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!
2021 Tesla Model Y driver assistance complaints
Page 12 of 22: complaints 311 to 340 of 630, newest first, as owners wrote them.
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.
During cruise control the vehicle automatically slows down periodically.
Occasionally, while the Adaptive Cruise Control (TACC) is engaged, the vehicle will suddenly brake as if there is an obstacle immediately in front of the car, even though there is not one and the road is completely clear. Sometimes this happens randomly on a divided highway, other times it happens on a two-lane highway when a large truck is approaching in the oncoming lane. Sometimes it is a minor deceleration, other times it is aggressive braking. During one particular road trip, on an empty & divided highway, the vehicle braked unnecessarily over 20 times in a 1 hour span. This is an ongoing issue and continues to occur any time TACC is engaged and there is a clear, unobstructed road ahead of the vehicle. This prevents a safety hazard to any vehicle(s) following behind, as well as the occupants of the offending vehicle, because it could directly result in being rear-ended. When I initially reported this problem to Tesla in December of 2021, they refused to acknowledge it, much less attempt to address it. I submitted a second request for service that same month, 3 weeks later, and their response was the same. However, when I submitted a third request this month (April 2022), the dealer finally confirmed that this is indeed an issue. Yes, the vehicle has been inspected by the manufacturer. No warning of any kind accompanies the malfunction, and there are no discernable symptoms.
I was driving on full self driving assistance on the highway on the far left lane. I wanted to change lane to exit but notice a car was in my blind spot so I tried to take over the car my tugging the wheel. The car sounded an alarm indicating I was going to crash I think into the left median, so it auto corrected to pull towards the right lane. I didn't want to hit any incoming car so I tried to tug it left. I believe I was fighting with the car to regain control of the car and ended up hitting the left median which ricochet the car all the way to the right hitting the median, where the car came to a stop.
When my Tesla Y is in cruise control, there have been intermittent unexpected slow downs causing the car to abruptly slow down on the highway. On my last road trip it happened about 5 times.
While driving in the adaptive cruise control the vehicle will suddenly go into a hard brake while at highway speeds. This has happened multiple times during both day and night, on roads varying from two lane highways to larger multi lane interstate freeways, and during weather conditions have always been clear. This feature has been typically only been used when traffic is light, as this problem has been documented by countless Tesla Y owners. This issue has been documented and reported to Tesla via the in vehicle reporting feature. When this happens it is a sudden and unexpected action that may cause another vehicle to rear end me, and or possibly loose control during the hard and sudden braking.
While driving on interstate 25 the adaptive cruise control braked hard for no reason. There wasn’t any hazard and no traffic on clear days on a well marked road. It happened quite often . More than 100 occasions on a 65o mile drive.
When driving the vehicle primarily on highways and with the Adaptive Cruise Control active, the car randomly reduces the cruise speed by up to 35 mph and then proceeds to slam the brakes. This happens intermittently on open road, 4 lane highways, with and without any traffic nearby. We logged the times that these occurred and took them to our local Tesla service center and they said “This is a software bug that we have to wait for Tesla to fix. There is no way to disable the adaptive nature of the cruise control either.” We informed them that this has been occurring for about 6 months now and they said “You’ll just have to wait until Tesla fixes the code. It gets better every release so eventually it won’t do this anymore”
All of these incidents occurred with adaptive cruise control engaged, and sometimes with lane keeping engaged. The vehicle frequently brakes, or slows dramatically, when on the freeway and there is no obstacle in the vicinity. Over the last three days I made the drive from Burbank to Anaheim along I-5. Always in the same area, the car would suddenly slow. In two out of the three incidents, the "max speed," which was set to 80, dropped to 45. Simultaneously, the car thought it was in a 55 mph zone (it was a 65 mph zone). In one of the three instances, the max speed was not changed, but the car still slowed dramatically. On the same commute, the car navigation always has me get off on Artesia Blvd, and then get right back on the freeway. The adaptive cruise has a configurable follow distance that the car seems to generally ignore. It's a number from 2 to 6 or so, and it's not clear what it's supposed to be (seconds or car lengths). It's rarely either, although it should represent seconds. When traffic comes to a complete stop, the car waits until it is too close to brake. When traffic begins moving, the car waits too long to start moving, and then accelerates excessively to catch up. Finally, when using the regular adpative cruise and lane keeping, I would signal lane changes and initiate the change. The car disengages steering but maintains cruise. In many cases, while still indicating the lane change, the car's lane departure warning will sound and it will attempt to correct my steering, which I have to physically override. My Nissan Leaf had adaptive cruise control, lane centering, and lane departure avoidance, and it never gave me these issues. Oh also, the Tesla frequently and erroneously warns of forward collision. It's really terrible, and it's due in no small part to the removal of the forward radar sensor.
