Automatic Emergency Braking problems of the 2021 Tesla Model 3 - part 2

Since purchasing my vehicle a year ago, it had has occasionally engaged the emergency braking system in situations where other cars have not been a threat or directly in front of me. This week, the system engaged when I was driving up an incline on the highway with no vehicles around me. Very disconcerting and dangerous. As a result I deactivated the system. This is a flaw.

My 2021 Tesla Model 3 has various issues with the auto pilot feature. When engaged the car makes sudden and abrupt stops while driving. This has happened various times while driving on the freeway when there were no obstructions present. The autopilot feature also prompts to change to the right lane, when dismissed the prompt appears again repeatedly. This is repeated throughout the drive and poses a major distraction. There was supposed to be an “over-the-air” correction but my vehicle has never received the software update.

The autopilot used for automatic cruise control regularly brakes for unexplained reasons when there is no immediate threat. This is not only scary but it could cause an accident if other cars were right behind me. There is one part of highway 470 in highlands ranch, CO, where it happens every time, like autopilot is expecting the speed limit to drop so it slows way down for me, but the speed limit hasn’t changed. Other times it just happens randomly. It will happen at least once usually every hour I use autopilot.

On multiple occasions, my vehicle has experienced the same “phantom braking” problem other Teslas have. This has happened when cruise control (autopilot) was enabled. No cars or obstacles were directly in front of my vehicle and the immediate breaking was unnecessary.

I was in auto pilot (cruise control). The car was going at 78 mph. The brakes suddenly engaged for no reason. Slowing the car to 60 mph very quickly. It basically felt like I slammed on the brakes. This happened 3 times.

My car has on several occasions while using cruise control feature engaged, braked unexpectedly at highway speeds when nothing was in front of the car. My Tesla does not have full self driving capabilities, it has also done this emergency braking with autopilot engaged. It's happened so many times while the autopilot is engaged, that I never use autopilot anymore. I have twice nearly been rear ended, (with only cruise control engaged) by a car following me when this auto-braking happened in highway traffic, forcing me to have to immediately hit the accelerator pedal in response, to avoid being hit from behind after the brakes auto engaged.

When passing below an overpass the car will rapidly brake from 80-60 mph or 65-45 mph without warning. I have to take over and speed up to avoid someone hitting me from behind. I believe the issue happens because the car for a second thinks you are driving on the overpass which has a much slower speed (25-40 mph). Therefore, it brakes hard to match the speed of the overpass. When it is enough of a distance away, it goes back to the normal highway speed. This issue has happened many times since I bought the car and has not been resolved after many updates.

While driving on highway, I have autopilot on, and out of nowhere the vehicle will engage emergency braking.

While using cruise control on the highway, I was rounding a slight bend in the road and the automatic braking system actuated, immediately slamming on the brakes and scrubbing off significant speed. Luckily I was close to the accelerator pedal and was able to quickly react by applying throttle, but had there been another vehicle following closely, there could have been a collision. There were no visible objects in or around the road to cause an emergency braking event. I have not used the cruise control feature since this occurrence, but it had happened twice before with similar circumstances. Reference "phantom braking" phenomenon well documented by many other operators.

While driving, typically on two lane roads with oncoming traffic, the vehicle will suddenly break hard for no visible reason. Often it is the case that the vehicle breaks so hard that things in the car fly forward and the seatbelts lock up causing people to grunt at the force and scream. This happens while using full self driving or just regular cruise control. There is no warning and people behind my vehicle have a high likelihood a rear ending me since there is no visible or obvious cars for my breaking. Also it would appear that I am brake checking the person behind me, causing them to become angry with me through no fault of my own, but it is understandable based on the reaction of my vehicle. When this happens I typically report the issue directly to Tesla using their voice feature to report issues. The command is typically “bug report phantom braking. ”.

During a recent road trip to another state, auto pilot was engaged and the emergency braking system forced the car quickly to a stop on many occasions. To the human eye, there should have been no reason for the brakes to engage. Luckily no one collided with us, but the auto pilot system is not to be trusted. The incidents mostly occurred on two-lane roads, however, noticeable hesitation was evident many times during freeway cruising. Tesla repair will not review my case because I don’t have a specific time(s) of incident and they will not tell me how to properly log this information into the car’s software when an incident does occur. I feel helpless and am very nervous to take this car on a trip.

Was driving and automatic braking system engaged when there was no impeding incident.

