Cruise Control problems of the 2018 Tesla Model 3

The contact owns a 2018 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving 70 mph with the cruise control activated, the braking system erroneously activated causing the vehicle to abruptly stop in the middle of the road. The contact indicated that during the failure there were no objects or vehicles nearby to cause the braking system to suddenly activate. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The local dealer was not yet contacted. The failure mileage was 5,000.

The rear trunk lid popped open by itself while driving. I was the only person in the vehicle, and I did not pop the trunk lid. It should be noted that the trunk lid can not be opened by the occupants while the vehicle is in motion. The selection on the screen is not available, the trunk 'button' is not accessible on the screen while in motion. There is no mechanical release. When the trunk opened, it caused the cruise control to become unavailable.

While reversing into my 2 car garage into the center of the garage space, I came to a stop (auto hold after braking to a stop but with the rear camera view on display) when I reached far inside (to be able to close the garage door). Using the homelink, I closed the garage door (waited till it fully closed 2 ft from the front nose of the car). While I had both feet flat on the driver floor mat, I tapped the right side gear stalk down to switch from reverse to drive, the car jerked forward and the display screen closed the rear view camera. I normally drive forward slowly to put the nose of the car about 1 ft from the garage door (this allows me walking space at the rear of the car while parked). In the past I have noticed less severe 'jerking/lurching' forward when going from reverse to drive while leaving my garage when I would maneuver in the garage space with two cars parked, I thought it was my imagination. In retrospect this car has done it several times over the span of a year. Consumer states that vehicle seems to be activating the cruise control feature when the car is at a complete stop.

I own a 2018 Tesla Model 3 mid-range (non-autopilot, non-self-driving, software update v10. 2 - 2019. 40. 50. 7). I experienced a cruise control related safety defect on my non-self-driving, non- autopilot Tesla Model 3 several times since 2019. 40. 2. 1 update. First time it happened at highway speeds. I was going 60-65mph with no cars in front of me. I set the cruise control, let my foot off of the accelerator expecting the cruise control to active like it always had in the past. Suddenly, instead of maintaining the speed it was set at it, the car slowed down with full regenerative braking to below 50mph while still indicating the set speed on the display. I have had the car for over a year (purchased in December 2018) and use car with the cruise control more or less daily. The issue never appeared until after the 2019. 40. 2. 1 update. I was away from home when the update was installed, so I didn't actually start experiencing the issue until January 6, 2020 when I resumed my daily commute. The most recent time it happened, I was actually on my way to the Tesla service center in bellevue wa for an unrelated service appointment. In the this instance, I was turning right onto a four lane, non-divided surface street and accelerating from a stoplight. I remember accelerating to 33mph and seeing the user interface feedback (black circle around the set speed) as I activated cruise control. Before I could react, the car had slowed to about 20mph, while the user interface indicated that the cruise control was still active at 33mph. I was going up a moderate hill at time. The uphill combined with the full regenerative braking effect made me feel unsafe to say the least. I felt fortunate that there were no cars following closely behind me.

In order to cancel cruise control or autopilot in a Tesla Model 3, the primary mechanism is to push the right stalk upwards as far as it will go. However, pushing the same stalk upwards only part of the way will cause the car to shift into neutral. This can cause a driver to put the car into neutral while it is underway. This is especially dangerous in a Tesla because if the car is in neutral regenerative breaking is disabled and it is the common driving habit to use regenerative breaking as the primary braking mechanism. Essentially, a driver can accidentally make the car unable to accelerate and unable to use primary braking when in motion. In addition, there is no audible alert that the car has been shifted to neutral and only a very small visible change to the touchscreen. I alerted Tesla to this issue in August of 2018 and there has been no change to the car's behavior since then, despite numerous over the air software updates.

On 04/13/2019 the car abrupt stopped in the middle of the road while I drove it along northbond santa rita road in pleasanton CA. . Cars coming from behind had to make urgent braking or lane change to avoid hitting us. My young child was crying in horror, and we have no way to get ourself to safety with the car totally unable to move. We called 911, and local police was dispatch to help other card avoiding hitting us, while we waiting for tow truck to arrive. The car was unresponsive for about 20 minutes, with the display showing messages: "unable to drive, pull over to safety. Car shutting down". The car resumed operational after about 20 minutes, without any noticeable change. I drove the car to nearest service center (pleasanton CA). After a few days, I was contact by the service center stating the car can be picked up, while nothing was done to fix the issue. Their official invoice states: "this is currently scheduled to be fixed in 2019. 20, but the customer can continue driving. If it happens again (seems unlikely), they can just get out of the car and get back in to resume operation. ". I pointed to Tesla service representative that their recommended solution is unacceptable - just like what happened to us already - it would be illegal and unsafe to exit the vehicle if it stops in the middle of highway, with no chance to pull over even to the curb. The Tesla representative brought an engineer to help "explain" the information, when he mentioned that this issue is a known characteristic related to use of cruise control. And the engineer said he would personally be ok to drive the car without using cruise control. I asked if that means the cruise control is not safe, they said it would be my own judgment. I think this is a significant safety hazard Tesla is intentionally ignoring and need thorough investigation.

My Tesla Model 3 has a defect with autopilot sensors and sound. When on autopilot (adaptive cruise control), the sensors can sometimes freeze up and or fail, causing autopilot to cease functioning and issue an audio alert. However, system sound (blinkers, notification alert system) sometimes fails, thus preventing the autopilot from alerting the driver that it will no longer be breaking and or steering. For example, I am driving using the autopilot cruise control, which is supposed to steer /brake/accelerate for me and instructed to keep eyes on the road, however, when the autopilot stops working as well as the audio notification, the driver will not know that it has failed and the car no longer brakes, thus making it likely to have a collision. I have recorded the flaws and defects and have it on video. This can happen anywhere, on highway or on a regular road. Tesla has been unable to fix the problem.

The contact owns a 2018 Tesla Model 3. While driving with the cruise control set at approximately 67 mph, the vehicle independently accelerated to 75 mph. The failure occurred without warning. The contact was able to disengage the cruise control. A dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer was contacted and an engineer was sent to diagnose the vehicle. The engineer was unable to provide a cause for the independent acceleration. The contact stated that the failure recurred several times. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 4,000. Consumer stated vehicle either slows down suddenly or speeds up. This has happened multiple times.