Adaptive Cruise Control problems of the 2022 Tesla Model 3 - part 1

All safety and driver-assistance systems on my 2022 Tesla Model 3 failed due to an internal short in the vehicle’s computer, as confirmed in writing by Tesla’s technician. All cameras (rear, side, front) are non-functional, navigation does not work, and all adas features (autopilot, lane-keeping, collision warning, blind-spot monitoring, emergency braking, etc. ) are disabled. The vehicle has no visibility when reversing and no active safety protections while driving. Tesla documented the cause as an internal computer failure, not related to damage or misuse. This creates a dangerous condition on public roads since the car loses all safety systems. Tesla quoted ~$2,900 for a new computer even though the failure involves critical safety components. This may indicate a broader safety defect.

My family and I were in my Tesla Model 3 2022 and heading from charlotte to orlando on [xxx]. The car was in full self-drive (fsd) mode while commuting through daytona beach. The rain was heavy in the area. While driving in daytona beach, fsd caused the car to change lanes and go to a lane that had standing rain puddles on [xxx]. After fsd caused the lane change, the car immediately hydroplaned out of control. The car's short clearance from it's bottom and the ground which traps water that exacerbates hydroplaning, along with its generative breaking feature made matters worse and uncontrollable. The car spun into the median three times and settled in the middle of danger interstate. The car is totalled. My family and I require medical attention and counseling due to the trauma. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

Tesla’s full self driving did not react to emergency vehicles approaching from behind. . Vehicle was a police cruiser emergency lights, and sirens were active on freeway.

While driving on autopilot the I-10w on Wednesday July 16, 2025, the car suddenly and very harshly braked for no reason at all. The vehicle in front of me was visible on the vehicle's display, meaning it was keeping it distance and was actively adapting to its speed and distance, and at no time did I press the brake or move the steering wheel for the vehicle to use its emergency braking. It was so harsh, I felt the blood throughout my head and body lunge forward, and autopilot immediately turned off. If I wasn't aware of this sudden braking, I would have assumed autopilot would still be active, but knowing of Tesla's "phantom braking", I immediately took control once I noticed autopilot turned off on its own. I have a video of the dash cam available (over 10mb) if needed.

I was traveling northbound on [xxx} in sugar grove, IL with the traffic aware cruise control on. As I passed under [xxx] the car braked heavily for no reason. No cars in the area. . . Thankfully. I could have easily been rear-ended. It has done this on more than one occasion at this location. I filed a "bug-report" via the right hand button on the steering wheel. I was also traveling [xxx] near lasalle-peru with the cruise control on at about 80 mph when the vehicle suddenly braked heavily. No cars around at all. The moment was extremely frightening. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

Hi. My issue is partly related to case pe-22-002 and may also contribute to it as well. I will forward my dash-cam videos (the false detection of cars in-front of me for 63. 5% of that drive is included here) to your email as support for the investigations. I have been noticing warnings that a car is in the lane I am changing into when there is no car present. This has happened several times, despite the camera showing no cars and checking for myself showed no cars. The first time it happened, it scared me so bad I jerked back into my lane and could have lost control of being safely in the lane. I filed a service request and was told it would cost me an est. $195. 00 to have them look at it, but they said they think it is software related and tried to say they don't deal with software issues. It has experienced many occasions of decelerating for no cause when using the full self driving, autopilot and cruise control. It would cause me to have to disengage them as I felt it was effecting my distance efficiency. I found a new issue last night that caused concern. We have been getting high reports of following too closely, so I drove from plainview, TX to amarillo, TX in complete control myself while driving 100% perfectly and it reported that it claimed 63. 5% of that drive was "following to closely" when in-fact any time a vehicle was in-front of me by (I think) 30 car lengths, I changed into the other lane where the was no vehicles in the lane at all. It is my personal opinion that it is a combination of the cameras not being infrared and not seeing well enough in low light situations, and the software unable to tell the difference between darkness/shadows and objects that should be avoided. These false alerts occur more for me in low light conditions, but the unneeded deceleration has occurred in all conditions.

In autopilot mode vehicle failed to recognize school bus with flashung red lights and children crossing in front of vehicle. Had to hit brakes.