There is serious issue with automatic emergency braking. My Tesla Model 3 2021 applied automatic emergency braking while on auto steer or cruising on single lane highway as well as on 4 lane freeways without anything ahead which required to brake. Fortunately, we were not being followed or tail gated closely. The speed reduced from 65 mph to 30mph suddenly on a freeway. This has happened to me 3 times. Twice on single lane highway and once on 4 lane freeway. Tesla's cruising and self driving is worthless if I can't use them.

The car will randomly brake on the highway when its in auto drive with no need to brake immediately.

Referred to as "phantom braking," the vehicle decelerates dramatically when in "autopilot" mode. This happens at seemingly random times and locations. It happens in the day or night, open or populated roads, multi-lane highways or single lane. The deceleration is so sudden that passengers in the car are thrown forward. One instance the car decelerated from about 75 mph to 45 mph in a matter of about 2 seconds. Thankfully no one was behind me. Others worry that if someone is following too closely, they could rear-end the Tesla. . . I don't think a vehicle would have to follow all that closely for this to cause an accident.

When applying cruise control on the Model 3, the Tesla will apply phantom braking in various situations. The car will brake on its own without any human interaction. This has occurred on the highway with no other cars nearby that should cause such braking. . This phantom braking has caused me to not use cruise control at all in my car.

The car randomly and violently applies the brakes, this occurs when it is in cruise control. It may occur due to shadows, oncoming cars both on two and four lane highways. Also occurs if I pass a semi truck on a 4 lane highway. It occurs nearly every time I use the cruise control. I have had cars in back of me nearly hit me due to the sudden and unexpected braking at highway speeds.

When either in autopilot or in cruise control especially in long drive car perform phantom breaking creating a risk of rear-end collision with following vehicles. Car vision system at times recognize cars coming in the opposite way as imminent collision and performs emergency phantom breaks. 03/.

Brakes were automatically engaged and speed dramatically reduced on an otherwise deserted, two-line highway. Speed was reduced from 68mph to 30mph in a few seconds multiple times in the span of two hours. Adaptive cruise control was active at the time. This would put myself and any vehicles behind me in danger, so I disabled the feature for the remainder of the drive. The behavior has been reproduced multiple times since then, in various conditions. No warning lamps or other messages appeared at the time. I reported the problem to the manufacturer and schedule a service appointment. The manufacturer canceled this appointment, stating, "our technicians will be unable to change this behavior. ".

This vehicle phantom brakes during our last 2k miles trip. Happens while passing under pass, bridges, on coming vehicles on 2 way lanes, and just randomly when I was the only car on the highway.

Was driving on clear roads, there was a driver ahead of me but they were over 100 yards away, the vehicle behind me swerved to make sure they didn't get hit by my car's auto-braking safety feature. The vehicle was on autopilot using adaptive cruise control and just randomly used the safety feature without any warning or indication that there was any object on the freeway. The incident had occurred in the morning on the 405s freeway.

Three times so far in a week, the car has had extreme hard breaking on the freeway. These were done in full self drive mode. Absolutely terrifying and so unsafe for my family to have this happen.

The car will brake seemingly for no reason while on autopilot. The environment does not change at all, yet the car will randomly brake very hard as if someone was in front of me and slammed the brakes. It also happens very commonly, more common than tolerable. No warning beeps or chimes or any indication of anything event. I'm not sure if this is inspectable, I have brought the car to service a few times under warranty for unrelated issues. This problem is pretty much widespread across Tesla's autopilot system. This has happened many times, but the most dangerous one by far was on I-75 and slammed the brakes from 85 to 45-35 in a matter of seconds.

With the autopilot engaged on the freeway I have had several of these phantom braking experiences but last night I was lucky to avoid a accident with the car following me. . This happened at 74 miles per hour with the autopilot engaged the brakes slow me down to 60 miles per hour before I could disengage the autopilot.

In cruise control or autopilot, the car will apply brakes randomly and without warning. It is extremely scary to have it slam on the brakes for no reason. Luckily no one was behind me, so I wasn’t in danger of causing an accident, but the problem is constant enough I cannot use the cruise control nor autopilot.

While autopilot was engaged at a speed of around 75 mph, the emergency brakes automatically engaged thought there were no impediments on the roadway. The closest car to the front was too far ahead for it to register on the screen. In another instance the same action occurred but as the car was going under an overpass. It was a sunny day so I assumed the shadows created by the overpass triggered the emergency braking. My spouse also reported two instances that this occurred to her while she was driving alone.

