Automatic Emergency Braking problems of the 2021 Tesla Model 3 - part 1

I drove into my neighbor’s driveway to drop her off. As I slowed down and applied the brakes to stop, the car failed to respond. It continued forward, running over the flower and plant pots at the edge of the driveway, crossing the backyard, and finally colliding with the trees and bushes at the rear of the property. All airbags deployed, and the vehicle was damaged beyond repair.

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...

On [Wednesday, 07/09/2025], I was driving my Tesla Model 3 in rainy conditions when the vehicle suddenly swerved and crashed into a sidewall. The road was wet but not flooded, and I was traveling at a moderate speed. As I lifted my foot off the accelerator to slow down, the car's regenerative braking system engaged abruptly, which I believe shifted weight forward and caused the rear tires to lose traction. This led to hydroplaning and complete loss of control. There were no warning lights or alerts prior to the incident. The road surface did not have visible hazards or standing water that would typically explain a spinout. The tires were moderately worn but within usable limits. As a result of the crash, the car was declared a total loss. The insurance company now has possession of the vehicle. Thankfully, no one was injured, but the crash was severe. After the incident, I researched similar cases and found multiple reports and articles (e. G. , autoevolution) linking Tesla’s regenerative braking to increased risk of hydroplaning or loss of control in wet or slippery conditions. The regen system eliminates coasting and applies braking force immediately upon throttle lift-off, which appears to be a safety risk in reduced-traction environments like rain, snow, or ice. I believe this issue deserves investigation, as it may affect the safety of other Tesla drivers in similar weather conditions.

While using traffic aware cruise control or autosteer, the car occasionally detects a nonexistent person in the center of the lane I’m driving in, the proceeds to slam on the brakes when no hazard exists. It seems that tire markings in the road and certain lighting conditions cause the car to think there is a person in the road. Additionally, when driving on a highway with rolling hills, the car detects a forward collision alert and hits the brakes and disengages the autosteer. Both of these could cause a rear and collision at highway speeds. The dealer has claimed that the cause is functionally normally and I already tried to get it serviced but the car continues to have these issues. I do have video evidence of the car slamming on the brakes and detecting a forward collision.

Vehicle constantly phantom brakes while driving. I have reported 100+ incidents thru my Tesla "report bug" feature. It will read the speed limit sign on the off ramp and slow the vehicle down 20mps abruptly, it will see a car on an onramp and slam the brakes on thinking there is a collision coming. It is every single day using cruise control.

Location: 35. 084609,-92. 414194 while driving through the roundabout north to south on amity road, the car has twice now applied automatic emergency braking while exiting the roundabout. There is a billboard 200ft from the road with an image of a person on it. The car is confusing that as a person in the road. This has caused my dog to be thrown (thankfully buckled in) and us to almost be rear-ended both times. This is extremely dangerous issue.

I started receiving messages that the cameras were occluded and that there was an error and all of my system safety features were disabled. No front forward collision warnings, no emergency braking available, nothing available and the system computer that showed all of the traffic and everything completely disappeared from the screen, the car has literally gone blind. All of this started happening on with the camera issues in may, but I thought that it was a software issue and would be addressed in the next update, although the critical disengagements were supposed to be sent to Tesla. I took the car to the service center on 9/4/24 at 9am, and they stated that the did a system test and saw that the triple camera was showing a fault and so they replaced the camera and gave it back to me the same day. Everything worked for the rest of that day for a service that took at least 3hours to figure out. Today after I get off of work at 1pm and I go to initiate fsd and I get 3miles from my residence( I live <8mi from my job) and the system disengages again asking me to take over and all of my critical systems have yet again been disabled. My whole safety is compromised at this point yet again. I immediately bring the car back and they tell me that it's going to take them an additional 30-45 mins to "diagnose" the issue although it's the same thing that's been happening that was supposedly fixed yesterday. After that wait time the service consultant comes back and tell me that the car is throwing all kinds of codes and that, "it's still safe to drive. " when I told that it cannot be safe to drive if all of the critical systems were disabled he suggested that I take it and they can do a remote log pull so they can look more into the issue or I can leave it as the part that's needed needs to be ordered anyway. I don't know how they can order a part if they're claiming to not know what's wrong with it. Something else is going on that they don't want to take accountability for!.