Tesla fsd almost caused a serious accident. My car was at a stop sign at a t in the road with cross traffic going 40-50mph. The car did not see a white car driving toward from the left as it pulled out. Instead of stopping before getting in front of the car, it pulled slowly into the lane and then errored out, stopping right in front of a car that was about to t-bone me. I had to take back control of the car and quickly accelerate before they crashed into me. Luckily the combination of me taking over and accelerating and the other car also slowing down drastically saved us from having a serious accident. Unfortunately I had a fresh cup of hot coffee in my left hand and the acceleration caused it to spill allover the left side of my face, neck and chest causing burns. None of this would have happened if I wasn't testing the free trial of "full self-driving. " this was only a block from my home and it couldn't even work properly for more than 2 minutes. Software is so far from being ready to be safely used it is going to kill people. I have dashcam videos of the whole thing and can provide to you.

Full self driving prominently suggests the user enable “automatic set speed offset”. When enabled it tries to guess the speed it should be going, and goes that speed. On city streets and rural highways the driver is unable to lower the speed with the normal cruise control speed dial. It is disabled. It recognizes when the speed limit lowers on the road, but does not adjust to that new limit. The only option is to hit the brakes or otherwise disable the system. On the interstate this resulted in it resetting to the maximum 85 mph as it was setting itself to 86 at every deactivation. Turning cruise control back on, despite having previously set it to the speed limit, causes it to to immediately accelerate regardless of the posted limits or the previous setting.

I was driving I the highway and the car start to move in another car direction, I went to Tesla they said is computer fault, but I’m not involved in any accident to get a computer issued and now I receive the letter reporting a problem and they don’t wanna fix this.

The noted vehicle is one of 7 Teslas (6 Model 3s and 1 model y) that I have rented from hertz for a round trip from orlando FL to naples FL. Over the last 7 months. Each of the Model 3 vehicles was different, I never got the same Model 3. Each of the vehicles exhibited the same or similar glitch when traveling on [xxx] at [xxx] when either the navigation and/or the adaptive speed control was engaged and traveling at or near the posted speed limit when nearing this specific exit. If only the navigation system is on it will direct the driver to take the exit and then return to the interstate using the on ramp. If the adaptive speed control is engaged, either with or without the navigation feature on, when the vehicle is on [xxx] near or under the overpass it will abruptly try to slow the vehicle to 35 mph, the speed limit for traffic on the overpass. None of the rental vehicles has the full autopilot activated to my knowledge. This event will occur when traveling in either direction and has only occurred at [xxx] on my 200+ mile trip. Having this occur once or twice would be strange, but 7 times at the same location over 7 months in 7 different vehicles is more likely a glitch of some kind, and one that could result in a crash if a driver is unprepared for the unexpected rapid reduction in speed. [xxx] is heavily travelled with both local and out of town drivers in both personal and rental vehicles. I have no idea if this is occurring at other locations but it seems to be consistent here. Since the adaptive speed control must be using information from the navigation system to display and utilize the speed limit to regulate maximum speed, it is likely the problem is in the navigation system. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

This car will suddenly slow down for no apparent reason when driving with the speed control set. I have experienced this multiple times at 2 specific intersections. It has also happened at other times but on roads I have traveled on less often. Traffic aware cruise control is always enabled on this car. There isn't an option to turn it off. I scheduled a service visit with Tesla explaining what was happening at these 2 specific intersections (I included the intersection specific information). They responded and said they performed a remote diagnosis on the autopilot system in the vehicle and its affiliated hardware and all checks came back in good standing with no faults. They went on to state "just as a reminder as autopilot/traffic aware cruise control is under beta, per owners manual, many factors can impact the performance of autopilot/traffic aware cruise control components. Autopilot/traffic aware cruise control may occasionally cause vehicle to brake when not required or when you are not expecting it. " they referred me to the owners manual where these warnings/limitations were reiterated. I replied and asked what Tesla was doing to improve this situation. I did not get a response. I am very concerned about this sudden braking/deceleration as it may result in a rear end collision if someone is following closely when it occurs. I believe Tesla should be more transparent about what they are doing to resolve the issue. They should also provide an option to turn off the traffic aware cruise control until the issue is resolved.

While driving with the cruise control set, at times the care must sense that there is an issue ahead and slams the brakes on. This has happened on numerous occasions. This had led to cars following to do the same (hard braking). Although this has not caused an accident for me, I don't trust the system. I'm waiting for a rear end collision when this happens.

At 7:50 this morning I had my first drive with Tesla fsd 12. 3. 4. It had been going very close to curbs on the passenger side on 12. 3. 3, but this is the first time it hit the curb and damages the tire rim. The current version of the software puts the car much too close to the curb, something not present in prior versions.

