Approximately half a dozen times this year on highway journeys between California and Las Vegas, when the vehicle is on cruise control at approx. 70-75 mph, I have experienced brief instances of unnecessary, automated braking. Each time apparently in response to large black patches in front of the car, either a mismatched repair of the highway or a dark mirage type reflection of the sun on the highway. It appears to me that the vehicle cameras are occasionally mistaking these dark patches as an obstacle. Presumably lidar sensors would not react because the radar would not bounce back off anything, but I believe my car does not have lidar sensors. In each case there was an approximate 10 to 15 mph reduction in speed and then the vehicle quickly recovered. Fortunately, no other vehicle was tailgating me at the time but if one had been, I believe there is a realistic risk of being rear ended. Alternatively, the driver behind would, presumably, apply the brakes, which may cause a chain reaction when the highway is in fact, clear ahead. I have not contacted Tesla. Based on other reports online, it appears to be a waste of time.
2023 Tesla Model Y brakes complaints
Page 5 of 6: complaints 101 to 130 of 156, newest first, as owners wrote them.
on a recent 800 mile road trip, there were no less than 7 incidents of the vehicle suddenly braking on its own while on cruise control with no vehicles in front of us. one incident occurred with a semi truck behind us that almost caused an accident. the car went from 80 mph to 45 mph before I had time to react and press the gas pedal.
Phantom braking occurs in cruise control for no reason and with no warning. The car is available for inspection. Many other Tesla drivers have described the same situation. On a recent cross country trip phantom braking happened frequently. We made sure there was no one behind us when we engaged cruise to avoid being rear ended. We were in NV when it happened again- this time a big rig had safe distance behind us when the brakes engaged ( we were driving 75). The rig driver swerved into another lane to avoid us. We have not taken car to service center yet. Social media is full of these accounts. This is still happening. There is no warning whatsoever. It’s hard to describe how terrifying this is.
The adaptive cruise control malfunctioned while engaged on the highway/interstate. On a recent trip of approx. 1,000 miles, the vehicle experienced "phantom braking" (aggressive emergency braking for no reason) on three occasions while the adaptive cruise control was engaged on the highway/interstate at approx. 65-75 mph, with no obstruction/vehicle in front and the weather was clear sunny skies. No warnings or messages were prompt by the vehicle. This abrupt phantom breaking could have caused serious injury from a rear-end collision or cause vehicles behind to take unnecessary unsafe emergency maneuvers/braking.
Have experienced 2 major “phantom braking” incidents almost causing 2 accidents. There has also been several other incidents but not as severe as the 2 almost causing accident. Called Tesla and they said it is a known problem, service person said he has had his car for 5 years and still having issues. Evidently he said it was software related. He reported there is nothing they can do as solution has not been found.
Hard braking on its own while using cruise control. Nearly rear-ended multiple times.
I had a very dangerous phantom breaking event while driving on the interstate. The car slammed on the brakes for no reason and I nearly had a rear end collision. There was nobody in front of me, sun was not a factor, road was flat and straight, weather was clear. Car was on cruise control only. I was driving Interstate speed, about 70 mph, and without warning the Tesla Model Y slammed on the brakes and the only reason we didn’t get rear ended was because I quickly hit the accelerator to get out of the braking action. My dogs also went flying forward in the back seat and my passenger was wretched forward and scared b/c it came out of nowhere. There was no indication from the car before, during our after that there was a problem. I have notified Tesla of the incident, but don’t expect they will do anything. This happened Thursday June 29, 2023 at 4pm CT.
Phantom braking issue- Brakes were automatically applied while driving on open highway with no other vehicles around. Autopilot was in use, speed set to limit of 75 mph.
The cat keeps applying brakes on its own even when there is no obstacle on road. Car applies brake on highway when there is no car on road in front or on side road. It is a very dangerous fault and is an accident waiting to happen. I have complained to local service center many times. They call it Fantom Braking and say that Tesla is working on it. If so, all Teslas should be off road till such time they fix it. I am concerned that it will lead to fatal accidents.
While driving at highway speeds with the cruise control engaged we have experienced several ghost braking events. Fortunately no other cars have been behind us.
