NHTSA Owner Complaint Log
This page lists owner-reported complaints filed with NHTSA for the 2021 Tesla Model Y. Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA and do not by themselves prove a defect or defect rate.
Data synced from NHTSA on May 4, 2026
The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while her husband was driving approximately 75 MPH with the cruise control activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. The vehicle inadvertently slowed down to 30 MPH. The contact disengaged the cruise control and the self-driving feature also disengaged simultaneously. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The Service Center diagnosed the vehicle with a software failure however, there was no current fix. The failure mileage was 10,043.
I have an ongoing problem with the dashcam recording, which for me is a safety issue. The dashcam constantly records from several cameras what is happening around the vehicle. The dashcam icon will show a red “x,” indicating that the dashcam is not working. Probably 80% of the time I get in the car, the red x is there. The solution involves opening the glove box and pulling the drive, waiting for up to 20 seconds, then replacing it. If that doesn’t work, the usb drive needs to be formatted and all previous clips are lost, but probably 95% of the time the reformat fails. It was recommended by Tesla service that I purchase another usb drive ($45?), but that did not solve the problem. I’ve had my car into Tesla service for this issue or reported it through the app multiple times. For months, I’ve been told it will be addressed with a firmware update, but it has not happened. Other Tesla owners are also having this issue, but it was addressed with a firmware update and the problem was fixed. The owners who have the Full Self Driving Beta have NOT had a firmware update to address the issue. We are the owners who paid $10-15,000 extra for the full self driving feature. I have not been able to get any information from Tesla about an expected timeframe for this update. I ask, but I’m always told it will be a “future update.” I have asked if anyone is working on this issue, and they won’t answer that question either. I would like to know the status. I’ve been very patient, but since there is aggression in the areas where I drive against EV drivers, and Teslas in particular, I need this feature to be working. I have been harassed, had large pickup drivers tailgate or try to run me off the road, and I’ve been coal rolled. I’ve already used data from the dashcam to report aggressive drivers to the police.
multiple incidents of phantom braking well traveling on I 90. 5 documented incidents. Have requested vehicle service however previous service for this type of incident did not correct the issue. at one point the car slowed from 75 to 50 before i could react. there were no other vehicles near my vehicle when the events occurred.
We experienced 3 phantom braking events while using the autopilot feature of the Tesla model Y on our trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco. While on autopilot on the 5 freeway northbound, the car just braked when the lanes in front of us are clear.
Multiple incidences of phantom braking while using cruise control/autopilot (not full self driving) traveling to/from Sacramento, CA and Park City, Utah on August 13th and 19th. This has happened previously while traveling to/from Sacramento, CA and Napa, CA. Unexpected hard braking on the highway at speeds of 55-85 mph) for no apparent reason is a hazard to the driver/passenger as well as any nearby vehicles. It causes undue fright, motion sickness, whiplash, and potential accidents. I contacted Tesla and they evaluated the car remotely and said they found nothing wrong. Yes, the car is available anytime for an inspection. No, the car or components have not been inspected by anyone, except as noted above by Tesla's service department. There were no warning lights/messages. This has been a problem for at least 6 months. It just became more evideent on our trip to/from Utah.
Tesla Autopilot (Adaptive Cruise Control) rarely recognizes parked vehicles or obstructions beside the driving lane (right or left side) based on the display console driving environment display. Bicyclist, pedestrians, and other large roadside obstructions are also rarely recognized. Might explain the recent Tesla collisions with stopped emergency vehicles while in Autopilot mode. Don’t know if Teslas recent elimination of radar sensing made this problem worst or not. This failure to recognize nearby obstructions happens daily.
Autopilot was on during a light rain event where I was traveling less than the posted speed limit on the I95 northbound Highway. The autopilot appeared to force the car to abruptly jolt the steering wheel/tires, causing a slip/ hydroplane of the front end which forced the car into a left/sideways slide across the highway. The car slid sideways for about 100 feet or so before going straight into the concrete divider along the Highway (front driver side initial impact, then rear driver side 2nd impact). Control could not be regained with the vehicle. Steering did not work (tried to correct the path), it felt as if brakes did not slow the vehicle as the car approached the divider. Autopilot was fully engaged and lane keeping was active… with at least one hand on the steering wheel and moderate level of attention to the road. I must say I had likely became over-reliant on the autopilot. No warning was provided to me as, prior to the incident. A similar hydroplane problem can also be seen on a YouTube video posted online for the same model car. I experienced the same outcome as the other vehicle except I hit a divider after crossing lanes. I am however very pleased with how well the car handled the impact and how well the airbags went off, although also unfortunate- I do feel like the car may have been partially responsible for the accident itself.I have experienced a few prior occurrences where the car will jerk the wheel when in autopilot to keep or find a lane, even with hands on the wheel and full attention facing forward.
