Adaptive Cruise Control problems of the 2017 Tesla Model S - part 1

Critical safety failure: loss of driver override and extreme hmi/signaling latency. 1. Loss of override & unintended acceleration: while operating fsd (supervised), the vehicle ignored a 65 mph set-point and accelerated to 80 mph. I attempted to reduce speed by pulling down on the steering stalk 4-5 times, but the vehicle ignored all manual inputs, requiring a hard disengagement. 2. Lane departure / path failure: the vehicle failed to maintain lane centering, specifically crossing over the centerline into opposing traffic. This occured without warning or system-initiated steering alerts 3. False signaling / path failure: I’ve seen at least two occurrences where system exhibits dangerous signaling conflicts, such as activating a right-turn signal while simultaneously executing a left-turn maneuver. One time it was on a 45–55 mph rural corridor where trailing drivers frequently overtake slower vehicles. A false right-turn signal acts as a dangerous "all-clear" for a trailing driver to pass on the left, creating a high- probability broadside collision scenario when the Tesla physically executes its left turn. I have no idea if this has occurred more than these two times as I don’t check this. The other time I caught on video, by chance, as I was trying to capture the surging behavior to show the Tesla service center 4. Audio & visual hmi latency: audible instructions arrive 100+ feet after turns, and the map ui auto-zooms away from the driver’s focus, requiring constant manual screen contact to view street names. This forces significant visual-manual distraction. 5. Confirmed inadequacy: Tesla service invoice #[xxx] (Jan 27, 2025) documents: 'the current computer is a little too slow for full self driving function. . . ' confirming the hardware is unfit for safety-critical processing. This incident is directly relevant to NHTSA investigation pe25012. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

Software version 2025. 32. 3. 1. Using Tesla’s auto-steer / enhanced autopilot (not fsd) causes many “phantom braking” events when going through several intersections on my commute. It’ll say a message “curve assist active”, however I’ll be on a very straight and flat road with no curves. It’s 65 mph road and it will brake / slow down the car very hard and fast, if I don’t catch it in time it’ll get down to ~45 mph within a second. Even when traffic is going slow already, like 40 mph, it’ll still bring up the message and try to brake and slow down, though not as hard. Typically to about 25-30 mph. I usually can catch it and use the accelerator to prevent it, but sometimes it’ll happen so sudden and I worry about getting rear-ended by someone behind me. Very repeatable. Very startling and concerning when it happens when I don’t expect it to. I believe it’s a mapping issue as it has not been fixed in over a year and after several software updates.

Software 2025. 14. 1, full self driving 12. 6. 4 (fsd). Vehicle when using fsd continuously slows to 10 mph below the speed limit. You can manually press the accelerator to speed up but fsd will not brake when doing so and warns you of the same. After a minute of being back at the speed limit, fsd again slows down. Repeat this process constantly. Very dangerous.

Stoped at intersection. While trying to engage signal lights, hit the stalk below that engages full self driving. Car immediately jumped into intersection . In front of another car and almost collided. Since the last update, cars with my configuration wave been acting irradely and it is not safe to use fsd.

Approaching my garage door as it was opening when the car suddenly accelerated smashing through the garage door, through the back wall of the garage, through the laundry room and finally stopped in the main bedroom with the front wheels off the ground as the car rested on top of the washing machine.

Autopilot drove me off the road during turning right on hwy 183 on April 4, 2023. 9:04 pm. My Tesla Model S was on autopilot and car went off the road during right turn and about to hit the red light pole.

I received a safety recall dated 2/8/2024, recall no 23v-838. Tesla has failed to remedy the defect & claims a remedy is not necessary. Specifically, I took my vehicle to Tesla on 3/18/2024 to update vehicle software to incorporate additional autosteer controls. See attachment: "repair notes: "no update necessary", despite the vehicle running a software version less than 2023. 44. 30 as specified in the recall notice.

Recall 23v-838; tc2023-657. Tesla not providing software update for recall from last year. I can't get an update for this recall unless I pay $2000 for mcu2.

Tesla has failed to provide the software updates to fix the recalls on my and all other mcu1 cars that have fsd paid for. This is because Tesla has not delivered sent fsd to these cars, and hopes owners will pay $2,000 to upgrade to mcu2. Tesla has lied that all cars with fsd paid for will be upgraded to the required hardware necessary to use fsd. This has now became a safety issue as recalls are not being addressed!! Tesla states vehicles should be running software version 2023. 44. 30 or later. . . We are stuck at 2022. 8. 10!.

1. Previously listed recall has been erroneously removed from recall history for my VIN. . Read more...

5 times on a cross country trip, I experienced the phenomenon of "phantom braking" . As I was driving with adaptive cruise on, doing approximately the speed limit, the brakes were automatically applied and the car started to rapidly slow down. Luckily there was no one behind me so I was not rear ended ! I immediately took the car to the local Tesla service center thinking there was a problem with the car, but they told me this is a know issue with no solution at present. One tech told me he has a Tesla himself and has experienced the same issue ! he told me that he just punches the accelerator and keeps on driving !.

