Automatic Emergency Braking Problems of Tesla Model 3 - part 2

While at a red light, my car was stopped with Tesla full self-driving (fsd) on. When the car in front of me nudged forward, my car, still in fsd , accelerated and drove into the car in front. Looking at the event report of my car, the automatic emergency break did engage but too late. This means the sensors in front failed to recognize the vehicle ahead.

See all problems of the 2022 Tesla Model 3 🔎.

On September 7, 2025 at ~7:53 pm, my 2025 Tesla Model 3 operating with full self-driving (fsd) engaged performed an aggressive, uncommanded turn while under computer control. The maneuver occurred so abruptly that I could not safely override steering before impact, and a crash resulted. The Tesla app trip view for trip 3 (7:34–7:53 pm) shows “vehicle on fsd” for 18 min 54 sec and records an “aggressive turning” event at 7:53 pm (2. 0 sec) immediately before the trip ended (screenshot attached). This reflects a steering/driver-assist control defect in fsd’s turning behavior and a failure of collision-mitigation to prevent the crash. I sustained bodily injuries and the vehicle incurred significant damage. I request that this incident be treated as a safety-critical malfunction warranting investigation and corrective action.

See all problems of the 2025 Tesla Model 3 🔎.

The car was parked in a campground for a night and several systems issues came up, including traction control disabled, steer assistant disabled, staibility control disabled, and the car was keeping accelerating even though I did not step on the accelerate pedal. The acceleration was out of control. This was happening in a remote area when we drove half way out of the campground to a city. We called the Tesla roadside help and they just told us they could not help because it was too late to find a toll provider and we were left in the middle of nowhere and no help. We searched google and found a few very similar issues on Tesla cars that had been reported. We don't know what happened but those issues just disappeared themselves in the next morning and we have not get the chance to send it a service center for further investigation. We are certain that this is very serious safety issue and the car was basically out of control.

Tesla m3 rwd 2022 - 79750k miles. Touchscreen keep restarting throughout the day , in the morning when I am backing out of the garage, while I am driving, while I parked. It is dangerous specially while I am backing out of garage, car will stop sometime, because whole system reboots. I have no visibility I have to wait till its finish restarting. Tesla's main computer handles everything in the car, a/c, turn signals, speedometer, backup cameras, forward collision warning and many more necessary function of the car. Tesla service center diagnose stats "the cause was identified as kernel panics detected in the system. The internal memory of the car computer is corrupt and will not allow enough data transfer and causing the computer to reboot to clear space" they suggested to replace the computer and its a out of warranty fix, since I drove 79k miles. This is a crucial of the car and it should not fail in 3 years, driving 79k in California is not unusual, Tesla service also blamed that we didn't extended our warranty after 50k. We couldn't find any correspondence from Tesla on service app or email regrading warranty extension. $3000 to replace a computer is a very high price.

Driving in the dark I almost had a front end collision and the car had zero reaction. The lights on the oncoming semi truck were bright so as usual I glance away from the lights and generally focus on right lane marker and suddenly I could see an oncoming car out of the corner of my eye cut across the front left corner of my car just barely missing within inches of clearance. Unfortunately I was shaken too much to remember and save the video. Not only does the vehicle software create solid phantom objects but anytime the cameras get blinded the safety system does not work and now you have allowed Tesla to drive unmanned. [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

See all problems of the 2024 Tesla Model 3 🔎.

During driving, Tesla car spontaneously stated multiple active safety features and regenerative braking were no longer available and stopped working during driving with multiple warnings appearing. Driver safety at risk during this as well as others safety due to the lack of functioning. The car was taken to Tesla service center and was explained that front lower lateral suspension links were damaged by "impact" although the car was never in an impact or accident preventing proper alignment and functioning of the car. The part has been since repaired and currently undergoing further investigation for warranty dispute.

See all problems of the 2023 Tesla Model 3 🔎.

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...

See all problems of the 2021 Tesla Model 3 🔎.

