2021 Tesla Model 3 Complaint Log

While using autopilot or cruise control on the highway, the vehicle frequently brakes for no reason and without warning. This occurs repeatedly throughout the drive.

When applying Cruise Control on the model 3, the Tesla will apply phantom braking in various situations. The car will brake on its own without any human interaction. This has occurred on the highway with no other cars nearby that should cause such braking.. This phantom braking has caused me to not use cruise control at all in my car.

Drivers side camera not working making cruise control (adaptive & regular) unavailable also left turn blind spot visualization not available.

The car randomly and violently applies the brakes, this occurs when it is in cruise control. It may occur due to shadows, oncoming cars both on two and four lane highways. Also occurs if I pass a semi truck on a 4 lane highway. It occurs nearly every time I use the cruise control. I have had cars in back of me nearly hit me due to the sudden and unexpected braking at highway speeds.

When the cruise control is set at a speed or the line centering cruise control is used the car will slam on it's brakes and go from the set 75 to between 50-60mph then back to the set speed. This happens almost every time I drive the car on the highway and a few times in town(35mph) it happens so often I stopped using cruise control because I am afraid of getting rear ended. I have been looking online and others are calling this phantom braking.

I was on I-470 east of I-25 going east. I was traveling at 83 MPH, therefore the car was not in Autopilot, only had cruise control on. I signaled a lane change, made the lane change, and then the car applied brakes hard, going from 83 MPH down to 66 MPH. This happened in front of a late-model full-size pickup truck. The driver of the truck was not happy and tailgated for about 2 miles. I reported this problem to Tesla. They first don't want to even allow a service visit on the issue. Second, they want to charge me over $80 for a service visit on a car that is under warranty. When we had FSD beta in January 2022, we didn't face these issues except once or twice. Tesla advisor even admitted to me that cars with FSD beta and cars with Autopilot have different navigation software. Therefore, Tesla has a fix for this issue.

When either in autopilot or in cruise control especially in long drive car perform phantom breaking creating a risk of rear-end collision with following vehicles. Car vision system at times recognize cars coming in the opposite way as imminent collision and performs emergency phantom breaks.03/

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V235000 (Electrical System, Forward Collison Avoidance) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. Parts distribution disconnect.

This vehicle phantom brakes during our last 2k miles trip. Happens while passing under pass, bridges, on coming vehicles on 2 way lanes, and just randomly when i was the only car on the highway.

Brakes were automatically engaged and speed dramatically reduced on an otherwise deserted, two-line highway. Speed was reduced from 68mph to 30mph in a few seconds multiple times in the span of two hours. Adaptive cruise control was active at the time. This would put myself and any vehicles behind me in danger, so I disabled the feature for the remainder of the drive. The behavior has been reproduced multiple times since then, in various conditions. No warning lamps or other messages appeared at the time. I reported the problem to the manufacturer and schedule a service appointment. The manufacturer canceled this appointment, stating, "Our technicians will be unable to change this behavior."

On several occasions (probably around 10 times) since I purchased the car in November of 2021 I have experienced phantom braking while using adaptive cruise control. Most have been minor with a couple instances of severe braking that could definitely have caused a rear end accident if there were cars behind me. These have occurred on busy city streets while traveling 40-50 mph. None have occurred on freeways. I have not notified Tesla but see that others are having problems too. Software appears up to date.

Phantom braking while cruise control engaged. I do not have Full Self Driving, was only using the basic cruise. Appears to be worse when approaching large semi trucks, but has also happened numerous times when absolutely nothing is around (no cars, animals). No warning provided. Example: car will go from 75mph to 60mph in 1 second, then “recover” and go back to 75mph.

