Adaptive Cruise Control problems of the 2023 Tesla Model Y - part 2

We were on the freeway with cruise control on and the car slammed on the brakes. It automatically slowed 15mph while in front of another vehicle. The cause was that it hallucinated a person in the lane of the road, I could see the "person" on the screen of my car. However there was no person or hazard in the way.

Tesla has a bug with their basic autopilot software that they refuse to fix and that I believe is causing a safety issue. They advertise autopilot as standard on all Tesla's as an active safety feature that helps reduce driver stress and improve safety on the road. Here is the issue. Basic autopilot has a feature built into it that limits the speed to 5 mph over the speed limit. This is a great idea! however, since a software update that was released early last summer, the car struggles to read the proper speed limit. For instance, many roads in my area are posted at 65 mph. The car doesn't read these and defaults the speed limit to 50 mph, meaning I can only use autopilot at 55 mph max. When most people are driving 70 mph, this causes a safety issue. Tesla is aware of the problem. I have filed many bug reports, and even contacted a service center about the issue. The service center claims to be aware of it, and said that they escalated the problem to the software team, but no fix has been issued in over a year. Either they just don't care about this issue and are too busy trying to work on fsd and robotaxi to fix it, or they are purposely not fixing it to force people to subscribe to fsd as fsd doesn't have this issue.

This Tesla engages in "phantom braking" on a daily basis. I will be driving along at 70 mph on adaptive cruise control, no other cars or otherwise around, and the brakes will suddenly slam on reducing speed to 40-50mph. It is clearly a sensor type issue. Seems to happen when a turn lane is sensed? a side road? who knows?? this has been a know issue for a very long time. It's dangerous as it will lead to rear end collision if anyone is behind. This happens without warning, almost daily, and I am not the only one experiencing this. Tesla people have no solutions. I do not routinely report things, but I feel very strongly that this is a major safety issue, so much that I am considering trading in the car for something else.

I reported this issue previously (11589255) and am providing an update: I took my car to the nearest dealer with my less-than-1-year-old non-functioning key card that Tesla told me I had to replace at a cost of 2/$45. I mentioned to the dealer, who is kind an helpful, about the automatic braking in cruise control. I had already disabled "apply brakes when regenerative braking is limited" under dynamics on the screen. (see photo) he showed on the screen, under autopilot, that I could disable automatic emergency braking, which I did. I was concerned that this warning pops "the vehicle will not automatically apply the brakes even when a collision is detected" (see photo) but he suggested I try it to see if it would solve the cruise-control braking. I was hopeful, and disabled it, knowing that it might take a while to know if that solved the problem. I drove the 30 miles home on the frontage road instead of the interstate, and when there were no other cars around, I set cruise control at 50 mph, the speed limit. I came to a series of small hills in the road, and was reminded of the first time the automatic braking happened, on a 60 mph road with longer amplitude hills of greater height. Amazingly, it happened again! pretty significant braking and slowed me to 25. This time I waited it out to see if it would resume the cruise control at 50. It did not. I have since restored the automatic emergency braking as that seems important for a crash situation. I have restored the "apply brakes when regenerative braking is limited" since that obviously was not the problem either.

Was traveling along the I-5 south about 5 miles north of the 99 interchange. Vehicle was in traffic awareness cruise control when it suddenly applied the brakes. Vehicle did not sound any warnings. Vehicle did not display any warnings. Vehicle made no attempt to warn driver of a braking event. Vehicle traffic awareness cruise control was set to 79 or 78 mph in a 70 mile per hour zone. I was able to push the accelerator pedal to regain speed but had already dropped to about 65 mph. Vehicle did not pass under a shaded section ( I. E. No bridge or trees or big rigs) there was change in color of the road top. My foot was resting just in front of the accelerator pedal. Fortunately for us, there was no vehicles directly behind us. This incident is the 3 of this kind in this vehicle. This has me spooked to use any of the convenance software. I already do not like using the autopilot feature because of it erratic behavior. It feels very unsafe and unpredictable. We are unable to predict when this car will act on its own and feel it will cause us harm one day with actions like this. We are glad that no one was following us closely because they might have hit us. We are also upset that the vehicle never stated why it braked suddenly.

