Automatic Emergency Braking Problems of Tesla Model 3 - part 2

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.

See all problems of the 2022 Tesla Model 3 🔎.

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.

See all problems of the 2025 Tesla Model 3 🔎.

* 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).

See all problems of the 2019 Tesla Model 3 🔎.

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.

See all problems of the 2024 Tesla Model 3 🔎.

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 all problems of the 2018 Tesla Model 3 🔎.

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.

See all problems of the 2023 Tesla Model 3 🔎.

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.

See all problems of the 2021 Tesla Model 3 🔎.

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?.

In a private parking lot, within line of sight and ample time to respond to problem I used Tesla Smart summon. Instead of taking an obvious route through the parking lot, it narrowly hit a parked car, then proceeded to drive over a parking barrier and into a wooded field towards me and a crowded food truck area. I was unable to cancel the feature in time to stop the car from the collision as it accelerated too fast and without any initial signs of an issue. Even after canceling through the app, the car tried to continue for a brief period. If anyone was in the area or we were closer we could have been hit. Tesla replaced the cameras but claimed no responsibility for damages, citing I was "in control". There were no warning lamps or indicators of any defects before the incident. I also have the original dashcam footage portraying the incident, which clearly shows numerous safety hazards to the Smart summon feature.

See all problems of the 2020 Tesla Model 3 🔎.

The system failed to detect the driver having a seizure and had no way for the passenger to break the vehicle. People in the vehicle and others were put at the risk of a seizing person accelerating in a car that could not be prevented by the car or by the passenger. No dealer/service center has confirmed the issues. The vehicle is currently being inspected by police. No known warning signs/messages before the incident.

On 9/6/2024 I was driving on I-10 e going about 70 mph in the left lane. I had engaged the cruise control but not the autopilot because I’ve had dangerous experiences with the autopilot phantom breaking and misinterpreting cracks in the road as lane markers and dangerously changing lanes. So even though inoaid thousands of dollars for autopilot I never use it. So I was driving approaching a big rig in the lane to the left of mine and the sun was low in the sky casting a shadow on the road. The car thought the shadow was a car and slammed on the breaks and almost came to a complete stop until I pressed on the breaks to release the cruise control. We are very lucky the car behind us didn’t hit us. The car behind us almost hit us and my passenger and I both sprained our necks. The same exact thing happened 5 minutes later. After that I am too scared to use cruise control which is very inconvenient when on a road trip. My car is a 2018 Tesla Model 3 that is equipped with lidar radar when I bought it, however Tesla turned this feature off awhile back. I never had issues with cruise control when the lidar was still enabled. I am very angry that a carmaker can turn off a safety feature that I paid for without my consent. I would have bought a different electric car if I had know I’d have to go back in time to the 1990’s before cruise control was invented. Most cars use some kind of radar for their cruise control systems and this seems to much safer. There are many, many complaints on line of other Tesla drivers having lots os problems with phantom braking. This is an important safety issue that needs to be addressed immediately.

I am reporting a critical safety incident involving my vehicle, which occurred during rush hour on a busy highway with no traffic lights or stop signs. While waiting in the left turn lane at a center divide, my emergency autopilot braking system activated unexpectedly, causing my car's left front side to encroach into oncoming traffic. Despite my attempts to move the car, it became immobile. I attempted to reset the car by turning it off and on, but the vehicle’s computer system malfunctioned entirely. With oncoming traffic traveling at speeds of 70 mph, I had no choice but to exit the vehicle for safety. I left the car in the center divide. This incident was extremely frightening, and I am deeply concerned about the potential dangers posed by the malfunctioning autobraking system. Thank you for your attention to this serious matter.

The contact owns a 2023 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while entering a parking lot, the brake pedal failed to respond, the driver was unable to control the steering wheel and crashed into a Ford vehicle and a tree. The air bags deployed, and the vehicle stopped shortly after. The forward collision emergency braking system failed to engage. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was towed to a tow lot. A police report was filed. There was no reported fire. The contact sustained injuries to the neck and shoulder and had bruises. Medical attention was provided. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was contacted, but no assistance was provided. The failure mileage was approximately 12,166.

While using standard cruise control (without autosteer), car sporadically & aggressively brakes for no reason with no obstruction or cars ahead and while at highway speeds. With cars close behind, a serious, life-threatening accident could've occurred. Can not determine how to recreate issue on demand. This is a known issue with Teslas that has not been addressed by Tesla. I have not reported this issue to Tesla.

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.

