Assist problems of the 2021 Tesla Model 3

Steering rack failure. Steering assist, auto pilot and lane departure prevention failed and would not work properly so this is a safety issue. Manual steering worked fine but the safety and auto pilot functions would no longer function. Paid for Tesla service over $3,000 to replace steering rack and now is working properly. Reporting this as this may happen to others and probably should be a proactive recall on the steering racks so others don't lose these safety features. Maybe related to computer as it failed, worked again and then failed again and was then repaired by Tesla service center.

Component/system involved: advanced driver assistance systems — fsd (supervised)/autosteer (lane keeping assistance) and adaptive cruise control. Possible failure to warn/stop (fcw/aeb). Vehicle and data are available for inspection upon request. I preserved dashcam files and requested Tesla to preserve engineering logs and edr. What happened & safety risk: on Aug 13, 2025 at ~9:30 am pdt on us-101 sb near east palo alto, CA, with fsd (supervised) engaged, the system appeared to misinterpret an exit ramp/gore area as a continuing lane at a highway fork and maintained ~60 mph (posted ~70). As soon as I saw the trajectory was unsafe, I braked and began manual steering takeover, but the vehicle contacted a roadside sign near the gore/shoulder before I could complete the maneuver. I then stopped safely. No other vehicles were struck. Airbags did not deploy. This posed a serious collision risk to me, my passenger, and nearby traffic. Reproduction/confirmation: not reproduced. I have not attempted to reproduce the event. Unknown whether the issue has been reproduced by Tesla or a service center yet. Inspection to date: police responded (report pending). My insurer has opened a claim. I opened a Tesla service request asking to preserve autopilot/fsd engineering logs for the incident window and to coordinate edr extraction; engineering review pending. Vehicle remains drivable. Warnings or symptoms before failure: no audible/visual forward-collision warning was perceived by me and I did not observe automatic emergency braking. No prior warning lamps/messages were noticed before the departure toward the gore. Unknown whether any internal/partial interventions were recorded in logs. . Read more...

My Tesla was operating in full-self-driving beta when it experienced a sudden uncontrolled accelration event. I was driving on [xxx] at approximatley [xxx] this morning. The road speed limit was 40 mph. The car display was correctly showing that the road speed limit was 40mph. The speed offset in the cars setting was limited to 5 mph max above the speed limit. While the car was driving it suddenly accelerated very hard from approximately 40 mph to over 60mph before I was able to stab the brake pedal and kick the car out of full self driving mode. There were no errors, warnings, or signs that anything was wrong with the car. I have also notified Tesla via the service request function in the Tesla app under the section for "software performance". Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

Lost power steering suddenly on the road.

Autopilot feature is now unstable as I get constant nags if I look away for a few seconds to check my surroundings or check my navigation. I have been locked out of the feature multiple times over the past week forcing me to make navigation changes while manually driving.

Electrical system rebooted in the middle of driving: screen went off couldn't signal I swayed to the side and waited till the screen came back on after 3 minutes.

Ul_a022_apefusesetc audience [service-fix, factory) description driver assistance ecu (ape) is not fused or not locked or missing credentials set condition driver assistance ecu is not fused or not locked or missing credentials clear condition driver assistance ecu is fused, locked and has proper credentials potential impact driver assistance ecu is in an unsecured state (unfused).

I believe that Tesla's autosteer and full self driving features are improperly designed. I will speak to them as if they were one and the same. I noticed that you have a check box for lane keeping assistance above, but there is no checkbox for coercive auto steering, which is Tesla's product. The only ability it offers as far as steering the car is to forcibly disengage the autosteering feature. This is not assistance and this is the problem. A properly designed lane keeping assistance feature continuously monitors driver steering action, lane position, and traffic conditions. If the lane keeping assistance system finds itself 'alone' with little or no measurable input from the driver, action is called for. With the Tesla, the feature has an embarrassingly stupid 'driver attention check' which, until recently, could be easily defeated by the simple addition of a weight to one side of the steering wheel or the other. In a misguided attempt to correct this ridiculously poor design, they have recently made matters much worse. Now they distract the driver's attention from driving by forcing the playing of some sort of 'patty cake' type game, which does prove alertness of the driver, but detracts from the real and necessary work of circumventing the actual threats encountered in everyday driving. In short, a proper lane keeping assistance feature should not be totally ignorant of the driver's subtle driving moves (it's an excellent feature as long as autosteering isn't engaged) and should honor requests to move into different parts of the lane long before disengaging, and no attention measuring system should come at the expense of driver awareness of actual issues. I have tried through email and phone to convince Tesla that something needs to be done, but have received no response from them.