While driving with the adaptive cruise control on, the vehicle suddenly braked. There was a large truck approaching from the other direction, but it was in its lane. There was no present danger. The hard breaking could have caused the following car to rear end us. It happened more than once, but this was the most dramatic braking.

During two hour trip I experienced at least five incidents of so called fantom braking, when car engaged in autopilot or adaptive cruise control brakes suddenly for no apparent reason. At least two time during this trip, the braking was really hard. This is very dangerous conditions and could result in serious accident if someone closely follow the vehicle. I had to keep my foot on the gas pedal during this trip to act if necessary. I have experienced these conditions before and reported it to Tesla. They basically ignored this complaint.

Fsd stops in front of oncoming traffic. The car stops at a two-way stop sign. It pulls out into the intersection and detects traffic heading my way. It stops right in the middle of the oncoming traffic and just sits there. The oncoming traffic was moving about 50mph. I had to hit the accelerator to get out of the way. Fsd seems to work well 99% of the time. The other 1% may get you killed. Full self-driving mode. Tesla sent me a 30-day trial.

Took Tesla's 30-day free trial offer of full self-driving (supervised) for my Model Y. Encountered several concerning situations: 1. Autopilot failed to detect a parking barrier arm, causing acceleration towards it; fortunately, I intervened in time. 2. Merged onto the highway in the wrong lane, prompting honks from vehicles behind me. 3. Wheel hit the side road curb when making a right turn, damaging the hubcaps and tire on the right rear side. Unsure if Tesla will take responsibility for repairs, but I feel it's important to share my experience to highlight that autopilot may not be as advanced as expected.

While driving on the highway at 75mph, with "traffic aware cruise control" (aka, "adaptive cruise control") enabled, a white napkin had blown into the lane ahead. This caused the car to slam on the brakes, and rapidly reduce speed to 20 mph, before I was able to re-accelerate back up to speed. I consider this a dangerous malfunction of the adaptive cruise control system (and possibly the automatic emergency braking system as well) on a high speed lane on a highway, which easily could have resulted in a high speed rear end collision and injury. (fortunately, there wasn't any traffic close behind in the the lane. ).

While having autopilot on, Tesla’s version of adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist, vehicle suddenly breaks while driving at 65mph. The software erroneously detects oncoming vehicle shadow as an object and suddenly breaks. This has not been the issue with their full self driving software. Tesla knowingly has a safer, more advance software, but decided to not release them to the general public without purchase. Big safety issue.

As I entered the parking lot I disengaged fsd by taking over the steering wheel. When it can to navigating into the parking spot I gently push the accelerator and the pedal disappeared from under neath my foot as the car accelerated forward hitting the car to my right. My calls to Tesla went unanswered so I could not report the incident. The incident happened may 2nd 2024.

I was driving from asheville nc to maryland on highway 81 using auto pilot driving 74 on 70 speed limit on the left lane of two lane highway and all of sudden the Tesla slam on the break to speed of 15-20 miles. There was a car on the right shoulder trying to merge to the right lane about 20 ft in front of us when this happened. My wife and daughter were in the car and we were all shocked on what happened. We were so lucky that there was no one behind us otherwise serious injuries could have happened.

I was driving our Tesla Model Y and, when attempting to use the windshield wiper, full self driving was enabled. The feature was never enabled my by husband or I through the touch screen on the car. We purposefully did not want to be helping to test this feature as we have a 2 year old and 2 month old that are often in the car with us (both of whom were in the car when this happened). This happened twice on my drive on the afternoon of 2/20. . Read more...

I used the full self driving software Tesla provided us in April. On April 15th, the car did not detect a curb therefore the car went right over the curb which popped both right side tires and the front rim. Damage was $1,800. I brought this up to Tesla and they informed me that it was my fault for not taking over and refused to help with the repairs. I understand taking over if there was a 3-foot shoulder, but on roads with no shoulder such as this one I found it impossible to correct in time. Also, at the very last split second, the torque on the wheel was too tight too correct (not enough time anyways). This is a busy state maintained road in the middle of columbia, missouri near a college campus and my safety was put at risk while I had to find the next side street to pull over. This is dangerous software that is not ready yet.