I am not the owner of this Tesla. I am the owner of the car behind it that hit the Tesla because the Tesla went into emergency automatic braking and the sudden additional deceleration happened too quickly to react to it and contact occurred while I was still doing about 5-ish mph. The Tesla driver obviously wasn't braking effectively, and the car took over for him to avoid hitting the car in front of him. But there is no consideration for the car behind. I do not know how far back the Tesla stopped from the car in front of it, but all I needed was 2-3 feet. (when I get into these 60 to 0 deceleration, when I know "I'm good" I ease up on the braking to give the guy behind me as much space as possible for him to get stopped so I don't get hit. ) Tesla's emergency automatic braking caused this accident.

I believe my car should be included in the recall for trunk harness recall. My alert and issue is the rear camera being off due to rear trunk ruining the wiring harness that has affected many cars. This is already a recall but I believe my car missed being involved.

See all problems of the 2018 Tesla Model 3 🔎.

On August 7th, 2025 at around 8 am in the morning, my vehicles mobile phone car key was in-operable and I was unable to get in the car which led me to trouble shoot how to fix this issue with the car. Upon researching I was directed by Tesla to directly complete a soft reset of the vehicle holding down both buttons on the vehicle once I was inside, and pushing on the brake pedal. Upon completion, my vehicle booted up and I realized that all camera systems were down, my navigation systems were down, my safety features were down, my auto pilot, lane keeping assist and auto brake were down, sensors were down and I was no longer able to pre heat my battery to charge my vehicle due to issues with the navigation. I then took the vehicle to Tesla service center irvine where a service advisor quoted me 2900 for a new ecu and bolts and told me that I needed to replace my whole unit and that I was to cover the cost of the repair even though my vehicle is only 2 years of age and this failure is due to the quality control and software of the vehicle. I have been driving around a vehicle with absolutely no safety features whatsoever such as no cameras, sensors, auto braking, or full self driving due to this ecu failure and I fear for my safety and well being while driving this car.

Automatic emergency braking, for no reason, occurred twice while on autopilot. Driving on a remote interstate, during the day, no one and nothing in front of me (and I had a passenger that can confirm), and suddenly the car rapidly braked extremely hard. If I hadn't slammed the accelerator immediately I would have been rear ended the first time. The second time, no one was near me. I am attempting to report this to Tesla, although that is somewhat difficult as I am just getting bounced around their automated systems. My passenger and I, and the car behind us were put at serious risk of collision at ~ 85 mph, due to the completely unexpected and extremely rapid braking. This was under simple autopilot, no fsd or other driving assist. Nothing has been inspected yet, or reproduced past these 2 incidents. No warnings or symptoms occurred before or after this issue. Slightly terrified to use autopilot now, as if a semi-truck had been behind me, we would have been flattened. It is also difficult to turn off this so-called "assist" with emergency braking, it auto-reverts to on every start up, which is also dangerous.

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.

[xxx]- [xxx]am. Trying to park in ymca located in camp hill PA. Took soft right turn to park. Car accelerated instead of recognizing break, which I applied when I see it accelerating. Then I left break so it can take emergency break that didn’t happened it keep going and cross over the parking curb about six torah inch high and went in a ditch. I did not hurt but car front damaged. Tesla was informed and they have the log of the time but told they don’t see any issue. My insurance is paying all the expenses. This was the third incident where car did not tool emergency break itself or recognized the break. I did reported last incident to Tesla. It only happened three times in last six years. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

See all problems of the 2019 Tesla Model 3 🔎.

While traveling at approximately 70 miles per hour on an interstate, the vehicle's automatic emergency braking system engaged multiple times in rapid succession—approximately five separate braking events. Each time, the system falsely detected an obstacle, which it appeared to interpret as a person in front of the vehicle. In reality, there was nothing on the road; the system was reacting to a roof-mounted strap that was fluttering slightly in view of the forward sensors. These false positives caused the vehicle to brake suddenly and forcefully, creating a highly dangerous situation for vehicles behind me. Multiple drivers were forced to swerve to avoid a collision. Thankfully, no crash occurred, but the repeated unexpected braking posed a serious risk to my safety and the safety of others on the highway. Additionally, I had previously disabled the automatic emergency braking feature in the vehicle's settings. However, I later discovered that this system reactivates by default every time the vehicle is restarted. There is currently no option to permanently disable this feature, meaning drivers must manually turn it off for each individual trip, which is not clearly communicated by the system. This issue has not yet been inspected by the manufacturer or a dealer. No warning lights or error messages appeared before or during the braking events.