My wife was driving on the highway on 8/16/22 at around 9:50pm on the garden state south and all of the sudden the car by itself started swerving lanes and my wife tried to stop the car but to no avail the brakes weren’t working as well. After some time the car finally got back into control and she was able to pull over. The car seemed to be hacked. No explanation how this happened. We didn’t pay for the whole self drive option so I’m not sure how this happened. Very furious. That could’ve been my wife’s life on the line if there were cars.
Car took over the control from the driver. Major crash could have happened NO Manufacturer No
While driving cross country on interstate highways using cruise control my car would try to stop itself. During a 500+ mile day it would do this 10x per day. Most times hard enough to engage seat beats. There has been no inspection. Tesla is denying a problem. The danger is if someone is following too close they could resend me. I was never in traffic when this happens. Never anyone in front of me or next to me when this happens. On line they call the phantom braking. I can’t tell if it’s braking, or the cruise control disengages and the car is suddenly stopping because of one pedal driving mode.
During daylight hours when the autopilot is engaged at normal highway speeds - the Tesla brakes engage and quickly slow down the car. It occurs on long straight roads with no traffic. This appears to be a "phantom braking" issue that is causing my car to suddenly brake for no reason. There are never any cars around when this occurs-- just long clear roads. This can be very dangerous. Last known occurrences were on Aug 13 at 8:30a and 10:29a of this year.
While driving at highway speeds the adaptive cruise control suddenly slams on the brakes for no reason. It is more frequent when there is little to no traffic. This happens regularly, it is not an isolated incident.
On multiple occasions the vehicle in question exhibited dangerous behavior while the "Autopilot" cruise control system was engaged. This is not "fully automated cruise control FSD" but the standard "Autopilot" system. Each of the incidents listed below occurred on multiple dates, multiple times and in various times of day, speeds and weather conditions. 1. While driving at speed, the vehicle, upon detecting the cars in an adjacent lane separated by pole dividers were stopped, suddenly slammed on the brakes in an attempt to stop the car, risking a collision from behind, even with my own lane completely clear of other cars 2. While driving at speed, the vehicle, upon detecting a higher or lower posted speed limit sign alongside the road, suddenly braked or accelerated without warning, risking a collision in front, or behind 3. While driving at speed, the vehicle, upon detecting emergency flashing lights from a passing police, ambulance or fire vehicle, regardless of that vehicle's location or direction, suddenly decelerated without warning, risking a collision from behind 4. While driving at speed, the vehicle, upon detecting a change in lane width, the loss of a lane marker, or the presence of a concrete barrier in place of a lane marker, suddenly swerved to attempt to remain in the center of the changed lane width, and on more than one occasion, almost swerved into a barrier or another vehicle
Car regularly brakes for no reason causing near accidents constantly and posing a huge safety risk. Additionally, the full self driving option is totally unusable. Both these issues have been reported to Tesla multiple times. We have been told the only way we can have an actual working cruise control is to disable the full set aware driving without refund for that Bert expensive option
The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that the vehicle had received a software update through the Wi-Fi from Tesla. The contact stated that the camera for the autonomous self-drive feature had become excessively sensitive sounding the alarm for the Occupant Detection and Lane Assist at the slightest movement. The contact stated that the issue caused multiple distractions while driving. The contact had not taken the vehicle to the dealer. The contact had informed the manufacturer of the failure. The manufacturer referred the contact to the dealer. The approximate failure mileage was 36,314.
A. 3 or 4 times while I was driving on the highway with cruise control the car very suddenly de-accelerated even though the road ahead was completely clear. This happened before. B. Also later on the same trip the car hit a part of a tire tread left on the road. The underside of the car was apparently damaged. The screen message was "okay to drive. power reduced". Over next several hours the power, and later other functions like air conditioning, and maximum speed was reduced from 69 to 67 to 65 to 62 mph and message "okay to drive" was repeated. Suddenly while car had message of 62 mph maximum speed it suddenly wouldn't go over 37 mph. Seconds later it dropped to maximum 13 mph while still showing "okay to drive - 62 mph max speed". I pulled over on shoulder and car wouldn't go into drive function.