Tesla Model 3 Phantom Braking while on cruise control. This car is a daily driver mostly expressway miles and cruise control is used every day for the majority of the drive. While driving on cruise control at 70 miles an hour the car will randomly brake hard enough for all items on the car seats to be sent to the floor. This happens in wide open situations with no other cars around in broad daylight. This has been occurring about twice a month since purchase. I am worried someday I may be rear ended or the car may brake hard into a slide. This has been mentioned to Tesla multiple times at service calls and they say they are working on it

I have owned this car for almost 4 months. In that time we have experienced 4 incidents of the car deciding that for no reason it needed to slam on the brakes so hard we were thrown forward in our seats and went from speeds of 50-60mph on relatively fast highways to about 20mph. 3 of the 4 times we were in cruise control. But this latest event happened NOT in cruise control and there was literally nothing anywhere in front of us. However there was a car behind us that had to swerve into a different lane to avoid a collision. This last time was terrifying and we have scheduled an appointment with the dealer. But recently we have come to find out this has happened to other owners as well.

Three times so far in a week, the car has had extreme hard breaking on the freeway. These were done in full self drive mode. Absolutely terrifying and so unsafe for my family to have this happen.

This defect affects the lane departure warning system of my vehicle. In certain situations, the lane departure warning system incorrectly activates when the vehicle is turning (vs. leaving a lane). On one occasion, the system activated while turning from my driveway onto the adjacent roadway. On another occasion, the system activated while leaving a parking spot. On both occasions, the vehicle was traveling less than 5 MPH and was not departing from a lane. When the lane departure warning activates, a loud noise is triggered, along with an alert on the center display. A driver's natural response in this scenario is to slow down mid-turn, potentially resulting in unsafe conditions for both driver and nearby motorists.

Was driving on clear roads, there was a driver ahead of me but they were over 100 yards away, the vehicle behind me swerved to make sure they didn't get hit by my car's auto-braking safety feature. the vehicle was on autopilot using adaptive cruise control and just randomly used the safety feature without any warning or indication that there was any object on the freeway. The Incident had occurred in the morning on the 405s freeway.

phantom braking

The car will brake seemingly for no reason while on Autopilot. The environment does not change at all, yet the car will randomly brake very hard as if someone was in front of me and slammed the brakes. It also happens very commonly, more common than tolerable. No warning beeps or chimes or any indication of anything event. I'm not sure if this is inspectable, I have brought the car to service a few times under warranty for unrelated issues. This problem is pretty much widespread across Tesla's autopilot system. This has happened many times, but the most dangerous one by far was on I-75 and slammed the brakes from 85 to 45-35 in a matter of seconds.

I am experiencing phantom breaking on our Model 3. While traveling last weekend on Interstate 5, as well as on CA 101 - the vehicle frequently slowed abruptly while driving at highway speeds. This occurred both with other vehicles around, and with no vehicles present - also while driving at times in clear daylight and while approaching shadows from surrounding objects such as trees or highway overpasses. It rendered the adaptive cruise control non-useable on a 5hr drive home due to the sudden and abrupt slowing of the vehicle.

While driving on the highway without any cars in front of ours, three times the vehicle slammed on the emergency braking system and attempted to stop the car causing cars behind us to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting ours.

My 2021 Tesla model 3 has a issue of what is called Phantom Braking. On 2 lane undivided highways and on all types of roads the car will randomly slam on the brakes to what I assume is to prevent hitting a obstacle that doesn’t exist. The car will apply the brakes extremely fast and drop roughly 20 MPH or more in just a few seconds. I am unable to use cruise control on 2 lane highways because it slams on the brakes it seems like anytime it sees a dip in the road or a mailbox on the side of the road it triggers the emergency braking system. I feel lucky that no one has been behind me while these events have happened. It happens almost every time I drive the car. I have contacted Tesla about this issue and they say everything is fine and they would rather have a lot of false positives than to miss a actual event. I feel like it is a very unsafe feature and needs to be addressed because other manufacturers have this down with hardly any issues. This has been happening on the car since it was new and has not improved the car has 7500 miles on it.

