Automatic Emergency Braking problems of the 2021 Tesla Model Y - part 1

The gps and camera functionality went out on the same day several days ago. The car thinks it is at Tesla’s headquarters in CA and so you cannot find a charging station near your actual location, and no cameras work meaning the additional safety features for collisions do not function at all. This is a widespread issue based on Tesla user forums.

I was driving on an intestate hwy I-70 east bound on the left lane and I was about to take the exist 62. I was on cruise control and it was raining and the road was wet. When I tried to change the lane the car auto braked and car skid and rotated 360 degrees and hit the railing. The car got damaged front and back. Luckily there was no vehicle near us so my family was safe. But I dont know why the car auto braked and one should not hard brake when the road is wet. I called 911 and Tesla insurance. I took the car to the body shop and they are deeming it total loss. Please take necessary actions so it doesnot happen again.

While reversing in this 2021 Tesla Model Y (software v12, 2025. 14. 1, full self-driving supervised), the vehicle’s ultrasonic sensors showed a wall directly behind on the display. However, the Tesla vision camera system did not visually render the wall, and neither automatic emergency braking (aeb) nor obstacle-aware acceleration activated. The car reversed under driver input directly into the wall, causing a collision with property damage. The safety defect appears to be that the ultrasonic sensors, although still present and visually displayed, are no longer integrated into the collision avoidance systems after Tesla’s software updates activating Tesla vision. As a result, the aeb and oaa systems seem to rely only on camera data, ignoring ultrasonic sensor input — leaving a dangerous blind spot in reverse. This problem affects safety because the driver receives no warning that aeb or oaa will not engage based on ultrasonic detection alone. Tesla’s updated owner manuals (2023. 12) state that aeb is now designed to work in reverse, but in this case, the system failed. The issue has not yet been inspected by Tesla or a dealer but appears reproducible on vehicles with ultrasonic sensors running Tesla vision software. This is likely a widespread defect affecting 2020–2022 Tesla model 3, y, s, and x vehicles equipped with ultrasonic sensors but updated via software. There were no warning lights or system alerts before the failure. I request NHTSA investigate whether Tesla’s software has disabled or failed to integrate ultrasonic sensor data into rear collision avoidance, creating an undisclosed safety risk for owners.

The issue appears to be an acceleration malfunction and brake failure in my 2021 Tesla Model Y. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. On [xxx] at [xxx], while waiting for the garage door to open, the car experienced an unknown unintended acceleration malfunction, surging forward uncontrollably. It didn't wait for the garage to open, crashed through the garage into the family room, causing significant structural damage to the framing and door. The city of eastvale declared the house unsafe, sealing it off. I am now homeless and staying with friends temporarily. During the crash, the airbags did not deploy, and the abs system failed, preventing an emergency stop. The car stopped 4-5 feet away from my wife, who was on the sofa, posing a critical life-threatening situation. Thankfully, [xxx] and I survived, but this incident caused severe mental trauma for my family. We have not reported the incident to Tesla. The dashcam footage appears deleted during the crash and the car seemed to have only recorded footage before the crash and after. This issue has not been reproduced or confirmed by any dealer or service center, but further investigation needs to be done. The vehicle has not been inspected by Tesla or any service center. However, the police and insurance representatives have been involved. We are coordinating further inspections to find the cause of the acceleration and brake failure. We aim to invoke the Tesla event data recorder (edr) tool to investigate what exactly went wrong with the car. There were no warning lamps, messages, or symptoms before the incident. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

Summoned my car in parking lot. Vehicle showed on app that it planned to go straight then turn left but instead cut to a left and thus colliding with the car that was parked next to me. I have the footage if needed. Car should have stopped instead, or followed planned route. I was staring at the car the whole time and it looked that it was going straight, even after colliding, it looked like it was aimed to go forward. The car created a log of what happened if needed.