While in cruise control, which is adaptive, vehicle will abruptly slow down for no know reason. Usually there are no other vehicles, no highway obstructions, nothing that I can see. Tesla finally told me that this is a "known issue", after making a service appointment, and them calling me to cancel the appointment.
My wife and I have owned the Tesla Model Y for one year. We have taken it on several long distance drives from our home in Moscow Idaho to the Oregon and Washington coasts, Vancouver BC and Seattle. During each of the trips we experienced phantom braking when the car was driven with cruise control engaged at highway speeds on 2 lane highways. Phantom braking has occurred when 1) there was no oncoming traffic during daylight hours 2) with oncoming traffic that was not in our lane 3) when there was a slight turn in the highway and no traffic. The most recent phantom braking events occurred 7-14-22 and 7-30-22 on Washington highway 26. When the phantom braking occurs it appears to be random. The car will very quickly drop from 65mph to 55mph causing us a scare. We do not use the cruise control feature anymore on the two lane highways. Its just too scary when it happens. We have complained to Tesla and have submitted service requests and was told they are aware of the problem but no corrective action has happened yet.
The driver infotainment system locks up randomly. Which makes all safety features, turn signal indicators, backup camera, reverse mode (mirrors drop), speedometer, collision sensors, etc NON-FUNCTIONAL. Until either the system crashes or finally unfreezes. This also removes one-pedal driving as well when frozen. Version is 2022.16.3
The contact owned a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle inadvertently accelerated. The vehicle swiped the side of an apartment building before crashing into a tree and coming to a complete stop. The air bags deployed upon impact. The contact sustained chest pain, and his daughter, who was a passenger, sustained chest and ear injuries from the air bags deployment. Medical attention was received. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to the tow yard and deemed totaled by the insurance company. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 8,000.
Airbag is OFF for a 123 lb front seat passenger (adult female). This is an intermittent fault -- the passenger airbag status changes during the drive. Possibly half the time the airbag is OFF, when it needs to be ON. Two Tesla Service Center visits were made. The first Tesla Service Center visit reproduced the fault but did not correct it. The second Tesla Service Center visit did not reproduce the fault and did nothing. The passenger airbag status OFF is displayed on the touchscreen. The faulty component(s) could be the seat occupancy sensor(s). This has been an issue since vehicle delivery. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request.
While using adaptive cruise control we have experienced multiple incidents of our vehicle braking hard, fast, without warning, and for no reason. The most recent incident just happened (07/21/2022) while driving on a 4 lane highway. My husband was using ADP traveling at approx 65mph when suddenly our Tesla model Y began rapidly braking, throwing my upper body towards the dash and causing us to almost be rear ended by the vehicle traveling behind us. Thankfully, I did not hit the dash and the vehicle behind us was paying attention and swerved into another lane to avoid a collision.
The rear hatch can be opened while the car is in drive or reverse from a remote input from the app. On several occasion my hatch has opened from a remote input while in traffic while stopped at red lights. Tesla says this is normal behavior. So what is possible is someone can open the hatch from a remote input from anywhere without being able to see the car. My concern is when this has happened item could have fallen from my trunk into traffic resulting in damage or vehicles behind me. To close the hatch you must place the car in park first. Having a vehicle in park in traffic could result in a collision. You can not move the vehicle while the hatch is closing or it stops closing it takes several seconds to open or close the hatch and additional time to realize you must place the vehicle in park to close it. Remote input to operate the hatch should be disabled while the vehicle is in drive or reverse. The event has occurred on 4 occasions while driving the vehicle over the last year.
On July 16, 2022 I was traveling west on I-40, east of Tucumcari, NM. I was using Traffic Adaptive Cruise Control (TACC). There were no cars within a mile of me, front or back. The weather was clear, the road was flat. The car suddenly braked without warning. The objects stored in the back of the car flew forward, striking the two front seats. The wheels did not lock up. I immediately stabbed the accelerator. I saw the power line bar graph indicator go fully to the right. I contacted Tesla to request a service appointment. Tesla initially set an appointment but then cancelled it, explaining there was nothing wrong with the car. I was reminded that TACC (along with virtually all other Tesla driving aids) is "beta" and may therefore not function as intended or expected. It was the responsibility of the driver to assume the risks implied. Prior to this event, I had already decided not to use any technology more advanced than the speed control (TACC) as they behaved poorly. I thought that adaptive cruise control (Tesla: TACC) was a such a common technology that it wouldn't exhibit phantom braking. I was wrong.