Car will randomly jam on the breaks while going down the interstate.

Tesla updated my vehicle last night, this morning with out any clear warning my cruise control activation actually activated the "full self driving" I did not realize this until my car turned the blinker on and tried to change lanes!!! I had no idea what it was doing! I took back control and tried to activate cruise control again but had self driving activate instead. So I just drove to work manually. When I got to work I looked up how to activate cruise control and realized that there is a setting to change how it is activated that I could change to get it back to "normal" for me. Then I was checking my email and Tesla had "gifted" me a trial month of full self driving, they changed how my car functions without telling me and it literally started driving itself much to my surprise all as a promotional campaign. Frankly I am pissed, this is unacceptable! they radically changed how my car behaves, what my controls actually do, without telling me, to make more money.

Vehicle has been scheduled for service 4 times to address phantom braking while set to cruise control on highways. Tesla service center continuously resolves the problem remotely stating that there are no faults in the system and it is operating as intended. I’m an airline pilot and my vehicle poses a safety hazard to me and those around me when operating in any autonomous mode.

On March 1, 2024, I was driving from victorville, CA to las vegas, nv on I-15 northbound. Between 7pm and 8pm two incidents occurred. Both incidents involve phantom braking. My vehicle was in autopilot mode, which is essentially traffic aware cruise control. I was traveling at 70mph and passed a semi-truck. I changed lanes back into the right lane after passing the truck. About 30 seconds later, the car slammed on the brakes. The semi-truck behind me took immediate evasive manuever and swerved into the left lane to avoid hitting me. There was no obstruction in front of me. The nearest vehicles ahead of me were so far away that I could barely see their tail lights. This was a very unsafe condition. The second incident happened about 40 minutes later. No other vehicles were near me although the sudden braking gave me a scare. There were no warnings, messages, or any indication that the sudden braking was being applied. I was able to immediately depress the accelerator to increase speed and override the autopilot.

Autopilot warnings are too excessive. Looking at the screen of the car causes autopilot warnings to trigger and disengage car, automatically slowing car down in the middle of traffic. Changes need to be reverted back to baseline from 11/2023.

The fix for recall 23v-838; tc2023-657 has made using the feature more unsafe to use than in previous iterations.

Tesla vehicles autopilot. I know you already have a situation with Tesla over the basic autopilot. My safety report is about red lights and stop signs. Tesla reserves this feature for their fsd package. While basic and enhanced ap cannot identify red lights or stop signs. For the basic ap, I suggest that Tesla be required to include red light and stop sign identification in their basic autopilot system. While Geo-locking ap is a current temporary solution, it is not the correct solution imo. The correct solution I believe is to force Tesla to include red light and stop sign identifying in the basic and enhanced ap software. In addition to including red light and stop sign identification in their forward emergency braking safety system. Imagine how many intersection related collisions can be prevented if you make the vehicle capable of stopping. Especially when the driver could be having a medical emergency and cannot stop their car. Two ways. Option 1: vehicle stops at red light for the driver, everyone is safe. Option 2: vehicle runs the red light, not using autopilot, vehicle t bones someone in the intersection. I highly suggest a pro-active approach that promotes a safe environment on the road rather than a punishing approach that promotes human drivers to continue as they are. After 40,000 miles of autopilot, I can confirm that it’s a better driver overall than any human. Humans will eventually make mistakes, software will do the same thing repeatedly. The only reason software makes a mistake is because it wasn’t designed to be used in an application, so basically it’s still human error. I suggest to require the software to take over in more ways to prevent human error from happening more often. The less humans need to do, the less chance you have of collisions. Summary: basic ap should have red light and stop sign id to stop. And forward collision stopping should also have red lights and stop sign identification.

I was traveling on interstate 40 in arizona in a 75 mph zone with my cruise control set at 77 mph. Suddenly and without warning the car’s emergency braking system activate despite nothing being in the roadway in front of me and no cars ahead at all. I had to take evasive measures to avoid being hit from behind by a semi truck. Approximately 10 seconds later I began receiving error messages for several systems including emergency braking, traction control, steering alignment, lane departure, stability control, cruise control, vehicle hold, and regenerative braking. In addition, other systems were not working, such as an alert tone for when traffic lights turn green would activate indicating the driver should go even if there was a car in front that has not moved. The car is currently at Tesla being evaluated, however I really don’t think these cars should be trusted.

