2022 Tesla Model 3 Complaint Log

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at 70 MPH with the cruise control activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. 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 6,000.

Potential computer system/programming issue. TACC autopilot issue. Highly numerous amount of 'phantom braking' events, potentially could cause loss of vehicle control and/or rear end collision. Also, auto-dimming headlights issue, in that oncoming drivers could experience blinding high-beam lights due to the fact that the lights do not dim automatically until the oncoming vehicle is very close. This is potentially a high risk for auto accidents. Again, high amount of phantom braking!!! These issues are ongoing issues, and started upon delivery of my vehicle, new, in December 2021. Tesla service will not address these issues.

Just purchased a new Tesla Model 3 (long range) yesterday. On the drive home, I engaged the cruise control after the car reached its required calibration distance of 50 miles. Occasionally, but without warning, the car would automatically apply the brakes with no car or other visible obstruction ahead of me on a long straight road. The brakes were applied so firmly that the car would have come to a complete stop within 200-300 feet if I had not engaged the gas pedal to stop the braking action. The suddenness of the braking forced the car behind be (my wife, who was following at a safe distance) to aggressively brake in order not to rear-end me. This happened 3-4 more times during the 120-mile drive home, so I finally disengaged the cruise control and "manually" controlled the accelerator by foot for the last 20 miles of driving, without further incident.

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving 75 MPH, the braking system erroneously activated causing the vehicle to abruptly stop. The contact indicated that prior to the braking system activating, an audible beeping noise was heard inside the cabin. Additionally, there was no vehicle or object nearby to cause the Forward Collision Avoidance system to be activated. The cause of the failure was not determined. The local service center was notified of the failure. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 1,800.

When driving in cruise control on a 4 lane highway (2 in each direction) the car automatically went into a hard brake, slowing down approximately 20 mph. The car returned to cruise control and 5-10 seconds later did the same thing again. There were no cars within roughly 1/4-1/2 mile in front of the vehicle, but there were cars heading in the other direction in the lanes traveling the opposite direction.

Using the Autopilot system on a recent road trip, I experienced numerous incidents of “phantom braking”. I previously owned a 2018 Tesla Model 3 with witch I made the same 500 mile RT journey several times without ever experiencing this phenomenon. There were vehicles following mine in a few of these of these incidents which created a serious concern about a rear-end collision. I immediately reported the issue to Tesla service who confirmed the problem via remote diagnostics but did not offer any solution other than to wait for future software updates. The incidents occurred without prior warning in the form of messages or alerts of any kind.

When driving my husband's new Tesla on the highway for the first time, with adaptive cruise control on, there were two frightening incidents: 1) I was traveling in the left-most lane of a 3 lane highway (3 lanes in one direction) moderate traffic. I signaled my intention to change lanes, and started to migrate into the middle lane. There was an 18-wheeler in the right-most lane slightly ahead of me. The Tesla suddenly braked hard without warning. Either I or the Tesla also swerved back towards the leftmost lane (it happened very fast and I was panicked, so I'm not sure which of us initiated the swerve). The Tesla then seemed to recover from being "spooked", and accelerated back up to the set speed. 2) Later that day, I was traveling on a highway again, this time just two lanes in one direction. Traffic was light. The Tesla again braked suddenly, though there were no cars nearby, and then resumed speed. Additionally, when driving in moderate traffic in town, the Tesla let out loud alarms twice to alert me about cars it deemed I had not paid sufficient attention to as traffic slowed approaching a light. Cruise control was not on, and it did not brake, but it was startling. I usually drive a 2017 Volvo V60 with adaptive cruise and collision-avoidance technology, and it is MUCH less sensitive than the Tesla is.

While driving with cruise control on the vehicle will automatically brake for no reason. I was just on a road trip and had this happen multiple times while going 80mph. If someone was behind me it could have caused a accident and someone could get seriously hurt or possibly die. I scheduled service at the dealership and it sounds like this is a well known problem that does not have a fix. I could see this issue causing some bad crashes. I put 3/5 as the incident date, but this happens almost on a daily basis.