My car is experiencing phantom braking nearly every time I use cruise control. It only happens when there are no cars or other obstacles in front of me. It happens at various speeds. The braking slows the car to a stop within seconds if I don’t immediately disengage the cruise control, even at highway speeds.
While adaptive cruise control was engaged on highway, it would disengage and harshly break even though there was nothing ahead as an obstacle. If there was a vehicle behind, it would have created a significant change of collision. During a 5+ hour drive, this occurred 20+ times. It seemed to occur when cresting small hills where visibility was somewhat limited ahead and when there were few cars ahead. In a few occurrences, there was a warning chime, but in other cases, it disengaged and braked silently. This just happened yesterday, so it has not been inspected by Tesla.
On a roadtrip between California and Wyoming, the adaptive cruise control, full-self driving, and emergency breaking engaged for absolutely no reason on dozens of occasions - what I understand is termed "phantom breaking." This was so bad that on Sunday, July 10, I noted each severe incident. Some of these occurred with absolutely no traffic in the road, some during busier periods. In each case, it was scary and dangers -- to the point where my dog went flying off the seat. While this was an issue throughout the road trip, I only noted incidents on July 10, but please be aware this happened on many other days as well. Here are the significant incidents on July 10. Please note there were less severe incidents on this day that I didn't note because it would have been too many to count. 12pm mountain time just outside Idaho Falls, ID -- car braked with no warning from 70 MPH to 60 MPH 2pm mountain time - 77 miles outside twin falls, ID 256pm mountain time - right outside twin falls 408pm mountain time - heading south from Twin falls towards Nevada -- the car braked three times in rapid succession 447pm mountain time - heading south past Jackpot NV 450pm Mountain time - same 420pm Pacific time - 16 miles north of Wells NV, braking multiple times in succession 524pm pacific time - just west of Wells, NV, sudden braking from 85 mph to 65 mph 643pm pacific time - half way between Wells, NV and Winnemucca NV
Phantom braking during normal highway travel at high speed, multi accuracies in one trip. The braking made vehicle travel speed dropped from 70MPH to 50MPH suddenly and pose great danger.
I was driving on I5 north with autopilot enabled at 75 mph and the car decelerated rapidly to 45 mph. There could have been an accident if someone were behind me.
The vehicle was on cruise control (NOT auto-pilot). Driving on Freeway approximately 82 mph when the vehicle slowed to 60 mph instantly numerous time within my 160 mile drive. There were no vehicles in front or beside me. There were no obstacles in the roadway or on the side of the road. Sunny day with no clouds. There were no warnings lamps or messages that would indicate the car was going to brake. My safety was put at risk if there was another driver behind me, I could have been rear-ended. It Could also had been very dangerous if there was adverse weather. Tesla was not able to recreate the problem and never found any problems with the vehicle. This was not the first time we took the vehicle in for phantom braking. Tesla blamed the driver. I was also told by a tesla representative the the vehicle can brake unexpectedly by sensing a shadow on the road from a cloud. Apparently there is no way to disable this feature. The vehicle has been deemed unsafe to drive by our senior management as this is not the first time this has occurred and Tesla has not remedied the problem.
Steering wheel locked up and would not let driver navigate off-ramp from freeway. Car attempted to force driver to merge into a stopped lane. Auto-pilot features engaged in screen but they were not manually activated. Car attempted to cause an accident.
I own a 2021Tesla Model Y. I took possession of it on August 7, 2021, in Santa Barbara, Ca. Ever since, I have had thousands of instances of automatic emergency braking (phantom braking) episodes while using cruise control or autopilot. On January 26, 2022, I had 47 episodes, in just a couple of hours. This is typical. My latest incident of phantom braking occurred on June 27, 2022. In August 2021, I was promised by Tesla that a software update would be issued soon to remedy the problem. It still hasn't. I'm very exasperated. I understand Tesla was supposed to give you information about this issue on June 20, 2022. I am anxious to hear about Tesla's response. Furthermore, I sincerely hope the Tesla has told you they are fixing the problem. Has it? Please let me know of updates and proposed fixes to Tesla's phantom braking.
Was at a drive through and took foot off the brake and barely put any pressure on accelerator the car went out of control — sudden acceleration.. First time this has happened with this car. Was definitely not working properly. Less than a second was at full Speed. Had to swerve to try and avoid the car ahead of me. Entire left side of car is crushed and torn apart.