Intermittent braking while in cruise control for no reason. Nothing in the way, no cars around. Reduces speeds from 10 t0 50 miles per hour. At time it reduces speeds almost to a dead stop. If another car was behind us, could cause a serious crash. Happens at random times.
Multiple moments of phantom braking 15+ times TODAY driving from North Platte, NE to Havelock, IA on cruise or auto pilot. Extremely dangerous, could've caused pile ups/rear end collisions. Screen would 50% of the time show a semi or vehicle in front of me when nothing was there. I tried cleaning the windshield, thought it helped for a bit then it happened again. This happened on both interstate driving and highway driving into the sun and not into the sun. Could be very hazardous - very abrupt emergency braking at interstate speed limits. at the Shelby, IA super charger, another Tesla owner expressed he had also just reported multiple phantom braking incidents today as well and reported it to Tesla.
My 2023 Tesla model y occasionally applies phantom braking when ADAS is on. The car brakes very abruptly therefore it may cause rear end collision.
On a trip to Prescott, AZ and back to Los Angeles, I encountered the following problem about 5 separate times. While driving at freeway speeds (70-80mph), the car suddenly and violently, without warning, applied the brakes vary hard (with no input from me). This threw me forward while the car continued to decelerate. In one instance, there was a class C motorhome traveling behind me fairly closely as if to pass. This was on a 2-lane road in the Arizona “countryside.” It was between 6:20am and 7:15am on Saturday, May 13th. The motorhome following me had to make a split-second decision to either crash into the rear of my car, or swing out left into the oncoming lane. He chose the latter. Fortunately, there was no oncoming traffic or it surely would have been a fatal, head-on accident between the motorhome and a car traveling in the opposite direction in the oncoming lane. The motorhome then continued to pass me and no accident resulted. In the other 4 times that the brakes suddenly applied, there was no one close enough behind me where they could not have slowed down to avoid an accident. Obviously, this was very disturbing to me. I finally realized that the Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) feature was set to “on” (by default). I then turned it off. No further incidents occurred after this. At this point, I will not travel on a busy freeway with the AEB feature activated……it is simply too dangerous. If this issue happens on a busy freeway, the likelihood of someone crashing into the rear of my car is fairly high.
When driving between Elgin, OK and Oklahoma City, OK phantom breaking occurs sometimes two to four times. It isn’t safe driving 75 MPH and the car suddenly brakes for no reason. I reported the issue to the Tesla service center in Oklahoma City, OK and they acknowledged it is an issue, but said there is not a repair for the issue. They said it is a software/mapping issue that will hopefully be resolved in the future.
Phantom braking while using cruise control on interstates. The automatic emergency braking caused severe slowdown reducing speed of vechicle from 75-55mph. On a 900 mi road trip phantom braking occured a minium of 12 times each direction. Sudden and unexcpeted braking nearly caused accidents on numerous occasions. As vehichles following were not expecting a sudden reduction in speed without cause. In no case was there an obvious trigger, so signs, shadows, debris, or any logical explanation for the dangerous sudden reduction in speed. Tesla service center in Madison, WI stated it was most likley 'just' a software issue. Tesla is not responsive to conerns and gravity of situation. Tesla service said they would inspect vehicle cameras but that would take several weeks, offered no loaner car, and dissmissed any cause for concern repeating the issue was simply a software issue that required drivers to better report 'bugs' and that more cars needed to drive these 'routes' (I-80 and I-76 in this case) in order for more accurate navigation. Vehichle repeatidly turned back on automatic emergency braking despite driver having disabled this feature.
Phantom braking in cruise control almost caused being rear ended. This happens all the time! Super dangerous
Automatic hold disabled. I had multiple instances where automatic hold was disabled. If driver isn’t paying attention to screen it is hard to know and car rolls back on wheel. Earlier when I encountered this issue vehicle was rolling back and my wife caught this issue.