While driving with the adaptive cruise control enabled or the autopilot enabled, the car will do a hard braking episode which may reduce the speed from 60mph to 40 mph about a fast as is possible without locking up the tires. This happens on four lane divided interstate driving as well as two lane undivided driving. In either type of driving, there may not be any traffic anywhere in site. The most common condition for the occurrence of the braking is while using the adaptive cruise control on a two lane highway and a large truck or farm vehicle approaches from the other direction while driving in the center of their lane. The car acts like it has detected a possible collision, annunciates the collision warning, and brakes hard. I am reporting this because it is obvious to me that this is a safety defect. If someone were following behind me, even at a range considered safe, the deceleration is fast enough to cause the car behind me to collide with me. These hard braking episodes will happen as many as 4 or 5 times in a full day of highway driving. Many smaller episodes of less dangerous braking occur throughout a full day of driving and I consider them annoyances. I received my new car in January of 2022 and have driven it 4300 miles. The car has exhibited this condition since the fist time I tried to use these features starting February 3, 2022. I will not use the cruise control or autopilot when passengers are in the car because it is very alarming to them when it happens. I now rarely use autopilot when I am alone because of the constant state of fear that an uncontrolled braking will happen which would cause an accident. I would be happy to share further information with you. I am aware of the investigation that you began last week looking into the phantom braking phenomenon for Tesla owners. From reading the Washington Post article on the subject and then various posts on Tesla forums, my experiences match the phantom braking descriptions.

In a 90 minute stretch of 2 lane highway on the way home from vehicle delivery, the car “phantom braked” for every semi-truck and most taller pickups which were approaching in the oncoming lane. At least 100 times on this maiden voyage. This unwarranted hard braking is unacceptable and unsafe.

Good evening, we took delivery of our Model 3 just over a week ago and have a big concern with Autopilot. Over a dozen times thus far, the car disengages Autopilot and begins to brake. This is MUCH worse at night when approaching hills or other cars and is very unsafe, especially for the people behind us. Is there a feature I can turn out to improve this? Perhaps add STD Cruise w/no emergency braking? Help!!!

I had multiple episodes of phantom braking while at highway speeds on cruise control. Most were small taps on the brakes that I could feel. There was one instance of a sudden 20mph drop from 67mph to mid forties and a second similar one they also resulted in the alarm within the vehicle going off. There were no vehicles, pedestrians, or other objects in the road in front of me and no reason for the car to brake.

Can’t believe there are a few hundred reports of phantom braking. This is essentially a standard feature of the car. Nearly every other highway drive using autopilot the car will hard brake for nothing. Most recently was Tuesday around 11pm on highway 91 between hartford and new haven, CT. In the right lane of the highway traveling at about 67 mph the car abruptly hit the brakes. I am accustomed to hovering my foot over the accelerator so was able to reengage and regain cruising speed. Luckily no car was behind me or anywher near me. There was no overpass, exit ramp, flashing lights or anything else obvious that might have caused the hard brake. I’ll not while I’m here that the auto brights feature is bizarre and potentially dangerous. Autopilot turns on the brights when there are no cars immeadiately in front and this can only be disabled per incident. When is it ever a good idea to have the brights on on a 3 lane highway during normal traffic hours? Annoying, sure, but could actually cause problems distracting or blinding other drivers

My car while in auto pilot will sometimes randomly on highways at highway speed, slam on the brakes. It’s dangerous because you will be doing 75+ mph and the car will just slam on the brakes and you have to take over control quickly to keep up speed. It has happened to me on I-25 in Colorado and I worry sometimes that I could get rear ended. It doesn’t happen all the time just randomly.

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated there was wiring that was loosened from the ground unit. The camera was making an abnormal crackling sound when it was hot. The contact stated that the screen was pink or blank at times. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer six times, where it was diagnosed that the wiring was loosened. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 500.

While driving down the freeway in auto-pilot this morning, I was in the middle lane and somebody in the right most lane put on their turn signal to indicate that they were planning on moving into my lane after I passed, but my car suddenly panic-stopped from 65 to almost zero all at once, and I almost got rear-ended. It completely scared me, and I disabled auto-pilot for the rest of my drive to work! My car’s only 5 days old, and I now have anxiety about its auto-pilot capabilities!

Phantom braking when using either cruise control or auto pilot. This happens during the day and night. If there is a car on the other side of road, it will brake very hard. This happens on one lane highways or large freeways. It is extremely dangerous especially if you have another car behind you. It will go from 80 mph to 50 mph in one second.

No one around me on the interstate with my cruise control on. With no cars near me or any recognizable object to detect, the car phantom broke for me without warning. Nearly caused an accident for the car behind me.

