Automatic Emergency Braking Problems of Tesla Model S - part 1

Incident description: while driving through a parking lot at 20 mi/hr, my vehicle's aeb system activated in response to another vehicle approaching from a perpendicular direction. However, the system's response was dangerously delayed and inappropriate stopping the car right in front of the other car: the system failed to provide any advance warning or alert before applying the brakes the braking occurred too late to create adequate separation from the approaching vehicle the vehicle stopped directly in the path of the oncoming car, increasing rather than decreasing collision risk the abrupt stop left my vehicle in a position where I was at greater risk of being t-boned only the other driver's quick reaction prevented a collision. Had that driver not stopped in time, the aeb system would have contributed to, rather than prevented, a serious accident.

See all problems of the 2022 Tesla Model S 🔎.

Auto emergency braking is occurring when vehicle recognizes leaves as people. This has happened on three occasions. It is startling to say the least and a matter of time that I am rear ended due to this. Service center acknowledged these events but said they can't do anything about it.

See all problems of the 2023 Tesla Model S 🔎.

November 20, 2025 to the national highway traffic safety administration (NHTSA) office of defects investigation subject: safety defect complaint – Tesla Model S I am submitting this complaint regarding a serious and dangerous safety defect involving my Tesla Model S. Safety defect summary:    •   after the high-voltage battery failed, the vehicle would not enter neutral.    •   I had to use tow mode in the middle of a street on a hill to avoid blocking traffic.    •   once in tow mode, the car could not enter park and the emergency/parking brake would not engage.    •   the car became completely free-rolling, posing danger to myself, other drivers, and pedestrians.    •   when Tesla returned the car to my home, their technicians also could not get the vehicle into park or activate any emergency braking system.    •   the car is currently stuck in tow mode in my driveway with physical objects placed behind the wheels to prevent it from rolling. Why this is a safety hazard: a vehicle that cannot shift into park, cannot use its emergency brake, and remains free-moving after a failure represents a serious safety defect. This occurred without warning and left the vehicle unsafe to operate or even store. Request: I respectfully request that NHTSA investigate this as a potential safety defect affecting the Tesla Model S when the high-voltage battery fails. A car should never lose all ability to secure itself.

See all problems of the 2013 Tesla Model S 🔎.

Without prior incident or warning all adas systems stopped working, including adaptive cruise control, ap, fsd, automatic emergency breaking, blind spot warning, forward collision warning, lane departure warning, lane keeping assistance, parking collision warning. There were no alerts displayed on either driver’s display (other than ‘park assist unavailable’). Also there was no visualization of surrounding traffic, roads etc that is normally visible. The cameras were clean. Rebooting the mcu did not resolve the issues.

On [xxx], my 2018 Tesla Model S (VIN [xxx] ) experienced a complete brake system failure while in motion. The brake pedal was pressed multiple times, but the vehicle did not stop, resulting in a collision. The emergency brake also failed to engage. 1. Component/system failure: the braking system, including both the standard hydraulic brakes and the electronic emergency brake, failed to operate. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. 2. Safety risk: this put my safety and the safety of others at immediate risk, as I was unable to stop the vehicle to avoid an accident. 3. Confirmation of problem: the problem has not yet been reproduced or confirmed by a Tesla service center since the accident, but the vehicle previously had recalls in 2021 and January 2024 for brake and emergency brake issues that Tesla claimed to have remedied. 4. Inspection: the vehicle has been involved in an accident and has been documented by police and insurance representatives. Tesla has not yet inspected the car after the most recent failure. 5. Warning lamps/messages: there were no warning lamps or error messages on the dashboard prior to the failure. The brakes appeared normal until the moment they failed completely. This incident demonstrates that the recall-related brake defects remain unresolved and present a serious safety hazard. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

See all problems of the 2018 Tesla Model S 🔎.

As I approached a red light with a car in front of me, I took my foot off the accelerator to use Tesla's regenerative braking, but instead the car rapidly accelerated and crashed into the car in front of me. It seemed like unintended acceleration.