Car was being driven into a car wash. Driver went to put car into neutral and car lurched forward and crashed into car in front of it without gas pedal being engaged. Vehicle has not been inspected by manufacturer or others. No warning lamps or other messages. May have been related to recently installed full self driving software that was automatically installed but was not requested by vehicle owner. Vehicle owner did not intend to engage any sort of self driving or automatic acceleration systems.

When using auto pilot/traffic aware adaptive cruise control at highway speeds (55 to 75mph), vehicle will on occasion, slam on the brakes and steer to the right for no apparent reason. When this has happened in the past, we would press on accelerator peddle, to quickly recover from the braking to prevent a rear end collision and continue down the road. This last time (April 12, 2024) however, pressing the accelerator peddle made no difference until auto pilot was disengaged. Fortunately we were in the right most lane and was able to pull off to the side of the road to prevent a rear end collision from a van that was behind us. There were no warnings or messages that were displayed to indicate what had cased the braking. I talked to my local Tesla service department approximately a year ago about this issue and said that Tesla is aware of the "phantom braking" problem, but were unsure if or when a fix would be in the works. We did capture the dash cam video of the last phantom braking incident, that shows a clear road, with no objects or shadows that may have triggered the event. The dash cam video is 38mb in size, too large to upload.

Vehicle was on autopilot. Pulled out of driveway, hesitated, and then accelerated into a parked car.

During a 2,300 miles recent trip in texas, the vast majority of the speed limit signs were not seen by my 2023 Tesla Model Y autosteer/autopilot (not fsd). This created issues with the autopilot/autosteer as it was not usable in several instances and can create safety issues like distractions, etc. . . I had the latest software revision. The key point is that this is not happening at all in colorado where I live. Tesla support responded that I needed my cameras recalibrated which is a totally illogical response as it is not happening in CO.

You have no doubt heard the news that Tesla has deployed full self driving to all its vehicles as a "free trial. " my Tesla received this update in the past few days. Last night I was driving on an expressway and engaged what has up until now been traffic-aware cruise control by pressing down one time on the right stalk. I expected regular cruise control but the car started steering for me. Tesla has changed the default behavior of the cruise control activation (one single downward press on the stalk) to instead activate autopilot. My attempt to regain control caused me to jerk the wheel side to side in a way that could have led to an accident had I been in heavier traffic. This was unexpected behavior from the vehicle and I find it unacceptable that Tesla has changed a default function in this manner. I had to hunt around on the screen to find the setting to change the behavior back to regular traffic aware cruise control from one downward press. Furthermore, on the same 20 mile trip I had three phantom braking incidents while the car was on traffic aware cruise control mode. This is more than typical and these events can be dangerous if they happen in traffic. Tesla should not be allowed to deploy changes, especially without notice, that modify basic functionality of a car in motion from what the driver has become accustomed to.

While using traffic-aware cruise control, the vehicle unexpectedly slows down due to phantom braking. During my recent 800+ mile road trip, this occurred twice without any obstruction in view, causing the car to brake abruptly.

This car does not have full self driving, and I do not use auto steer. I experience multiple phantom braking events every time I use the "traffic aware cruise control. " sometimes I can see that the cruise control set speed has been reduced from the speed I set, and I have to cancel and reset it to resume the original speed. Sometimes the cruise control set speed is unchanged, and pushing the accelerator will cause the car to resume the set speed. Yesterday I drove 320 miles and had about 6 of these events. I'm concerned about these events causing an accident from the sudden speed reduction, or getting into a road rage situation because the person behind me thinks I am brake-checking them. Internet research indicates that these complaints are very common during the past few years. If Tesla can't - or doesn't want to - solve the problem, they should at least allow us to choose basic cruise control to avoid this problem. Adaptive cruise control would be more reliable with radar, but Tesla is doing everything it can to make the cars cheaper, and radar was eliminated. Personally, I think trying to do everything with cameras is a fatally flawed approach - especially considering cars travel at night and in varied weather and lighting conditions.

