My Tesla has experienced several phantom breaking occurrences while on the highway where autopilot engages break aggressively when there is no collision possibility and almost caused rear end collisions into my car. Very terrifying and this needs to be addressed.
2023 Tesla Model Y driver assistance complaints
Page 14 of 19: complaints 371 to 400 of 549, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Backing up in a parking lot with direct sun behind the car, lost sight via the mirrors, dashboard camera and parking assist and collided with parking bollard approximately 3' high causing extensive damage to the left, rear quarter panel and wheel well. Parking assist didn't beep, blare or other as it does and has for our yard waste bins and garden cart at the edges of our driveway (backing up in the dark). I believe the fact that cameras only and sun exposure is a bad mix and was sure glad we weren't in FSD and going forward. I think that removing the radar function via software and or removing the connector plug (at a service visit) is both unsafe and a fraud against the purchaser of such a vehicle and radar systems should be reinstated for the consideration of safety whether going backwards or forwards. Wanted to make the complaint first as we also can't get a service appointment for this incident until the end of July. Happy with the overall vehicle but this safety function is fallible and unsafe.
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.
Vehicle experienced phantom braking while on the highway. Vehicle was travelling at 85mph while Autopilot was engaged - hands were on steering wheel and no warnings were flashing. Vehicle experienced rapid braking/deceleration with no objects in front of vehicle - road was empty and no other vehicles were around. Incident occurred on 07/04/2023 @ 0544hrs MST. Vehicle displayed no warning signs during incident. This has occurred multiple times in the past while Autopilot was engaged.
While driving on the freeway at a speed of 72 MPH thr speed limit was 75 MPH used cruse control no vehicles are onfront of me and it did a sudden brake and went to 0 luckily escaped from life threat behind me other vehicle was their that driver handled well if not it would have effected worse. Happend couple of time since I was new Tesla I thought I was not handling properly serious life threat issue scared to drive
Tesla's Autopilot feature regularly experiences "phantom braking". A typical scenario is while traveling on an interstate highway in Idaho, Oregon or Washington state at the speed limit (70 to 80 MPH), the car will suddenly and violently decelerate. The severity can vary between annoying to so extreme that the passenger is thrown forward hard enough to engage the retention mechanism in the seat belt. This happens under seemingly perfect conditions-- mid-day, clear skies, clear lane markings, smooth pavement in good condition, straight section of road. The deceleration can be overridden by pressing the accelerator or disengaging autopilot but by that time the risk of being rear-ended by anyone traveling close behind is very high. For this reason I've been using the feature less and less which leaves me without any form of basic cruise control. In two different trips of around 500 miles, phantom braking has occurred between 10 and 20 times each. In two different service requests, Tesla has confirmed that my car, including the vision system, is operating within normal specifications. Beyond that they're unwilling to engage in any form of diagnosis or investigation. There are two fundamental problems here: 1) Tesla's Autopilot feature in unreliable and dangerous 2) The car I purchased was advertised to have Cruise Control, implemented by Tesla with their Autopilot feature. Because of 1), it effectively has no Cruise Control.
I live in Fremont, CA. A few hours ago, I was driving from Mountain View to my home. When I was in the left most lane of CA-237 driving at like 70 mph on adaptive cruise control, the car started to brake really hard all of a sudden. There was nothing ahead of me as far as I could see at that point, there was no car close to me in the right lane either, and there wasn’t any kind of sharp turn or something. The braking was so sudden, forceful, and above all unexpected that we were really shocked and scared (and of course experienced a horrifying jerk). The same kind of thing has happened once before with the same car when the car began to brake suddenly and forcefully even though there was no one in sight on the highway.
While driving highway speeds in autopilot (cruise control) I experience sudden heavy breading for no reason. No cars around on a flat road. Once while in front of another car which scared me enough not to use it anymore.
During our road trip today on the HWY cruise control was engaged. without warning several times the car decelerated from 75 (speed of traffic) to 50 which could have caused an accident had other cars been following closer. We can no longer trust the cruise control mode as this is a serious safety concern.
The auto steer cruise control made a totally unnecessary sudden brake. The vehicle in the front did not make sudden stop. Since my Tesla which was in auto steer made a sudden stop the vehicle behind me had to make a emergency stop due which this cat got rear ended.
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.