Over the course of an eight hour drive on a single lane highway, the vehicle abruptly applied brakes without any warning at full speed multiple (at least 30 times). In some instances, there were vehicles in the opposite lane. In other instances, there were none. In all cases, there were no vehicles in front in the same lane. Weather conditions were clear and dry, with full daylight illumination. This issue is most likely related to the camera-only change made to Tesla vehicles, which are used for TACC and autopilot features.
Frequent abrupt and unsafe phantom braking while using cruise control. Mostly due to headlights from semi-trucks coming in opposite direction but occasionally from just a dark patch on the road. On a long road trip from WA to AZ, it made using the speed control feature impossible. The vehicle would lurch hard enough to physically throw you forward in your seat and rapidly slow the car (increasing potential to be rear ended). No warning messages or failure notifications. The problem was reported to Tesla (not to police, insurance, etc because no accident ensued) and the response was in a nutshell “it is working how it should “.
Driving along highway 330 in Iowa, car slowed from 70 mph to 15 for no apparent reason. No cars, animals or obstruction were around
While driving along on an interstate highway at night, the frame rate for the display system including speedometer and other vehicle information drastically dropped. This resulted in limited situational awareness of what the car was doing. Updates for lane changing, blind spot detection, and lane departure warnings were delayed/lagged as a result of the reduced frame rate. This did not impact how the vehicle drove, or activation of turn signals, and the lower frame rate did not result in any flickering of the display. A display reset was required while driving at highway speeds to regain full situational awareness.
Please see attached PDF for description of the phantom braking problem with my 2021 Tesla Model Y.
We have had issues with the “autopilot” function braking when no obstruction exists. Situations that trigger these unnecessary breaking events generally involve shadows on the roadway, visible disturbances such as reflected sunlight, or other visual circumstances that in some way impact the appearance on the roadway surface. These appearances are generally widespread on county roads and state highways, but are less frequent on the Interstate highways. Due to the severity of these breaking actions we have greatly reduced the use of the “Autopilot” feature, and now only us it sparingly on the interstate when the lighting conditions are good. Due to loss of confidence we use it very infrequently, only once every few weeks at most. These emergency breaking events are greatly unwarranted 95% of the time. In addition, we feel that the unexpected nature of these events and the severity of them have increased our risk of collision. This is due to the unexpected and unintended breaking causing an accident from a vehicle rear ending us on the highway. We have not been in a collision yet. I feel that this feature is not yet ready for release and it should be disabled or rolled back until such a time it can be trusted to not increase the risk of collision for the occupants. To answer the questions specifically: What component or system failed or malfunctioned: Autopilot / automatic emergency breaking. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk?: Uncommanded and unwarranted emergency breaking increases risk for an accident. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center?: No Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer or others: Remote diagnostics performed by manufacture. No problem found. Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear?: Other then alerting to the breaking action, no warnings have been displayed.
The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while driving approximately 25 MPH, the vehicle independently stopped without the brake pedal being depressed. There were no warning lights illuminated. The local dealer was contacted and scheduled an appointment. The vehicle was not yet diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 11,500.
While driving on the highway from Ohio to Arizona in December and returning to Ohio in February when using the adaptive cruise control, my car would suddenly and without warning brake and felt as if it would stop if I had not pushed the accelerator. I drove a total of 10 days, and it happened on some days two or three times, once happening five times. Luckily when it happened the traffic was light, but if someone had been behind me, I'm sure there would have been a rear end collision. It caused my wife and me to lurch forward from the sudden deceleration, and our seatbelts kept us from hitting our heads. When I got home, I reported it to Tesla by phone and was told that someone would get back to me. On March 24 I received an email, stating that "this behavior is a known limitation" and "Traffic-Aware Cruise Control may react to vehicles or objects that either do not exist or are not in the lane of travel, causing Model Y to slow down unnecessarily or inappropriately." Tesla did not offer to remedy the problem, saying only that "The braking behavior will improve over time with software updates." Tesla suggested that somehow I did something wrong, when it stated: "When using Autopilot features it is the driver’s responsibility to remain aware and be ready to take corrective action at all times." There was no corrective action to take except for the sudden braking of the car.
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.
