My wife was driving on the highway on 8/16/22 at around 9:50pm on the garden state south and all of the sudden the car by itself started swerving lanes and my wife tried to stop the car but to no avail the brakes weren’t working as well. After some time the car finally got back into control and she was able to pull over. The car seemed to be hacked. No explanation how this happened. We didn’t pay for the whole self drive option so I’m not sure how this happened. Very furious. That could’ve been my wife’s life on the line if there were cars.
2021 Tesla Model Y brakes complaints
Page 4 of 7: complaints 71 to 100 of 181, newest first, as owners wrote them.
On July 16, 2022 I was traveling west on I-40, east of Tucumcari, NM. I was using Traffic Adaptive Cruise Control (TACC). There were no cars within a mile of me, front or back. The weather was clear, the road was flat. The car suddenly braked without warning. The objects stored in the back of the car flew forward, striking the two front seats. The wheels did not lock up. I immediately stabbed the accelerator. I saw the power line bar graph indicator go fully to the right. I contacted Tesla to request a service appointment. Tesla initially set an appointment but then cancelled it, explaining there was nothing wrong with the car. I was reminded that TACC (along with virtually all other Tesla driving aids) is "beta" and may therefore not function as intended or expected. It was the responsibility of the driver to assume the risks implied. Prior to this event, I had already decided not to use any technology more advanced than the speed control (TACC) as they behaved poorly. I thought that adaptive cruise control (Tesla: TACC) was a such a common technology that it wouldn't exhibit phantom braking. I was wrong.
The vehicle was on cruise control (NOT auto-pilot). Driving on Freeway approximately 82 mph when the vehicle slowed to 60 mph instantly numerous time within my 160 mile drive. There were no vehicles in front or beside me. There were no obstacles in the roadway or on the side of the road. Sunny day with no clouds. There were no warnings lamps or messages that would indicate the car was going to brake. My safety was put at risk if there was another driver behind me, I could have been rear-ended. It Could also had been very dangerous if there was adverse weather. Tesla was not able to recreate the problem and never found any problems with the vehicle. This was not the first time we took the vehicle in for phantom braking. Tesla blamed the driver. I was also told by a tesla representative the the vehicle can brake unexpectedly by sensing a shadow on the road from a cloud. Apparently there is no way to disable this feature. The vehicle has been deemed unsafe to drive by our senior management as this is not the first time this has occurred and Tesla has not remedied the problem.
My car is experiencing phantom braking nearly every time I use cruise control. It only happens when there are no cars or other obstacles in front of me. It happens at various speeds. The braking slows the car to a stop within seconds if I don’t immediately disengage the cruise control, even at highway speeds.
Steering wheel locked up and would not let driver navigate off-ramp from freeway. Car attempted to force driver to merge into a stopped lane. Auto-pilot features engaged in screen but they were not manually activated. Car attempted to cause an accident.
The vehicle randomly applies hard brakes. This makes cruise unusable and presents a safety issue for cars behind. I was almost hit from behind when my Tesla applied brakes on interstate going from 65 to 35MPH.
My vehicle brakes suddenly for no apparent reason. Happens usually on highway, usually when on self driving or auto navigation mode but also in cruise control rarely. It will go from 65 or 70 mph to 35-40 mph all of a sudden without warning without any vehicle close by. I notified Tesla multiple times. They said “it happens”. They asked me for exact date time location, I gave it, it still happens so I gave up and don’t use self driving much I cannot now tell you exact date time but if it happens next time I can keep records
Unexpected and rapid slowing/braking of vehicle since new in November of 2021. Occurs when on cruise control usually at highway speed, more often on open highways and have possibly (though not always) related it to cresting a hill, distant reflective “water mirage” on our western roads, passing large trucks, two lane highway having large oncoming trucks +/- on curves. On one occasion while passing a semi truck with car on my tail came within a foot or so of being rear ended. Many other occasions where got to point I do not feel safe using the cruise control. We have driven it from Denver to Tucson in November and back in May, both times was worse on wide open western roads, sometimes tho not always with bright sun, pretty unpredictable and random but often to point of not using any of our autopilot or cruise control functions with confidence of safety. No warnings, lights or prehappening signs. Reported and examined in Tucson on arrival there in Nov/21. Told would “get better with time” and further hardware updates. Hasn’t happened with city driving (tho rarely use cruise control. Happened a couple times on highway drives in Arizona while on cruise and thought maybe better until recent trip to Denver when it was as severe as November. Again contacted Tesla and told would lengineers are aware of problem and would be fixed with hardware app fix at end of June. Recontact them in July if still an issue. When serviced in November for this issue tech said he could see in computer log what was happening. When I set up appointment this time basically said live (or die) with it until June and nothing they could do til “hardware fix”. In blanks below I entered last episodes date. It has been ongoing from 11/2021 to present at speeds from 50 to 80 mph. Started with first trip when less than 300 miles til present 5436 miles on it. Could almost guarantee it would happen on highway trip with cruise control if you would like to risk your life on a test drive.