While traveling with cruise control engaged between 65-70 MPH, car suddenly disengages acceleration and applies braking to drop by 5 to 10 mph with no obstacles or traffic in front of car. Must immediately press on accelerator pedal to cancel braking. If another car following too closely, rear end collision possible.
When using traffic aware cruise control the car frequently brakes for no reason. The braking put the car in danger of being rear ended. The road was straight, clear weather, no change in speed limits or excessive speed.
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.
On every trip in my 2023 Model Y there is phantom braking for no reason with no cars in front of or around me. It happens on the highway on perfectly clear days, with no hills, no signs, no shadows or bridges, with no cars in front of me or behind me on completely straight roads in addition to happening when there are other vehicles around. I will be traveling at highway speeds and the car slows enough to be terrifying and throw objects around the car. I have stopped using cruise control and auto pilot because I’m scared of the car. I reported the problem to Tesla on the phone and through their app the first time it happened multiple times on one trip and they said that they looked at the logs and that it didn’t happen. Since my family was with me in the vehicle, I have witnesses. I was told to self report by pressing the right flywheel and log every time it happens. I did that but since it happens a lot I refuse to use the features. I think Tesla should allow us to return these vehicles for refunds.
I was driving using "auto-pilot" for speed control while going 70mph my vehicle randomly braked hard for no reason (maybe a cloud shadow) causing the vehicle behind me to swerve into the shoulder. I just bought the car 3 weeks ago and am very disappointed that the vehicle doesn't come standard with cruise control that won't cause accidents. This is a recurring issue with using autopilot in my vehicle. I don't feel safe and will be contacting tesla next. Although I doubt they will be of much help.
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 on highway car often slams in the brakes when cruise control is on for no reason. At least once every drive causing me to be nearly rear ended.
Just returned from round trip from Kansas City Mo. to Denver Colorado. Used the cruise control quite a bit on the trip. On 10-15 occasions the regenerative braking automatically came on for no reason.In one instance I was driving the 75 mph speed limit and a car was following too close when the regenerative braking activated and almost caused a crash.It seemed a lot of the times it happened on a bridge but not all of the time.Nothing was in front of me that should have caused this to happen.
While driving and using the cruise control the car suddenly braked hard. On some occasions we lost 20 mph before reacting and applying pressure to the accelerator. At other times we only lost 3 mph before the car corrected itself. We had perhaps 15-18 incidents in less than 2 hours. We tried switching off the AEB system but that did not help. In all cases there were on I-25 between Pueblo and Trinidad and there were no cars within a few hundred yards of us. It was sunny and about 75 all day. I've since read about "phantom braking" with Teslas and that sounds like exactly what was happening. The vehicle is currently with the dealer for repairs.
I am finishing a drive across the country and every time I put my Tesla into cruise control or adaptive cruise control, it will eventually abruptly break for no reason, in traffic with cars. It can only be restarted by stopping the cruise control feature and turning it back on, after which it inevitably happens without any warning
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.
the car will suddenly brake on the highway when the cruise control is on for no apparent reason
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.
While the cruise control was engaged and traveling on a two lane road, the adaptive cruise control kicked in when it sensed a bicycle on the side of the road. There was an immediate hard braking applied by the car. Had there been a vehicle behind us we would have been rear ended. A few days later under very similar circumstances on a two lane road the brakes were applied by the vehicle. There were no other cars in sight - we were the only ones on the road. The only logical conclusion is the adaptive cruise control thought that the skid marks that were on the road was an obstacle that it braked for. Again, if there had been a vehicle behind us there would have been a collision. We contacted Tesla service in Reno, Nv. , advising of the above and requesting the adaptive cruise be disabled. We were informed they could not do that and if it happens again take note of time of event and they would review the cameras to see what is triggering the phantom braking. We want it disabled - not waiting for the next incident to occur!
Phantom braking in cruise control almost caused being rear ended. This happens all the time! Super dangerous
Tesla's forward collision system gave another false warning: on June 15, 2023 at 10:00am on Reston Pkwy at Reston, VA while I was traveling around 25mph for a car in front of me, with more than plenty of space between cars. This false warning caused a lot of confusion on my side, I tried to figure out what was wrong, the false warning itself distracted from the road. I can see the Tesla's false warning causing accidents in some cases. This needs immediate attention.
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