Adaptive Cruise Control problems of the 2018 Tesla Model S

Recently right side blind spot monitor camera stopped working. As result, majority of safety features in vehicle has been disabled to include forward collision warning, adaptive cruise control, and many other safety features of the vehicle.

Both vehicle displays have stopped functioning, therefore there is no indication of speed, remaining charge, blind spot protection, or back up camera. Also, turn signals are non-functional. This is a safety concern to yourself and other drivers.

While driving both north (in the evening) and also south (in the morning) on [xxx] between washington, DC and richmond, va I have experienced an issue with Tesla’s auto pilot that can be very dangerous and scary. While using the navigation system and with auto pilot on while in the left most line on this divided highway, the car made multiple attempts to steer into the express lanes even when the large gates are closed and the red lights are on to indicate that the express lanes are closed in the direction of traffic. To counteract this, it is necessary to quickly take control of the steering wheel and to get it to cancel auto pilot, otherwise the car would go into the gates and cause an accident. This has happened to me several times when I was traveling in the left most lane and when the gates were closed. This happened in November, December and in January. The system has not learned to handle this situation and to avoid steering into the barriers. I reported these incidents to Tesla’s support team by phone and after several weeks I received a phone call whereby the local service center (rockville, MD) called me. Josh, the person that called me read a lengthy text to me that essentially reviewed the driver’s responsibilities when using auto pilot. I asked if there was any indication that they will work on fixing this issue and I was told that the explanation I got (which was no explanation at all, just a reminder of driver responsibilities) was the entire response. I informed him that I would report the incident to NHTSA. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

While driving in autopilot mode, approx 70 mph in light rain the vhicle began to drift side to side almost crossing over the lane dividing line. Upon grabbing the wheel to take control the vehicle entered multiple 360 degree spins crashing into "k" rail. In the past I have noticed when taking control of the vehicle from autopilot the wheel jerks.

In July 2024 all the cameras on the Tesla Model S except the rear stopped working after a failed software update. This meant that all of the driver assistance systems as well as gps, adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning, forward collision warning etc stopped working. The lack of availability of this system meant that the car no longer had any advanced safety features that came with the car. It took many months for Tesla service to diagnose and fix the problem, which they identified as a failure of the auto pilot computer. After I was finally able to get an appointment with the service center, they replaced the autopilot computer at a cost of over $1500. The failure first appeared in July 2024. The symptom was gps location being stuck and autopilot and all safety features being not available.

On the afternoon of February 2nd 2024, my car’s speed assist was set at 30mph, and I was traveling north on virginia avenue in indianapolis, indiana. At the end of that avenue where it joins delaware street, a red traffic light was detected and my vehicle stopped normally. However a unique anomaly occurred. The vehicle crept forward three times against the light. I was required to apply brake pressure to stop the car from moving forward illegally. This phenomenon has never occurred since I have owned the vehicle beginning in early 2019.

While driving on the highway using cruise control, the car unexpectedly and rapidly slowed down. This has happened several (5-10) times, day and night, generally in low traffic areas (mostly with no traffic anywhere nearby). I have experienced this issue throughout my ownership of the car. In the most recent case, the car seemed to think that the speed limit had dropped to 35mph, perhaps seeing a sign from a nearby road. Other times, I could perceive no cause, so unknown. The date below is the most recent time, where the car thought the speed limit dropped.

On March 17, 2023 at approximately 4:00 pm mt, I was traveling at approximately 75 mph with adaptive cruise control and auto pilot engaged when the car suddenly applied brakes with no obstruction ahead or behind or on the side. The car quickly slowed down to approximately 55 mph, released the brakes and began to accelerate back to the speed limit of 75 mph.

Maryland state police report 7450004v says: on March 14, 2023, mark bova was driving his 2018 Tesla Model S in maryland on what is known in the dmv as the important highway, "the beltway". According to police report msp 74500047, "unit 1 was traveling southbound in lane 1 on I-495. The autopilot feature on the Tesla was engaged. The autopilot malfunctioned causing the Tesla to lose control and leave the highway on the left side. The driver was transported by ambulance to the hospital . . . . " "equipment failure, ran off road left".

I was using the vehicle's traffic aware cruise control, but not autopilot and the vehicle experiences sudden braking without warning or reason. I had no other vehicles near me, on a straight, flat road with no bridges, signs or other things to cast shadows. The weather was sunny, but the sun was not shining on the front of the vehicle. The most extreme instance starting braking the vehicle from 84mph and the vehicle reached close to 40mph before I could overtake the system by pressing on the accelerator. My passengers were thrown forward as well as our items within the vehicle. I'm thankful there was no vehicle behind me that could have rear-ended me. There is no reasonable way to contact the manufacturer other than asking for a service appointment which can't fix software errors. The manufacturer should provide an option for basic cruise control.

