2021 Tesla Model Y Complaint Log

44E east of Joplin car braked hard while on autopilot. Pressing the accelerator would override but as soon as you let up it would hard brake again even though the car was below the cruise control speed

I was on a road trip and no less than 20 times over 10 hours, my car when standard cruise control was set, the car applied the brakes HARD for me without any warning. It went from scary to nearly resulting in a rear-end collision. The cause ranged from absolutely no reason except for maybe a slight dip in the highway(? weird) to oncoming traffic - standard, nothing close to an emergency situation. I had ALL auto features disabled and was just using the set speed feature. I've submitted a service request but the next appointment is in two weeks and in the meantime, I'm frankly scared to drive the car. It happened at 70 miles per hour and immediately dropped me down to 40 on the highway and I just about had to take a break from driving I was so shaken. It also happens on local backroads when I have the feature set to just 35 miles per hour.

Vehicle engaged full automatic braking inappropriately while driving around 55 miles per hour on a two-lane Oregon highway. No traffic in front of me or any debris in road.

Multiple occurrences of unanticipated hard breaking. Adaptive Cruise Control will slam on the breaks when car is adjacent a pedestrian or bicyclist. The car car doesn't slow down as it approaches a pedestrian walking on the side of the road but slams the breaks on when the car is next to the pedestrian or cyclist. This unanticipated event causes the car to immediately drop in speed between 5 to 30 mph. Any motorists following will not be prepared for this illogical behavior and significantly increases the probability of a rear end collision. This behavior of the Adaptive Cruise Control has also occurred when the car approaches oncoming highway traffic regardless of whether the highway is divided or not. In this event, if the driver of the Tesla model Y does not instantly take over complete control of the vehicle a severe rear end collision can occur. I have not addressed this with Tesla nor have I taken my car in for inspection. I have been told by an owner of a Model 3 and an owner of a Model S that they have also experienced similar situations caused by the poorly calibrated performance of the Tesla Adaptive Cruise Control system. I have been forced to stop using the Adaptive Cruise Control and Auto-steer on my Model Y as this problem is on going.

When driving the vehicle primarily on highways and with the Adaptive Cruise Control active, the car randomly reduces the cruise speed by up to 35 mph and then proceeds to slam the brakes. This happens intermittently on open road, 4 lane highways, with and without any traffic nearby. We logged the times that these occurred and took them to our local Tesla service center and they said “This is a software bug that we have to wait for Tesla to fix. There is no way to disable the adaptive nature of the cruise control either.” We informed them that this has been occurring for about 6 months now and they said “You’ll just have to wait until Tesla fixes the code. It gets better every release so eventually it won’t do this anymore”

Hello, We have had our car for almost a year now. Ever since we purchased the car we have been having an issue with the "Phantom Braking". On writing about it to Tesla within a few months after the car purchase, they sent a representative to our house with whom we went for a test drive. On the test drive, while on the highway with the vehicle on Auto-Pilot the car suddenly slowed down fast, similar to "slamming the brake", for no reason. There was absolutely no obstruction in front of us. The representative mentioned that he had heard of this phantom braking but this was the first time he really saw it and he would pass the info to Tesla. We later got a reply from the company which explained that "as more info is gathered by Tesla from your experience as wells from other owners, the system will improve and issues such as yours should decrease." We still consistently get this problem on ALMOST every trip on the highway and if the auto-pilot is engaged. In fact it does happen multiple times on each trip! We sincerely feel that it is very unsafe esp. for a software which is supposed to make driving safer. Kind regards, [XXX] INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).

At 12:21pm on February 20, 2022, while driving on a divided highway (US-36), the Tesla Model Y braked hard with no cars nearby. The braking occurred as the car encountered a shadow on the roadway from an overpass. The sun was very bright, so the shadow had very high contrast. We suspect this is a case of "phantom braking", as has been reported with many Tesla Model Y and 3. The problem is not easily re-producible, but we also do not feel safe using the cruise control feature any longer, so it's unlikely to be reproduced soon. The vehicle has not been inspected by Tesla, nor confirmed by the dealer. There were no warning lamps or chimes - just a sudden, hard braking for approximately 1 second, losing approximately 20mph, immediately.