While driving north on hwy 84 in texas, the Tesla autopilot abruptly and forcibly applied the brakes while I was driving approximately 77 mph. I was almost rear ended by a semi truck due to this issue. This happened again about 20 miles down the road and I disengaged the cruise control and autopilot altogether at that point. This is a continuous problem that needs to be addressed.

Full self driving and cruise control brakes randomly and violently with no warning at highway speeds. This has happened no less than 20 times on one trip on 8 March 2024. This has put myself and other vehicles in extreme danger. The model has had this issue known by the manufacturer and nothing has been done. This braking occurs with no warning other than the vehicle slamming on the brakes. This needs to be fixed ASAP, its a hazard to me as the driver and the general public.

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving approximately 35 mph, the vehicle experienced phantom braking, causing the contact to lose control of the vehicle. The contact was driving in a rainstorm during the failure and stated that the vehicle had not hydroplaned nor had the accelerator pedal been released. The contact stated there was no warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the failure occurred another time during a rainstorm. The contact had not taken the vehicle to a local dealer or independent mechanic. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 74,000.

I leased a Tesla Model 3 on November 10, 2021 in tampa, florida on August 24, 2023 the car went into sudden unintended acceleration as I was coming out of a "hold" at a yield sign where I was at a complete stop waiting for traffic to fully clear for a right hand turn onto a two lane street. I was coming off of I 275 onto 5th avenue north in st. Petersburg, florida. As I started the turn, the Tesla tossed me onto the curb and along a pedestrian sidewalk at high speed. I tried to brake, but the car continued plowing towards a traffic sign that I avoided hitting by making a hard left to try to get back onto the street. Instead of returning me to the street and my lane, the Tesla threw me left across two lanes of traffic, over a grass divider, and into two lanes of oncoming traffic heading straight for a head on collision. At this point, the steering wheel went out, was completely unresponsive and just kept spinning around. The brake was still not responding. I kept spinning the wheel towards the right until at the last minute the car sped back onto the correct side of the road where I was abruptly and without any kind of a jolt, able to regain control of the car: the brake responded and the steering wheel stopped spinning. I then drove at a speed of about 20 miles an hour to the closest residential street. After stopping to gather my wits for about half an hour, I slowly drove home with the emergency lights on and parked it in the parking lot. The Tesla had damage to the front and undercarriage. The Tesla's steering wheel pulled to the right. I did not get into that Tesla again and demanded that they tow the car away and warn others that it is a death trap. They towed the car. I am never getting into any other Tesla again for as long as I live.

The vehicle was traveling in excess of 75 mph with only the autopilot system enabled. The vehicle brakes engaged by itself enough to squeal the tires and the rear end momentarily broke free from the pavement. I disengaged autopilot and drove for approximately 5 minutes. I reengaged autopilot and approximately 5 minutes later the brakes engaged again. I left autopilot disengaged for the remainder of the trip (~ 4 hrs) there were no other vehicles nearby but the breaking was severe enough that if another vehicle had been behind me, it could have caused a collision. The dealer acknowledges that this unintended breaking does occur on other vehicles. There was no warning that the vehicle would severely brake. The weather was clear with bright sun on route i25 south of denver.

Multiple phantom breaking events while driving at highway speed. Luckily there were no cars behind us, otherwise there could have been a collision. Caused driver and passenger whiplash and items in car to be forcibly displaced. There were no advance warning. Tried to report to manufacturer but they seem to be closed for the holiday, will try again to report after holiday.

Car “phantom brakes” constantly when going over a hill when it does not have vision. The braking is aggressive at freeway speeds and poses a risk for rear end collisions or road rage incidents if people think they are being brake checked.

1:brake fail when trying to stop the car after the accident. The car is available for inspection at arrow towing service oklahoma city. 2: after the car accident the car keep going can't stop got tee boned and my passenger broke his legs and ankles, elbow. 3: no, the problem has not be discussed with the dealer or manufacturer yet. 4: no one, including police, insurance have been inspect it. 5: no warning lamp or any kind of warning.