On freeway in traffic, autopilot is enabled. Vehicle is running perfectly fine in start stop traffic slowing down and speeding up as needed. Traffic starts to clear up, and as vehicle speeds up, there is a sudden slowdown again. Instead of braking/slowing down, autopilot turns off without an additional audible alarm (just the standard sound for turning off autopilot), instead the forward collision warning alert goes off. Able to brake in time to prevent accident.

Repeated problems with "phantom braking" when adaptive cruise control or autosteering is engaged. The vehicle would make unexpected hard breaking without any obvious triggers. In the past, I have made multiple "report bug" to Tesla immediately following phantom breaking, but no improvement noted thus far. This problem recurred yet again on I-5 today; the vehicle suddenly made a hard break despite absence of any issues in front of me; this resulted in the vehicle behind me having to take immediate evasive action by breaking and making a sudden lane change to avoid a collision.

While driving out 2018 Model S, it will brake hard while in adaptive cruise control of full self-driving mode for no reason. This happens frequently, whether driving on the highway or on city roads. It is terribly unsafe. I'm afraid eventually someone following too close will hit me.

Driving down an interstate at the speed limit, with light traffic. No cars immediately or in ahead of me. The car put on the brakes, or what is commonly referred to as "phantom braking" as I understand it. It has done this on prior occasions and I am familiar with it. It generally seems to be triggered by inconsistent pavement coloring or shadows. The car rapidly braked until I took over (I was using "navigate on autopilot" which was managing the speed and lane-keeping). There were no injuries or dangerous situation created during this event, besides being quite abrupt and startling. There are no known failures or issues in my vehicle that would have been likely to contribute. This occurred on Nov 24 in the late afternoon, driving westward. Weather was overcast.

Apparent software issue with adaptive cruise control causing unexpected hard braking at highway speeds. Random hard braking occurs on open road when road is clear, flat, and no other vehicles nearby. Narrowly avoided being 'rear-ended' during several occurrences by car behind. I drove the car this week on a two day road trip from palm springs to santa fe and this issue must have occurred 18-20 times during the 750 mile trip. I also tried using difference settings and nothing seemed to eliminate the issue.

I experienced multiple incidences with phantom breaking today. Multiple times per hour of driving (average of 5 times per hour on a ling 10 hour drive) events occurred on open highways/freeways with no other vehicles or objects around. Thankfully. But these incidences could have lead to a crash if other vehicles were following closely.

The car brakes when it is on adaptive cruise control mode. The braking happens for no reason. It happens when the car is approaching an overpass. I have to take control of the car immediately.

Operating vehicle on highways while utilizing autopilot and/or autosteer(fsd) braking will randomly occur without any warning. This is commonly referred to as “phantom braking. ”.

I purchase a used 2018 Tesla Model S about two months ago. Braking is very "jerky, causing me and my passenger to "lurch forward" unnecessarily. I run into this "phantom braking" issue numerous times every time I drive. It happens both on automatic cruise control and fsd and under different circumstances" and encompasses: (1) sudden braking for no apparent reason; (2) sudden braking that is unnecessary or is too forceful for the circumstances; (23 if the car is on automatic cruise control or fsd, it will slow down and stop too far away from the car in front. So, I push the accelerator to close the gap. When I left my foot off the accelerator, the software apparently thinks it's too close the car in front, and jams on the brakes unnecessarily. Also, when on automatic cruise control, if the car in front of me goes around a curve and then shortly thereafter stops a stop sign/light, my car, sensing that the coast is clear, will accelerate to the speed limit. As it approaches the curve, which it should not do. Then, when the car in front suddenly comes into view, my car will have to "jam on the anchors" in order to stop in time. While I'd rather be "safe" than "sorry," the degree of this phantom braking should be addressed.

Hello, I am a Tesla Model S owner for the past four years (bought it on June 15, 2018) and I absolutely love my Tesla and its autonomous driving auto pilot. It generally performs well except for a very serious glitch of phantom braking when approaching overhead bridges / passes. When on autopilot, many times when the car approaches an overhead bridge / highway pass or train bridge running perpendicular to the highway, the car will abruptly brake very hard and give warning for forward collision. I think this started happening after Tesla modified the auto pilot software in the wake of a collision between a Tesla Model S and a tractor trailer that was perpendicular to the car in sunlight and that killed the driver. Now very often the software mistakes the bridge as a big tractor trailer or something that is about to be hit and jams on the brakes, greatly increasing the risk of my car being rear ended by another car from behind who on an empty highway has no reason to expect me to brake suddenly (in fact I have no reason to expect it either). I reported this to Tesla engineers on phone and during routine service and they said they could not replicate it and instead asked me to report such incidents when they happen by using the voice command button on steering & say "report bug", which automatically transmits all logs of car for the last few minutes to Tesla engineering directly. I have been regularly reporting such phantom braking incidents to Tesla this way (which I think is actually another really amazing invention by elon musk, kudos to him), but not sure if they have taken action on this as it still happens once in a while and is very scary. Again to clarify, I love my Tesla Model S and am a huge fan but really worried that this phantom braking of my car, which I have after four years of driving my Tesla, noticed always happens when the car is approaching an overhead pass or bridge, is a huge safety risk and hope you can convince Tesla to fix.