I am writing to express my serious concerns regarding the recent enforcement that leads to Tesla's auto steer being disabled after three warnings, deemed "strikes," within a certain period. This policy, which I understand may have been implemented with safety intentions, paradoxically compromises my safety and potentially that of others. My experience with the system has shown that the warnings are overly sensitive, activating even while I am fully attentive and engaged with the driving process. The result is the auto steer feature—a tool I rely on for enhancing my driving safety—being disabled for an entire week after these strikes. This blanket punishment is applied universally across all driver profiles, disregarding individual driving contexts and histories. The logic behind this stringent measure seems counterintuitive. The auto steer function, in my experience, significantly increases safety by aiding in maintaining lane integrity, adjusting speed, and managing distance from other vehicles. Disabling it not only diminishes my vehicle's capability but also impacts my confidence in the vehicle's safety features, which I have come to depend on. I urge the NHTSA to reconsider this mandate and recommend adjustments. Possible improvements could include making the warning alerts more prominent to aid drivers in real-time, allowing for a more interactive and educational approach to enhancing driving habits. Alternatively, revisiting the policy to provide drivers with more control and flexibility over the use of auto steer could be beneficial, ensuring that it serves its intended purpose of augmenting safety without unwarranted restrictions. The overarching goal should be to enhance safety while also respecting the drivers' ability to utilize technology responsibly. I hope for a revision of this policy that aligns more closely with the practical needs and safety interests of Tesla drivers. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

I want to report what I think is a very dangerous issue with my Tesla Model Y. We have experienced numerous times that the car brakes without warning. I have talked to Tesla about this "phantom braking", and they say it is "normal". The traffic-aware cruise control cannot be disabled to create a normal manual cruise control. I gave them a hypothetical situation where this could be life-threatening, but they dismissed it. Two weeks later, that very scenario happened, thankfully not ending in tragedy. I was driving at 65 mph on a wide, two lane paved highway (near dove creek, CO). A car going in the opposite direction was stopped on the shoulder on the other side of the highway. A large semi truck, also going in the opposite direction, pulled into my lane to pass the parked car on the side of the road. I saw what was happening, let off the accelerator, and steered over onto the paved shoulder (wide shoulder) to avoid the oncoming truck. My car's traffic-aware cruise control, using the car's cameras, interpreted the situation as an apparent collision danger and automatically braked hard. In this situation there was a large pickup doing what most pickup drivers do. . . . Tailgating close behind me to get me to drive faster. Neither the driver of the pickup, nor me, were expecting my car to brake hard, as we had all assessed the situation correctly as not being dangerous. I responded as quickly as I could by pushing on the accelerator to cancel the cruise control, but the pickup almost rear ended me. At that speed, it could easily have turned into a fatal accident. Tesla says I can't disable the cameras, so I just don't use the cruise control now. I was told you can disable the "traffic-aware" part of cruise control on older model Teslas, but not 2023 and newer. Often the phantom braking occurs with no apparent reason (although the car's cameras and computer would probably disagree). Do many people have to be killed to take a safety hazard seriously?.

Auto steer in city which is the free software unnecessarily distracts with warnings, so much that I was almost in an accident 3 times. This doesn’t happen with full self service driving in the exact same scenario because it’s a paid service, essentially forcing owners to subscribe and pay for full self service driving. Furthermore, if you don’t react to unnecessary and distractive warnings you get a warning that auto steer (which is paid for as part of the car purchase) will be disabled.

Car stops suddenly for no reason while on cruise control.

The car autopilot system does very hard brakes when coming to stop at red lights ( when there is a car in front of it) very unsafe. Also while driving in the street or freeway, mostly when passing under a bridge, all of a sudden the car pushes brake automatically which is truly dangerous and unsafe. Also when the auto pilot is on it, disengages whenever close to a curb or anything else and you have to take over control very last second to avoid any accidents. This is a safety issues. Safety issue. Please fix. I took the car to dealership and both times they say it’s something called phantom braking and that they wouldn’t be able to fix the issue.

On a trip to and from new york to canada between February 19-25, the car came to a sudden stop on the interstate when there were no vehicles or other obstructions in front of the car. However there were several vehicles behind me on 2 of these occasions and I was extremely concerned that I was going to be hit from behind. . Read more...