The main instrument cluster / screen turns off without notice while the car is in motion. This results in the loss of all displays and controls, such as 1. Speedometer 2. Defrost control 3. Turn signal noise 4. Windshield wiper setting 5. Battery capacity gauge and many more.

While driving from Tucson to Denver the vehicle suddenly decelerated and/or braked no less than hundreds of times with varying rates--sometimes just a couple miles per hour and other times more than 30 miles per hour. These events were generally on a divided interstate highway with clear visibility, flat, straight roads without precipitation and oftentimes without another vehicle within 1/2 mile or more. These events even happened 3 times within 3-4 minutes while I was speaking to Tesla roadside service trying to disable all sensors/interventions. More than once there was a vehicle behind me at highway speeds that thought I was "brake-checking" them and would anger them and cause them to honk and give me a few finger symbols (road rage)... there was no reason for the car to suddenly brake; no cars merging or in front of me other than light vehicle traffic in the opposite direction of the DIVIDED interstate. I asked several times if there is a way to turn off all the "assistance" (unsafe interference) and just have it function as a normal cruise control without "traffic aware" and other automatic braking features--but the answer was no. I am not exaggerating when I say this happened hundreds of time during my trips. I always turned off the speed control when the roads were curving because I knew that it would suddenly brake during a mountain pass curve and upset the vehicle--make it difficult to control, and potentially cause an accident at high speed for NO reason. My risk tolerance is fairly high, I have been driving cars with "Eyesight" and radar speed control and advanced safety features for over 10 years and have never felt less trusting or less safe than I do now in my Tesla Model Y. I think Tesla should disable the "safety" feature until they can resolve the issue--I believe it will cause accidents even when someone is fully aware of its sudden, random braking issues. I have many video clips/pics of when the events occurre as Tesla asked me to record.

My Tesla Model Y has terrible Phantom Braking problems. The AutoPilot features on the Tesla is extremely dangerous. Phantom Braking can happened anytime whenever AutoPilot feature is used, it just suddenly slow the vehicle without warning, there’s no other vehicle in front of me. The problem occurred more on a less busy freeway/ highway, sometimes it’s totally useless because the the feature is too dangerous. On a two lane highway, when more car detect a larger vehicle on the opposite lane, it started slowing down, sometimes that’s very dangerous because cars behind me almost hit my car. Tesla’s AutoPilot is extremely dangerous, they should recall the car and fix the problem.

Phantom braking. I have had numerous incidents of phantom braking, and can reproduce the problem at will on a particular stretch of road. It happens regularly on city streets, occasionally on Interstate highways. It is sufficiently unreliable as to be worthless. I reported the problem to Tesla online in a service request, and was told that the problem will be or has been solved with software.

Phantom braking. Vehicle slams the brakes on as soon as it sees an approaching vehicle in the opposite lane. Cruise control is unusable on two lane roads.

These issues occur w/ no warning, occur randomly, in all conditions. Issue 1. Vehicle randomly slams on the brakes with no obstructions or vehicles in front. This occurs at highway speeds as well as neighborhood speeds. I'm worried about being rear-ended. This occurs daily. Issue 2. Vehicle thinks oncoming traffic is in same lane and attempts to emergency stop. Issue 3. Upon changing lanes, using auto lane change, vehicle serves back I to lane for no reason.

The rear passenger seat reclines randomly when vehicle is in motion with passengers in seat. The seat can randomly fall flat or decline at various angles. I have a video if needed.

