Automatic Emergency Braking problems of the 2017 Tesla Model S

Full self driving did not show signs of slowing down at everett traffic slow down from about 60 miles to a standstill. I realized the speed not slowing down (about 5 car distance from stopped distance) I tried to apply the brakes that were completely nonresponsive, instead the car sped up. I avoided backend collision with the first car be maneuvering to the shoulder, however the next car was parked halfway into the shoulder that didn't leave enough room to not hit it. The car hit two other cars before coming to a full stop. While checking for any injuries for myself and passenger, after a delay and hitting 3 cars the airbags uselessly deployed. Total failure of brakes, auto emergency braking and airbag deployment. I have requested Tesla to look into the logs but havent gotten any feedback.

An issue with "pahtom breaking. " my Tesla Model S has suffered from phantom breaking since I purchased the vehicle. I have repeatedly mentioned it to Tesla repair representatives and am still waiting for a fix. The risks exceed those of operating a car—a danger to me and others on the road. Vehicles following me have no idea that my truck will randomly slam on the breaks. Even if following a "safe" distance, the Tesla stops so fast that driving at highway speeds, others cannot react in time to prevent an accident. This is an undone and unknown burden for other drivers as it is for me. Tesla must step up to the plate and correct this before people die.

During a road trip (may 2023) with cruise control activated, I had at least 5 phantom braking events. The most serious was in las vegas on the freeway with a very severe braking event. I now no longer use cruise control in crowded traffic so that I won't get rear ended when a phantom braking event happens.

When using the automated cruise control or full self driving, it will unexpectedly phantom brake. Seems to happen more when there is full sun. I have the latest updates. Did much better when cloudy, but it would still phantom break a few times during a 12 hour trip. But when in full sun, it did brake 10+ times.

This alert is about "phantom braking", which is well known to Tesla owners, and the subject of much online discussion among owners who seem to all experience this and are furious that it continues to exist. Here's what happens, very, very often yet: with adaptive cruise control engaged (with or without "autopilot", ie 'autosteer' also engaged), the brakes are applied suddenly without any need for braking (no objects in the way of travel, etc). We just completed a trip on I-94 from billings/red lodge, montana across north dakota, where phantom braking was experienced probably 50 times, with no other vehicles ahead of us, and on perfectly dry pavement, etc. There had also been very dangerous icy conditions (lots of even "skating rink ice") on the stretch of I-94 in montana, from billings into north dakota. Had the phantom braking occurred on one of the sporadic ice patches further east, it could have easily caused a serious accident, not just been a scary nuisance. In situations with heavy traffic, phantom braking could easily result in rear-end collisions by cars that may be following too close to react before we, the Tesla drivers, override the phantom braking by hitting the accelerator--even that simple maneuver cannot be executed before the car has suddenly decelerated 10-20 mph or more. Some of the phantom braking seems to have been somewhat corrected where we'd first encountered it, on I-394 west of dntn minneapolis--it doesn't happen as often now as it did a few years ago. There we'd suspected it may have been triggered by the shadows cast on the pavement ahead of us by overhead bridges. But this rash of events across north dakota this week brought our worst memories and fears back with a vengeance--and with zero theories that could explain it. On a recent online discussion about this issue, there were several pleas for Tesla to give us a "dumb cruise control" option till this gets fixed. Please help foster solutions to this difficult situation! thank you.

On 10/25/2022 at approximately 2:54pm I was traveling north on I-5 through salem oregon in the middle lane. Autopilot was engaged as I approached slower traffic 1 block in front of me in the middle lane. A pickup was approx 1 block behind me in the left lane. I activated the left turn signal. The vehicle initiated the transition from middle to left lane. Halfway between both lanes the vehicle applied hard braking action while continuing forward halfway between lanes. I tried to take over with application of the accelerator and force on the steering wheel to return to the middle lane. The steering wheel fought against me and the vehicle made a series of s-turns while braking. I tapped on the brake pedal and the system deactivated. The vehicle decelerated from 65-70mph to what I would guess to be 20-25mph with maximum braking (objects in the cockpit flew forward). The pickup behind me was very close when I regained control. If any vehicles had been closer or had the roadway been slick, the incident could have caused a major accident. I filed a ticked with Tesla and they advised this was known as a "phantom braking" event. There is no known fix, timeline for a fix, or mechanism to advise when there is a resolution. Tesla closed the service request. I'm a commercial pilot (former part 135 captain) and former flight instructor. I've been driving for 38 years with zero accidents. I have not used the Tesla autopilot since this incident. It is not safe in the current configuration. Tesla tech characterized the vehicle response as "conservative". There is no reason for maximum braking when nothing is in front of the vehicle. I would like Tesla to provide me with updates on resolving whatever is causing this. I would like Tesla to provide notification when the software patch is applied. Until such point in time when I'm notified the trouble is resolved, I will not be using the autopilot. Tesla charged several thousand dollars for this system.