I currently drive a 2021 Tesla model 3. When I drive this car down two lane highways my cruise control is almost un usable not to mention auto pilot. Almost every time a larger vehicle, something like a Semi truck comes from the other direction in the opposite lane my car slams the brakes. At night time it’s even worse when headlights are in the distance my car slams the brakes and when the headlights are closer it slams the brakes again. It also has random phantom breaking. I tried the service department and the told me it was a software issue and there was nothing they could do. The technician told me it would improve if I purchased FSD. I don’t believe it, if basic cruise control doesn’t work how is FSD going to work. I don’t know who to contact or even what to do about this issue, the service department refuses to even look at my car.

With the Autopilot engaged on the freeway I have had several of these phantom braking experiences but last night I was lucky to avoid a accident with the car following me.. This happened at 74 miles per hour with the autopilot engaged the brakes slow me down to 60 miles per hour before I could disengage the autopilot.

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 70 MPH with the cruise control activated, the vehicle applied the brakes independently. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The contact stated he experience the failure three times while using the cruise control feature that same day. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. A dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 7,000.

While autopilot was engaged at a speed of around 75 mph, the emergency brakes automatically engaged thought there were no impediments on the roadway. The closest car to the front was too far ahead for it to register on the screen. In another instance the same action occurred but as the car was going under an overpass. It was a sunny day so I assumed the shadows created by the overpass triggered the emergency braking. My spouse also reported two instances that this occurred to her while she was driving alone.

In cruise control or autopilot, the car will apply brakes randomly and without warning. It is extremely scary to have it slam on the brakes for no reason. Luckily no one was behind me, so I wasn’t in danger of causing an accident, but the problem is constant enough I cannot use the cruise control nor autopilot.

While driving on autopilot on the highway at about 65MPH the car applied the brakes for no reason. The car descends in speed aggressively and can easily cause a rear end collision. This has happened randomly before as well.

On 2/17/22 at appx. 8:08am with adaptive cruise control engaged the collision warning alarm chimed and the car beaked quickly for 50mph to 30 mph. There was an SUV in the oncoming traffic lane. This has happened several times. The system sometimes does not recognize that approaching vehicles are in a correct lane. This happens with larger approaching vehicles such as large SUVs and trucks. Additionally we have been getting many (dozens) of dashboard error warnings that one or more of the cameras are blocked or blinded. As Tesla has chosen to delete lidar and depend solely on cameras as safety system detectors this affects Adaptive Cruise Control, Automatic Emergency Braking, Blind spot warning, Forward Collision Warning, Lane Departure Warning, Lane Keeping Assistance, and cross traffic alert.

Phantom braking while using cruise control and/or auto pilot. This is most disconcerting at highway speeds especially when it sounds safety alarms most times while doing it

Similar to the reporting of others, I wanted to confirm that we had a problem with our Tesla 3 auto-pilot feature erroneously triggering emergency braking by misinterpreting oncoming traffic. This happened twice in a similar situation. While driving on a single-lane highway in auto-pilot, the car abruptly braked when a semi-truck passed in the opposite lane. This sudden deceleration could have lead to a rear-end collision but fortunately the driver behind had left enough breaking space. The same thing occurred again on the same road - also with a semi-truck in the opposing lane. This time, vigilant that the auto-pilot might be malfunctioning, the sudden breaking was quickly overcome by pressing the accelerator. There is no doubt on our end that the current version of the auto-pilot will trigger emergency braking mistakenly based on misinterpreting opposing traffic.

While using either the Autopilot or Adaptive Cruise Control, the car will unexpectedly brake for no reason. This happens almost every single time the car is using either of the two features. Sometimes it brakes so hard it creates a safety issue for the cars traveling behind.