Driving on a freeway at 75mph with autopilot turned on, the car suddenly braked, requiring manual intervention to accelerate to intended speed. After this the car continued as normal. There was no visible obstruction. Fortunately I have had this happen while a vehicle has not been behind me otherwise there is a possiblity of a crash.

I purchased the Tesla mold s with autopilot feature in August 2018, then upgraded it to full self driving for $5,000 and got it through a software update at the end of 2021. But this fsd feature has many defects such as hesitating before turning or stopping at a sign, which makes the car swing around like a drunk; sometimes it doesn't turn the turn signal on when changing the line, and even enters into the reverse lane. If the above problems can be taken over by switching human drive to avoid accidents, phantom braking is a terrible safety problem that can not avoid accidents. There have been many times in which the vehicle suddenly decelerated and braked without warning while driving by fsd. Fortunately, the rear vehicle did not follow too close or the rear driver took deceleration measures in time to avoid rear-end collisions. But on January 5 this year, not so lucky, I was just out of the Tesla services center of berkeley, my vehicle under sfd to the ninth street and gilman street intersection and is turning left from north to the east after the green light on, but the phantom braking happened when driving road central, the vehicle behind me didn't react and bumped into my car. The rear-end collision not only caused serious damage to the vehicle but also caused very discomfort in the driver's neck from the violent vibration of the collision. Although the accident was dealt with by the insurance companies of both parties and the damaged body was repaired in the bodyshop designated by the insurance company, I contacted the customer service of Tesla many times and reported the accident to them, hoping that they could arrange a comprehensive inspection to make sure that no other parts were damaged in the accident besides the body. However, Tesla's customer services reacted badly, either prevaricating or ignoring it. The accident has been nearly half a year since the accident happened, but I have not received a positive response or solution from them.

Driving west on interstate 295 at the scudders falls bridge from NJ to PA, adaptive cruise control suddenly slows from a set speed of 65 to a set speed of 30, then restores to 65 after a second or so. This predictably and repeatedly happens just before and just after the bridge itself, at locations 40. 26068356165738, -74. 84459141709418 and 40. 25572592962884, -74. 85316191866097. I have reported this to Tesla a couple of times over 6 months or so but with no improvement. As mentioned, it is 100% repeatable, in any of the 3 lanes, regardless of weather or traffic conditions. It happens with no other nearby vehicles, so it is location based, not conditions. It could be extremely dangerous if someone did not expect this and a vehicle was close behind.

Mcu will not keep up with basic standard features. Map would not load mid trip causing autopilot to fail during a turn causing car to veer wide and almost crash into a wall. Advised Tesla service and they said the only fix is to spend $2000 to upgrade the mcu.

I have been complaining since I got this Tesla in late 2017, that the car brakes unexpectedly on the freeway. Tesla claim that nothing is wrong & this will happened if the sensor received a signal like light from another car, but I was driving on the freeway during daytime? on 10/31/21 while driving autodrive on the freeway the car suddenly skid to the right twice, around 6. 50 pm & 9. 05 pm. My grandson was in the car with me and witness the incident. Luckily I was able to straighten the car without any accident. Tesla made an appointment for a mobile visit on 11/5/21, but cancelled on 11/4/21 and reschedule one month later on 12/9/21 to a service ctr in walnut. This is a safety issue and Tesla is not seriously taking care of.

While driving on the expressway, cruise control was engaged at 65-70 mph for 3-5 minutes, until suddenly, the car slowed down all by itself to around 50mph with vibration and jerking. The brake was not depressed at all. No other cars were in front of me or around me at the time of incident.

Recently saw an article that NHTSA was looking into "ghost breaking" with Tesla cars. This is something we have experienced with our Model S on a few occasions in 2018 and 1029. Haven't been driving that car that much now during the pandemic. Problem reported to Tesla: while driving on us 101 in bay area (driving from milpitas to south sanfrancisco), and the car on adaptive cruise control, the car would suddenly break and resume driving again. This not only scares the driver, but could be very problematic in a crowded lane. Telsa has looked into it when we complained and there was not definitive answer or fix. Hope the recent considerations by NHTSA will result in a through root cause and corrective action. Thanks!.