On [xxx] around [xxx], my daughter drove her Tesla Model 3 on [xxx] from school. Two strange/scary accidents happened to two different Tesla cars (model 3 and y). It was raining with low/medium visibility. One of the cars was driven by my daughter, and luckily, both drivers were safe with very minor injuries. The cars had significant damage but were drivable, and there were no airbags out. These two accidents occurred within 3 to 5 minutes at the “same location. ” when I asked them what happened, my daughter and other model y drivers described a sudden loss of control, with their cars spinning and becoming unresponsive to steering and braking. They then hit the guardrail on the center line. I checked the video recordings of our car multiple times; no vehicle-to-vehicle collision was involved. I also checked the road to see if there was any oil spillage, but the lane was clean. She didn't use auto pilot, fsd, and cruse control. The office recorded it as hydro plane in his report, but my concern was incidents that happened only to Teslas. Also, when I posted this incident on a Tesla whatsapp group, multiple Tesla owners reported that they had a similar issue when it was raining. It seems like sensors malfunctioning in the rain. Also, my daughter was driving below the posted speed (68/70), and she gave a written note to the officer too, but the officer recorded it as 70/70. I need to check that in the wake county traffic court. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

I have taken my vehicle into Tesla to have the issue fixed twice. They don't know what's happening or how to fix it. My car is randomly taking the wheel and steering me into other cars / off the road. It happens once a month or so, I have a newborn baby I drive in the car and I don't feel safe driving. I've recorded the incident and Tesla service said "that should not be happening unless I'm using auto pilot" which I never do. I've looked into lemon law but I did not purchase the car from Tesla directly, I bought it from a used car dealership. I'm not sure what to do, I can't sell the car because I would still owe $10,000 after the sale. Please help anyway you can, I'm desperate for anything.

While driving on the highway with fsd on, the car severely amalfunctioned with sudden deceleration at 4 separate ocassions. At 68 mph when changing lanes, the car suddenly decelerated. There were several cars behind us and it could have been a major multi car collision. At all 4 ocassions, I immediately took over control on steering and acceleration, thus avoiding any accident. This problem has not been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center yet. My vehicle or component(s) have also not been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others yet. Additionally, there were no warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure.

I recently took my car in for a recall for the trunk wiring harness and have never had any major issues since I purchased it in 2018. Since replacing the recalled harness, I’m starting to receive several alerts from my driver assistance system (emergency brakes, camera failure). I called a service tech who mentioned there’s either a failed camera or a failed wiring harness. Looking online, I was shocked to see hundreds of other owners with a 2018 Model 3 also experiencing the same issue in 2024 (assuming after they replaced the recently recalled harness). I strongly believe that these two issues are related and that the camera should be replaced alongside the wiring harness. Several people on this forum have been quoted hundreds or thousands from Tesla to replace the harness (including myself) and are taking matters into their own hands by replacing with after market parts. This is a serious safety issue since the cameras control all self driving functionality. I’m shocked that it’s not already been addressed through a recall! the first time my system had gone out while on autopilot, the car flashed and sirened and asked that I take over. Since then all my driver assistance features including my rear camera are no longer functional. Please see this forum where several others are experiencing the same issue on their 2018 Model 3s [xxx] attached are error messages from my car and screenshots from the forum above where people have described the diy fix and the costs quoted by Tesla. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

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!.

I was driving behind someone when a SUV came over from left lane into the right lane in front of the cars that were in front of me and made a sudden turn into a business. I was already applying the brake and was the 3 second rule behind the car in front of me, however the car did not stop as I slammed on the brakes as hard as I could. There have been other times that the car will automatically slammed brakes on because it feels that it need to…when it’s not necessary at all. But the other day when I needed the brakes to help me stop abruptly…they failed to do so. I hit the car in front of me and was cited as well. If I had been going faster. . This could have been way worse. This definitely needs to be evaluated on Teslas. I have a dahcam video that I’m unable to upload.

Following an over-the-air software update, all audio in the vehicle stops working. This includes entertainment services, but more importantly turn signal indicator "clicks", forward collision warnings, parking assist chimes, shift confirmation and warning chimes, and various adas notification sounds. In some instances, the problem corrected itself within 24 hours. In another instance, it persisted for nearly a week before I discovered that unplugging the usb cable for the dashcam fixed the problem. The dashcam hard drive has been installed for over 4 years, per the instructions in the user manual, without problems until early 2024. There were no error notifications or anything else to indicate that there was a problem with the car's safety systems, or what the cause of the problem was, except for the lack of audio. I chatted with Tesla service about the issue. After discovering and sharing that disconnecting the usb drive fixed the issue, they were persistent in wanting to cancel my appointment without gathering any additional information. Here is the transcript of our interaction: unplugging my dascham hard drive from the usb port fixed it. Weird. Tesla: OH interesting. Good to know! do we have permission to cancel this appointment? since it keeps happening I'd like to keep it open. I turned on remote debugging in case that helps you to report the bug or something. Tesla: we have nothing else to diagnose if your vehicle is operating as expected. Ok. If it keeps happening I will still want to bring it in, so let's keep the appointment. And I wouldn't say it's operating as expected. Having to disconnect usb cable to get the turn signal to work properly isn't what I would expect. Tesla: I would hate for you to bring in your car, only for us to tell you that it is because of your third party accessory, and we charge you for the diagnostic time. I appreciate your concern.