The vehicle's primary autopilot processor randomly and completely failed while in active use on February 10th, causing the vehicle to immediately change course towards a highway barrier at high speed. Since that moment, every time the autopilot das computer is reset, the primary processor refuses to transition from the init state to the nominal state and instead transitions to critical state. The vehicle had software update 2023. 44. 30. 8 for recall campaign #23v-838, recall number sb-23-00-008 applied 1 month ago, which was supposed to decrease the probable misuse of the das system. However, many individuals reported that the recall immediately and irreversibly damaged their das computer, so Tesla offered them a free replacement without hassle. However, I have been struggling to work with Tesla's carlsbad, California service center for over a week to get the das computer replaced at no cost, since the computer was damaged after an update caused the computer to become irreversibly damaged after their software update was installed -- a software update which was supposed to have made the autopilot system safer, but which has instead unfortunately irreversibly damaged the autopilot computer, and caused my vehicle to randomly and immediately weave towards a highway barrier at high speed. I am wrongfully being asked to pay in excess of $2500 for a replacement computer as a result of the update damaging the das computer. They claim the catch-all diagnosis of a "short circuit" internal to the das computer caused the damage which would be out of warranty, except the computer has never been opened by myself. They confirmed to me that they chose that diagnosis after a process of elimination without actually probing the electrical system within the computer. The carlsbad service center refuses to give me an accurate estimate for any further engineering analysis, claiming it could take multiple hrs/days at $245/hr. This is extremely unreasonable and presents unlimited risk.

The regenerative brakes malfunctioned looks like and the car kept on spinning and we hit the side of the freeway and ended up in a ditch and the tow truck had to pull us out of the rubble. It was very scary and lucky we did not get hurt. I was reading some online reviews and looks like many people are having similar issues with Tesla Model Y and other Tesla models. Thanks.

Phantom braking. We were going at around 45 miles per hour on route 30 and the car suddenly engaged brakes without anybody in front of me. Apparently it's a known issue called phantom braking and I wanted to report it.

What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? emergency breaking in autodrive mode. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? my car auto breaked hard for no apparent reason when I was driving at 75 mph on an open highway. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? there are plenty of articles online about phantom breaking. Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? no, this happened yesterday morning on 11/18/2023. I plan to report this to Tesla today as well. Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? not a single warning and this was the first time that this has happened to my vehicle. I was driving using auto drive at 75 mph on highway at 8:45am on 11/18/2023. All of a sudden, and for no reason, my Tesla Model Y slowed down within 3 seconds to around 45 mph. This was completely unexpected as no other car, debris, person was near me. When I got. Home that day, I read about phantom breaking with the Tesla. What happened to my car is yet another example of phantom breaking. This could have caused a major accident if there were more cars on highway at the time. Luckily no one was injured, but my daughter and I were in shock and shooken up.

Driving from albuquerque nm to farmington nm, in approximately 1 1/2 hours of driving on hwy 550, 4 lane divided highway, encountered no less than 12 hard shadow breaking events. In all instances there were no vehicles, animals or debris in front of the vehicle. It was a cloudless day, starting around 9am, clear no fog, temperature in the 40's. High risk of being hit if a car was following close behind, incident has been reported to Tesla, no inspection. There was no waring prior to all hard shadow breaking events.

During raining multiple Teslas including my Tesla last week experienced hydroplaning lead to close ti fatal accidents I believe the car inappropriately used emergency breaking that lead to accident, I am not if that was due to the car seeing water/reflection ln the ground I was driving the speed limit and all cars were driving at the same speed 70-75 mile per hour) I suddenly started spinning with no warnings it is impossible that multiple Teslas experienced the same thing more than other cars I am trying to get the data from Tesla to confirm this, but it is not easy to make them get us what exactly happened I am seeking third party analysis hopefully once I get the data, but it would be best done from NHTSA the damage to my car was due to hitting the road and my car went to the middle due to hight difference no other cars or objects were hit if I hit anything, it could have been fatal.