This happens at 2 particular exits on a 65mph highway. One time the car slows down by 10mph and the other spot it will swerve over almost to the lane next to me and slow down. Just dangerous when someone is tailgating me (thats reality of driving these days) as they will not have time to react and more than likely hit me. It happened once and someone behind me started honking and flashing their lights at me. I have done a bug report for the times it "phantom braked".

When driving using adaptive cruise control, it breaks for no reason slamming the car into a stop. Also, with adaptive cruise control regardless of the set speed limit it speeds up to whatever it once, which is a huge safety factor.

I took a recent road trip of 1,200 miles across the southwest. Numerous times while using adaptive cruise control the vehicle suddenly and violently braked for no apparent reason. This was particularly concerning when passing trucks. One particular event was on interstate 5 when passing a big rig truck, I was along side the truck with a following car tailgating me, my car suddenly braked hard, creating a risk of rear end collision at 70 miles per hour. I was able to accelerate to avoid a collision. I did not keep track of the number of events of sudden unanticipated braking, but I would estimate more than 50 instances. They vary from momentary slow down to violent sudden breaking.

We took our first long-disance trip (albuquerque nm to arlington TX, round trip) in our 2022 Tesla Model 3 and experienced multiple (4-5) phantom braking episodes to and from arlington when engaging adaptive cruise control or autopilot. The car had been driven 5,760 miles before the trip. There were no warnings before the braking. The car was travelling at 70-77 mph on interstate highways and suddenly the brakes would engage slowing the car to 40 or 50 mph before we pressed pressed the accelerator. It was a clear day with temperatures in the 90-100 range. One time the phantom brake episode occurred while passing. Fortunately, there no cars travelling close behind us or there could have been a serious multi-car accident. We contacted Tesla service and they told us the car had no discernable problems (attached message).

While driving at 55 mpm on interstate 66 west near reston, I was using Tesla autopilot and experienced a very sudden heavy braking, braking to about 35 mph in a second or less. The braking was so sever it lifted me off the back o f the driver's seat. The closest vehicle in my lane (rightmost lane) was easily more than a quarter mile ahead. There were no vehicles on the 2 lanes to my left. I was not near an exit nor was there an overpass ahead. This occurs frequently while trying to use Tesla autopilot in a variety of conditions. In each case there is no obvious reason for the sudden braking while using autopilot. This is quite scary and clearly dangerous. My frequent passengers all ask me not to use Tesla autopilot while they are in the car. As a comment, I would be quite happy if Tesla provided an option to only use autopilot for keeping the speed without anything else.

I was using Tesla autopilot today while driving from corpus christy to fulshear. Multiple times it slammed the brake on the freeway even if there was no one in front of me at all. This caused lot of panic to all of us specially passenger seat folks. It was extremely scary and could have resulted in long pile up on the highway.

My car was purchased Aug 2022. In Nov. 2022 we took a short trip. I believe 5 or 6 times the car breaked for no reason. I believe it is called phantom breaking. One or two times it was a hard break that I believe could cause an accident if someone was behind me, or the wrong person driving. I was sudden and hard in those two situations. I took the car in and after they drove it two miles they told me there were no issues. Then in June 2023 we went on a long trip. I do not use autopilot, this is only cruise control. On this trip probably between 35 to 45 times we experienced the same issues. At least 5 times they were hard breaks and could cause an accident. I again opened a service visit to Tesla. Again, they drove the car 5 miles and claimed there is nothing wrong. I did not accept this answer and asked for the gm. Finally after demaing this for 20 or so minutes an man came and said he was the manager. He also argued in the beginning but when I told him I have found accidents caused by this he finally admitted that it was something called "phantom breaking" and that that it should be fixed very soon with an update. So then again, in August my wife and I went on another trip. It still is happening and probably 6 or 7 times this occurred. It seems to mostly be on smaller 2 lane highways and occurs usually when there are no cars, trucks, or anything nearby. But all it would take is a tailgater to cause a wreck. In August when we returned I made another warranty appointment her in las vegas and immediately they cancelled the visit on my app. They are lying about what is occurring and telling me that it is usually when I am following too close or some garbage like that, which is absolutely not true. I just made another appt today but I am sure they will cancel it. What do I do. I really want to go through nevada lemon law at this point. My name is dane warren and my phone is 702-444-5644. Below I am putting in the most recent incident and mileage then. Happens many time.