The incident occurred after a rainstorm and there was some debris laid out across the road. We were travelling in the morning before sunrise at 20 mph and we felt a small branch or object hit the underside of our car. We took it out to drive again at noon time and it warned us that the coolant was low and that car may not start up once shut down. We towed it to tesla service center in Paramus NJ and they informed us of the condition. They informed us that the coolant pipe was punctured and the coolant spread onto the battery. They explained to us that the branch hit an area and caused the coolant to leak inside the battery and there is no plate to protect it at the underside of the car. They also informed us that there could have been a fire accident if we put it on charge after the underside collision. They also informed us that the coolant pipe was plastic. Despite this flaw in their design, they insist that they will not cover it since it was an external issue and have asked us to pay close to $16,000. Please help

When driving cross country from Illinois to Texas, the adaptive cruise control did the phantom braking 3 separate times. The first time scared me and I was not prepared for the car to act that way. Well, wasn’t prepared for the others either. I was going 75 and to have the phantom braking kick in is a safety hazard. The car behind hit the horn.

This is the second Tesla I have owned and the previous model did not have this problem at all. This vehicle has phantom emergency braking occurrences during use with the cruise control and also with the auto drive feature. It will randomly brake hard when there is nothing around the vehicle, either in front, back or sides. I have contacted Tesla 3 times, the first two they said nothing was wrong and the 3rd time is scheduled for February 28 here in Houston. The first two times Tesla told me to record the time and place of the occurrence so that they could look at the data that was being input to the vehicle. I did this but it did not work. When the vehicle has an emergency braking occurrence all of the occupants of the vehicle are violently slammed forward until the driver can push down on the accelerator or disable the cruise or auto drive. This has caused us to almost lose control multiple times. As of right now no one can use the cruise or the auto drive feature at all, it is just too scary when the vehicle decides to have a phantom brake event with no problems around the vehicle. THIS HAS OCCURED DOZENS OF TIMES OVER THE LAST FEW MONTHS.

Phantom braking on a two lane highway. The vehicle would suddenly go into emergency braking when a truck was coming in the opposite direction. We were making a 200 mile round trip and it happened approximately 6 times. Called Tesla who advised to disable automatic braking on two lane highway until bug was fixed,

The car ‘phantom’ brakes all the time. It is so bad that I cannot use the cruise control. I’ve had several instances where vehicles following me almost hit the back of my car because my car braked so hard.

Multiple Emergency braking events basically everytime a semi passed during auto pilot and some phantom braking when only using traffic aware cruise control... Lucky to not get rear ended

Car braked for now reason when the entire roads in front was clear and there was a car behind me. It was a hard brake which scared me and my family. That was very very close to being in an accident. Need compensation from Tesla for going through such an incident after paying so much money for the car.

Car slams on brakes at inappropriate times. Ex: 1. When a car makes a left turn across my travel lane several blocks away. 2. When a vehicle moves into my travel lane, going the same direction, several blocks in front of me. 3. For no reason I can discern. Cars behind me often honk. Could easily rear end me. Thankfully hasn't happened. You are welcome to inspect it. Don't think service center has tried to replicate the braking. No accident so not reports. Just very scary, thankfully. No warning lamps, etc. Anticipating question about dates, happens randomly, but pretty frequently. At least weekly. Speed also variable. Sometimes 35, sometimes 70, and in-between

On multiple occasions the car triggers emergency braking when no obstacle is in front of the car, often at high speeds. The car is not equipped with radar, and relies entirely on camera-based adaptive cruise control. this is a safety risk and possible rear end collision cause. Due to the lack of radar, the vehicle also accelerates to desired speed slowly when using adaptive cruise control while on interstate. Often times resulting in traveling under the speed limit for an extended amount of time, causing a safety hazard.

Wipers have frozen down in place. Car is garaged and the buildup was from the road and not parked accumulation. New car <7k miles. Phantom breaking on the autopilot system where it will slam on the breaks always at some points on a commute and when driving in some conditions such as oncoming opposite side of road traffic at night with headlights on. The car will momentarily and to an extreme degree sometimes slam on the breaks.

When using autosteer or adaptive cruise on I5, our car performed a phantom brake that cause the truck behind us to nearly flip over in order to miss hitting us. We were not in the lane by the divider, there were wide open lanes in front of us to the left and right by half a football field and no overpasses at the time. We slowed from 69 to about 39 before I could correct the braking. This happens so often we do not feel safe using the cruise control at all.