Dear Tesla customer support, I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to express my extreme concern and disappointment regarding a serious malfunction I experienced with my Tesla vehicle, Model Y, on 08/01/2023. The incident has left me deeply troubled and has raised significant questions about the safety and reliability of your vehicles. On the aforementioned date, while I was driving my Model Y, I noticed an unusual burning smell coming from the vehicle. Shortly after, the cruise control system began to malfunction erratically, leading to a loss of control over the vehicle's speed. In a matter of seconds, the display and all lights on the dashboard went dark, leaving me unable to monitor crucial information such as speed, battery level, and vehicle warnings. Worse yet, the electronic power steering suddenly failed, causing an immediate stiffening of the steering wheel and making it incredibly difficult to control the vehicle. As a result, my car veered into a curb, causing damage to the wheels and suspension and fire. I cannot stress enough how distressing this situation was. Not only did it put my safety and the safety of others at risk, but it also raises questions about the reliability and effectiveness of the various systems within the vehicle. I have always trusted Tesla's commitment to innovation and cutting-edge technology, but this incident has shattered my confidence in the vehicle's reliability. I am writing to urge you to take immediate action to investigate this malfunction thoroughly and provide a comprehensive explanation for what transpired. I request a detailed analysis of the root cause of the issue and assurance that appropriate measures will be taken to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future. I have been a loyal Tesla customer for 2 years and until this incident, I have been delighted with the exceptional performance and features of your vehicles. However, this incident has left me deeply concerned, and I sincerely hope.

Approximately 11:26 am on Thursday July 27, and approximately 110 miles east of gallup, new mexico, I experienced when driving a 2021 Tesla Model Y, a series of extreme phantom braking events. One phantom braking event resulted in an extreme braking and the car gave a loud alarm signal. This happened while passing two rather closely spaced semi-trailer trucks that were in the right lane of the interstate highway 40 roadway going westbound. Both trucks were traveling without making any unusual movements. They were steadily traveling between 70 and 80 mph. There was a large SUV following our vehicle. This event resulted in an extremely hazardous condition. A high-speed rear-end collision was imminent. I, as the driver of the Model Y, immediately accelerated and steered over to the left-lane shoulder. No collision occurred and I was able to pass the two trucks and return to the right lane. Clearly, this behavior of the Model Y is extremely hazardous and must be corrected. It is my recollection that I had disengaged the auto steer mode prior to passing the two trucks and then reengaged the auto steer after passing the two trucks and moving to the right lane. I have experienced this behavior before as I have been driving the vehicle for the past two years of my three-year lease. Strangely it always occurs, it seems when driving on rural interstate, such as this case. Fortunately, these experiences helped me to instantly respond by accelerating and moving onto the left lane shoulder to avoid a disastrous accident. It is appalling that this has been happening. The Tesla gives absolutely no indication of the cause of the urgent breaking either before or after the event. Also there has been no notifications from Tesla on this dangerous phantom breaking. I am sending this report to Tesla and the NHTSA.

Phantom braking in autopilot. Traveling at 75mph with traffic behind, fortunately the car behind was not following closely. No warning message beforehand, just happened very suddenly with no obstructions in sight. Weather was clear and sunny, no traffic in front. Two minutes later, the car completely ignored a deer standing on the hard shoulder!.

We have recently experienced a significant and concerning increase in incidents of phantom braking and have thus far been unable to receive an adequate response from Tesla. We have had at least six instances of this occurring today, 16-Jun-2023 in the first 6-7 hours of our cross-country drive, and I’ve shared these time stamps with Tesla service. This is because we experienced this same thing 2-3 times on another long drive in November of 2022, and Tesla service told us at the time they couldn’t do anything about it unless we had time stamps because otherwise, it’s too many pages of code to sort through and beyond that, you have to notify them within 12 days of the incident or they can’t look into it at all (which is what happened with me- although I had to chase them to even get a response). They also said it was a “known issue” but were unsure about a planned remedy. I took screenshots of that conversation with Tesla service and have attached to this submission in the event that’s helpful. We are still pending a response from Tesla service for the multiple incidents today. Interestingly, we had taken this car on multiple lengthy drives in all types of conditions prior to Nov 2022, but never experienced this issue previously. It certainly seems to be increasing in frequency and intensity (I know my n=1 for my sample size here makes this somewhat anecdotal, but it’s terrifying regardless) and it seems like only a matter of time until tragedy strikes.