I have had this happen twice, once on city streets going to work the car was not in auto pilot and it went from 40mph to 0mph instantly. If there was a car behind me I would have gotten slammed into. The second time, my mother was in the passenger seat and I was on the freeway going about 75 to 80mph and it was on auto steer and the car went from the speed I was going to almost 0 and I instantly took control of the vehicle. We both could have been killed because of the last incident and I thought the cameras saw something on the road but there was nothing there. No cars were near me when both events occurred.

* the aeb engaged when it shouldn't have. Yes. * yes * no. * yes, Tesla remotely told me that the error codes in my service menu had nothing to do with the aeb engaging when it wasn't supposed to. The problem has been reported to Tesla. * none. On [xxx] a car stopped suddenly in front of me and my aeb engaged when it shouldn't have. My car is a Model 3 performance and it can stop much faster than most cars. The car behind me came inches from hitting me and my dog and myself were thrown violently forward. This is a *major* safety hazard and could have caused an accident and has caused accidents in other cases. [xxx] this thread has videos of the incident. There was around 20 feet between my car and the car in front of me when the aeb stopped my car. My foot was already on the brake and I was in the process of stopping at a reasonable rate when the aeb suddenly engaged. I could feel the abs engaging. This happened another time about a month ago. A white box van two cars in front of me slowed down and turned right and the aeb engaged even though there was no need for it. Tesla has the ability to turn off the aeb but you have to do it each time you drive. Please require Tesla to make the aeb on/off choice sticky so you don't have to turn it off each time you drive. Also please make Tesla fix their software or disable aeb on their cars. Recent accident where aeb caused an accident. [xxx] other incidents where aeb engaged almost causing an accident or caused an accident: [xxx] [xxx] please do google searches to find the rest. Thanks! information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

Phantom braking from freeway speed to almost a stop, with no other vehicles presenting issues nearby. Three occurrences so far.

Automatic emergency braking and steering is unavailable along with a few other features. Service center and car manufacturer not doing anything about it.

When the vehicle is set to regenerative braking mode, lifting off the accelerator pedal causes the car to decelerate significantly. However, in many cases, the brake lights do not illuminate during this process. This could potentially create a safety risk, as drivers behind may not realize the car is slowing down and may not respond in time. Tesla.

Phantom braking occurred three times with this vehicle, all three times, the car abruptly stopped while driving for no reason: 10/30/2024 at 8:03am 2/10/25 at 7:47am 3/6/25 at 5:55pm.

Car performed automatic emergency braking on driver's resumption of forward travel from a full stop when traffic light went from red to green. No oncoming vehicles or obstacles were present. Weather was clear and sunny and road was dry.

See attached document for complaint.

Trunk struts snap/come off. Causing trunk to slam shut. Damaging body. Tesla states vehicle is safe to operate, however vehicle trunk does not latch down anymore and opens every time I hit a bump. The trunk allignment is also well off. The vibration of the trunk causes several electrical issues including automatic emergency braking. Original problem occured September 15th 2023. Issue was fixed and persists. Current issue has been going on since February 18th 2025. Issue is not yet resolved or fixed. Tesla is not taking any action to repair issue at all. Vehicle is unsafe to operate.

When backing out, software doesn’t emergency brake or scream/beep/siren etc (no audible sound) when car is coming, just shows a red light on the screen. Every other manufacturer has this audible and emergency feature. My relative had hit their Tesla with another car since there was no beep or emergency braking with another car behind them. I have talked to many other people and they have said the same thing. It’s just a tiny red line that’s on the screen camera which makes no sense for a high tech car.