While on autopilot, the car suddenly phantom brakes when there is no risk of any collision ahead. This has happened multiple times on high speed highways. Within 1 hour, this happened 5 times and caused near-collisions with the car following my car.

During the time we have owned this car, it exhibits random and sudden deceleration events when operating autopilot (adaptive cruise control) on highways and freeways. The events are not explainable by presence of any notable present or potential hazard. The risk presented to and by surrounding (following) vehicles is so significant that it renders this function unusable. Saturday, April 1, was the last time this occurred before we decided we could no longer safely use this function, instead going to full manual control of the throttle and brake for all highway driving.

The car will apply the brakes suddenly when in control when there is no obstacle to be avoided.

While driving on the interstate I was using autopilot (cruise control). I started into a slight curve when the vehicle suddenly emergency braked. The roadway was clear and thankfully no vehicle was following close behind me. Also there was no warning alarms, just a sudden, aggressive braking. This has happened several times before but the first time with no alarms beforehand.

I was driving with the autopilot on, traveling about 65 mph on the freeway when the automatic emergency braking system kicked in for no reason. There was absolutely nothing in front of the car when it aggressively braked, very suddenly. I was very lucky no one was behind me. I have not reported this directly to Tesla, no one has inspected or confirmed this event.

On 1-14-2023, while driving westbound on I-64, around sunset (5:20ish pm) in a straight portion of the highway, the vehicle suddenly braked for no reason. There was nothing in the road and no cross traffic. There was an all white semi in the right lane that I was approaching in the passing lane. I immediately disengaged the cruise and continued my trip with no further incidents.

Driving in empty highway, no cars in front of me for great distances, on cruise control, the car would all of sudden perform hard braking. It happened many times in the course of two 6 hour drives over a weekend and I couldn't figure out what scenarios were predisposing to this. I also tried out autosteer (not autopilot) and it did it in autosteer too. It was very hard braking, not just disengaging, and so I just drove without cruise control because it is too dangerous and risks getting rear-ended because I am braking without warning and for no reason.

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla model 3. The contact stated that while driving at 80 mph with the cruise control activated, the vehicle inadvertently decelerated to 20 mph and experienced phantom braking. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 15,000.

While driving on an otherwise unobstructed road, with no nearby obstacles on a rural south dakota interstate, the vehicle suddenly slammed on breaks in an unsafe fashion, forcing the vehicle behind us to swerve to evade our car. We were told by Tesla service that sometimes, "road shimmering" can cause this behavior, and there is no remedy available. In response to this, I gunned the accelerator to try and remedy the issue, hitting unsafe speeds before being able to fully return control to the vehicle. This was not while using the vehicle's autopilot system for fsd (which was available on the car), but adaptive cruise control, though the same issue happens with fsd regularly. This is not the first instance of this happening (I have stopped using cruise control and fsd on the vehicle since), but the first time it seriously endangered myself and another driver.

Unexpected phantom braking occurring randomly but on multiple occasions during a 2000 mile multi day trip. Several incidents of a hiccup resulting on a jolt but at least three incidents of rapid and sudden deceleration without an observed corresponding hazard. Occurred a couple times while cresting a hill on single and multi lane roads. One severe incident occurred while passing a semi truck on a multiple lane highway. Causes high anxiety and potential for a crash, especially from behind. This has not been inspected by Tesla or others but note many reports of this online. No warning prior to event but cruise control did not work properly after event and required reseting.

While using my Tesla's full self driving (fsd) feature (navigate on autopilot) on a recent road trip through west texas, the vehicle, on multiple occasions, would automatically brake while cruising at speeds of 80 mph (speed limit was 75 mph), which consequently dropped the vehicle's speed over 20 mph within seconds. The result was being forcibly slammed forward with such a jarring, unexpected force that would have easily slammed me as the driver and my front seat passenger into the wind shield if we were not wearing our seatbelts. This happened multiple times on the trip. The only way to recover was to depress the accelerator and forcefully hold on to the steering wheel until the braking system released and control was returned to the driver. If this had occurred on a crowded highway rather than on the open spaces of the west texas interstate system, I am convinced there would have been a rear impact collision. This "phantom breaking" as Tesla claims, is a serious issue that will no doubt lead to fatalities if not corrected. This issue manifested without warning and with no alerting. The issue can be easily reproduced and the component has yet to be inspected by any 3rd party. I fear people will die because of this issue until it is resolved. Thanks, sean merino.