My Tesla Model Y is experiencing phantom braking, due presumably to a faulty collission avoidance safety system. With cruise control enabled (not autopilot with lane keeping, only cruise control by depressing the stalk once vs. twice for lane keep) the car will phantom brake, where it slams on the brakes thinking their is a vehicle in its path when there is no vehicle in the front lane. This has happened to us on a clear toll road in Southern California on Hwy 73, both on June 7th, 2023 and in April/May 2023, where the Tesla slams on its brakes, decelerating us from 65mph to 38mph and below (at which point I slammed the accelerator pedal to avoid a rear end collission), with vehicles directly behind us, almost causing a dangerous accident. This happened with my three children in the back seat. We have experiencing this phantom braking twice in the last 2 months. In all cases the vehicle was well centered in the lane and there was no vehicle in the lane ahead of us, nor did we recently change lanes. I created a service ticket with Tesla, including bringing it into the service center at Lake Forest, CA, as scheduled, and they explained in person that there is nothing they can do, that they are unable to retrieve any video footage from the vehicle, and sent us away without even looking at the vehicle, replacing any hardware, hardware testing, or test driving it for themselves. We are at a complete loss of what to do with this vehicle that is only 6 months old. The vehicle has no warning lights or error messages prior to any of these failures. I feel that this vehicle is unsafe for my family to drive and Tesla is not putting forth reasonable effort to fix the vehicle.
I drive in West Texas, no hills but some rises and slopes, mostly flat. Going from Odessa to Lubbock (5AM) maybe 2 phantom braking episodes. Coming back on a clear, sunshiny day I experienced 15-20, out of the blue. Scared me to death. No cars within 100 yards, just BAM and it braked. Another 6-7 when the car thought a car over taking me was a problem and braked or one coming in a two lane (just about 5 miles only) thinking there was a danger. We are talking about excellent 4 lane highways with excellent pavement and markings.
Phantom braking at highway speed. Maybe a shadow or line on the road confuses the system and slams on brakes. Is more common if the cruise is engaged. Happens every day. My commute is about 30 miles happens once or twice every drive. Increases risk of being rear ended. The car is not FSD enabled.
2023 TESLA Y -Consumer is writing about concerns with the speed assistance, auto-pilot (quick stopping action). Consumer was unaware of the dangers and that there was no cruise or lane control. Consumer submitted service request. Consumer has listed summary of observations & incidents. Consumer listed several questions: Are all Tesla Y prone to phantom breaking? Did we get a lemon? Can we get it fixed? Can Tesla replace the computer? Can we get a replacement car? Can we make the sales go back and instead buy a safe car? Do you have to be in an accident, having someone injured or having someone killed for Tesla to provide a warning to customers of Tesla Y? As a new Tesla owner what I the next step? Can we trust our Tesla Y not to cause an accident? Should we garage the car until Tesla has made its needed software updates? Can we return the car to Tesla? Get it replaced?
I bought the Model Y in Feb 2023, after 2 months of driving, 3 weeks back on 5/14/2023, all of sudden the car lit up Yellow Brake indicator on dashboard while I was driving downhill. I didn't understand what this indicator meant but when I needed to brake - I could not brake at all, so I let regenerative braking slow the car down which it did. I was horrified as I was on the road at that time, so I tried to find parking to park the car and then read online what this indicator meant, but felt very unsafe to drive the car home. Since then Brakes doesnt work and ABS seems to push back my foot hard and Adaptive cruise controld doesnt work at all. I have service appointment on 6/6 which is the first appointment I could find close to my home.
Repetitive phantom braking. Happens quite often. Three time today on the intestate. I had cruise control set at 71mph and without any vehicle or obstacles in the area the car hard breaked from 71 down to 40. I have it on video.
