2022 Tesla Model 3 Complaint Log

My concern first started with the cruise control suddenly shuts off. My biggest concern when the cruise control suddenly shut off and braked. When this happened we were traveling on Interstate 80. 4 lane highway 2 lanes each direction. Cruise control set at 80 mph. Approaching an 18 wheel truck moved to the fast lane. Half way past the 18 wheel truck cruise control suddenly shuts off and the car brakes. Traffic was light so lucky I wasn't rear ended. Notified Tesla they sent me a over the air software update. Not satisfied made appointment to bring into their service department. Was told their system doesn't go back to the incident and it happens again file a bug report. Not feeling safe with a car suddenly brakes.

Pedestrian Warning System not available under 15 mph during forward. Service representative claimed sound only operating in reverse direction. I disagreed because a pedestrian walk in front of the tesla when pulling in to the street parking driving forward. Since the design of the system removed the option not to engage this safety feature, this should be fix, and to be meet or go beyond the standard of the industry around world.

Frequent incidents of phantom braking when autopilot is engaged at highway speeds. Usually occurs on 2 lane roads, but has also happened on divided highway as well.

I'm looking for an update to the reported Tesla "phantom braking" issue when on Autopilot. We experienced this at least 5 times during an April 2022 road trip from SLC to Vegas, so bad we didn't feel comfortable enabling Autopilot (cruise control) on the drive home to SLC. This made for a very difficult 6 hour drive as Tesla's are very hard to keep a consistent speeding since they are so quiet/powerful...w/out some sort of auto speed regulation. I didn't know where to report this and was simply waiting for an over-the-air update for this to be addressed by Tesla and have seen none and no follow up news reports. I'm assuming this must be affecting 100's of thousands of Tesla owners.

While driving on the highway with standard autopilot engaged and speed set, multiple times the car would apply brakes suddenly without warning. This typically would happen while cresting a hill. This is dangerous and could cause an accident if cars are following too closely behind. Also with standard autopilot engaged and while in the rightmost lane on the highway any time a road merged on the right side of the vehicle it thinks the lane got wider and will swerve to the right then left to try and maintain the center of the lane. This unnecessary turning could cause an accident or confuse other nearby drivers. During both of these events no warnings are displayed or heard in the vehicle. Both these issues are well known and discussed on Facebook, reddit and teslamotorclub forums.

I also shared this on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaLounge/comments/ubcbuc/phantom_brake_occurence/ My brand new, (February-2022), Model 3 Performance Phantom Braked hard yesterday and almost killed me and my daughter. We were on a road-trip driving from Arizona to California, on the 8 freeway westbound. It was running Tesla software version. 2022.12.3.1. Conditions were ideal. Clear sky, open road, no opposing traffic since the opposing lanes were across about 200 feet of desert. No cars in front of us for any visible distance, road was straight for miles, no shadows, no reflections, just open road. I had the cruise control on and locked at 75 MPH. I wasn't using Auto Pilot, just cruise control, (single press down on the drive stalk). After cruise control had been on for a few minutes suddenly, the car hard braked, throwing myself and my kid forward. Decelerated from 75 to 30 MPH in about 2 seconds. Scared the shit out of both of us. We were just sorting out the confusion when we hear honking horns, cars would be on us soon. I slammed the accelerator to move. I later checked the outside of the car wondering if maybe a camera had become obstructed but nope, all the cameras had perfectly clean surfaces. This phantom braking issue is going to kill someone.

I purchased and received my Tesla Model 3 earlier this year. On 6 occasions, while using Cruise Control, the car automatically and unexpectedly braked when there was not a car within a 100 meters in front of me in my car lane. The unnecessary and sudden automatic braking surprised the vehicles behind us which increased risk for a crash and also minor whiplash to the passengers in the car. The Tesla's incorrect breaking seemed to be tied to when the car mistakenly through there was a vehicle immediately in front of me. One example was when the Tesla automatically started breaking when the shadow of a big rig was in the same lane as me. To be clear, the big rig was in the lane to the right of me, but it's shadow was in my lane. Another example is when there was a darker spot on the road in front of me. Overall, this is a significant safety issue and must be fixed by Tesla. Thank you.