Was driving about 35-40mph on city street when car abruptly applied emergency braking. Car automatically slammed on brakes (screeching) and came to complete stop. This action was dangerous because it could have caused an accident if another car was behind me. Caused fear and panic as I believed something or someone had hit my vehicle, it also scared a pedestrian that was walking along the sidewalk. The sudden braking also caused my body to violently jerk forward and backwards. This has not been reproduced or confirmed by dealership or service center. It has not yet been inspected by anyone. I have made an appointment for car to get inspected, appointment is 9/16. No warning lights or symptoms came on prior to this incident.

While driving with the autopilot system engaged at 55 mph, on a clear, sunny day, the vehicle applied the brakes and rapidly decelerated to 40 mph before I could press the accelerator pedal to restore my set speed. There were no objects of any kind on the road. No hills or curves were involved. I was fortunate that no vehicle was closely following me or they might have run into me due to my unexpected and unnecessary brake application.

My Tesla will repeated and randomly brake strongly. This happens on regular streets and on the highway at speed. It’s not like slamming on the brakes with the wheels screeching. But a quick and strong deceleration and then it lets go. There has never been anything in front of me when this happens.

Tesla Model 3 main computer system failure. Failure was not cause by any negligence by the operator. The vehicle was parked over night and upon attempting to operate the vehicle the following day there was no power to the screen. There were no warnings prior. The screen which displays vehicle speed, vehicle battery level, seatbelt warning indicators was inaccessible. Also as a result of the computer failure the vehicle did not emit the required pedestrian safety sound, the front and rear collision warnings were disabled, charging was not possible, the ability to disable passenger airbags in case of a child needing to be transported in the front was inaccessible, if the vehicle was operated during winter the ability to defrost the windshield would be impossible and all safety and security features were disabled. The screen/computer has been an issue for several owners as easily viewed by a simple google search. The vehicle is only a year and a half old and was purchased new. The issues that occurred from the defective computer could of easily have caused of an accident or a caused disabled pedestrian to have been hit. The computer was deemed the cause by Tesla’s service professionals.

While driving in highway, interstate or freeway with cruise control enabled with or without autopilot the car suddenly breaks for no reason. It is a clear phantom break. It happened many times in different occasions even on the i40 with no car around in the middle of the desert. In a couple of times a big truck was following and I was almost rear ended because this.

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving approximately 65 mph with the self-driving feature activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact stated that there were no other vehicles nearby in the lane. Additionally, the contact was unaware of any shadows or anything else in the lane. The contact stated that the vehicle slowed down and then resumed a higher speed. The contact stated that he disengaged the self-driving feature and manually drove the vehicle. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer or independent mechanic to be diagnosed or repaired. The contact stated that he attempted to notify the manufacturer thru the vehicle app but was unable to leave a full detailed report. The approximate failure mileage was 10,445.

I had 2 phantom braking incidents one one trip today. The situation was similar- a car broken down on the shoulder. In both cases I slowed down and moved a bit left to give them room. I had cruise control on but as I braked, it came off. In both cases, once I passed the cars, the Tesla brakes hard. In one case I was almost rear ended by the guy behind me. In both cases, I was in full control of the car and was slowing down and giving way. The phantom braking occurred as I was abreast or past the hazard - in other words, too unnecessary and too late to help anyway. It scared the heck out of me - twice. The car is unsafe at any speed.

I was driving on the freeway, north on I-5 here in washington state, approximately 60 to 65 mph, when in autopilot the car phantom braked for no reason. The breaking was very hard, and occurred in the passing lane; this could’ve easily caused an accident but luckily did not.

This happens to me all the time. Especially on interstates such as I-4 in florida. The car will suddenly brake with no warning, slowing down dramatically. For example, if driving at 80 mph the car will suddenly for no reason slam on the brakes to 50mph, almost having other cars behind me rear end me. This issue has never been dealt with by Tesla and Tesla claims it's a normal problem to have. I've never had any other car with adaptive cruise control do this.