I'm not quite sure what component was affected, some module of some sort got water in or near it that wasn't supposed to. It is available for inspection. Yes my safety and others was out at risk. Yes the problem was fixed by service center supposedly. Yes the car has been inspected by the manufacturer. There were no warnings. What happened was on 12/29 I was driving the car and out of absolutely nowhere a bunch of warnings came up including loss of abs, any and all safety features. And more importantly lost usage of brakes almost entirely when car came to a stop it was grinding and shakey. This problem all arises due to Teslas negligence when it came to installing a new windshield on the vehicle. As stated in messages below, they made a mistake while installing my windshield that caused this major issue to arise. They have offered nothing as a solution but saying that their error is supposedly fixed.

Tesla needs to be required to implement trailer mode to all Model 3/y vehicles (not just those equipped with a tow hitch from the factory) because the basic autopilot and existing safety software does not correctly identify when the vehicle is towing a trailer. Legal aftermarket tow hitch installations exist for small trailers, such as u-haul trailer. However Tesla does not recognize these aftermarket installs. And Tesla needs to be required to add the required trailer software mode for vehicles with aftermarket hitches to provide the required safety software when towing. It is needed because of the cars emergency braking, collision avoidance, navigation, and autopilot modes need to know that a trailer is connected so that the vehicle software does not make an unsafe maneuver depending on the driving situation/condition.

When cruise control or self-driving systems are engaged, there have been numerous times when the automatic emergency braking system mistakenly slowed the car suddenly. At 70+ mph, this is incredibly dangerous. The aebs apparently sees shadows as dangers. Fortunately, there has never been an instance when another vehicle has been close behind.

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.

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.

If a Tesla software update fails it causes an apb version mismatch causing all safety features to become disabled until you schedule service for repairs. It is not covered outside of warranty even though it’s an issue caused by their update. If you google apb version mismatch, a lot of people have experienced it. Out of warranty repair is $2-3k for a computer replacement even though it was working fine before the update.

Two incidents while testing the most recent version of Tesla's "full self-driving": 1. While driving at less than 25mph in a residential neighborhood, using the "full self-driving" mode, the car was entirely unable to detect either heavy steel plates in the road (being used to cover road work) or significant potholes in the area near the plates. 2. While driving on h1 (a federal "interstate" highway) on oahu, at approximately 55mph, using the Tesla's "full self-driving", the car inexplicably slammed on the brakes. There was absolutely nothing visibly in front of the car for at least 200 yards. The car behind me had to swerve to avoid rear-ending my vehicle.

While driving at highway speeds, the driver initiated what was to be a standard lane change from right to left to accommodate traffic merging onto the highway into the right-hand lane. About halfway through the lane change, the vehicle automatically and unexpectedly braked hard, locking the wheels. This led to high stress and back/neck pain. If traffic had not been light at the time, the vehicle would likely have been rear-ended. The vehicle was operating in traffic-aware cruise control during this event.

Driver set cruise control has fsd imbedded that causes the vehicle to slow down drastically on its own. The car has brake tested several following vehicles so far. I’ve seen this before many times of other Teslas but thought it was the driver and now I know it was not. This causes a chain reaction of braking and smoking tires. I am positive this has created accidents but the ones involved have no idea how it started many vehicles ahead. The lane keep assist pillar cameras do not work in the dark, this has taken me by surprise already. The phantom braking on highways is awful, it is so bad that I am afraid to drive in the winter. The torque of the wheel sensor is not safe, when auto steer disables it can take you by surprise causing you to swerve into on coming traffic. The car accused me of using a cheat device one time so I decided to try it and surprisingly I found that it is actually much safer than using my body weight. These are extremely unsafe for busy traffic and slippery roads. I have videos showing it and will get more.

I was driving (~42 m/h) my Model 3 Tesla on a freeway and the traffic in front of me suddenly slowed down. The driver in front of me (she was a new driver with a new car) braked hard and came to a complete stop even though the traffic in front of her was moving. I ended up colliding with her as a result. I would have expected the Tesla forward collision system or the automatic emergency braking system to have activated and prevented this crash. Further, it seems Tesla brakes behave differently when it is fully charged as the engine braking does not engage. In fact the car seems to accelerate instead. If the Tesla forward collision system and the aeb do not work and prevent such accidents, what is the point of having these systems?.