On traveling to San Diego on 4/13/2022 we had three Phantom braking events one severe enough that if a car was following a accident could have happened. Two on the return trip all with no indication of any vehicle or obstacle nothing but open road clear road ahead this is going to hurt some one at some point and time we need help this is my Fourth report of this problem to NHTSA I know better than to follow a Tesla to close but the public doesn't Thank you please help [XXX] Note VIN [XXX] INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).

I was driving southbound on Interstate 5 in California mid-morning on Friday, April 15th. Adaptive Cruise Control (Tesla "Autopilot") was set somewhere near 75mph. There was no other traffic anywhere near our vehicle (at least 1/2 mile clear both ahead and behind). There was no debris of any kind on the road or on the side of the road. The car suddenly and unexpectedly began heavy deceleration. It felt as if the vehicle was performing an emergency braking procedure to avoid a front collision. Fortunately there were no vehicles around, so other than startling me, there was no other incident caused. Had this occurred with a vehicle behind, it very likely would have caused a rear-end collision.

I have taken 3 road trips in my car since taking ownership, and on every single one of them, I have had multiple instances of severe phantom braking. They are quite alarming as the vehicle will drop 10-20mph on the freeway in an instant. These were always on large divided interstates (OH and PA turnpikes), and almost every time, there were ZERO cars around. I don't feel that I can even use the autopilot system at this point, for fear of getting rear-ended at 70 mph.

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving approximately 5 MPH in reverse, the Back Over Prevention camera lost connectivity and became inoperable. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The contact related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V296000 (Back Over Prevention, Equipment) for which the VIN was included. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 3,724.

Using Tesla Autopilot April 13 and April 15 on CA 395 between Los Angeles and Mammoth Lakes the car repeatedly had "phantom braking" incidents with no cars or obstacles in sight.

Since taking delivery of my new car on 2/8/2022, I have experienced at least 3 instances of phantom emergency braking, all while cruise control was in use. The vehicle suddenly brakes hard for 1-2 seconds. In two of these cases, a vehicle or person was visible off to the side, but not in my lane, and not where I would have had to brake. I am concerned that cars behind me could be unprepared for this sudden slow-down. While the car's software does allow for turning off the emergency braking capability, that action must be taken each time the car is started if you plan to use cruise control. For this reason, cruise control becomes a danger to use.

The car suddenly breaks while in the highway apparently for no reason. It happened multiple times in the last two months. It may cause accident by a following car.

Tesla model 3 2022 rear side windows shattered all of a sudden with no other accidents. My 6 year old girl was sitting in the car next to it and we are all in a shock . We are trying to find the right way to report to Tesla . We checked online and saw more blog posts with same issue . Please help.

I275 southbound in Terra Ceia, FL. 11PM. Road surface damp. Speed 80 mph with adaptive cruise control engaged. No other vehicles within view. While on cruise control, the vehicle suddenly engaged the brakes slowing from 80mph to 65mph in a violent manner in a fraction of a second. Wheels broke traction slightly. This has occurred on a number of occasions to me since owned on 12/10/21. It's extremely dangerous to the point I rarely use cruise control on wet or slippery roads for fear of departing the roadway.

Experienced the "phantom braking" phenomena traveling southbound on I-75/85 just south of Atlanta approaching an HOV exit on the left. The car was traveling with "AutoPilot" engaged, not FSD, at ~70 mph, and the brakes were applied hard as the exit to the flyover approached on the left. I did not lose control and simply stepped on the accelerator to resume the correct speed.

