Adaptive Cruise Control Problems of Tesla Model S - part 2

I engaged Tesla's autopark to park my car in my usual spot. The car kept going after reaching the back of the parking space, crashing into a pole located around one foot behind the parking spot. The time between when it should have braked and the post was of such short duration that I had no time to apply the brakes and prevent the accident. The car lacks both radar and lidar, either of which would have detected the post. Instead it relies on a single video camera. What made this parking different from previous safe parking attempt in the same space was that the car was perfectly lined up. That meant that the camera could not make use of parallax to enable the ai to notice that the post was moving against the background and must, therefore by close behind instead of 40 feet away. For Tesla autopark to function safely, it needs to "know" how far back possible obstructions are. It could do so by never backing up with perfect alignment. Instead, the car should move enough from side to side to generate enough parallax effect for it to be able to determine if it is about the crash. The service manager who called to tell me that Tesla decided the accident was my fault absolutely refused to even hear my opinion on what Tesla could do to prevent such accidents in the future. He told me he had be instructed to deliver Tesla's disclaimer and to not listen to anything I might have to say. As an engineer who has patents in the area of both aviation and automotive safety, I have an opinion that might have been worthy of Tesla's hearing. I now suggest you folks warn people that autopark should not be used to complete the parking procedure unless and until Tesla decides to address this problem. In the meantime, drivers should be cautioned to either not use the feature or to tap the brakes lightly to disengage the feature several feet before reaching the back of a parking space. The driver can then complete the maneuver manually.

See all problems of the 2021 Tesla Model S 🔎.

In all assisted driving modes except full self driving (fsd), the car properly displays the speed limit it has determined either by map data or visual confirmation. In fsd, apparently only on pre-2021+ Model S cars, the determined speed limit is not displayed. In my town we have a us60 route. The car sees these signs and determines the speed limit is 60, even though it is only 35. The driver notices a rapid acceleration and may observe the set fsd speed has changed to 60. There is no speed limit displayed in this mode. Very dangerous to go this fast on a 35 mph road. When not using fsd, the car does show this error in the speed limit as being 60, even though the car determined speed limit itself is in error.

See all problems of the 2020 Tesla Model S 🔎.

Since the installation of software version 2024. 27. 25, which includes fsd version 12. 5. 4, on sept 26, 2024, any driving which occurs on fsd results in emergency braking events for green lights, unprotected/unsignaled crosswalks without pedestrians present, parallel parked cars not encroaching on the lane of travel, vehicles traveling the same direction and similar speed (+/- 5mph), not encroaching on my lane. These frequently reoccurring events were not remedied by any of the subsequent updates received: v2024. 32. 10 (fsd v12. 5. 4. 1) on oct 8, 2024 v2024. 33. 5 (fsd v12. 5. 4. 2) on Nov 2, 2024 2024. 44. 25. 2 (fsd v12. 5. 4. 2) on Dec 10, 2024 while not all events occurred with surrounding traffic, those that did posed a hazard to not just occupants of my vehicle, but those in and around other vehicles, including pedestrians. Most other drivers do not expect and are unprepared for a vehicle to apply panic-level emergency braking and come to full stop at green lights, before unprotected crosswalks with no pedestrians present, or along well-traveled streets without significant errant other drivers. No warning lights, chimes, or other indications ever appeared on any of the displays or instrument clusters within the vehicle during any of the events. The fsd traffic display did not indicate or highlight any features of the surrounding area that were causing it to slow or stop. The problem has been regularly experienced by many other drivers, as evidenced by the large number of similar reports across the various Tesla driver communities online. I and my vehicle are available for inspection and I'm additionally willing to take an inspector on a ride-along to demonstrate the issue.

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.

See all problems of the 2018 Tesla Model S 🔎.

While driving west on I 70 thru utah at 78 mph (speed limit posted 80) the car suddenly and almost violently applied full brakes and reduced speed to 50 mph before I could override by applying added pressure to the accelerator. There were no cars in front of me for over a mile, and the following cars were well back as well. This occurred late morning on perfectly dry pavement. There were few if any clouds, the temperature was in the mid to high 90's. The highway was divided with a significant center divider. If there had been a person following me within 5 car lengths there would certainly have been a rear end collision. The location was roughly 20 miles east of green river, utah.

See all problems of the 2023 Tesla Model S 🔎.

Was driving on a highway when suddenly a whole bunch of error messages came on and my car became hard to steer. Wobbled off my lane which was extremely dangerous going 70mph. I reported this to Tesla and set up a service appointment. The day before my appointment they rescheduled it, pushing it out 30 days saying they don’t have the part in store. They haven’t looked at my car. They said they’re waiting for a new steering rack but don’t know when it’s coming in. Mentioned towing the vehicle and it being unsafe to operate - they must know there’s something wrong and clearly there’s a backlog of issues. They should have told me this earlier. My car is practically new. There’s absolutely no reason the steering rack would have broken.