On almost a daily basis, with the cruise control set to maintain speed (vs the option of advanced speed control that will adjust to signs), the car will inexplicitly and quite randomly decelerate aggressively at highway speeds. On four separate occasions just today(although it happens at least once or twice a day), with the cruise set to 70 mph, the car will randomly decelerate aggressively or even change the max speed of the cruise to 55 mph. On all occasions, the posted speed limit is 65 or even 75 mph. This is dangerous, particularly in dfw traffic during rush hours, with traffic flow moving at similar and often higher speeds in close proximity. Having my car aggressively decelerate without warning to 55 mph has caused me to be tailgated and honked at. This has been happening since I've received my car. At first, I tried to use the advanced features of the cruise, but whilst driving on the dallas tollways, where the toll road has a speed limit of 75 mph and the regular highway paralleling at 65, the car is unable to differentiate and would often interpret the wrong speed limit and aggressively brake. Going from the flow of traffic (close to 80 mph) to 65. This is why I switched the cruise to absolute speed rather than any sort of posted adaptive. It's seems to have gotten progressively worse. So much so that I only use the cruise where traffic is light because of this issue's unexpected and random nature. Besides being dangerous, it's also very scary as it's completely unexpected and aggressive. I did make a service support call, but the Tesla technician said it's a known issue and no data available if/when it may be fixed. Currently, car is running software v11. 1 2024. 2. 3.

When on autopilot, the car engages in "ghost braking" for no valid reason. This has happened a couple of time. The last incidence happened today, 02/16/2024, at about 10:38 a. M. While on a freeway. I was lucky that there was no cars immediately following me, otherwise a chain accident with pile up would had happened. This was a very risky and scary incident.

Ongoing issue of phantom braking while driving with cruise control. I have documented numerous instances with Tesla and they are refusing to acknowledge and resolve the problem.

The falcon braking system kicks in automatically, and the windshield wiper does not turn on automatically as it would in any basic car now a days. The available autopilot/ adaptive cruise control only gives unteliable cruise control. There were times where in the middle of a freeway the cruise control starts braking, luckily there were no vehicle behind us so there were no collisions so far. The price tag on this car and the way it keeps fluctuating is un-acceptable so I ended up paying a lot for the car than the actual value from Tesla directly and the basic features like auto wiper and cruise control is a huge disappointment.

Random hard breaking at highway speed, multiple times on a road trip between las vegas and tucson. It's an obvious hazard as traffic following the Tesla will likely not have sufficient time to react safely. How is this not regulated ?.

The contact owns a 2023 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while driving approximately 70 mph with the cruise control engaged, the vehicle decelerated quickly to 50 mph as if the brake pedal was depressed. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The contact was able to depress the accelerator pedal to regain forward momentum. The contact stated that the failure had occurred several times and an inadvertent braking failure had occurred when the cruise control was engaged. The contact had not taken the vehicle to a local dealer. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 5,000.

To whom it may concern at the national highway traffic safety administration (NHTSA), I am writing to urgently express my concerns about the latest software update for the Tesla Model Y’s autopilot system, which, in my view, significantly compromises safety. As a Model Y owner, I have generally found the vehicle and its features to be reliable and safe. However, the recent update has introduced an overly stringent hands-on-wheel detection mechanism that is not only inconvenient but also potentially hazardous. The new update requires frequent and often forceful interaction with the steering wheel to assure the system of driver presence. This change is drastically different from my previous experience, where I received only one hands-on-wheel violation in two years. The current sensitivity of the system disrupts the smooth operation of the autopilot, leading to frequent and abrupt disengagements. I have found myself struggling to maintain the system’s activation, inadvertently causing the vehicle to exit autopilot mode multiple times. This issue goes beyond mere inconvenience; it actively detracts from driving safety. The need for constant and sometimes aggressive adjustments to satisfy the system’s requirements is distracting and can lead to erratic vehicle behavior. The irony is stark: a system designed to enhance driving safety and ease is now a source of potential danger and stress. The unpredictability and over-sensitivity of the updated system could lead to dangerous situations, especially on highways or in heavy traffic, where sudden disengagement of the autopilot can be particularly risky. As a driver, I now find myself more focused on keeping the autopilot engaged than on the actual driving conditions and surroundings, which is surely contrary to the feature’s intended purpose. I urge the NHTSA to investigate this issue as a matter of urgency.