I am not sure if this is the correct avenue to address this concern; however, I feel it is a valid concern. I purchased my Model 3 Tesla in March of 2022. After having it about a week I conducted a supercharge for the first time after charging it at home. While I was supercharging I noticed an immediate head rush and the sensation of my skin feeling prickly. I then began to experience vertigo. I assumed it was a result of the high levels of electricity being pumped into the car. I didn't think much of it and subsequent supercharging yielded a similar yet less intense full-body-brain sensation. A few days after my initial supercharge I began experiencing major headaches; debilitating headaches. To the point to where I scheduled a CT scan. The result was a diagnoses of "Cluster Headaches." Though I find it odd that these intense headaches did not start until I began driving a Tesla. My concern is that the Tesla emits high levels of EMF's/RF's and that, because this is a field that is relatively unstudied, has not been truly vetted by Tesla or the NHTSA. There is little evidence to support that EMF's are harmful to the brain simply because the technology itself is in its infancy. However, a large and powerful battery in a Tesla could be cause for concern in relation to the levels of radiation it emits to passengers. I would hope there have been sufficient testing put in place to assuage any negative effects of this type of radiation on Tesla owners/passengers. My hope in writing this is to raise the alarm that there could be a potential oversight of the damage these batteries can have on the population operating them; lest we become too fixated on the excitement of an electric vehicle and overlook the very real detriment it has to its consumes.

Have only had the vehicle on 2, 2 hour trips and have had the adaptive cruise control hard brake with no one around me or in front of me multiple times. It goes from 65 down to 50 or less in a second. Incredibly dangerous. Especially if I had vehicles behind me. Would've caused an accident no doubt. I hear about many teslas having this issue as well. Just give me dumb regular cruise control.

For no reason at all the brakes stopped me in the middle of the road. I was nearly hit from behind because it was so sudden only driving about 20 mph and slowing up for a light but did not hit the brakes Happened approximately three times

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving on the highway at 70 MPH, with the cruise control activated, the vehicle came to an abrupt stop. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to be diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 2,900.

I was using traffic aware cruise control (TACC) on a two lane highway to maintain my speed. There was a car behind me and no cars in front of me. My car suddenly reduced it speed (braked) for no reason. I turned off the TACC at this point because its erratic speed control did not seem safe, especially with a car following me. Later, when no one was following me, I again tried enabling cruise control (TACC) on the two lane highway, and multiple times it would unnecessarily and abruptly slow down the vehicle for no good reason (apparently becoming confused by oncoming traffic safely in the other lane, when approaching a hill, when approaching barriers on the side of the road, and sometimes for no discernible reason). I will say that TACC works well on multi lane freeways, but in my experience was non-functional and borderline dangerous on simple two lane highways. I contacted Tesla and inquired about turning off TACC and turning on standard (dumb) cruise control when driving on two lane highways. They stated that there is no option for standard cruise control, only TACC. So the options are to completely disable cruise control on two lane highways (inconvenient, but probably the best option), or use traffic aware cruise control and just deal with its erratic behavior on two lane roads (not safe in my opinion).

What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? Autopilot; yes. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? On several occasions while using "Autopilot", the vehicle attempted to come to a complete and sudden stop on the highway while driving at highway speed. On each occasion I've either had to quickly intervene by disabling "Autopilot" and accelerating or overriding the system by utilizing the accelerator pedal to keep moving then disabling "Autopilot" to avoid being rear-ended by the vehicles behind me. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? No. Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? No. Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? No.

Was in a tight parking space. The mirrors auto-folded in. The cameras seemed laggy when backing up to a significant degree. (Many, many others on the web report the same. Any search for "Tesla backup camera delayed" or similar should work.) In my case, my vehicle collided with a pole. Very concerned about this as a safety hazard.

While driving on the interstate and state highways using cruise control the car braked suddenly for no reason.