When driving with Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Autopilot the car will randomly apply the brakes in causing a severe drop in speed frequently from 70 MPH to less than 50 extremely quickly. This happens primarily on undivided highways with no pattern - sometimes when other vehicles are approaching, no distinction between large or small or color, but most frequently and most violently occurs when no vehicles or obstacles are present. This sudden drop and alarm notification from the car can cause me to quickly jerk the steering wheel in response and potentially losing vehicle control. In some occasions this happened at highway speeds with people behind me almost causing a rear-end collision. I put in a repair notice with Tesla and the response was that the TACC and Autopilot are beta and upon review of trip logs they noticed no faults and closed the repair request. This feature is unsafe and since a cruise control is a necessity for my frequent longer trips, having a car without a functioning cruise control is beyond inconvenient, it is a safety issue. The breaking has also occurred on divided multi-lane roads but less frequently and with less severity.

While traveling at highway speeds, the vehicle arbitrarily applies the brakes when adaptive cruise is being used. It is scary to me and my passengers, and I am afraid to use this feature.

Phantom braking. Tesla Service asked me to record times of incidents. I drove cross country and there was an incident almost every 10 minutes. Most commonly when going over a hill or passing by a truck, the car will stomp on the brakes for no reason, causing danger to myself and other drivers.

On several occasions since June 2021, my Tesla Model 3 has suddenly braked hard on its own while the Autopilot cruise control function was engaged (phantom braking). There has been no apparent reason for the sudden braking incidents, and they have happened at highway speeds. When I reported these incidents to my Tesla dealer, I was told that Tesla was aware of this problem with Tesla Model 3 vehicles, and that Tesla was working on finding a solution. Yet the problem has continued, and occurred again as recently as yesterday

I was driving along a 2 lane road around 1:00 PM. It is a bright sunny day. I put the car into TACC (Traffic Aware Cruise Control) and set a speed of 70MPH in a 65 zone. Once a car came a certain distance away traveling in the opposite lane towards my vehicle the car would brake slightly and drop my speed below 70. I corrected the speed drop by applying the accelerator. Again within a few minutes the same behavior occurred when a vehicle in the opposite lane came into view the car braked and dropped my speed by 5-10 miles an hour before I was able to correct and accelerate again to cruising speed. This happened continuously almost every time a car was visible in the other lane until I turned it off. I attempted to use TACC again on the way home on the same ride in the evening and the same behavior occurred where the car would brake suddenly even though nothing was passing in front of the vehicle that would require a stop. I use TACC on freeways regularly and also use Autopilot and it generally does not brake when it doesn't need to, but it still can occur on freeways. The most dangerous use is on 2-way roads. It is unusable and constantly brakes the car when another car approaches in the other lane. This braking is sudden and unexpected and could lead to a rear end collision. There is not an option to use cruise control that doesn't cause this problem. I am taking the vehicle to Tesla 2/17 and will have them inspect it. There are no warnings or messages on the vehicle saying there is a problem.

When using the traffic-aware cruise system on the interstate, the car will sometimes dramatically reduce its speed (within seconds)/apply the brakes for what appears to be no reason at all (often referred to as phantom braking). The most recent incident occurred while accelerating up an interstate entrance ramp. The car had reached the target speed of 75 MPH before suddenly braking and reducing the speed down to around 65MPH before I hit the accelerator to prevent it from slowing down any further. Within a few seconds, the care went back to accelerating normally again. There were no warning indicators on the display that would explain why the vehicle slowed down. I've noticed that sometimes there are certain spots on the interstate where this behavior will happen repeatedly. I will be cruising along at a set speed and the vehicle will suddenly slow down for a few seconds then continue back at the set cruise speed. This occurs when there are no other vehicles or objects in front of the car. Available for inspection upon request: Yes Safety Risk: Rapid deceleration on the interstate at high speeds risks a rear end collision Reproducible: Yes, but it seems to occur mostly at random, has not been confirmed by the dealer Inspected By Others: No Warning Lamps/Messages: Only once has it generated a pre-collision warning, all other instances generate no warning/alert Only once have I had the system falsely generate a pre-collision warning and dramatically slow the vehicle while the vehicle had just entered the interstate from an entrance ramp (traveling at 70 MPH) and no other objects or vehicles were around me.

