2021 Tesla Model Y Complaint Log

Hello, Tesla has released an update that will turn on the side camera when the blinker is activated. At night, the blinker can blind the camera making it difficult if not impossible to see any object. I'm concerned that this can cause the driver to turn into another car at night. The picture attached is with the hazard lights on and you can see how one camera works correctly and the other has a massive glare.

I was driving on the 7 mile bridge in the Florida Keys with the Adaptive cruise control set to 58 mph. There was no traffic in my lane for about a mile ahead of me. As an oncoming Semi approached me, remaining in his lane, my car applied emergency braking. I had to immediately add throttle to avoid a collision with the truck behind me. This “ Phantom braking “ has occurred on multiple occasions to me. There is no way to engage cruise control without the adaptive feature which uses cameras instead of radar on these new Teslas. I did not have this problem on my 2018 Tesla that did use radar.

Received Error code: VCFRONT_447 indicating a cabin heat issue, and a complete loss of heat within the interior of the vehicle. It appears this also is preventing the battery from fully warming up causing severe vehicle power reduction and lack of regen braking. It being sub-zero and frost bite within minutes this poses a safety risk when traveling. The problem has been reported by other vehicle owners. It has not been inspected at this time. There were no other alerts prior to the issue starting on 1/20/2022 at ~6am CST.

I just want to add my name to list to complain about phantom braking. You can't trust the adaptive cruise control to maintain correct speed as it will at random times brake hard when there is nothing in front of you. Maybe 20% of the times I use it.Sometimes it looks like a shadow on the road will cause it, maybe at night and when the weather is bad. It brakes hard too and you have to be ready to compensate. I think it is from using just cameras and no radar in my newer model

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while driving at highway speeds with the cruise control activated, the vehicle had erroneously applied the brakes causing the vehicle to reduce the speed. The failure had occurred on multiple occasions. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer and manufacturer were not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 10,000.

When using cruise control. My car will phantom brake. Most of the time it is when oncoming traffic is present… but a few times there are no cars around me… a few weeks ago, the car phantom brakes on an ice patch almost causing a wreck.

I was driving on full self driving assistance on the highway on the far left lane. I wanted to change lane to exit but notice a car was in my blind spot so I tried to take over the car my tugging the wheel. The car sounded an alarm indicating I was going to crash I think into the left median, so it auto corrected to pull towards the right lane. I didn't want to hit any incoming car so I tried to tug it left. I believe I was fighting with the car to regain control of the car and ended up hitting the left median which ricochet the car all the way to the right hitting the median, where the car came to a stop.

with cruise control on, when large vehicles (in their respective lane), would approach in opposite direction, the car would brake. Sometimes lightly, once (tour bus approaching) at 60 mph, the brakes were slammed on, with the car behind us nearly rear ending us

The manufacturer updated the vehicle software in January 2022. This caused the rear camera to malfunction. The malfunction is that the view of the camera inside the vehicle pauses for periods. The driver is becomes unaware of the true distance between the vehicle and objects behind it. This is worsened as the driver is unaware of the issue. This is a safety issue for any object behind the vehicle when it moves in reverse - including People. It could also easily result in damage to the rear of the vehicle being driven.

There is no heat in car. The Climate Control Failed. Cabin Climate Control System requires service is the error message. Its a known problem with Tesla Model 3 and Model y The temperature in the car was in the single digits. The window would not defrost and had a hard time seeing. Tesla expected me to drive the car in a snow storm to bring in for service. I canceled the appt with the next available appt 10 days later. Service scheduled for Jan 27th 2022. the 1st time it failed was Jan 15th 8:00am.

Several times now the car has done a phantom braking event where the car brakes for no reason when using adaptive cruise control on two lane highways. Mostly it's when large vehicles like a semi truck or RV passes in the other lane. Sometimes it appears to be due to shadows like overpasses or trees. The car slows down so quickly sometimes that if someone were following me it may cause a rear end collision. Most of the time the slowdown happened without warning. I have submitted a service ticket with Tesla about this but this seems to be a systemic problem on the TMC forums: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/phantom-braking-in-my-new-model-y.253378/#post-6301315 https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/phantom-braking-and-active-safety-features.248184/ https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/possible-to-deactivate-tacc-and-use-regular-dumb-cruise-control-phantom-braking-unexpected-slowdowns.235813/ https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/27-phantom-brake-in-10-miles-how-often-should-i-press-camera-button-to-report-10-6-1-fsd.250396/

Since the v11 upgrade, my backup camera has dropped frames and lags while backing up to the point that I have almost hit bollards while backing up. If a child walked behind the car, I would not know it.

Traveling at 70mph on a highway with no cars in front using Autopilot with steering assist. The car suddenly braked hard and came to almost 35mph before quickly regaining speed. Had a car behind me that could have rear ended me on the highway. This was one of many times has happened but this was the most severe.

When we were driving in cruise control and auto pilot on two different trips, the car would brake for no reason We experienced dramatic breaking -Frequently up to 20 mph. These incidents would occur when a car was approaching us on a 2 Lane Highway but often for no apparent reason. We feel this poses a high risk of rear end collision if a car is behind us when it breaks

Unexpectedly slamming on my brakes in response to imagined hazards, such as oncoming traffic on two-lane roads. This happens often and I have to shut off this feature to avoid a spin out on icy roads. Very hazardous. overly sensitive to trucks in the opposite lane. Car lurched from 50 mph to a near-stop in response to a large truck. Is this phantom braking?