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at 65-70 MPH with the cruise control activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. The calibration in progress message was displayed. The failure nearly caused a collision. The dealer was made aware of the failure and scheduled an upcoming appointment. The dealer later canceled the appointment and informed the contact that the vehicle performed as designed and advised him to review the owner's manual. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 30.

While driving with cruise control set to 90 mph, my vehicle rapidly decelerated to 70 mph — with no other vehicles around. The vehicle suddenly braked for no reason at all, multiple times. Autopilot was not engaged and I was steering the vehicle myself. This while driving West on HWY 76 in Colorado a clear sunny day around mile marker 141, near Proctor, CO. The middle of nowhere. I have a 50 second video I would be happy to share but no video upload option.

Report Phantom braking. It happened multiple times on Thru way from last 3 days. There were nothing in the front of the car but it applied brakes on thru way, lucky no vehicle on the behind. I am concern about safety of my family.

There have been 3 separate instances in unexpected and sudden braking when using cruise control. All instances occurred when there were no nearby vehicles present. The first incident occurred on a 2 lane road when I was driving in daylight. I used the cruise control and twice over 10 min the car suddenly and unexpected slowed/braked startling me. After 2 times, I turned off the cruise control. Another incident occurred when I was driving on the interstate. Same experience. Sudden unexpected emergency braking as if I was about to hit something and there was nothing there, again daylight. Most recent occurrence my husband was driving, it was night on interstate and he had cruise control on and the car suddenly braked startling everyone in the car. There were no other vehicles present. He turned off cruise control for the remainder of the drive.

With cruise control on the vehicle abruptly applied breaking system without driving involvement and quickly reduced speed from 85 to 60 before driver could engage accelerator to prevent chance of being rear ended. I have a video file if needed.

i was driving through an intersection in san francisco on a green light and the car suddenly braked hard with no object in front of me to brake for. fortunately the car behind me managed to brake without rear-ending me. this was totally without warning and completely unneccesary. this was a "safety feature" that engaged to make me and the pedestrians and cars around me less safe! if the automatic emergency braking doesn't work (and is more dangerous to human life and property when activated as opposed to not), it should be able to be disabled for safety's sake. i can disable it for a trip, but then i have to remember to disable it every time i drive the car or it could put my life in danger! this is dangerous! the control panel informed me that the automatic emergency system was to blame for the dangerous stop. there was no warning before this happened. the vehicle has not been specifically inspected for this issue, but this appears to be a known issue for this model of car.

While using auto-pilot, the vehicle suddenly applied brakes without apparent reason. E.g. while crossing an intersection and another vehicle crossing the same intersection in opposite direction, Another occasion was when climbing a steep slope on a two lane road. Yet another was on a four lane highway. I was in the right lane and another vehicle was in the left lane and ahead of me.

My Model 3 rear glass has stress fractures. This can be a safety issue being it can block rear visibility. There is no warning when this can happen. Most likely due from sitting out in the sun then while driving the stress on the structural rear glass causes it to crack.

When Adaptive Cruise Control or Autopilot is active the vehicle will brake suddenly, often with no apparent reason. On flat roads, highways, clear weather and even no traffic from time to time it will randomly regen brake for no reason. The only time this occurs and is duplicated regularly is when driving on a single lane highway. Whenever a 18 wheeler is passing on the opposite lane the vehicle always regen brake suddenly, regardless of the position of the passing 18 wheeler even when it's apparent that the passing 18 wheeler is staying in its lane. Sometimes if the 18 wheeler has a wide load the regen braking is much more aggressive and the forward collision will give a warning. These instances can be overridden by pressing down on the accelerator and that will override the automatic regen braking. The problem with that temporary fix is that when I know it's going to happen I'm prepared but when the times it happens randomly I might as well just never use adaptive cruise control or autopilot.