I have experienced the now well-documented "phantom braking" problems with my 2021 Tesla model Y. This happens on long trips when I use "Traffic-Aware Cruise Control." The problem seems to occur most often at the crest of a hill, especially if there is a guard rail.
Since buying the car 6/30/21 the automatic emergency braking has activated >300 times not once was it appropriate. We have had the car back to Tesla Service twice to repair the problem with out any improvement. It is only by luck that we have not had an accident. This is not an effective safety feature and it is increasing the likelihood of an accident. If Tesla cannot fix this it should be forced to deactivating the system
For the last few software updates and for a few months the vehicle will phantom brake and apply aggressive stopping in traffic for no reason when using cruise control, autopilot, or full self driving. Instances have occurred which has nearly caused us to be rear-ended by other vehicles. Additionally the car will turn aggressive when using passing lanes. We have experienced instances where the car will turn into a short right turn lane at highway speeds unexpectedly and then require immediate intervention or the brakes will be applied very hard. These situations are repeatable and occur frequently for no reason.
I was driving northbound on Highway 1 on 3-18-22 from Ventura California to Clayton California where I live. Four times through my trip the car suddenly decelerated and the brakes were applied automatically for no reason whatsoever there was no traffic in front of me there were no obstacles in front of me there were no hazards in front of me, it was open road and for whatever reason the car auto braked which immediately reduced my speed to a dangerous condition. If I had been in traffic I would’ve been rear ended!
We've owned this car since delivered in June 2021. Took a trip from AZ to MO in July 2021. When using cruise control, the system occasionally and severely activated the brakes when passing a large vehicle on a four lane divided highway and in some cases no one else was around on the 4 lane divided highway. Auto braking only happened if on cruise control and did not occur if cruise not activated. I mentioned this to a service tech at one of the charging stations in Rolla, MO who indicated it was a known issue and they were working on it. I didn't report it to Tesla thinking it was being handled, but now I see many others reporting it and you dates indicate cars produced prior to April 2021. I'm assuming ours was produced around that time.
Vehicle brakes randomly at highway speeds while utilizing ADAS. Brakes hard and fast without warning.
Have had problems with 'phantom breaking" while using adaptive cruise control (not full Autopilot). This has happened over a dozen times over the last several firmware updates including latest version 22.4.5.16. For no obvious reason, the car just applied the brakes fairly hard (no skids) while at highway speeds without other vehicles nearby or no shadows visible.
Phantom breaking while using adaptive cruise control. Happened 3 times in past two months. First two times were traveling on a major highway, both on a hilly section at the bottom of a hill, with no other cars nearby. The car apparently thought the hill was something that should cause the breaks to engage. Car went from about 70 to 55 in a few seconds. Very startling. The third time was on a residential road, going about 38-40. There were no cars nearby, and the breaks engaged abruptly. The safety implications are obvious, although luckily there were no cars behind us when the breaks went on. We reported these incidents to Tesla today and asked for a service appointment. A Tesla representative called us and said we had assumed these risks when we bought a Tesla, there was nothing they could do, and it was probably driver error. They did agree to make an “internal report.” We told them we would report this to you. This is our second Tesla. We had a 2018 Model 3 and never had any problem like this. We wanted more storage space and higher seating, so we sold the 3 and bought the Y in July 2021, not understanding that Tesla had changed to an “all camera,” no radar/lidar safety system. Add us to the growing list of evidence that the new system is dangerously faulty.
Pulling into a parking space, at very slow speed, pressed service brake to stop car. The car suddenly accelerated at high speed, hit a tree directly in front of the space, veered off and sprinted across another parking space and a two lane passage, hit a brick pillar, veered into the wall of a restaurant, bounced off the wall and back into the street. All airbags deployed. No one was injured. Car probably totaled.
While using adaptive cruise control on my Tesla Model Y on a 1974 mile trip to Florida and back the car would emergency brake for no reason. This happened at least 25 times on the trip. I believe this is being referred to "Phantom Breaking". So far I have been lucky and no one has rear ended me but that is a strong possibility.
The cruise control of Tesla is majorly defective after taking out the Ladar component as it is entirely dependent on cameras. Sudden or phantom braking has been so bad that sometimes I avoid using it. My most recent episode happened last weekend as I was driving at a two way country highway at 50mph to get to the interstate. I was headed south between 9 to 10am. The sun was on my left (east) and there was a truck approaching on the opposite lane. When the truck passed (I guess it cast a huge shadow as it blocked the sun on my left) the car slammed on the brakes. There was no warning. Luckily there were no cars behind immediately behind me, otherwise we would have been rear ended in a possibly fatal accident.
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