During our trip from San Jose, CA to Park City, Utah, we experienced number time phantom break while the car was in autopilote mode. All of the incidences were on the highway and there were no traffic. The car came to a sudden slow down.
The vehicle phantom breaks spontaneously upon an interstate drive for 1.5 hours on cruise control it will slam on the breaks between 3-5 times when there is no car or object near the vehicle. This has been reported to Tesla and they do nothing and pose no solution to the problem. It is dangerous and going to cause accidents.
Car consistently slows down to 25 MPH in 60MPH zone on i4 with Auto-Pilot enabled.
I have been experiencing that my Tesla suddenly automatically slammed on the brakes while it’s on self driving mode on highway specifically I-66 and while returning from my work from Nebraska Avenue complex to Ashburn VA. This automatically phantom braking is very dangerous.
The car had a phantom braking incident where I was on the freeway with the autopilot set and the car slammed the brakes on because it thought it saw a person in the freeway. This is what it showed on the screen. The car decreased the speed from 70 mph to 40mph. There was no notification of this decrease. This has happened before in the car, but not as drastically and it doesn’t happen very often.
The brakes engage during lane assist mode as if to avoid something in the road although there is nothing there. This happens many times on a road trip from Phoenix to Los Angeles on I 10. It also happened multiple times on the freeway in town in Phoenix. It is very jarring
I am reading about the Tesla braking for no reason & wanted to report my own experiences with this. I have not reported this before to anyone at Tesla, just told my husband. Numerous times (at least 5) over the past year I have owned my Y it has suddenly braked for no reason. It either always or almost always happened when I was going freeway speeds on a turn & there was a vehicle in the lane next to me that I think my Tesla thought I was going to hit. But I wasn't. It was a sudden brake that if I had not been in full control of the car with my feet ready to move so I had to hit the accelerator pedal quickly there could have been a big problem if there was a car behind me. This issue made me stop using the auto pilot on the highway it happened the most on - Hwy 80 between Sacramento & Truckee CA. But it has happened on other freeways too. It makes me very hesitant to use the autopilot unless I am on a straight freeway.
My Model Y Tesla, while driving on the freeway using full self driving, would abruptly slow down from 70mph to 40 mph in matter of seconds without warning and luckily there was nobody around me. I did a bug report on it many times but Tesla discounted that. Also my front windshield wipers would come on for no reason even on a sunny day. Sometime on a raining day when going into a tunnel the windshield wipers would stop and would not come back on when I get out of the tunnel and that is really scarily as I was unable to see during heavy rain. I had to manually turn it on and that took a few seconds and in the meantime I could not see anything due to heavy rain. I brought this to Tesla and they told me that the windshield wiper control and the headlight use the same sensor and there is nothing I can do except to place the windshield wiper on manual mode. The rain detection wipers are on many different model cars without issues. I am not sure why Tesla could not add an additional sensor just for the windshield wipers.
The car suddenly stops as if the traffic ahead is stopped. I noticed it happens when the auto pilot is on. I gave up using the autopilot because I have experienced the sudden break and I have missed having an accident. It kind of feel like the sensors from the sides get the idea that if the side lane is going slow the car has to break suddenly.
On multiple occasions, I have experienced the "phantom breaking" problem when using either adaptive cruise control or the limited self driving feature on my Tesla. I've experienced the problem when driving in traffic (me in another lane, passing a larger vehicle) when the breaking system will activate and all kinds of warning sounds given by the vehicle. I've also experienced the problem when driving alone on the highway (no traffic in either direction), usually in daylight conditions, when the breaking system activates and alarms go off. Additionally, I've experienced the problem when cruise control is activated and a vehicle turns in front of me (either in the same direction or sometimes when turning on a cross street), it's just strange for this to happen when the vehicle is about 1/4th of a mile (or more) in front of me and the turning action of the other vehicle will be complete without causing any concern for my vehicle. This has happened 30-50 times since I purchased the vehicle in late September 2021, so I don't have specific dates for each of these occurrences but it happens so frequently that I pretty much don't use the cruise control or self driving function anymore.