I have a 1 month old Tesla Model 3 that when i use the cruise control every time i go past a truck on a 2 lane highway, my car will initiate emergency breaking. This has caused cars to almost rear end me. I took the car to Tesla to be serviced, and the issue didn't get any better. I have videos of this happening if you need them

We just purchased this vehicle new one week ago. Several times while using cruise control on Highway 101 in Mason County, WA we have experienced severe "phantom breaking". There is no reason for the sudden breaking and seems to be quite random and dangerous.

Tesla "Phantom Breaking" - Traveling at freeway speeds using cruise control, the car applied panic breaking without warning. There were no obstacles anywhere near the car. If I had not applied 100% throttle immediately I would have been rear-ended at high speed. The problem occurred with no obvious input and without warning. I am not able to reproduce it. I have not reported it to Tesla because the problem is well known yet Tesla has not publicly acknowledged it. There was a audible alert that sounded at the moment the breaking occurred, not before. The on-board camera system did not record the event. The car is new, Nov. 2021 delivery, I have driven it less than 1000 miles and this was the 4th, and most violent, "Phantom Breaking" event. I now consider the cruise control too dangerous to use. Because all of the other driver assist features depend on adaptive cruise control, they are now also useless.

While I generally love the car during the 6 weeks i’ve owned it, I am concerned about the fact that occasionally, while traveling at freeway speeds with cruise control engaged, the car will slow dramatically as if I had jammed on the brakes. The rapid deceleration has occurred at least once a week during my time with the car. This week, while traveling from North Carolina to New Jersey, the car “braked” from 70mph to about 40mph four times. This happens suddenly, no warning. As frustrating and annoying as this is, it is also dangerous given the high number of brain-dead tailgaters that populate the highways.

When driving with Traffic Aware Cruise Control or Autopilot enabled, dangerous automatic braking occurs when the car senses conditions that do not warrant automatic braking. This unnecessary automatic braking occurs randomly when encountering overhead roadway signs, parked vehicles safely on the shoulder, oncoming vehicles fully in their lane on 2 lane highways, cross traffic that is far enough ahead of the vehicle that it is not a threat, and for no obvious reason at all. These automatic braking events are violent and slam on the brakes when they occur and create a danger from rear end collisions from other drivers since they are unexpected and occur for no obvious reason. Tesla service states that the Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Autopilot systems are Beta systems and thus require driver monitoring to maintain control of the car when using the systems and nothing can be done until improved software is developed and implemented. Driver intervention for unexpected violent braking is difficult because the events are unexpected and create driver shock which slows a reaction to slam on the accelerator pedal to stop the inadvertent automatic panic braking. In my vehicle, I find that the Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Autopilot systems are essentially unusable as they pose too great a risk of a rear end collision.

I have had this car for exactly one month, and on three separate occasions, while using cruise control, the car suddenly braked although there was no obstacle visible in front of the car. On one instance I was driving on a four-lane highway, and there was another vehicle rather close behind me, who was quite surprised by the sudden braking. On the two other occasions, I was driving on a two-lane road with no-one behind me. I don't think there was oncoming traffic in the opposite lane, but I can't be sure. I have searched on the web and found that there are other reports of "phantom braking" in the Tesla 3. Otherwise the car is fine.

The Tesla will slam on the brakes unexpectedly while using cruise control. It does this for no apparent reason and has almost cause several accidents including me being rear ended while cruising at 60mph.

To Whom It May Concern: Been meaning to submit this complaint for a while but have not had the time until now. My issue regards ‘phantom breaking’ related to Tesla’s TACC (Traffic Aware Cruise Control). Whenever I take long road trips on the highway and attempt to use TACC, the car will invariably hard brake on its own without reason or warning, even when there are no cars, animals, or other objects nearby in either direction. When this occurs, it is incredibly scary. If there had been cars close behind me, I have no doubt they would have rear ended me. It also causes panic to my family and baby, as the breaking is sudden and hard. As a result, I do not use the system when driving which means a tired foot for long trips. I know this is an ongoing issue, and the NHTSA is aware of it. I’d like to ask that the government REQUIRE Tesla and (and perhaps other car companies with similar challenges) to offer standard ‘old fashioned’ cruise control as an option for those customers that want it. Because Tesla’s TACC doesn’t work, I personally would just prefer to be able to set the speed on highways and then be responsible for slowing down and taking it off when I deem it to be appropriate. Being forced to rely on a Tesla’s faulty system is paternalistic and removes an important choice from drivers. Ultimately it is not safe. Please help change this. Thank you, [XXX] INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).