I had a software update on my Tesla Model S for minor fixes (s/w version # 2024. 14. 9) and when I came to start the car the following systems are now working; 1/ all camera's are not working including review view camera. 2/ all adas systems are not working 3/ windscreen wipers are not working 4/ navigation is not working the biggest concern is the camera system and all the safety system associated with this are now not active on the car.

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.

See all problems of the 2017 Tesla Model S 🔎.

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.

Driving southeast on route 40 between gallup, nm and albuquerque, nm. I was traveling at 75 mph on an open road, it was a sunny day. I had the adaptive cruise control engaged (acc). Literally no traffic in front of me for as far as the eye can see. Nothing that would cause an alert or obstruction in front of the car. The Tesla was on acc and suddenly braked, hard. I immediately disengaged the acc and drove manually. It was a frightening incident. If there had been traffic behind me, it would have resulted in a crash, as I would have been rear ended. If the traffic had been a truck behind us, we would probably have sustained extreme injuries.

Unknown.

See all problems of the 2015 Tesla Model S 🔎.

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!.

This complaint is about difficulties with the horn sensor on the steering yoke under emergency situations. After 14 months of driving the car, I have these safety issues: 1) the horn sensor is difficult to find in emergency situations. It is a single, small area located farthest away from the right-hand rest position and touching it requires a long stretch with the thumb. When turning, it is easy to lose the orientation of the yoke and nearly impossible to find the horn sensor. (see #5 in the attached image). 2) the horn sensor is near the cruise-control button ("right scroll button"). The cruise-control button is raised and I have accidentally engaged the cruise-control on multiple occasions when trying to reach for the horn sensor. I would lift off the accelerator, expecting to slow down, but imagine my panic when the car speeds-up due to the accidentally engaged cruise-control. (see #8 in the attached image). 3) the horn sensor does not work when wearing regular gloves. None of the steering yoke sensors with gloves. You have to wear special touch-senstive gloves. 4) the steering yoke airbag is not a horn button. All of my previous cars since 2000 had airbag horns. This is a hard habit to break. I urge the NHTSA to recall the steering yoke and make the airbag a physical horn button. This would alleviate the four safety issues above. Thank you.

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.

The update that you required for auto steer has made the car undrivable. I get a written and audible warning immediately when I engage auto steer. Literally within 2 seconds. I always keep my hands on the wheel, lightly, while I drive on the highway. Anything short of a death grip on the wheel causes the warning to go off. However, the nag feature (after the changes you required) goes off constantly. Honestly, it's very distracting. If I look at the radio to change the channel, the warning goes off. You need to undo the changes you required. It makes auto steer less safe, not more.

See all problems of the 2022 Tesla Model S 🔎.

You guys have ruined auto-pilot and made it 10x more dangerous and will cause more accidents in this format. It needs to be reversed back to what it was. Now when looking at the screen to change the temperature or change a song, or looking at the mirror, it asks you to touch the wheel immediately and causes unnecessary stress and potential mistakes, I've already oversteered the wheel several times swerving after it warns me to touch the wheel because I'm trying to look at a mirror quickly to not have the alert come on. In addition, it has 3 marks against me, and will be suspended from using it soon. Never before have I even had a mark against me on the system. I believe your approach to fixing the situation is fundamentally flawed. People get into accidents with autopilot because of their negligence, not because of autopilot. That is on the end user who has insurance and a driving record. Do not punish all of those who are good drivers, you are making us worse drivers now with the new autopilot to save a few accidents from bad drivers, but it will now cause many more in this format. This is a terrible decision on the regulatory part, and a sign of over regulation.

See all problems of the 2016 Tesla Model S 🔎.

Driving 75mph on cruise control. Car sensed a vehicle in front of me (which there were no vehicles in sight) my Tesla started flashing the red car light and making the alert noise. My vehicle automatically slammed on the brakes dropping me to about 40mph instantly. My greatest fear continuing to drive this vehicle is if I use cruise control, and it senses a vehicle in front of me without their actually being a vehicle and slams on the brakes again myself or someone is going to get hurt. This has the potential to cause death or cause severe injury.

Setting: adaptive cruise control, 70 mph, no nearby traffic, no nearby bridges or overpasses, no visible obstructions, straight highway, daytime, clear skies. Incidents (multiple): unexpected, inexplicable braking. During one of the incidents, there was a splotch of some sort on the road (perhaps spilled paint). During all other incidents, there was nothing obvious which could explain a misperceived need to brake.