On Sept 2 or 3, 2021, I was using cruise control on long straight highway, with no other vehicles in sight, sunny clear weather, traveling at 65-70 mph. Suddenly brakes slammed on very hard. A short time later, same conditions, brakes slammed very hard 4-5 times in a row, rapidly. It was terrifying. I stopped driving for the day and I have never dared to use cruise control again. When I returned home I took the car to the dealer and told them time and location of incident. I assumed there was something wrong that would be corrected, like a Camera not pointing correctly. The Tesla employee checked the computer record of the incident, told me there was nothing wrong and changed the subject. This was an extremely scary thing for me, severe enough that I got a sore neck, and I have no doubt if another vehicle was following I could have been rear ended. I actually was relieved to read about other Tesla owners experiencing this, and thought there would quickly be a solution. I am disappointed there has not been. I have been driving for over 50 years, have never had an accident while driving….I am very cautious! I want to emphasize again, this was not a minor incident. It was very very frightening, and very dangerous.
Phantom braking on highway when using ACC and FSD. When going 80 mph car will suddenly brake for no apparent reason. This happened over 12 times in one day on a recent trip. I sent video clips to Tesla for every event. This is the second report of this defect. I have ever had and ACC act this way. I am afraid I will get rear ended.
While driving using cruise control or auto drive the car randomly brakes while at highway speeds. There are often no cars or objects in front of the car. I have almost been rear ended, because the car hit the brakes to almost stop. This happens every time the vehicle is placed in regular cruise control or auto drive.
Traveling at highway speeds (70mph) while adaptive cruise control was active, the car applied the brakes suddenly with no apparent reason. No obstructions were present and no traffic was in the area.
1. Pulling the car into a parking spot at a low speed (tight parking space for which you had to turn the car at a 90 degree angle, so had to be slow). 2. Applied brakes BUT the brakes didn't work. 3. Car went through very thick hedges and over a ledge (parking collision and emergency brakes didn't work). Follow up: Filed a data request with Tesla and they denied the request.
Repeated random automatic braking while using cruise control at highway speeds. Near miss of rear end collision. Tesla service representative just said to live with it and be careful.
While in cruise control, our 2021 Tesla Model Y (WE DO NOT HAVE AUTO PILOT!) applied the brakes HARD dropping between 10-40 mph with no warning. Cruise control stays active. There were no cars anywhere near us, either in front or in the rear. Over thirty (30) Tesla bug reports were recorded on April 25 and April 26, 2022. While we were not SERIOUSLY hurt, had a vehicle actually been behind us, we would have ended up with a vehicle in our back seat and certainly serious injuries. This same thing happened six months ago on our last road trip. Tesla has blown us off saying that this simply cannot occur. Their response is that the computer cannot slow the car without seeing something. Therefore it must have seen something. This is circular reasoning and is meant to blow off the consumer. This is a serious safety issue. The braking on occasion has been violent. This is similar to the reports in other models. Tesla has twice now, within six months, addressed this issue simply by saying "it cannot occur." Seriously?!
My 2021 Tesla Model Y, when using adaptive cruise control engages in phantom braking on a perfect clear road with no obstacles. On a recent road trip the vehicle braked suddenly at least 10 times while driving at highway speeds on both divided and single lane roads. This is cleariy unsafe especially if there is a car following. Tesla is aware of this problem and has done nothing to resolve it.
On 3/7/22- 3/15/22 I and my wife took our Tesla Model Y 2021 for an extensive trip from San Diego, CA to Sedona, AZ. Our Tesla does not equipped with Autopilot. On 3/7 while on I-8 E Arizona, our Tesla was on cruise control at HWY speed, it suddendly braked from 75 miles/hr to 60 miles/hr and slowly going back up without any appearance reasons! There was No cars near and around. Afterward, it happened several more times so we stopped using cruise control on the second day of our trips until return home due to safety concerns of getting hit from behind. I took the Tesla to Tesla service for a check of the issue about a week after return San Diego, and the Tesla technician took the car for a test drive and found nothing wrong!
We were driving roughly 80 mph on an open highway. Clear skies. No cruise control/autopilot engaged. Vehicle slammed on the brakes. Threw both occupants rapidly forward in our seats. Lucky no cars behind us.
The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while driving 80 MPH, the self-driving feature independently activated and the vehicle decelerated to 50 MPH inadvertently within several seconds. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that the failure was intermittent. The vehicle was taken to the dealer to be diagnosed; however, the mechanic was unable to determine the cause of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 8,480.
I was stopping at the parking lot of my church St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Forane Church (508 Elizabeth Ave, Somerset, NJ 08873) to drop my daughter. I applied the break but the vehicle kept moving and hit the gas line of the church. The gasline broke and car front got damaged. There was no auto break and warning of the obstacle.
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