I was using "Autopilot" on a 4 lane divided highway. There were no other vehicles on my side of the road, nor on the other side. There were no close objects, vegetation or buildings. I was going 65mph (the limit for the road) when the car suddenly, without any warning braked very hard and the speed fell to 47mph in a a second or two. I quickly cancelled Autopilot and regained control. This has happened more than 20 times during in 3 weeks of driving this Model 3 Long Range AWD. It has occurred with the speed set at 45, 55, 60 and 65. In the media, this is referred to as "phantom braking"

Vehicle's adaptive cruise control is ON. Auto-steer is OFF. Vehicle rapidly phantom breaks under these observed conditions: 1. As the vehicle is passing a semi-truck with the semi in the lane immediately to the right. The camera shows the semi clearly in the lane to the right. The semi is not veering over into my lane. The cruise control seems to think (incorrectly) that the semi is in danger of coming into my lane. The vehicle rapidly slows by +/- 5 mph, which made a couple of folks following me irritated as my car is slowing and brake lights are coming on for no reason. I can decrease this reaction by the vehicle by steering the vehicle to far left side of my lane when passing the semi, but even then, it would still sometimes phantom brake. This happened about 15-20 times during a 2000 mile trip. This reaction by the vehicle, is decreasing safety, not increasing it. 2. Same condition with the adaptive cruise control on (auto steering off), passing a semi that is in the lane immediately to the right, but this time the car rapidly slows itself when I am about 5 car lengths back of the truck. This is an unsafe problem and needs to be fixed asap. If fixing it is going to take time, then Tesla should be required to turn off the adaptive function with cruise control so only speed control is functioning.

Driving on a 4-lane limited access road while using adaptive cruise control (Tesla calls it "Autopilot", my car suddenly reduced speed dramatically. There were no other cars nearby, nor was there any kind of obvious obstruction. I was able to turn off Autopilot and resume speed, but I worry what might have happened if there had been another vehicle behind me.

Using auto pilot on highway car would apply hard breaking for no apparent reason. Several times this nearly caused crash as cars that were behind me has to swerve to miss hitting us. This happed at least half a dozen times. Most of the breaking was quick and abrupt, but at least twice they were abrupt but took the car from 75 to 20 on the interstate.

Multiples times while the car was using cruise control we have had it unexpectedly and aggressively brake. This seems to happen when a car is coming towards us in the opposite lane. We have only had the car for 4 days. It is to the point we do not use the cruise control. If someone would have been behind us we would have gotten in an accident. We have also had the forward collision warning go off while not in cruise control.

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 70 MPH with the Cruise Control activated, the phantom braking system engaged inadvertently, and the vehicle almost came to a complete stop. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact depressed the accelerator pedal and was able to continue to drive the vehicle. The contact stated that the failure had been reoccurring daily while driving. The manufacturer was notified of the failure an informed the contact that they were working on the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 150. The VIN was not available.

The adaptive cruise control system (Autopilot) brakes even when there's no obstacle on the road, or if there's a truck on the opposite lane. This also triggered the forward collision warning system. If there was a vehicle behind me, this would've caused a crash

While using adaptive cruise control, the car suddenly braked on Interstate at 65 mph when no obvious obstruction was seen. There was one truck over 100 yards ahead in the slow lane. The braking occurred after I changed lanes to pass. There were no vehicles ahead in the passing lane. Despite a light rain, visibility was not overly affected.