We have had our car for under 3 months and have had repeated episodes (easily 2 to 3 dozen) of extremely rapid braking when the car is in cruise control on the open interstate road when there are no cars ahead of us or any other obstacles that might have triggered the camera sensor. Tried turning off the forward collision avoidance option and the events still happen. Have kept the windshield over the front camera areas clean. It has happened typically during sunny days as we have not usually used the cruise control in the rain. When these events happen there is typical rapid slowing of the vehicle by 20-30 mph within a few seconds. If a car was following close behind us, there would be a high chance of collision. There have been no warning messages or any signs that the vehicle is otherwise malfunctioning. When we contacted Tesla technical assistance, they emailed us a copy of the part of the car manual that says the feature might not function in bad weather, if the camera is not clean, in construction zones, etc. none of which describe the circumstances of when this malfunction happens in the car in broad daylight. They also said whenever it happens to send a bug report which the technicians will look at. They also said it might be fixed with the next update, which of course, it wasn't. Finally, in the same batch of emails, they sent email that said we could report our issue to the federal safety agency which without any other resolution method to the problem, is why I am reporting it here. It seems as if there are many Tesla owners who are reporting this problem online. It may have been less of a problem before Tesla removed the radar feature in the last year and depended solely on their front cameras to make automatic braking decisions for the car. Whatever is happening, it isn't working and makes driving with cruise control scary and dangerous. Thank you for listening. Please help.
While driving on a relatively straight, 2-lane highway with cruise control set and no autopilot, the car started to brake suddenly and aggressively. This caused the car behind me to almost rear end my car. Luckily I was quick enough to press the accelerator to avoid the accident. This same sudden braking happened a total of 4 times within a 200 mile trip, one of which almost caused an accident.
Error message “power braking assist reduced” displayed on the vehicle and the vehicles brake gave out. Meaning I was unable to utilize the brakes for slowing down the vehicle. The message disappeared after parking (and powering down) the vehicle for a bit. Had the same issue in a few days. Tesla is now replacing the entire brake pad assembly due to a brake sensor failure.
Braking. Yes, can be inspected upon request. Phantom braking for no apparent reason occurred at least 12 times in each direction on a long-distance trip on 2- and 4-lane roads on May 15 & 17 and also a trip in April, both in Autopilot and TACC modes, with nothing but the open road ahead, very little traffic, although a couple times when nearing the top of a hill. Driving at 70 mph on 2-lane roads and 80 mph on 4-lane roads. Concern of being rear-ended if passing a vehicle so wait long time to return to driving lane. Fortunately in standard driving no one was following closely to cause concern. One time when I was passing a semi, when I was almost even with the cab. No contact with dealer or service center as they are 240 miles away from my home or inspection by others. Unknown if there were on-screen messages due to watching the road instead.
Incidents of phantom braking: We took our brand new Tesla model Y on a road-trip from Saint Helena CA to Scottsdale AZ and back. We had several incidents of the car slamming on the brakes while in cruise control due to mistakes in recognizing an actual reason to brake. May 11, in Arizona on highway 60, single lane road, we were in the right lane heading east when a large white pickup approached in the left lane. Our car mistook the approaching vehicle as a potential collision and slammed the brakes. This occurred a second time with another approaching vehicle at which point we ceased using cruise control. May 17 return trip on highway 10 in the morning, as I was driving with cruise control on, two lane highway, I approached a swale in the road with a change in pavement color. Gray concrete color contrasted with the blacktop patches in the upslope of the swale and the car slammed on the brakes. Same day, same highway, I was in the left lane having passed a slower vehicle. There were two cars behind me, waiting to pass. I put on the right turn signal and began to move into the right lane. There were a series of white jersey barriers on either side of the road. The car mistook these as a potential collision, slammed on the brakes and pushed me back toward the left lane. I applied the accelerator and forced it back into the right lane, avoiding a collision with the cars behind me. May 18 driving north on highway 5, multi lane highway and as my wife was driving and crested a hill there was a wire hanging across the road. In the center of the wire was a camera or some other device. While the wire was at least 6 feet over us, the car mistook it for an obstruction and slammed on the brakes.
Our car experienced unexpected and sudden braking on 3 occasions. #1: We were in cruise control (cc) and the car was going through a town and the brakes were applied suddenly (5/4/23). It accelerated again on its own. The other two incidents were on 5/8/23) #2: In CC, on a two lane highway. Tesla passed a semi in opposite direction (had plenty of clearance) and car braked suddenly. We were no where close to the semi. #3: Not in CC, on a 4 lane highway, we moved over into another lane to give a bicycle clear berth. Car braked suddenly. In #2 and #3 we had passed other semis and bicycles in tighter situations and braking did not occur. No accident occurred altho we had a car behind us in #2. Will be bringing car into Tesla on 5/20/23 to have them look at the car.
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