On 6/25/22 our 2021 Tesla Model Y with 16,163 miles had a sudden unintended acceleration, it didn't responded to the breaks and within seconds hit a parked car and finally stopped when it crashed to a large tree. It was a "Total Lost" by the insurance. Around 1pm on a clear sky day, driving out of a small gated residential community, before exiting I pulled over the side of the road for a few minutes, when I resumed the car suddenly accelerated to what felt like full speed. While I stopped by the side of the road the car remained in "D" mode, when I resumed I forgot that it was already on "D" and pushed the shift level down; we think the car went to Cruise Control to the last used speed which was probably a highway speed. The breaks didn't stopped the car and didn't cancel the accelaration. It traveled out of control less than 150 feet before it crashed to a large tree. For some "unknown" reason, the footage of the 4 cameras got erased from my usb memory stick. The only video left was the front camera and that video was cut a couple of seconds before the first crash. Tesla took almost a year on their "investigation" and the result was a long technical BS indicating that they didn't found anything abnormal. Driver airbag deployed.
Driving on major interstates across Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah, there were several instances of so-called “phantom braking” — while using Adaptive Cruise Control, with no other cars or obstacles in front, the brakes were rapidly applied, decelerating the car from roughly 75 MPH down to around 60 before I could manually press the accelerator pedal to override the behavior. Not only is this dangerous for myself, but could easily cause an accident if people are following closely at highway speeds. If Tesla’s camera-only system (as opposed to radar) can’t do the job, they should at least provide an option for a non-adaptive cruise toggle that would hopefully work around the issue.
Every two weeks or so, the screen goes blank. When parked, you can do a vehicle reset and after 2 or 3 tries the screen with turn back on and the car is able to be driven. Sometimes, the screen will go blank while driving. This will require the driver to pull aside, power down the vehicle, and try to reset it. This is a huge safety issue when the screen goes blank when driving. Tesla says there's nothing wrong, or try a reset, or the next update will solve it. When there is a bug like this on an EV it is a huge safety issue.
On June 28th 11:50pm with 174 mile range, my Tesla Model Y LR died while driving on fwy 5 with my 10 year old. I barely had time to exit, it gave me warning “PULL OVER SAFELY” “VEHICLE SHUTTING DOWN”. I barely made it to off-ramp, my car completely shutdown at the end of off ramp. Could not put it to neutral, me and my 10 years old had to exit the car immediately, called tow truck via tesla app. Tow truck showed up in 20 mins, can was not drivable. This could have been much worst, if I was not able to exit and my car stuck on middle of the freeway at night. This is a huge safety concern.
The vehicle randomly applies hard brakes. This makes cruise unusable and presents a safety issue for cars behind. I was almost hit from behind when my Tesla applied brakes on interstate going from 65 to 35MPH.
-Auto pilot (adaptive cruise control). Yes it is available for inspection. -Vehicle unexpectedly slowes down on highways (when using cruise control) at an unsafe rate when there is nothing in the path of the vehicle. This has cause multiple instances of vehicles almost rear-ending me due to the rapid deceleration. -I have asked a Tesla Service Center representative about the phantom breaking and they stated it was a known issue and that was being worked on. -No, the vehicle was not inspected by the manufacturer since we were advised it was a known issue. -There is no warning lights or sounds before the vehicle suddenly brakes. I suspect that hills, shadows, on coming traffic on two lane highways are some of the causes for the phantom braking.
We just completed a 6500 mile round trip road trip from So Cal to Toronto Canada and back. 5/24/22-6/12/22 During the trip we used the "Auto Pilot" with and with out "Auto Steering" Not Full Self Driving. I lost count of how many times we encountered "Phantom Braking" with the car at highway speeds. My guess would be at least 50 times. It got to the point where I would not use Auto Pilot especially when there was heavy traffic at full highway speeds. My deduction on why this is happening is that the Tesla cameras are "Infrared" sensitive and it seemed that the car was applying the brakes when it would see the heat waves off the hot road surface. Also in early morning one day the sun was directly behind us and the cars shadow was directly in front of us on the road surface and it kept applying the brakes thinking it was another car. In slow moving bumper to bumper traffic going 30MPH or less does not seem to initiate the "Phantom Braking". But at highway speeds it is super scary and dangerous when this happens. ;(
Several instances of emergency braking applied without warning or obvious need during multiple driving sessions. This results in an unexpected rapid vehicle deceleration. Fortunately no other vehicle was following close enough to represent an imminent safety hazard though it is easily plausible this could happen. Typically the issue occurs when traveling uphill or around a bend and encountering traffic in an oncoming lane, structures (bridges) or dark shadows. The unexpected emergency braking has also happened when adaptive cruise control or autopilot is engaged while overtaking large vehicles on the left (tractor trailers in the right lane). I have also noticed several erroneous lane departure warnings despite turning off these notifications on the dashboard. They are more a nuisance than safety hazard so far but would like to completely silence them entirely. These issues have yet to be reproduced or inspected by the dealer, police, insurance or other investigator. No warning lamps or indicators were active at the time the braking or lane departure warnings were observed.