Using adaptive cruise control the car will often brake for no reason. This has caused me to not trust a system I was promised and paid for and I can't use any form of cruise control as there is no option for standard cruise control on the model 3 Multiple times during a trip the ACC will lightly apply the brakes when there is no objects in front of the car. About once per week of heavy use of ACC the car will slam on the brakes unexpected and for no reason. This has caused me to be honked at and almost rear ended on multiple occasions. I no longer use the system because of this. My ask is for the NHTSA to recall the model 3 and force Tesla to install radar on affected Model 3's. Vision only is a terrible system and Tesla greatly downplayed the pitfalls of it when I was purchasing the vehicle

I am reporting this incident on behalf of our daughter who lost her husband in this Tesla 3 single-car accident. Photographs of what I believe is a failed left front wheel are attached. Sample pieces of the wheel are not in my possession. The accident occurred on a clear day in the late afternoon on a dry stretch of narrow, unlined road that was in a degree of disrepair. Video from the front camera of the vehicle does not indicate a high rate of speed prior to the final minute, which is not captured on the vehicle flash drive. (The flashdrive or specific video minutes can be submitted at your request.) The first reponder and witness at the scene of the accident described the vehicle approaching and accelerating very rapidly toward an impending curve. The sound of the acceleration frightened his children who were playing in the front yard. The witness indicated hearing a loud bang prior to the vehicle lifting up on its left side before exiting the road and hitting a tree resulting in the instantaneous death of the driver who was alone in the car. Although the driver had attended a bourbon festival prior to the incident, witnesses who participated with him and others who spoke with him after the fest and prior to the accident indicated no impairment in speech or movement. Component part photographs and accident report are included with this report. You will notice there is no apparent damage to the tire. A claim was registered with State Farm Automobile Insurance Company, which is attached, as well. State Farm Claims indicating that the vehicle associated with the referenced complaint is on hold at Insurance Auto Auction and available for review.

2022 Tesla Model 3 Long Range. As already known the Tesla Model 3 has the issue of "Phantom Braking". Now that I have a $65,000 for 3 days I am very angry and concerned about the phantom braking. Here are some details. Within 10 minutes of initiating Autopilot or Cruise Control the vehicle brakes without any reason when driving highway or freeway speeds (I did not try it on city roads). For the most part the vehicle unexpectedly decelerates 2-5 mph. Although, it is just a little bit it makes for a very unpleasant ride. However, it happens repeatedly. And this happens all the time when Autopilot or cruise control is activated. I counted 5 occasions of phantom braking within less than 3 minutes. The last of those 5 was an unexpected and heart stopping deceleration from 84mph down to 52 mph in less than 2 seconds. This can really give you a heart attack because it is very unexpected. You cannot even drive 10 miles without this happening. There wasn't even a car in front of me for at least 1 mile. So no reason whatsoever for this braking "maneuver". Since I have read about this issue I only (if even) try cruise control or autopilot when there is no vehicle behind me within 1 mile to avoid someone rear ending me. But still.....it is a serious safety issue. One, because of following traffic rear ending the vehicle and second it is really HEART STOPPING when for no reason, out of the blue your vehicle decelerates very HARD. Thank you.

Phantom Braking

My vehicle is experiencing a significant number of phantom braking events. The issue seems to be primarily contained to two way roads, more often when traffic is coming from the opposite direction, more often at night, going through intersections, at the crest of hills, and when there's no lead car in front of me in my lane. Without a lead car in my lane on 2 way country roads, it's not uncommon for the vehicle to rapidly decelerate, somewhere between 10-30 mph for around 3-10 seconds per instance, at least once per mile or so driven.

I have reported to Tesla that my brand new 2022 Model 3 is braking and indicating far ward Colli on warnings when there are no issues present on the roadway. I have submitted well over 50 bug reports within the past month detailing these incidents when they happen. Each of these incidents are a safety hazard. Unexpected braking not only is scary, but also causes problems for vehicles following behind me. I’ve had other vehicles nearly collude with my vehicle from behind (due to my car quickly decelerating for no reason). I’ve also been on the receiving end of some road rage incidents because my car is slowing down for no reason, people think I’m brake checking them or trying to intentionally cause a rear end collision. I have sent my concerns to Tesla on three occasions. They have not investigated my specific claims and only respond to say that the behavior is “normal” for the software and hardware configurations within the vehicle. I’m not sure how a system that can be this unsafe can be considered “normal”

this vehicle has regenerative braking. It used to have an option to reduce the regenerative braking but software updates removed it. During recent snow and ice, when letting off the accelerator pedal the regenerative braking kicks in and causes the vehicle to become unstable. If regenerative braking had a low setting this could prevent the vehicle from becoming unstable on snow and ice every time the accelerator pedal is let go. It is very un-nerving driving like this

On multiple occasions in different environments the autopilot system has randomly braked/slowed to a dangerous level. This has occurred during city and freeway driving. It has not yet caused an accident, but I am now hesitant to use the feature in most situations. There is little consistency or understanding as to when or why this occurs. Please analyze the situation and require Tesla to remedy this problem.