While driving on autopilot on the highway at about 65mph the car applied the brakes for no reason. The car descends in speed aggressively and can easily cause a rear end collision. This has happened randomly before as well.

On several occasions since June 2021, my Tesla Model 3 has suddenly braked hard on its own while the autopilot cruise control function was engaged (phantom braking). There has been no apparent reason for the sudden braking incidents, and they have happened at highway speeds. When I reported these incidents to my Tesla dealer, I was told that Tesla was aware of this problem with Tesla Model 3 vehicles, and that Tesla was working on finding a solution. Yet the problem has continued, and occurred again as recently as yesterday.

Phantom braking. Tesla service asked me to record times of incidents. I drove cross country and there was an incident almost every 10 minutes. Most commonly when going over a hill or passing by a truck, the car will stomp on the brakes for no reason, causing danger to myself and other drivers.

I'm reporting a "phantom braking" incident that occurred while driving approximately 75 mph in the left lane of interstate 10 just west of casa grande, az. (this section of the road had two westbound lanes. ) "traffic-aware cruise control" was set at approximately 75 mph. The Tesla slammed on the brakes for no reason (no vehicles were in front of me. ) this was terrifying - luckily the vehicle that was directly behind me noticed and reduced their speed while I quickly pushed down on the accelerator. A collision was thus avoided. However, this could have been deadly for both my vehicle, the vehicle behind me, and so on. There was absolutely no reason for the car to apply the brakes - there were no obstructions in the road. My passenger can confirm the situation. I have had "phantom braking" occur with this Tesla including slowing down almost to a stop when a semi truck is in the coming lane of a two-lane road. The "traffic-aware cruise control" is inconsistent in its performance and travelling at high speeds, incredibly dangerous. We could not operate this function during the rest of our travels on the interstate due to this issue and limited operation of "traffic aware cruise control" to 55 mph & under roads when there was no traffic behind us. I've been reading up on the Tesla "phantom braking" phenomenon and am really disappointed in this very unsafe safety feature which I didn't know about before purchasing my Tesla. My Model 3 is newer and has "Tesla vision" instead of radar like older Model 3's. I think "Tesla vision" is messed up and needs more work. This "automatic braking" could have caused a serious collision.

This complaint was prompted by reading recent news reports of 'phantom braking' with our model vehicle. Previous to these reports, I did not have an awareness of NHTSA and their reporting mechanism. Driving on a highway, adaptive cruise control application. Sudden braking applied without my foot touching brake pedal. It was a sunny day, without any obvious need for braking. I was able to apply acceleration which terminated the braking cycle. No harm done, however if there was a car behind me there could have been a significant car accident at high speeds (>70 mph). This 'phantom braking' also occurred late 2021, also at highway speeds, on at least two occasion on the same trip cycle, in similar driving conditions (clear, dry). Nothing has been inspected. No indicators or warning lamps or messages applicable.

On several occasions while driving in the highway with autopilot engaged for adaptive cruise control, the car has suddenly applied the brakes very hard when there were no hazards in my lane. This has occurred on curves in the road when oncoming traffic was detected in the other lane and also when there has been a vehicle stopped on the shoulder.

When the vehicle is in autopilot at high speed, it breaks suddenly without any visible obstacles. This happens at kraft once every 200 miles of highway driving with autopilot on. The speed drops suddenly from 75 mph to 40 mph.

Phantom braking occurs intermittently since vehicle purchase while operating autopilot cruise control. My Tesla suddenly brakes without any vehicle ahead to warrant this action. Cars following me could easily slam into the rear of my car. Luckily that has not yet occurred. I have not noted any associated warning lights or alarms. I am awaiting replacement of the car computer (prompted by needing to reboot computer repeatedly), but this has been delayed several months due to parts unavailable.

The automatic braking system performs pretty well on interstate highways. However, on two lane highways and secondary roads, heavy braking occurs for no apparent reason and with no warning resulting in several near misses for rear end collisions. I can solve the problem by not using cruise control; but, cruise control prevents me from unintentionally speeding. Either this unintentional heavy braking needs to be technologically resolved and/or I need to be provided with the option to switch to conventional cruise control in which I set the speed and determine when the cruise control is deactivated. This issue has ocurred dozens of times during my 5 months and ~10,000 mile ownership.