Countless times, at high legal speed, with adaptive cruise control enabled, on a straight blemish-free level highway with perfect visibility, sudden automatic deceleration was experienced-- several times every hour over 11 hours of driving. I have video recordings.

Repeated "phantom braking" caused by shadows from clouds, pavement coloration changes, billboards some distance from the highway, large advisory signs, and even pieces of blown-out truck tires on the shoulder produce sudden deceleration of over 30 mph in just seconds from the automatic emergency braking system on my 2021 Model Y performance. This mostly occurs on interstate highways or secondary highways when the vehicle is in cruise control or auto steer with cruise control mode. A recent trip of several thousand miles produced over 20 cases of phantom braking. The windshield area in front of my forward facing cameras is always kept clean. Hazard: it has created the risk of rear-end collisions, or stimulated road rage from following drivers.

On a trip from spokane to seattle on 5/27/2023, while traveling at 72mph on I-90, we experienced “phantom braking”. This resulted in the vehicle rapidly decelerating based on its detection of something in front of the car to avoid a collision. This occurred 3 times on the trip, and in no case was there anything for the vehicle to avoid. Weather was clear and road conditions were dry. Our biggest concern is that there could have been someone following directly behind, and would have certainly caused an accident if this were the case. The Tesla was in “autopilot”, which is the only mode we have experienced this. We experienced this last year on the same stretch of I-90, just east of moses lake to just west of george washington.

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while driving 55-65 mph, the vehicle experienced "phantom braking". The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mechanic or the dealer. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 22,000.

I own a 2021 Tesla Model Y. I took possession of it on August 7, 2021, in santa barbara, CA. Ever since, I have had thousands of instances of automatic emergency braking (phantom braking) episodes while using cruise control or autopilot. On January 26, 2022, I had 47 documented episodes, in just two hours. The experiences of severe phantom braking have been terrifying. The car often slams on its brakes for no apparent reason, many times on a four lane highway, or on a freeway with no cars or obstacles. I worry about getting rear-ended, which could end in severe injury or death. It has been in for repair five times, and the technicians are animate that a software update is coming very soon to resolve this problem (they've been promising that since a few weeks after taking possession of the Tesla). I expected the problem to be resolved by now. It hasn't. The aeb continues today. Can you please force Tesla to fix this problem immediately? it is very dangerous. Please provide a response identifying actions you are taking to resolve this very important safety matter.

On the evening of April 18, 2023, I was driving on the southbound 101 in northern California using autopilot, and despite the surrounding area being clear of other vehicles, pedestrians or debris, without warning, the autopilot system forced the vehicle to suddenly and harshly brake. It was completely unwarranted and unexpected and really gave me and my passenger a scare, and this ain’t the first time it occurred. We purchased our vehicle in November 2022 and in December we were using autopilot on the 405 south in los angeles, traffic was moving at a steady 70mph when the vehicle abruptly braked, thinking it was a one-off we didn’t report it but after reviewing several complaints of similar issues by other Tesla owners, this is a real problem. I saved the event on my Tesla dashcam.

Vehicle began showing the below warning messages, followed by loss of power steering and abnormal braking behavior (brakes did not work properly). This is a recurrence of an issue that previously resulted in the vehicle being towed to Tesla, but whom were unable to diagnose the problem. -automatic emergency braking disabled -lane departure avoidance features unavailable -traction control disabled -automatic vehicle hold disabled -stability control disabled -steering assist reduced -front motor disabled -power reduced.

Severe phantom braking incident - 12:18 cst, March 12th 2023, followed by less severe braking problem at 1:16, 1:23, 2:18 on the same day and road. No forward traffic, no hazards, just bright sun. The car with a less experienced driver applied hard braking nearly causing a rear end collision with a truck approaching from the the back. The truck moved into the shoulder and passed to avoid hitting the car.

This car is unsafe. 70k+ purchase price with the inability to use basic cruise control, must-less the 10k fsd purchase that is useless. The phantom braking is constant while trying to use the basic cruise control, auto-pilot/fsd. Driving this car makes me a nervous wreck and I am beginning to hate it and regret my purchase. I am seriously concerned for the safety of myself and other Tesla owners based on the current radar-less autonomous features. Nhtsa should get involved and force Tesla to address the phantom braking issues before more people are involved in an accident that could be avoided.