Car without obstacle will without warning execute a hard slowdown/stop. We have received the latest ota update and have disabled auto steering and fsd. These unplanned stops are incredibly dangerous when driving in traffic. They charged a substantial fee to enable fsd and we are afraid to use it which sucks but the fact that basic cruise control is so dangerous is criminal.

Driving on divided highway at night, the car slowed dramatically at each exit from the highway.

Nhtsa recall 23v-838; tc2023-657 has made my car less safe to drive. The constant nagging and nannying requires me to take attention off the road. Please stop.

Tesla, in multiple cars that I own, has repeatedly changed user-preferences of user-selections, without warning, or update notes, for a variety of functions. This seems to be a consequence of sloppy software coding and seems to coincide with new software releases. In recent months, Tesla has attempted to inform people of new software update functionality with ‘release notes’. However, these notes seldom, if ever, explain that a user’s preference is getting discarded (though could be restored -- if the user were aware). One example, is the operation of ‘traffic aware cruise control’ was changed from a double click of a scroll wheel to a single click. No release nor or manual page was called out to indicate the change — at least prior to this driver’s noticing and diagnosing the problem. Nor was any pop-up message explaining the new, and surprising functionality of a ‘double-click’ — which was to momentary activate and deactivate tacc. Other functions that get changed, without notice: 1) operation of automatic windshield wipers is deactivated (and set to ‘manual) — from the user-preference of ‘auto’; 2) auto park chimes sounds are turned off — despite a user-preference setting them to 'on'. These changes to the ui, necessitating guesswork using the large glass screen, prove to be highly distracting to a driver in the midst of driving. In addition, these undocumented and un-communicated changes lead the consumer to contact Tesla and even setup ranger service to make a repair for what ends up being a sloppy manual — to the detriment of Tesla’s effectiveness of their service department. If Tesla cannot make the user interface operate in a coherent manner day-to-day, there is no hope that any alleged full self driving will avoid reverting to some unknown configuration on unknown time scales. Perhaps Tesla should repurpose engineers that make video games for the car to the purpose of regression testing to avoid surprises like these.

Error message popped on my screen steering might require extra force and shortly after that I lost power steering, cruise control, automatic emergency, braking, forward collision warning land departure etc. Contacted Tesla service to acquire about recalls since I remember reading about it.

Phantom breaking. I picked up my new Model S on sept 7th. While on the thruway on autopilot, the car will suddenly brake. I am not near to anyone. This is a hazard.

From Aug 23 to 28, 2023, we traveled in our 2020 Tesla Model S long range plus vehicle from santa fe, nm to san diego, CA and back, for a total distance of approximate 2100 miles. We drove primarily interstates (I-25, I-10, I-8, I-5) where speed limits ranged from 55 to 75. We experienced numerous instances of what is known to Tesla owners as sudden, severe "phantom braking" [hereinafter pb] while the cruise control was activated (not autopilot, nor fsd, just cruise control). In all instances, no cars or other objects were visible within 1 mile ahead of our vehicle, and in all instances, these "phantom braking" incidents happened on absolutely flat, straight, smooth road surfaces, at all times of day, morning, noon, and night. This car has had pb problems since the day was purchased; in fact on that day, there were at least two sudden pb incidents while I drove home in the new car! at numerous times since, I've reported these problems to Tesla service---to no avail. The problem is widely known among Tesla owners, and to my knowledge no owner has been able to get Tesla to do anything. On this most recent long-distance trip, our pb incidents happened typically at the posted speed limit of 75mph in all-clear situations---nobody else anywhere remotely nearby. The car would be operating smoothly when all of a sudden the brakes would engage and the vehicle would rapidly decelerate, throwing forward anything not fastened down inside the car. Because of the history of this problem, I never activate cruise control whenever any vehicle is near the rear of the car, as I can never tell if my car will "phantom brake" at that moment, causing a possible accident. I consider this problem very dangerous. I have owned this car since 2020, and Tesla has refused to do anything to fix it, always coming up with one or other stalling technique or excuse. I consider this an extreme safety flaw of this car and hope NHTSA can help to force Tesla to fix it once and for all.

Vehicle braked without warning with cruise control engaged. Luckily there were no other vehicles near us when this phantom braking occurred.

Driving on freeway speed 80mph with no other cars around the car slammed on brakes while on cruise control. It was able to accelerate and the next time I put the cruise control on a few minutes later it slammed on brakes again. Car clean no warning that it was trying to avoid an unseen object. Drove rest of the way without cruise control on and no problems.