After seeing news reports about the problems with Tesla "phantom braking", I realized this is not an issue localized with my vehicle. I also have this problem where the car will slam on the brakes when using the advanced cruise control system. It's jarring, to say the least. I reported the issue to Tesla a month after buying the car (10/21) and they instructed me to do a power cycle on the car but this has not helped. Incidenct occurance varies on the type of driving, but it's probably every 5 miles or so on a 2-lane road.

Phantom braking when adaptive cruise control engaged. More extreme braking occurs when oncoming traffic approaches from uphill or oncoming vehicle is large (e.g. box truck or semi tractor). Also occurs when large objects appear well off the right side of the road.

While using the adaptive cruise control on the highway, the car abruptly slowed down from approximately 70 mph to less than 55 within a few seconds before I was able to push the gas petal and reaccelerate. This has happened 3 other times in the last several weeks and I am now afraid to use the cruise control. Whereas no accident occurred, if it happened when another car was following me closely, it could have easily resulted in a crash. Each time this has happened, there were no other cars nearby so I don’t know what the car ‘saw’ and was reacting to. The date entered below for the incident is the most recent occurrence.

This issue has happened numerous times since I’ve taken possession of the car. The vehicle perceives a potential collision when no such potential collision exists. The car will suddenly brake while traveling down the interstate at high speeds (maximum speed limit). Fortunately, no one has been so close behind me that this has resulted in an accident, but it is only a matter of time. I took it in to a Tesla dealership this week to have it looked at. Despite the adjustments made at the dealership, it happened again on my drive home from the dealership. I feel this automatic breaking system is unsafe. It also breaks suddenly at sharp turns or curves in the road, even at low speeds. It doesn’t anticipate the turn and thinks the driver is heading straight into an obstruction. Part of the issue is learning to think like a computer and learning to anticipate what the computer thinks is happening as opposed to what the human driver thinks is happening. It requires constant vigilance.

This has happened multiple times. I am on the highway and have the cruise control set. The car suddenly decelerates but there is nothing in front to cause this. It is very jarring to me as the driver and to those behind me. When it happened during the day time I think it reacted to a shadow in the road from an overpass. It happened last night when it was dark. I had stopped using the cruise control because of the uncertainty, but decided to try it again on my trip yesterday. I received the car in September and I believe this has happened four times. I am reporting this now because I heard of the investigation. Now, I will keep closer track of the times, conditions and other facts. I have not reported it previously to Tesla, but will do so now. I looked on the Tesla forum and it is clearly a known issue.

Phantom braking when using Tesla autopilot

"phantom" braking occurred 2/17/22 ~ 630pm driving in parking lot, not in autopilot no people or other cars nearby went from 15mph to 0 instantly screen showed a person directly in front of car - no one there was foggy with light rain

The contact owns a 2021Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 72 mph on autopilot when the vehicle suddenly activated the braking system. The contact took the vehicle off of autopilot mode causing the vehicle to function correctly. The contact had not informed the dealer. The vehicle had not been diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware. The approximate failure mileage was 7,000.

I’ve been driving my Tesla mostly under autopilot about 90% of the time over the past 4 months. During that time, I’ve experienced about 30 or more phantom braking issues where the automatic braking system will engage when there is no object in front of the car. It’s all happened when autopilot was engaged. It happens during the day, generally on a single lane road, and also at night when on coming traffic lights are blinding. Each time it causes the car to rapidly slow down and causes the car behind me to slam on their brakes, potentially causing an accident. This needs to be fixed since it’s safety risk.

While driving in autopilot the car will randomly slam on the breaks multiple times at all speeds from 30-60mph even when the road is empty. This can increase if a large bus/truck is on the other side of the road in the opposite direction.