Phantom braking keeps occurring when my cruise control is set. If there is oncoming traffic with their headlights on in the opposite lane, my car will begin to brake. It also occurs sometimes when there are no other cars nearby.

Phantom braking occurs when 'autopilot - cruise control' is engaged, while traveling at highway speeds.

PHANTOM braking constantly with NOTHING around, in the road, no oncoming traffic, at hill tops, in curves, VERY, VERY DANGEROUS!!! My Tesla is only 72 hours old and has less than 200 miles. Cruise at 60 mph and slams the brakes to as slow as 28 mph ...throws everything in the car to the floor. This is on State Highways with no traffic no oncoming cars, nothing in road, Tesla needs to be sued!!!! Please issue Federal Recall BEFORE someone is rear ended and dies. I've read Tesla has Known this problem exists since early 2021. Stop Tesla from making this deadly functionality.

Brand new Tesla Model 3, driving 60 mph on 2 lane highway. The shadow of an oncoming 18 wheel truck was cast into my lane, as it was oncoming, probably 60 mph as well. I believe the shadow triggered the "Automatic Emergency Braking", and my car violently slammed on the brakes, and released them about 30 mph. If there was a vehicle behind me, there almost certainly would have been a collision. Thankfully, no one was behind me, and my car never left the proper travel lane.

Just bought the car a few weeks ago. Have had several instances of phantom breaking. Can't drive down a residential street at 25mph as the cars parked along the side of the road cause the alarms to go off and the breaks apply themselves. Also happens when driving on 3 lane roads with a middle suicide lane and there is a truck parked in the middle lane suicide lane. The car will apply emergency braking just driving past the truck. Or past a school bus that is off the side of the road. Very irritating. My subaru has never done this. Multiple dates this has happened

This vehicle suffers from frequent, intense phantom braking/automatic emergency braking, as well as frequent false forward collision warnings. The phantom braking puts us at significantly increased risk of being rear ended. The incidents are so frequent that the ADAS systems are essentially unusable. The constant false collision warnings have conditioned me to ignore the forward collision warnings, so if there comes a day when a real forward collision warning occurs, I'll have been conditioned to ignore it, possibly to the detriment of my safety and others. Tesla needs to communicate a a plan to prevent phantom braking and false collision warnings.

The vehicle will randomly SLAM on its brakes while traveling when autopilot or even just regular cruise control is engaged. We will be traveling 85 MPH and the car will randomly hit the brakes and drop down to 65 MPH in about 2-5 seconds. There are no other vehicles in front, but can sometimes be behind. It is extremely dangerous and could cost people their lives. These kinds of incidents will happen 15-20 times on a 150 mile road trip of all freeway driving.

My car when it’s on cruise control will all of a sudden have phantom breaking issues causing it to decelerate very quickly almost causing many crashes with cars behind me. This issue needs to be addressed quickly before someone is injured or even killed

Phantom braking on the highway. No other vehicles in my lane or the lanes next me. Vehicle slammed on brakes and warning chime sounded

The car regularly brakes unexpectedly at highway speeds when the cruise control is engaged. It is behaving as if it detects a car in front and is trying to avoid a front end collision but there is no object there. I wonder if some debris or something flies in front of the camera and the car interprets it as another vehicle.

While driving on the highway my car suddenly decelerated almost to a complete stop while going 60+ mph. It happened when I went under an overpass and there was a dark shadow on the road due to the overpass. It also happened when I was driving in the direction of the sunset which caused a big glare on the road.

I was travelling on a 2-lane road at 50 mph using the car's autopilot (adaptive cruise control). As a pick-up truck approached me in the opposite lane, the car beeped loudly and applied the emergency braking at great force, reducing the car's rate of speed from 50 to 25 mph.

Car randomly brakes while the autopilot feature is turned on, it has also happened while just in normal cruise control. Car will brake unexpectedly even in broad daylight on a straight road with no other vehicles around.

Driving 45mph on an expressway. The wind blew apple blossoms off the trees beside the road. The posed no danger nor did they cause a visibility problem for me. The cruise control slammed on the brakes and I was nearly rear-ended.

2022 Tesla Model 3 experiences sudden and unwarranted braking. Vehicle will use Autopilot and suddenly brake on roads. Commonly known as “Phantom Braking.”