Random breaking was prevalent with driving computer 2. 5, which recently upgraded to 3. 0. The "phantom breaking" is more general and is very dangerous. There have been locations where the vehicle behind me almost wrecked due to my car brakes slamming on out of the blue. I looked up the issue online and found the problem has been happening for years. My wife will not ride in my car now due to the fear of an experience when this phantom breaking accused while she was with me. I am using adaptive cruise less often and not using autopilot. The downside is that the car's efficiency is reduced when not using these "Smart" features.

Numerous incidents of phantom braking on open unobstructed highway, causing potential rear end collision. Reported to Tesla on several occasions. Currently on my 3rd mcu(media control unit). Service scheduled with Tesla but I am not optimistic since it has been a persistent issue since owning the car in 2017.

The issue occurred twice over the period of the past two months, both times I was driving on highway with Tesla autopilot enabled ( it is adaptive cruise control), for no apparent reason the car hit the brakes, all vehicles driving behind me had to hit brakes or change lanes to avoid collision. Both times I created service request with Tesla and got no clear answer to why its happening, first time I was told it is because the exit on map was about couple miles from car location so car had to hit brake hard and change lane to make it to exit but car never tried to change lane, it just did hard braking. 2nd time I was told it happened due to wheel alignment not being accurate. After wheel alignment was done I reached out to Tesla again but so far they can not confirm or deny if Tesla autopilot is safe for me to drive. I was told to use autopilot at my own discretion. Are car manufactures allowed to sell hardware or software without taking responsibility for its safety ?.

The car had multiple computer issues causing it to break unexpectedly, turn unexpectedly, avoid things that were not there unexpectedly. It was brought into the dealer multiple times, who actually viewed the error, and when they were driving it, they were involved in an auto accident. Even with the warranty, they could never fix it, and it was amazingly dangerous almost killing me several times.

Vehicle automatically and unexpectedly applies brakes when using cruise control when no other cars are in proximity or approaching. Sometimes braking is light but other times it is a jolt that is extremely starling. Often happens multiple times within minutes. Unpredictable when it will occur. I have taken the vehicle to Tesla 3 times and they say that they know about the problem but their autopilot is still in beta and are not actively working on a fix. On 4/28/2022, while on a trip, there were 5 incidents between 9:51am and 1:43pm.

On several occasions, I have been doing highway driving, and my 2017 Tesla Model S suddenly brakes without warning. It happens primarily on cruise control and around curves on the highway. On a trip to atlanta earlier this year, it happened twice. I bought the car used in 2021, and it drives very well, but the unexpected braking at high speeds is scary.

Four separate issues to report: 1. ) multiple instances of car braking while in self-drive mode. This has included driving at high speeds on highway and having vehicle slam on brakes nearly causing an accident. I took over as I was paying attention on all occasions. 2. ) while is self-drive mode and a lane widens, car veers to “middle” of wide lane. This does not act in a way a normal driver would. 3. ) issues with middle screen stopping or resetting during driving. This was a reported recall issue and I did get the recall taken care of. Issue still persists. Tesla has not been responsive in getting this resolved. 4. ) recent issue with main screen panel behind steering wheel resetting while driving. Vehicle maintained operations, but I could not see speed or change gears while driving. This has happened before. Tesla updated cpu, issues persists.

2/23/2022. Driving on highway with Tesla autopilot on and speed set to 65 mph. Car was suddenly braking without any obstacle in front. Good thing that car behind me was quite a distance away, and I also noticed it slowed down immediately after seeing my car slowed down. This happened just after my Tesla Model S with latest firmware update last week. The new firmware version is 2021. 24. 28. This is the first time I engaged autopilot after the firmware update.

On at least three (3) separate occasions, my Tesla has automatically slammed on the brakes. Once it happened while driving on hwy 101 in high speed traffic flow. I was passing a right side on-ramp and I believe the Tesla got confused when it saw a car approaching the highway from the merge lane on my right. One time it happened on hwy 101 in a construction zone marked 55mph. Perhaps the auto drive cameras got confused by the poorly marked road and lack of lane markings as traffic merged. One of the times it happened in santa barbara on state st, in a 35 mph zone. In each of the above cases, *I was not in autodrive*. I was subscribed to beta software updates, but after these scary incidents, I discontinued beta and went back to standard updates.

Multiple times during our drive experienced random braking and alert sounds going off. Had wife and dog in the car which were also jolted forward due to the sudden braking in the middle of the freeway. Clear weather (post-rain) in night conditions.

When in full self driving mode, on the highway going on an overpass. . . . The vehicle suddenly applies the brakes. Imagine going from 70 mph to 40 for no reason. I discussed with Tesla, they said the vehicle is reading the speed limit from the road below the overpass. Very unsafe.

While driving on the highway at 65mph on autopilot, the car brakes very aggressively without any obstacles obstructing my path. Clear road ahead and I got from 65 to 50 very quickly and for no reason. I won't accelerate back to 65, but again the car was aggressively braking me back down to 50mph. It begins to look like in brake checking the driver behind me and they become upset and drive aggressively around me. This has happened so many times, I've lost count. I'll fill out a single incident report, but this has been happening for the past couple of years. I know you guys are getting a lot of complaints about this issue so I wanted to let you know about another vehicle having the same problem.

