many of them two way
While using adaptive cruise control driving at the I-25 speed limit in northern New Mexico on Feb. 5, 2022, when I went to pass a tractor-trailer rig on a left-turn stretch of freeway, the brakes suddenly slammed on hard (phantom braking), though there was no endangerment in the driving situation. This happened twice on this trip. In both instances, it was while legally passing a big rig on the interstate at the speed limit, with our car in the left lane and the truck in the right. We've taken this vehicle on long interstate road trips through the Mountain West before, and never encountered this problem before in similar circumstances. There must have been some software upgrade that made the car more dangerous and unreliable to drive while using cruise control on freeways with tight bends. Now I don't trust the vehicle and won't be using cruise control until this problem is remedied.
While driving in my car on a highway in cruise control, my car will break very hard for no reason. It’s as if it is detecting a car in front of us and it disengages cruise control very abruptly. It can be very scary especially if there are cars behind us. I no longer dare to use cruise control because it has happened multiple times. I have not discussed this issue with the dealer and there were no warnings in the car at the time.
While using adaptive cruise control the vehicle will suddenly brake. I thought it would get better after it’s system learned but still happens when a large vehicle or even a pedestrian is in an adjacent lane. Car has 3940 miles on it now. Last highway trip of 100 miles it happened five times. I don’t know how badly it brakes now because I keep my foot on the gas pedal while in adaptive cruise control so I can react quickly to it. We previously owned a 2018 Tesla 3 with radar enhanced “auto pilot” and did not experience this problem.
Unexpectedly slamming on my brakes in response to imagined hazards, such as oncoming traffic on two-lane roads. This happens often and I have to shut off this feature to avoid a spin out on icy roads. Very hazardous. overly sensitive to trucks in the opposite lane. Car lurched from 50 mph to a near-stop in response to a large truck. Is this phantom braking?
I just want to add my name to list to complain about phantom braking. You can't trust the adaptive cruise control to maintain correct speed as it will at random times brake hard when there is nothing in front of you. Maybe 20% of the times I use it.Sometimes it looks like a shadow on the road will cause it, maybe at night and when the weather is bad. It brakes hard too and you have to be ready to compensate. I think it is from using just cameras and no radar in my newer model
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