There are multiple issues: 1. When trying to back up slowly, or move forward slowly, the car goes automatically on park "to prevent roll". I am intentionally trying to slowly back out of parking, and the car keeps stopping 2. When I try to change lanes, in many cases the car gives a solid "beep" which is equivalent to me almost crashing to another car. But there are no other cars! 3. The car keeps giving forward collision warnings when there is no immediate danger to collide with anything, and in most cases there is nothin in front.

It seems like this is a common problem if you search "Tesla phantom braking," which very obviously needs a solution. I commonly experience the phantom braking when there is a shadow like passing under a bridge. The car will slam on the brakes thinking the shadow is another car, which is obviously extremely dangerous especially on the highway. A simple solution would be to add a legacy cruise control option, while fixing the phantom braking. This would cause a lot less wrecks and deaths.

I have been driving long distance 418 miles today from phoenix, az through las vegas, nv and north. In my 6 hour journey today my breaks were applied randomly by the computer around 20 or more times on autopilot and on cruise control. It is an extreme safety hazard. I want this on record because this is day one of a cross country trip and in case anything happens. The phantom breaking was so frequent in the last hour I could not drive with autopilot on anymore for fear of a car following me would crash into me at highway speeds above 65mph.

Numerous times we have experienced phantom braking when the cruise control is engaged at highway speeds. We think it occurs when you are close to cresting a hill and a vehicle is detected in the distance. The vehicle is quite distant, perhaps 500-1000 ft, but the auto braking system only see a short distance of lane lines (because they are out of sight on the other side of the crest) and interprets the vehicle to be much closer. This generally occurs about once every 100 miles of highway driving. Because of this, we are reluctant to use the cruise control. The date provided below is just the latest occurrence.

The car brakes at highway speed with no safety hazards in sight. This phantom braking occurs while on cruise control or when using the accelerator pedal. We don't use auto pilot. It is very upsetting and could cause a rear-ending accident.

While driving on the highway at 70mph, on two separate occasions while using autopilot and cruise control, the car suddenly braked for no apparent reason. There were no vehicles immediately behind me at the time, however this was terrifying because I was scared that I was going to be rear ended at a high speed. I can no longer trust this safety system due it has happened twice randomly now.

I was driving on highway 395 in California on Jan 6th in the afternoon. It was a very clear day. I was driving north on the 2 lane portion of the road north of adelanto and kramer junction with cruise control on set to about 72. With no cars in sight in front of me the car hard braked with no cars in front of me. I disabled cruise control and later enabled it again. It happened again. I contacted Tesla and they determined there no hardware issue with the car. I am afraid to use cruise control now in the car.

While in autopilot, the Tesla has been phantom braking repeaters. We noticed many time while driving at high speeds on the freeway, the Tesla Model Y will slam on the brakes for no apparent reason. There are no police reports.

I was driving on the freeway, no one was near me (I had full control of the car, it wasn’t on autopilot) and the car’s brakes deadlocked while I was traveling high way speed and then made a sharp left turn which caused me to crash into the center divide and then hydroplane across the entire freeway uncontrollably.

Phantom breaking. On Saturday -12/3/22, around 3. 50 pm cst en route to arlington on hwy 360, I experienced phantom breaking twice in quick succession. I was driving on autopilot at 70mph and suddenly the car applied brakes and it was very scary to me and all my family. After the second event, I stopped using the pilot and drove with manual control.

I was driving about 65 mph on the highway with my Tesla 2021 model “y” in “traffic-aware cruise control” (not auto pilot) when, for no apparent reason, the car decelerated rapidly. This happened four times during a 1 hour trip from boston to new hampshire. No accidents occurred due to this incident but it was very concerning. This is not a new problem but it is occurring more often since the software was updated to include “Tesla vision” instead of radar. I did not report this to Tesla because they are already aware of “phantom braking” issues with my model.