Ever since I purchased this car I have suffered from phantom braking when using cruise control. As a result, I am unable to use any of the advanced autopilot features. I spent $10,000 for something that has never even begun to work. Phantom braking occurs seemingly at random, with no vehicles in front, nothing on the road and no overpasses or shadows. I try every few months to see if anything has improved, most recently in January on 101 north of petaluma. The car suddenly braked, freaking out my passenger. I only try it when no other vehicles are around, so that I am not rear-ended when it happens, after some very scary near-rear-ending events early on. I have reported this problem to Tesla on many occasions but after being told "it is a known problem" I have given up reporting it. Is it repeatable? yes, just drive on cruise control. Safety risk is being rear-ended. Has the problem reproduced by service? no, has it been confirmed, yes. Has it been inspected by Tesla? yes warnings prior to the failure? no.

On autopilot, if I approach a 60-mile speed limit section with speed more than 60mph and on my right is there a big container truck, my car suddenly slows down drastically. This makes people behind me mad because they think I brake-checked them. If I pressed on the speed pedal, it will accelerate but it will brake again if I release the speed pedal too soon. It almost consistently behaves like that.

On numerous occasions the car, while on cruise control will suddenly, and for no reason brake. Sometimes very hard. The latest was today at 1336 mst.

The brakes have engaged while driving at high speeds (perhaps on about a half dozen occasions) when using either the adaptive cruise control or auto pilot, at a time when there were no road hazards or other cars in the forward or side vicinities. The braking that occurred was severe - a hard braking if you will. On two occasions, this same kind of braking occurred at the same point on a certain freeway that I was traveling on. This braking also occurred once while driving on a city street at low speeds with auto pilot engaged. The dates in which these incidents occurred were all in 2021. The only specific time frame I remember was in July 2021.

The contact owns a 2017 Tesla Model S. The contact stated that on three separate occasion while driving at highway speeds with cruise control engaged, the vehicle would suddenly brake on its own. The contact was uncertain if any warning lights would appear on the instrument panel prior to the failure. The service center nor the manufacturer had yet to be notified of the failure. The contact stated that he was able to document the exact time that the latest failure occurred on the vehicle. The vehicle had yet to be repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 48,000.

This was issued a full recall by nhsta. The vendor, Tesla indicted only a couple of weeks before a chip replacement was available. To date no repair has been made and the vendor is non responsive. Your help need to effect this recall.

Autopilot has failed many times. Car almost crashed. Took it to dealer for repair but they didn't fix the problem after spending $100,000, the autopilot should work as designed.

Brought the car in for service at the macadam service center in portland, oregon on October 29th due to mcu issues; this was before any notice had gone out! I was not even aware of the issue at this time. It was rebooting, very sluggish, gets 'lost' ie keeps outdated information etc. This is obviously the 8gb memory device issue. After a 40 year career as an engineer and venture capitalist in the it industry I know what memory failure looks like! I was told there was no issue and that it was safe for me to drive to sf the next week. I had major issues on the trip. The system rebooted a number of times, was extremely sluggish and had data update issues. Specifically: -depart lake oswego at 5:30am on 11/23. Soon thereafter the left front fender camera informs me it is not working. It does so repeatedly every minute or so for a long time. Then all cameras inform me they are not working. I stop, twice, clean all the cameras and it does not resolve anything. I give up on the cameras working and stop using cruise control -at 12:31pm in the shasta area streaming fails and then the whole mcu shuts down. While driving in the rain I am forced to react and open windows to keep the windows from fogging up while driving at 70mph. Othis is a serious safety concern. I have updated my NHTSA complaint to include these serious safety concerns. -7:48pm 11/23, while supercharging in emeryville the mcu completely froze. I was had to force a reboot. 2nd reboot in one day -5:28pm 11/24 mcu crashes while driving again! how do you not understand the safety implications of this?! this is the 3rd crash in 2 days!. I will make an appointment and expect you to fix this issue. I will continue to update my NHTSA complaint regarding these safety issues until Tesla resolves them. Scott scott darling president | dell technologies capital.

My screen turned blank and there was no way to see the rear view camera, the turning signal, to set the temperature control due to a known defect of a memory chip. I took the car into the dealership with history of multiple black outs, and they refuse to replace it although Tesla website said that they would.

I complain that Tesla failed to remedy the defect of malfunctioning emmc by replacing vcm daughterboard (see the letter received) within a reasonable time frame. Since last November I have received a number of letters from Tesla informing the recall and nothing happened.

Mcu unit goes blank and has difficulty coming back online, which precludes me from safely driving my car; the car was stationary.

Tesla mcu fails intermittently- rendering autopilot and all safety features associated useless. Also causes extreme scare to driver when failure occurs, as they believe car is off/not working. Occurs on numerous occasions, both on startup and while driving.