Driving on a two lane highway with adaptive cruise control on, the car sometimes decelerates and sometimes even comes to a quick stop with brakes when a vehicle approaches from the opposite direction. Although it does not happen every time, tractor trailers turn red and the car slows from 55 mph to 10-20 mph rapidly. Cars behind me have nearly hit me in the rear because of the fast stop where none was expected (or needed). On occasion, the car slows when no car is coming, but there is a rise in the road, or a curve. In Rochester, at Tesla Service, I was told that the adaptive cruise control was "performing within specifications." If that is correct, the specifications are dangerous and need to be modified. The only remedy, I was told, was not to use adaptive cruise control.

I purchased this vehicle 10 days ago and have had “phantom braking” about a dozen times already. Some more drastic than others. Most cases was at night and most cases there were absolutely no objects that should have triggered the vehicle to rapidly slow down. It is extremely annoying and dangerous as I went from 75 to 60 in about a second. It seems to happen more when there is little traffic in front of me than when I am moving along with a lot of traffic.

We took our first out of town day trip of about 400 miles round trip, mostly freeway driving, last week 2/19/22. I tried using Tesla Traffic Aware Cruise Control several times during the trip, and we experienced at least 3 episodes of the "phantom braking" that I have read about. On those occasions, the system abruptly sounded alerts and braked automatically while cruising at about 80 mph (speed limit 75). There did not seem to be any obvious reason for this braking on the freeway on two occasions. There was one episode on a two lane section of straight highway, cruising at about 70 mph, when a large semi truck/trailer passed us in the opposite direction, both of us staying in our lanes, when the TACC sounded alert and applied brakes abruptly. I am very reluctant to use this function now until Tesla resolves the issues involved. It is very disconcerting and potentially dangerous when these events happen. I did send a "bug report" to Tesla from the vehicle the day after this happened. No response as yet.

I only picked this car up on 2/16/22. Several times with the cruise control or autopilot/autosteer engaged on a two lane road the vehicle braked suddenly and severely in response to semi-trucks in the oncoming lane.

When cruise is turned on the wipers turn on. This was their response. Hello Dominic, This is Ken from Tesla virtual service center. We have been getting some push back on the most recent update doing what you are saying regarding autopilot/autowipers. Our auto wipers and sensors with our windshields need improvement and is still in beta. I am not sure why the factory has decided to lock in the auto wipers function during autopilot for that reason on last months firmware update. Your comments along with others have been reported back to the factory to provide feedback to them on the problems you are facing as a customer. Unfortunately, there is no way for us to override this or turn it off. hopefully it will no longer be the case after the next update but a mobile tech coming out on the 19th will not be able to rectify this concern.

Vehicle brakes on cruise/autopilot for no reason occasionally

When on two lane roads and adaptive cruise control is engaged, the car ghost brakes when larger on coming vehicles are detected. This sudden braking could cause other cars to hit my car from behind. This occurs frequently. I reported this to Tesla during a service visit and they did something that didn't help. They did say to report back if it didn't help. I'm reluctant to use the adaptive cruise control.

Drive Unit inverter failed. Yes my safety and the safety of my passenger and drivers behind me was at risk Problem was confirmed by Tesla repair center. They diagnosed this as the problem. No accident happened so no police, insurance reps, etc. Warning lamps came up after the car stalled. Or at least that's when I noticed them. while I was driving the car started jerking and came to a complete stop in traffic. No warning, just stopped. It wouldn't start or roll or anything and I was blocking traffic until I could get Tesla Roadside service to tell me on the phone how to put it into Transport Mode to push it to the side. This took 2 hours. My safety was DEFINITELY at risk. If I had been travelling at a high speed, it could have been fatal. The dealer/service center said it's the failure of the rear drive unit inverter and it was a US made part by Tesla. Warnings showed up on the screen but after the call stalled. It is currently at the dealership being replaced but now I am afraid to drive it as I have lost confidence in the company. I really hope you put pressure on Tesla to correct this problem. It is terrifying.

On several occasions, while using adaptive cruise control and/or autopilot, the vehicle sharply slowed or braked with no apparent obstruction or threat. It once happened while cruising at 80 MPH on freeway 10W in Phoenix, in the carpool lane. There were no vehicles within a concerning distance in front or behind me, so I was not necessarily at risk - but certainly would have put myself or others if there had been more traffic in the lane. The same happened while on a 3-lane road (Queen Creek Road between McQueen and Arizona in Chandler) this morning. Adaptive cruise control was set at 56 MPH when vehicle suddenly braked and slowed without any visible threat or danger. Again, there was not traffic near me (front or rear), so no significant risk. No warning chimes or messages were given prior to any instance of braking. The problem has not been inspected/reproduced/confirmed by a dealer or service center.