This car is subject to frequent "phantom braking" . Using adaptive cruise control or full self driving, the car will occasionally brake hard for no logical reason. This happens every time I drive the car on two lane roads, i.e., with vehicles approaching from the opposite direction in the opposite lane. It happened from the time I took delivery until the present. It happened today (2-17-22). In 90% of cases, the phantom braking is triggered by a large vehicle - semi truck or bus, approaching from the opposite direction. In 10% of cases, the cause is either not clear, or caused by a smaller vehicle. The phantom braking occurs in all lighting conditions - right sunlight, overcase, night. The vehicle has not yet been inspected by Tesla.

I've been having problems with phantom braking, primarily on highways. This problem has gotten much worse in the last month or two. The car will unexpectedly brake while either autosteer or adaptive cruise control are engaged while driving on the freeway, and typically (although not exclusively) when my speed is approx. 70-80 MPH (where speed limit is 75-80 MPH). This will happen approx. once every half hour, although it is sporadic and often happens in spurts. Until about 1 month ago this would happen only while autosteer was engaged. However, during the last month or so ago this has also been happening while adaptive cruise control is engaged (without autosteer engaged). It happens most often when I am in the left lane passing a semi-truck which is in the right lane, although it happens other times as well. Always without any warning. It has happened a total of probably 20-30 times in the last 2 months (approx. 5,000 miles). Sometimes it manifests as a gentle, almost tentative tap on the brakes, whereas other times it is a fairly jarring with sudden hard braking. It has not caused any accidents or incidents, but I am concerned about it happening when a car may be behind me. Because of that, I will often disengage cruise control or autosteer if other cars are close behind me. My car software is equipped with Full Self Driving, but the FSD (beta) has not been downloaded.

Multiple phantom braking incidents using cruise control on 2 lane roads when there is no hazard

The adaptive cruise control and lane assist on the Tesla Y models are defective and pose significant risk to drivers, occupants and surrounding traffic. Phantom braking and sudden slowing are common place and many times unpredictable. Countless times when oncoming traffic in the other lane approaches, sudden braking and aggressive slowing will occur especially if this happens to be a logging truck or larger vehicle. Coming under any overpass or bridge will also produce phantom braking. This will happen countless times in a single trip rendering the adaptive cruise useless. I complained to Tesla and was called by the corporate office in Denver and told that this is a reality and it was my responsibility to "teach the neuro-net" that it's phantom braking was an error by accelerating aggressively during those episodes and producing "bug reports" to Tesla! I have had this Tesla 3 months now and have stopped using the cruise control and lane assist because of safety concerns. My attempts at "teaching" the computer the correct response has utterly failed. I have had 3 episodes that I know of that someone following closely behind me had to take evasive action which precipitated "road rage" type behavior on their part for no fault of my own. Tesla has made no effort to correct this defect and have even cancelled my repair appointments stating it was"not needed". Every Tesla owner I discussed this issue with has a similar experience. Eventually someone will get injured or killed due to this defect.

Two phantom braking incidents on loop 202 Wednesday night

Hello, my Tesla Model Y frequently brakes unexpectedly causing me concern in traffic I could be rear-ended. This happens when engaged in FSD Beta software version 10.9 currently and has happened in all previous versions of the software as well. I have held a commercial drivers licnese and want everyone on the road to be safe as possible. The car brakes hard reducing speed 15mph in a second. The car has also attempted to take off from a red light when the first car at an intersection treating it as a stop sign when when several lights are present indicating a solid red and the screen in car shows me solid red as well. I have had to intervene many times to prevent accidents.