On Friday, August 11th. My wife and I were traveling on I-70 eastbound from colorado to kansas. On several occasions during the trip, we experienced phantom braking while using the adaptive cruise control. The car would immediately brake at highway speeds, slowing rapidly when nothing was on the road. Luckily every time this happened there were no cars immediately behind us as it could have easily caused a crash. This happened both while I was driving (stace w. Porter) and while my wife was driving (laurinda k. Porter). At one point in the trip, we turned off the emergency braking feature and the phantom braking still occurred while using the adaptive cruise control. In all this happened around 10 times or so during the trip. I reported the event to Tesla on Monday, August 14 as neither of us felt safe using the adaptive cruise control after that event. Response from Tesla attached below.

I believe the autopilot and cruise control systems are affected. On 6-8 occasions, the cameras have picked up a non- existent hazard along the road causing the cruise control to disengage, rapidly slowing the car approximately 20 mph in about 3 seconds. This has occurred on highways and freeways at speeds of 65-75 mph. If there had been another vehicle traveling close behind, an accident would likely have occurred. I’ve taken the car to the dealer and they are aware of this problem. After the dealer adjusted the cameras the problem persisted. When this problem has occurred, there was no prior warning.

On 8/3/23 on two occasions the vehicle suddenly applied brakes while in cruise/autopilot mode when there was no vehicle in close proximity in front of my vehicle. There was however a large commercial truck behind me on one occasion, which may have been effected by the application of brakes for no apparent reason. On 8/5/23, with the vehicle in the same mode, the system applied brakes. . . . . There were no vehicles within a 1/4 mile front or rear. Tesla was contacted and reviewed the logs, stating that the vehicle braked for another vehicle. . . . . As a 35 year police officers, my professional opinion is that this vehicle is dangerous when operated in this mode. I explained this to Tesla and their response was that sometimes you get false activations because the car perceived something that wasn't there and that's ok. It's not ok to unexpectedly step on the brakes at 70 or 80 miles per hour on a major highway! had it been my daughter or my wife driving, I'm not sure they would have reacted as fast nor in the correct manner as it is confusing when it first happens.

Was traveling on interstate 94 near steele, nd in broad daylight on July 30. The sky was mostly clear and it was not raining. There was no road construction on this stretch of road, . I was westbound in the right lane with no traffic approaching me or behind it was a rural roadway with no curves and mostly flat. At 7:39 pm central time near mile point 198 the car braked without warning very aggressively. I continued traveling with the auto cruise and at 7:40 pm central time near mile point 194 it again very aggressively braked with nothing but open straight highway with no vehicles, signs, construction or anything else that could have caused this to happen. I continued my journey and it happened several more time until I no longer felt safe using the adaptive cruise. This has happened before and Tesla service asked me to track the event and report the time when it happened. I reported the above incident to Tesla and they scheduled a repair for August 8. Today they canceled this visit for repair and told me that this was something that occasionally happens with the cruise and that they were canceling my appointment. They told me that if I wanted to drive to the nearest service center that they too would not be able to fix it. I was lucky that this happened in north dakota on a rural highway. The wheels locked on me and the tires even slightly screeched. I ascertain that had this happened where there would have been someone behind me there would have been an accident. Tesla clearly is not interested in fixing this and told me that if I did not feel safe that I should not use the cruise. I hope you can resolve this before there is a death or serious injury. I have talked to other Tesla Model 3 owners who have experienced this. Thank you for your consideration.

On multiple occasions, I have had phantom braking issues with the car. Most notably, I have experienced this on highway 80 between fernley, nv, and winnemucca. Originally, I was using the car's autopilot feature and I had multiple phantom braking events. I had the speed set for the speed limit of 80 mph and the car randomly slammed on the brakes. By the time I was able to hit the gas pedal, I slowed down to about 60 mph. Fearing I was going to cause a traffic incident, I stopped using autopilot and used the adaptive cruise control. I suffered over 50 phantom braking incidents with the adaptive cruise control. I kept using the feature so I could log a case with Tesla. Once I got home, I logged a case with Tesla and they said the cameras were dirty and that was the issue. On a second trip, taking the same route, I cleaned the cameras and had the exact same results. I have noticed taking the same route, I only have issues when it is sunny out. When it is dark, with less glare, the car operates okay. Autopilot and Tesla's adaptive cruise control are incredibly dangerous. I requested to have a standard cruise control, which Tesla said was impossible to get. I had a previous Tesla with standard cruise control and don't understand why we can't have that feature. Please investigate this and make Tesla offer a standard cruise control option so we do not have to risk our lives with their dangerous autopilot.

Can not use cruise control on my Tesla model three 2022 because a phantom breaking.