using autopilot adaptive cruise control, the vehicle on several occasions but mostly on non median highways the car for no apparent reason brakes hard. vehicles around me especially behind are put in danger by my sudden, hard braking for no apparent reason
There are 4 issues to report for our Tesla Model Y: 1) On the highway, our Tesla often presses on the brakes and slows down by itself when it should not be doing so. This occurs when we have adaptive cruise control on. We’ve noticed that at the time of the slowdown, the Tesla misreads the highway speed limit. For example, the Tesla will read the speed limit as 70 mph, then all of sudden without warning, the Tesla will suddenly read the speed limit at 40 mph, which then causes the Tesla to break and slow down by itself, when the speed limit is actually still 70 mph. This can happen several times on a single highway trip. Aside from the shock we receive as a driver as our vehicle slows unexpectedly, this could cause a rear end collision if a car is following us too closely from behind. 2) When we use adaptive cruise control and the steering assist feature, the car does not recognize to slow down on highway off ramp curves. I monitor the speed around curves, though if a driver is not aware of the issue and expects for the Tesla to take the curve slowly, this could cause an issue. In particular, if there is a big curve, I’d be concerned of the Tesla losing control and going off the road, due to speed. 3) The car will often provide a frontal collision warning, even if there is no car or object in front of the car, while it's in motion. This can lead to confusion for the driver or possibly hard breaking, which could cause a rear-end collision, if a car is following too close behind the Tesla. Also, the Tesla driver may swerve unnecessarily to avoid an object that isn’t there, which could cause a collision. 4) The Tesla is advertised as being able to travel over 300 miles on a single charge, however, the conditions for this to happen seem incredibly difficult to meet, as mileage is usually far less than this. This can cause drivers to overestimate how far they can drive, which could lead to cars urgently pulling of the road to prevent stalling where traffic is.
The vehicle braked and slowed down on the highway for no reason when on autopilot. The speed of the vehicle was around 55 mph when suddenly it stated to decelerate for no reason. Ot resume speed after 100 ft or so
When autopilot, it’s sudden breaks with no reason. My wife got neck injury.
Reporting numerous instances of ghost braking while Adaptive Cruise Control is enabled. These are instances of sudden deceleration of the car when no other vehicles or obstructions present while traveling on 4 lane highways at freeway speeds. Requires overriding ACC feature by engaging the accelerator to maintain speed and avoid a possible rear end collision. Rear end collision is the most of the highest risk when this sudden deceleration occurs. No warnings were given before the deceleration. These episodes are most noticeable when traveling at freeway speeds of 65+ mph in open terrain with no curves. One instance could be attributed to a shadow across the roadway, however, more times than not shadows across the roadway didn't cause ghost braking. The point being that there often is no rhyme or reason that can be identified or repeated. This problem is a known problem that Tesla is aware of as well as the NHSTA.
The vehicle phantom breaks spontaneously upon an interstate drive for 1.5 hours on cruise control it will slam on the breaks between 3-5 times when there is no car or object near the vehicle. This has been reported to Tesla and they do nothing and pose no solution to the problem. It is dangerous and going to cause accidents.
This is a supplement to NHSTA Safety Issue ID 11467902. I requested service from Tesla. Attached is the service center's response writing that it is software subject to updates. This is unacceptable to me as the car is not driveable with this safety issue.
During 350 miles of driving, I experienced over 35 phantom braking events. Most were while driving at 75 mph. Some were while driving 45 mph. It did not matter whether I was in Autosteer with cruise, cruise alone or driving manually. I turned off Emergency Braking on the screen. I still had incidents. Some incidents were severe to the point that I could feel the ABS. There were no other cars, structures, signs etc. in the vicinity. Had there been a semi following me, there would have been an accident. If another car, I could only hope that they had traffic aware cruise and emergency braking. This is unacceptable as it is so dangerous.
I have been experiencing that my Tesla suddenly automatically slammed on the brakes while it’s on self driving mode on highway specifically I-66 and while returning from my work from Nebraska Avenue complex to Ashburn VA. This automatically phantom braking is very dangerous.