Tesla has announced their intent to use "Tesla vision" instead of radar to detect forward obstacles. "Tesla vision" is a camera-only approach. Tesla cars receive ota (over the air) updates, and these updates cannot declined. If an ota update changes my car so that it no longer uses the radar with which it is equipped, I will have a much less safe vehicle, one that can't detect obstacles when there is poor visibility such as in the heavy fogs, rains, and snow conditions that we often encounter here on washington's olympic peninsula. Nhtsa should forbid the use of "Tesla vision" without radar, and should require all Tesla vehicles to be retrofitted with functional, forward-looking radar.

I have experienced an increase in the number of phantom braking incidents when my autopilot is engaged. It's been on hilly roads but the car would just decelerate extremely fast when nothing was there. I also had two incidences on the highway where the screens froze and I couldn't control the instrument panels or see my speed etc.

While the Tesla “traffic aware” cruise control was engaged (part of the “auto pilot” system), the car breaked aggressively for no good reason. This has happened 4 times over the 9,000 miles I’ve driven the car, always at freeway speeds. Although no injuries or damage resulted so far, serious injury could occur if a car is following me too closely when this happens.

My Tesla Model S has emergency braked several times on a divided highway when I was driving at about 65 mph. This has happened multiple times over the last 4 years. Sometimes it happens when I drive under a bridge overpass. Sometimes it happens if the camera sees roadwork equipment on the side of the road - no where near I'm driving. When this happens I'm always afraid someone is going to rear end me. I no longer use any of the self-driving features on my Tesla and do not enable the emergency braking option. I don't trust it.

My Tesla suddenly brakes, without any input or action by me, on the highway without warning causing me to take corrective action to avoid being rear ended. My wife refuses to drive with me. She feels unsafe in the car. I have submitted complaints to Tesla multiple times. The frequency of sudden braking has decreased but it still exists.

In the last couple of months the incidences of random braking have increased. Usually this has been on the freeway when using adaptive cruise control and often when there are no other vehicles around. However last week I was driving manually (no cruise control or “self driving”) on a two lane road. My foot was on the accelerator pedal, and had been since the last stop light about a half mile before, when the car suddenly and vigorously applied emergency braking. I immediately pushed the accelerator to the floor to avoid being rear ended, but the car continued braking almost to a standstill before I had control again. There were no vehicles in front of me, however there were vehicles in the oncoming lane. They were not near the center line. I turned off the automatic emergency braking at that time because I felt it was dangerous to leave it active. I would additionally state that Tesla has a habit of rearranging the touch screen so that you no longer know where to find certain controls and is dangerous because it’s then necessary to take your eyes off the road to figure out how it works now. Finally, I’ve been driving Tesla vehicles since 2016 and I love them. I paid for the “full self driving” option years ago and a “beta” version became available a few months ago. This is not ready for prime time. If I wanted thrills I would go to an amusement park. Even more basic things like auto lane change often don’t work because the cameras are constantly getting blinded when the sun is low in the sky. Here in the north that is a good part of the day during the winter. I don’t see how their system can ever be made to work with the existing hardware. I wish there was a way to go back to a firmware version that worked better instead of them always tinkering with it. I feel like a guinea pig.

Since Tesla has disabled the radar, and went to vision only, my car is a nightmare to drive on autopilot or fsd on two lane roads at night. Phantom braking, numerous times it has went onto the shoulder thinking an oncoming car a 1/4 away was in our lane, twice it even went into the oncoming traffic lane. Never did this when radar was enabled. My car has radar but they turned it off in software update.

My 2017 Tesla modes s has had a phantom braking for nearly five years. It usually occurs when the car is in cruise control and falsely identifies a vehicle (usually on the front right side) that isn't there. The sudden and rapid braking is disconcerting at best and dangerous at worst. Fortunately, I have not had an accident due to this sudden and inappropriate behavior. I have supplied this information to Tesla several times including dozens of "bug report" which is sent directly to Tesla when the incident occurs. Tesla has never fixed the problem.

Driving with autopliot engaged. I was in the left lane of a two lane highway when another car entered the highway to my right and car suddenly slammed on the brakes. I disengaged the autopilot. It happen several more time, so it is now a function I no longer use unless the highway is empty. I believe is was a $1000 option.

While on i65n, traveling at full speed on cruise control but not auto drive, the vehicle automatically applied the brakes. There was no apparent reason to brake. There were no cars in front or to either side and nothing on the road. We slowed quickly and abruptly, throwing everyone in the car forward. The slowing was so fast and so extreme that we were almost rear ended by the semi behind us. If he had not been able to move partially into the right lane and us into the left, he would have hit us at 70 mph. This is not the first “phantom braking incident ” that we have had but it definitely is the most dangerous one.

A phantom emergency braking event occurred twice on Monday, December 21, 2020 while driving from dallas to houston between the hours of 12pm - 4pm cst. I also experienced three blank screen events during this same trip. The media control unit (mcu) controlling the map, radio, air conditioning, blinker sounds also ceased operating. The second occurrence of both the phantom emergency braking and black screen event occurred on Saturday, January 9, 2021 shortly after 10am cst. The sudden phantom emergency braking episode I experienced at highway speed from dallas to houston was extreme. I simply do not feel safe using the cruise control or autopilot in this vehicle. Something is very wrong. However, Tesla message to me states 'we are happy to report that your hardware vitals for the media control unit and emmc are in great shape and do not require replacement'. I have attached a print screen of this message.