Turned right into garage slowly. Car suddenly accelerated very fast by itself. I swerved and avoided 1 parked vehicle. Was not able to avoid another one. I braked. The car stopped. Airbags had gone off.

See all problems of the 2016 Tesla Model S 🔎.

My car was left on the driveway for a weekend where I was out of town. Upon returning, as I got into the vehicle and started reversing to get out of my driveway; several alerts popped up on my car. The alerts included "steering assist reduced", "stability control disabled", "automatic emergency braking unavailable" and lastly, "parking brake fault. " immediately the power steering was gone and it took several pounds of force to turn the steering wheel even a little bit. Then, the parking brake engaged. No matter how many times I put the car into drive, it would engage the brake again. My vehicle was halfway out of the driveway and into the road and I was causing my neighbors angst. After several reboots, it still was not working. I was unable to even get the car into neutral to push the car back on to my property and out of the street. After nearly 20 minutes of trying and almost giving up; the parking brake disengaged for a few minutes and allowed me to get back to the driveway. However, when driving the brakes were extremely loud when the car was in motion. The car was completely fine with no signs of wear and tear or issues prior to the out of town weekend. The car was also fully charged so to not run into any batter issues upon my return. After some internet sleuthing, this issue is decently common and is caused by faulty housing in the steering rack. The nuts/bolts that were used by the manufacturer could not withstand more than a few years of wear and tear. I believe there was a recall on the previous years for this exact situation. I am afraid I will have to take it to Tesla service and pay several thousand dollars as the warranty expired last year.

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.

See all problems of the 2017 Tesla Model S 🔎.

Driving on straight section of highway at dusk. No autopilot or other features on. Road slightly damp from earlier rain. Driving approximately 60mph. Without me moving my hands or feet then car suddenly slammed on the brakes and speed decreased to approximately 20mph. I pulled over and reset the car computer by pressing the two buttons on the wheel and no further problems but had someone been behind me there would have been a terrible crash and my daughter was in the backseat. Looking online it seems Tesla "phantom braking" is not uncommon. I am frightened to drive my car ever again but have a 7 hour drive home tomorrow.

The contact owns a 2013 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while driving 57 mph, the forward collision avoidance: automatic emergency braking inadvertently activated. The emergency brake fault and parking brake fault warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was steered to the side of the road and inspected. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that unknown parts needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 95,143.

Shortly after an update in December, my 2018 Model S started getting alerts: driving visualization temporarily degraded, charge port sensor fault, autopilot cameras unavailable, automatic emergency braking unavailable, lane departure avoidance features unavailable, steering assist reduced. The map no longer knows where the car is located and cannot navigate or tell what the battery percentage will be at. All automatic features have stopped working. The service center claims the ecu needs to be replaced. It was upgrade to the autopilot/full self-driving ecu in 2020. I have read reports from dozens of other Tesla owners that this update also broke their ecu. I believe Tesla knows the new requirements for full self-driving to be safe and usable does not work with their current ecu. They want to charge me $1600 to replace the ecu. I cannot receive the recall ota update with my current ecu.

My car will randomly apply the brakes when driving on the highway for no apparent reason. I have noticed this to occur when going under overpasses especially on a bright sunny day, but also at other times. I do not find it to be predictable and it can be quite dangerous if traffic behind me is very close. This has occurred many times, most recently as yesterday.

Multiple components failed or malfunctioned. Fsd beta, lane keeping assistance, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, and automatic emergency braking, all failed or malfunctioned. I have requested Tesla to provide me the details on what happened, but after multiple attempts of reaching out to them, they are not providing any answers. I was driving with my son and we both got injured, my son was admitted to the hospital for 4 days. I am not sure if Tesla inspected it, they are not answering my questions. There was no warning or there were no symptoms of the problem before the failure. This is what happened, I was driving on fsd beta on a 2-way street with one lane in both directions, the car suddenly drifted, crossed the opposite lane, went over the sidewalk, and hit a tree. The airbags were released, and the front of the car was destroyed. The speed limit on the road was 25, and as it was in fsd mode, the speed was locked in at 25 mph. I was driving with my son, and my son got a lot of bruises internal and external from the seat belt, I had some bruises on my forehead. This is a complete failure of Tesla's fsd capability because it didn't detect the tree or the sidewalk and failed to apply the brakes. The car was declared a total loss by the insurance company. I am attaching a few photographs of the car after the accident.