The adaptive cruise control has had phantom braking issues from day 1 of ownership (and through every software release from Tesla as I always update when a new one is available). Most of the time it's not possible to identify exactly what triggers the event. However, on July 27th 2023 I drove from phoenix to sacramento via i10, i210, i5 and had 6 phantom braking events. 5 were directly correlated with passing a semi with me in the #1 lane and the semi in #2. I had the car in adaptive cruise control mode, but I maintained steering control. The car approached the semis normally, but as soon as the car was completely alongside the truck it began braking aggressively. More than just allowing regenerative braking to slow the car, the brakes were applied. This did not happen with every passed truck, maybe 1 in 10. One of the 6 phantom events could not be correlated with any clearly identifiable cause. There is no warning when the car begins decelerating so it is a surprise to the driver. Further it is an extreme hazard to following vehicles who will be forced to react. I have not directly reported my specific events to Tesla. For one thing they have no reasonable way to do this (online access, phone access. The number they give to report problems hits an automated phone tree where there is no option for reporting issues). Clearly Tesla is well aware of their phantom braking issues. I'm reporting this to you now in order to apply more pressure to Tesla to finally resolve this. In general, considering some of the other phantom braking episode beyond this one specific trip, I have occasionally noticed the car displays a yellow signal light on the driver's display but only while phantom braking has already begun. I believe this is case where the car believed it saw a caution sign or signal light in it's cameras and was reacting to that. There were no signal lights, but the sun was either coming in that direction or reflected off of other vehicles or buildings.

Adaptive cruise control. The vehicle in this mode suddenly brakes for no apparent reason which under the right circumstances could cause a collision. Tesla service center looked at it but could not reproduce. This has happened many times on various dates not just once. Sometimes it happens more than once on a trip, sometimes it does not happen. This happens with no warning. Tesla knows about this problem for years but has failed to correct.

Going north on new york state highway I-87, there is a bridge which results in Tesla autopilot erroring every time and every day and results in a "full self driving error" which causes telsa car to brake along with putting on hazard lights. Issue was reported to Tesla, but they responded that it happens to everyone under this bridge so there is nothing they can do right now. The fault occurs on a busy highway at 55mph zone, and happens 100% of time going under the bridge, every single day. The bridge is wide enough that shadow results in error and car loses all understanding of what lane it is in. Today at the Tesla service center, the employees all reported the same issue as well and that there is no idea if it will be fixed. Happens only when using fsd/ap driving support; manual driving is unaffected.

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

At least 6 times on two different trips, while driving with adaptive cruise control engaged, the car randomly and aggressively applied the breaks. It was so aggressive that if there had been a car behind us, they would definitely have rear ended us going 60+ miles per hour. It was difficult to hold the car in the lane when the breaks were applied so aggressively. We did some research and found that there were over 700 comments on this problem and it was being labeled as "fantom breaking". The breaking is very aggressive and very unsafe. The representatives at the dealership simply acknowledged the problem and said that Tesla will continue to try to correct it with a software download.

On 10jul2023, approximately 1:00pm, while traveling southbound on hwy 69, south of toll road 49 in lindale, texas, while driving in the right lane and speed set at 75mph, when all of a sudden the car activates the right blinker and - without slowing - pulls into a fairly short, dedicated right turn lane that turns into a business. At the end of the turn lane is a drainage culvert. The route of travel did not include a turn and the car should have been continuing straight down the highway. The car enters the turn lane and never slows from 75mph. I immediately hit the turn signal button to use the camera to get a look to my left to see if a car is there and also look over my left shoulder when there was no response (no camera) to activating the left turn signal. This all occurs as my hand is grabbing the yoke and my foot moving to the brake. I see the blue "path indicating line" wavering left and right and then lock into a right turn into the business parking lot at the end of this dedicated turn lane. Again, there is a culvert at the end of the turn lane also. As soon as I see over my shoulder that the lane to my left is clear the car attempts to make a 90 degree right turn at 75mph. At that exact moment I am able to yank the yoke left and tap the brake to disengage the full self driving beta as the car is starting the right hand turn. The rear end of the car breaks loose and slides as I get the yoke steered into the right hand lane of the highway. I allow the speed to bleed off to get the rear tires behind me and continue on. My dog has been thrown around the back of the car, my wife banged her head on the passenger side window. This whole event occurred in mere seconds.

The car will rapidly break and decelerate with no obstacle in front. The care does this frequently but randomly. The car will slow by 10 -20 mps in a mater of a second or 2. The deceleration is had enough to throw unsuspecting passengers forward into locked seatbelts. It will do this with cars following behind. I wil ldo this between 3-12 or more times over a 100 mile drive. I have asked Tesla to fix this but they have said that this is a limitation of their program and that it can't be fixed. I think it is only a mater of time before the car is ended or put into a skid due to unexpected breaking.