The automatic cruise control will 'phantom brake' and is unusable on the 2 lane highways near my home. Sometimes the braking is extremely abrupt and if a car was following it could create a very dangerous situation. The car brakes unexpectedly when traffic is coming the other way or of there's an undulation in the road.

Several times per week, my vehicle brakes automatically for no apparent reason.

Car suddenly brakes, also known as Phantom Braking, when in Cruise Control. It does it mostly on 2 lane roads, but it has done it driving on wide open freeways too. It's bad. Makes me feel very unsafe.

I was driving 72 mph on Ca State Hwy 99 in the #2 lane. The closest car to me (front) was about 100 yards away in the fast lane #3. I had cruse control on when the vehicle applied its emergency braking bring me down to 54 mph in about a second. This caused the truck behind me to almost hit me. He then went around my vehicle and slammed on his breaks thinking I did it on purpose.

While using adaptive cruise control on freeway my suddenly reduces speed significantly quickly as if it’s trying to stop. I always fear car behind me is going to bump into my car. Also it hurts passengers into the car when it happens.

I'm reporting a "phantom braking" incident that occurred while driving approximately 75 mph in the left lane of Interstate 10 just west of Casa Grande, AZ. (This section of the road had two westbound lanes.) "Traffic-aware cruise control" was set at approximately 75 mph. The Tesla slammed on the brakes for no reason (no vehicles were in front of me.) This was terrifying - luckily the vehicle that was directly behind me noticed and reduced their speed while I quickly pushed down on the accelerator. A collision was thus avoided. However, this could have been deadly for both my vehicle, the vehicle behind me, and so on. There was absolutely no reason for the car to apply the brakes - there were no obstructions in the road. My passenger can confirm the situation. I have had "phantom braking" occur with this Tesla including slowing down almost to a stop when a semi truck is in the coming lane of a two-lane road. The "traffic-aware cruise control" is inconsistent in its performance and travelling at high speeds, incredibly dangerous. We could not operate this function during the rest of our travels on the interstate due to this issue and limited operation of "Traffic aware cruise control" to 55 mph & under roads when there was no traffic behind us. I've been reading up on the Tesla "phantom braking" phenomenon and am really disappointed in this very unsafe safety feature which I didn't know about before purchasing my Tesla. My Model 3 is newer and has "Tesla Vision" instead of radar like older Model 3's. I think "Tesla Vision" is messed up and needs more work. This "automatic braking" could have caused a serious collision.

On multiple occassions, while using the adaptive cruise feature, (but not the auto steer feature) the vehicle will suddenly slow down to the speed limit, without any warning or notification that anything has changed. This happens in multiple occasions on the Long Island Expressway between exits 48 adn 32. The vehicle slows by itself for no reason at all. fb

Phantom breaking. Severe application of brakes resulting in up to but not limited to 25 mph decrease of speed when semis are oncoming in other lane. Other times without any vehicles around.

When driving on one way road and a vehicle is travel inbound. The vehicle will stop extremely hard without any notice of anyone or anything in front of me. Even when travel on a open highway the vehicle will sometime stop extremely hard and freak out like something is in front of me when their is nothing.

The front latch on the front trunk was replaced due to a fault about a month ago. It has since opened on its own completely while parked.

I was driving on highway 70 in Florida which is one lane in each direction. When in cruise control the car braked on its own multiple times when car or truck approaced from opposite direction

This complaint was prompted by reading recent news reports of 'phantom braking' with our model vehicle. Previous to these reports, I did not have an awareness of NHTSA and their reporting mechanism. Driving on a highway, adaptive cruise control application. Sudden braking applied without my foot touching brake pedal. It was a sunny day, without any obvious need for braking. I was able to apply acceleration which terminated the braking cycle. No harm done, however if there was a car behind me there could have been a significant car accident at high speeds (>70 mph). This 'phantom braking' also occurred late 2021, also at highway speeds, on at least two occasion on the same trip cycle, in similar driving conditions (clear, dry). Nothing has been inspected. No indicators or warning lamps or messages applicable.