While driving using cruise control, in the space of 9-10 miles, the vehicle had 14-16 instances of sudden, unexpected braking for no reason. Most were moderate braking incidents slowing the car 15-30 mph before I hit the accelerator to get the car back up to speed. 2 incidents were where the car slowed 5-10 mph then resumed speed. Very disconcerting. There was little to no traffic on the road and in every case, there was no other car within a 1/2 mile or more to the front. Finally got fed up with this and turned off cruise. Left cruise control off as I passed through a city then decided to try it again. Soon after engaging cruise at 72 mph, the car suddenly and violently braked for no reason. It was such a hard braking that one of my dogs in the back seat crashed into the front seat. The hard braking continued until the speed was about 20 mph at which point, I hit the accelerator in order to resume speed. Note that no other car was visible on the roadway which was a 4 lane highway. Conditions were clear and dry. Soon after this incident, while still on cruise, the car suddenly braked moderately hard. Since the road was clear before and behind me, I decided to see what would happen. The car slowed to 38 mph and stayed at that speed for 3-4 seconds then slowly resumed the set speed. A short time later 1-2 miles further, the exact same sequence happened again. Again, note the road was clear with zero traffic ahead of or behind me. I then turned off cruise and decided to drive manually the rest of the way. This car is dangerous and should be removed from the road.

I was using the enhanced cruise control and the car just slammed on brakes out of nowhere. There was not any cars ahead or beside me at the time. This has happened about 5-6 times since I purchased the vehicle on March 10, 2023.

So essentially I stopped for a charge about 30 minutes before, I charged it, then hopped back on the turnpike as I was heading to outer banks nc, while I was on the turn pike where I believe at the time I started to go around a curve not a sharp one but a curve right after coming off this bridge. Every 1 minute and 30 seconds you have to put your hands on the wheel and give it a jerk to keep it enable so it had to have popped up within the 1 minute and 30 seconds. As I was changing the album of the artists I was listening too I heard the beep beep beep which means you are approaching something and are about to hit it, as I looked up all I saw was blinking lights and really smacked the rear end of this traffic control truck, anywhere from 65-75 miles per hour with no time to react. If I remember correctly I had my car on 7 lengths away (maximum amount you can have away). As I hit the control I hit my head pretty hard on the steering wheel so the whole memory is blurry following when it happened and my adrenaline was very high but I didn’t wanna go to the emergency room even though they suggested highly because I have no health insurance and that would have had to come out of my own pocket and I was stuck in pennsylvania by myself and didn’t wanna get stuck in the hospital too. Thank you so much for taking your time to look at this it means a lot.

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.

Driving on autopilot on the highway, the car suddenly brakes with not apparent reason.

See all problems of the 2019 Tesla Model S 🔎.

Third time this week I have been thrown forward into the steering wheel with no cars or objects surrounding me.

See all problems of the 2021 Tesla Model S 🔎.

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.

Another automatic phantom braking throwing us toward in the car with no objects or other cars in proximity.

When backing out of my garage, and reverse my car often times stops violently on its own.

See all problems of the 2015 Tesla Model S 🔎.

Dangerous phantom braking: this has occurred many times including very dangerous situations in high speed interstate hwy settings. The car will slam on the brakes for no apparent reason often with cars following closely behind. I have completely stopped using “full self driving” as it is a death trap and people will certainly die because of its use.

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.