Tesla allows owners to enroll as fsd beta testers however, the owner cannot unenroll when they request. The fsd beta is extremely dangerous and makes the use of even acc impossible to use. I have requested to leave the beta via emailing fsdbeta@Tesla. Com, which an automatic response is received stating to unenroll respond to that email with your VIN and they will process the request. However, they do not process the request; I have sent dozens of email requests with no response and am still stuck in the beta software queue. I have attempted to submit service requests but the app recognizes the verbiage and blocks the submissions, stating to send the email instead. There is no other method to contact Tesla.

The traffic aware cruise control and auto-steer are easily confused so that the vehicle does unexpected things like suddenly slowing down, even heavy breaking, or disengage steering control while in a corner next to semi-truck. This commonly happens when driving at higher speeds, 70 mph, on the freeway. Suddenly slowing down at such a high speed is dangerous when there are cars following me as they don’t expect a sudden slow down when they can clearly see there is no reason for our car slamming on the brakes. In my observation this problems occur most frequently at higher speeds and when approaching a semi truck or overpass. It is especially worse when going through a corner. Sometimes the center barrier seems to cause sudden slowing down. Also, driving in a corner on the freeway while driving next to a semi truck has caused the auto steer to suddenly disengage which in itself was not dangerous since I had both hands on the steering wheel, it certainly startled me which could potentially be dangerous.

Several times during every drive where cruise control/autopilot is used, an event known as "phantom braking" occurs often time triggering the collision warning systems with no danger present. Phantom breaking is the automatic braking of the cruise control/autopilot systems when no danger is present, causing an unexpected and dangerous automatic braking event. I wish to emphasize that this happens when either system is used under safe conditions and even within the guidelines recommended by Tesla. It is available for inspection should it be necessary. During these events, a vehicle following mine can and has been caught off-guard by the sudden braking, resulting in near-miss rear-endings. The danger of a vehicle collision is extremely high in these scenarios. The problem happens consistently on two-lane roads with no median using standard cruise control (autopilot is only recommended on divided highways/interstates). Phantom braking still occurs at random in varied environments with both systems. My vehicle has not been taken to a dealer, but the issue has been confirmed/acknowledged by the manufacturer with no solution. This vehicle is new and delivered to me this year. The problem has been occurring since taking ownership/lease. Aside from the the emergency collision warning chime occurring sometimes at the same time as the braking event, there are no symptoms, warnings, or lamps appearing prior to the automatic braking nor afterwards. I have attempted to use the vehicle's camera recalibration and have changed available safety settings to every combination possible to attempt a consumer fix for the issue, but no combination of settings seems to keep the automatic braking events from happening.

On a daily basis while using the adaptive cruise control or Tesla autopilot, I will experience multiple erroneous automatic braking events. The car generally slams the brakes on when it is cresting a hill, attempting to pass a semi truck, or when sun angles produce large shadows in the road. The automatic braking events are sometimes very aggressive and can be extremely dangerous, especially if someone is following behind you in high speed traffic. My wife has requested that I don’t use cruise control or autopilot while she’s in the car, as we experienced an unwarranted, aggressive automatic braking episode which caused great pressure against her pregnant belly on a previous road trip. Additionally, the cameras on my vehicle will often produce warning/error messages stating “x camera is blocked or blinded” for absolutely no reason other than headlights from oncoming traffic shining into my lane. I am unsure if this contributes to the automatic braking issue.

I was driving on fsd beta but when an alien landed on the road in front of me. The fsd beta software did not detect the alien’s vehicle and almost hit her as she was stepping out. System initiated beeps and I tried to take control but it forced control away from me and tried to steer towards the alien. I had to kick the car to get control back. Very dangerous to everyone involved.