This complaint is specific to the automatic control of the Model Y related to "PHANTOM BRAKING". This is an ongoing problem with the "AUTOPILOT" and "FULL SELF DRIVING" functions on my car, it has always had. Most of the miles on my car are freeway and highway miles. Regardless of which of the automatic functions selected on my car, "phantom braking" occurs repeatedly in a startling fashion that doesn't seem to be related to the environment the car is being driven in. The problem is consistent enough that I will not use any of the auto driving functions when I have passengers in the car with me. The problem requires constant intervention by the driver. There are 2 versions of this type of un-commanded breaking: 1. Unexpected braking with no computer warnings or alerts. It can be hard braking or, light to medium breaking, for no apparent or justifiable reason. This type of breaking can happen sporadically or, at times it can happen in a chain fashion that can be so continuous that it becomes necessary to disengage the automatic functions completely. Although, it happens at varying times of day and different kinds of traffic, making it nearly impossible to relate the event to any specific cause, I have noticed it happens almost 100% of the time when a large vehicle is approaching from the opposite direction on a two lane road. That will usually be version 2 type of full emergency braking. 2. Full emergency braking with computer visual warning and loud computer audio alert. This type of braking is EXTREMELY dangerous because, just like with version 1 braking, it happens un-expectantly and for no apparent or justifiable reason. If this type of braking happens in freeway traffic, as I have experienced, it can cause a rear end collision or worse, a chain of collisions. Tesla is aware of this problem and I have reported it multiple times. I have received no response from Tesla related to these problems. I have experienced this problem since the car was new.

Daily phantom breaking, puts me at risk of being rear-ended. There is one specific stretch of road where this always happens - wide 4 lane road free of any possible complications for the vision system. Happens regularly and without warning in other circumstances as well.

Anytime we are using the adaptive cruise in our Model Y, we have experienced "phantom braking" issues where the car suddenly brakes for no apparent reason, decreasing cruising speed from 60-70 mph by as much as 20 mph all at once. This mostly occurs on two lane highways and with oncoming vehicles that are larger (truck, etc.). Also sometimes occurs cresting a hill. It happens so often that we do not use the crusie control feature unless we are on an interstate with dividers between oncoming traffic and ourselves. Any rural two-lane highway causes multiple incidences of "phantom braking" every time we use it. Literally happened dozens of times at this point.

Our Tesla started last month braking suddenly and hard when cruise control was enabled. This is happening at night when cars are passing us going in the opposite direction. At no point did the braking occur due to cars actually being in our lane or potential accident. These braking errors happen when normal driving conditions under or at the speed limit with clear visibility.

Car rapidly brakes when in cruise control and auto pilot. Will also rapidly brake when a car passes by. It will always be random and sudden. Also, occasionally the screen will turn off and I will lose the screen completely and not know my speed.

Traffic aware cruise control frequently hard brakes / emergency brakes on 2 lane roads when large vehicles such as semis and dump trucks approach in the opposite direction even though all vehicles are properly in their respective lanes. This presents a serious risk of being rear ended as well as heart attack for startled passengers. TACC is so bad it's not just unusable it is unsafe.

Please see attached pdf complaint letter regarding relentless phantom braking in my 2021 Tesla Model Y. Let me know if there is a problem reading this letter. Thanks

I was traveling early morning before sunrise over the tehachapi pass towards Mojave in California. Someone had lost a camper shell from the top of a pickup truck in the lane. It was still dark outside. I saw the obstruction in the road but the car cameras did not pick it up. I pulled into the left lane to try to get around the camper shell. The lane assist pulled me right back into the camper shell which tore down the side of the car doing 10k in damage. The car never recognized impact or an accident. I have the videos from the cameras of the car. The lane assist, as far as I know, only doesn’t activate when the turn signal is used, which I did not have time for, as I had less than 200 feet between me and the camper shell.

The blind spot warning creates a visual indication on the media control unit display in the center of the dashboard, but no aural warning or indication when looking at the side mirror. In effect, this requires the driver to look forward and towards the center of the vehicle to gain any value of warning, directly opposite the threat of a vehicle in the left side blind spot. This issue manifested itself while I was driving my vehicle on a 6-lane divided arterial road and was attempting to change lanes towards a left turn lane. I observed a vehicle approaching on my left while I had my turn signal activated (and saw the vehicle indicated on the MCU), and once the vehicle had passed I began to move towards the left lane to find a second vehicle rapidly approaching and pass that I had not previously seen. An aural indication that the vehicle detected another passing vehicle would have alerted me before I began changing lanes and had to perform an abrupt evasive maneuver to avoid a collision. This issue has been raised with Tesla numerous times based on comments in various online forums but has not yet been addressed by the company.