Car repeatedly applied the brakes hard and suddenly while traveling at 75mph on the interstate. This occurred while in driver assist mode as well as in cruise control only. It did not happen when driving without any assisted driving modes activated. There were no other vehicles near us nor any objects in the road or on the side of the highway that could have been construed as a reason to emergency brake.

See all problems of the 2020 Tesla Model S 🔎.

My 2015 Tesla Model S was driving with autopilot on 3-17-2023 at 5:45 pm pst near the intersection of lafayette st and memorex dr. In san jose California when I noticed it panicked and slammed on the brakes while traffic was flowing at about 40 mph. The day was clear no rain, fog, or obstructions. There was a Jeep approaching faster from my rear left in the next lane but it wasn't in front of me. No other cars were in front of me either. There was traffic directly behind me and the car suddenly braked nearly causing an accident from the rear. The car showed an icon of a person in red (an indication of what it was braking for). However, there was no person in the area. I immediately hit the acceleration pedal to avoid the accident from the rear and to keep the car moving. The car never showed a "person" indicator before in the 4 years I have owned it. I know the newer models show it but not this year. I immediately requested service through Tesla as the car has phantom braked for ghost cars in the past but never a ghost person and it almost caused a serious accident. I was told by Tesla that there is nothing they can do and that I needed to press the "push to talk" button in the car and say "report a bug". I told them in a moment like that I am more focused on preventing an accident and that is not a good solution. I did provide the time, day and conditions to them.

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.

Oncoming vehicle suddenly turned in front of 2021 Tesla Model S resulting in collision at 34mph. Automatic braking did not engage, collision warning system failed to sound alert. Air bags deployed however seat belt completely spooled out causing the driver to strike the windshield and break the glass by contact with the top of the head. The vehicle was a total loss and the dealer never inspected the car.

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while her husband was driving approximately 70 mph, the vehicle experienced "phantom braking" approximately 8-times in total. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The contact called the local dealer and made them aware of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 2,000.

When in autopilot mode on i287s highway , the vehicle in my right lane changed to my lane with more than enough distance. But, Tesla applied sudden break bringing car speed from 65mph to around 45 mph. Luckily, no one was following me, and, I took control and disengaged autopilot.

Sept 30, 2022. Driving east bound on interstate 10 ,east of tallahassee FL, car started flashing dash red. Car applied brakes while going 70 mph. Car made me pull off the road because of applied braking. It would not release the brakes. I called Tesla roadside assistance, "you have a flat tire". Attached are screenshots. I didn't have a flat tire. Had to get towed 300 miles home. Next day brakes released, drove car. I keep getting error codes everyday. Car has been in service, "nothing wrong". This a safety hazzard, imagine in heavy traffic on a bridge.

When in autopilot, at highway speeds, the car suddenly will brake. There is nothing that instigates this and it seems to be a safety hazard.

Our Tesla, in the "full self drive" mode, has on more than one occasion applied the brakes suddenly without warning while traveling on the freeways. The date I indicate below was the last occurrence. I see that others have indicated this malady and I wanted to add our voice to this conversation. Thank you.

While driving my daughter to school at approximately 8 am I turned onto the merge lane of southbound interstate highway 280 at the junction with wolfe road, sunnyvale. At that time of the morning the sun was low in the sky. After I turned into the merge lane and started accelerating to merge onto the highway the car was pointed directly towards the sun. While accelerating and at about 60 mph the car braked hard without warning and a message that corrective action had been taken was displayed together with an audible warning. There was no vehicle in front of my car for some hundreds of feet. The vehicle following my car was able to slow in time to avoid a collision but came very close to the rear of my vehicle. While there was no collision, the driver of that vehicle sounded his horn for an extended period of time and gestured at me. Sudden braking at highway speeds on a clear stretch of road clearly puts vehicles behind the rapidly slowing vehicle at risk of a collision. My vehicle has has not been inspected by Tesla or anyone else since this occurred. There were no indications of any problem before or since this incident. The vehicle is available for inspection if requested.