Please see attached PDF

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while driving approximately 30 MPH and at various speeds, the center console froze, turned off, and then rebooted. The contact stated that the steering, brakes, and accelerator pedal were still operable. The contact stated that the failure was intermittent and occurred 3-4 times per month. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact had taken the vehicle to a local dealer, where it was diagnosed and determined that the failure was due to a software glitch and the vehicle was not unsafe to drive. Additionally, the contact stated that the driver's side window had started to roll up independently as stated in NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V702000 (Visibility). The contact stated that while driving approximately 35 MPH, the window independently rolled up and nearly caught his fingers. The vehicle had not been repaired. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 29,000.

Multiple occasions of the vehicle's heat/ac system failing in cold weather.

The car's adaptive cruise control system will suddenly and dangerously brake in random situations on multiple occasions. It presents a very dangerous condition should there be cars behind that can't brake in time

When cruise control (TACC) enabled the car will brake on 2 lane undivided roads when oncoming vehicle is a semi or other large vehicle. Vehicle may suddenly slow 5-15mph causing unsafe condition if being followed closely. Problem is easily reproducible on any 2 lane road. Will also occur when autopilot engaged as autopilot is simply TACC with lane keeping. The features otherwise seem safe on interstates and divided highways.

Experienced "Phantom Braking" several times when cruise control is activated on a highway.

Vehicle constantly experience phantom braking. Will randomly brake for shadows, vehicles in the opposing lane, and when it feels like it. Chance for rear collision is higher due to autopilot.

While driving on ice and snow covered roads the regenerative braking feature comes in so strongly that it makes driving dangerous as the car loses traction and control every time the foot is removed from the accelerator. The regenerative braking automatically applies once the foot is removed from the accelerator. Tesla used to have an option to reduce the strength of the regenerative braking but removed that option in October of 2021. That change in software has made the vehicle unsafe to drive on slick roads. I was able to maintain control of the vehicle because of my driving skill, but did lose control numerous times during a 50 mile trip because of the increased regenerative braking feature. Tesla vehicles manufactured before October 2021 still have the option to reduce regenerative braking power, I also own one of those vehicles. I have attached a photo of that screen that shows the option.

Started driving the car in cold weather and received message climate control needs service. The heater would not warm up. Tried shutting the car off and on and it still would not provide heat. It was under 20 degrees and had no heat or defrost.

The heat stops working when the ambient temperature reaches 0 degrees. This is a safety risk in cold temperatures, especially for young children that can’t wear coats in the car due to car seats. This has happened in newer models that have a heat pump as the heating system, per social media accounts. The service center is inspecting tomorrow. A warning message appears when the heat stops working on the car screen. There is also an error on the phone app when preconditioning cannot start (preconditioning is supposed to mitigate the error, but it gets too cold to precondition).

While using TACC ( traffic aware cruise control) the car would suddenly break and beep warning sounds. Happened randomly and at various speeds but seemed to correlate most with trucks in the left lane. Some colors seemed to be picked up more than others. Bridges and shadows also triggered it. It was my first long trip in the Tesla Y and so experienced these horrible, unpredictable episodes around 40 - 60 times during an 8 hour drive mostly on highways - many of them two way

While traveling at night on a 2-way highway at about 65-70mph my vehicle incorrectly thought every semi-truck I encountered was in my lane and would apply hard braking. This has happened 10+ times.

Automatic Emergency Braking. Known also as "phantom braking." Tesla is aware of the problem. Regardless of whether or not I'm using the standard cruise control or the more advanced full self driving feature, the car routinely hits the brakes even when there is no obvious obstruction in front of it. If the car suddenly brakes on the highway with another car behind it, it risks a rear end collision. No other warnings appear. The car simply brakes for no reason. This automatic emergency braking system should be removed for standard cruise control. It's more of a hazard than a benefit.

Multiple times on highway car “phantom breaks” when there are no obstacles/cars in front of me. I noticed that the car seems to regularly do this at certain places the highway. For example, on one stretch I’ve had it happen multiple times going under a specific bridge when I’m in cruise control. The car seems to think the speed limit has reduced, leading me to believe the car is reading the overpass speed liMit, not the highway, and adjusting. On another highway, after a steep decline there is an incline. At the end of the decline, the car slams on the breaks as if it thinks the incline in the road is an obstacle.

The vehicle loose power all of sudden while driving disabling all power including loss of power steering, failure of lane departure avoidance, regenerative brakes, parking breaks, traction and stability controls. This has caused hazardous dangerous conditions on the road. The vehicle had to be towed to local Tesla repair/service center on 4 occasions. We have been given false reassurance with no definitive fix yet, continues to be an ongoing issues that recurs after few weeks that vehicle comes back from service center.

While adaptive cruise control is enabled, the car will hard brake at random. The screen doesn't indicate why the car is randomly braking, not are there any other indicators as why or when this will happen. This occurs most often while going around corners, up hills, or when traffic is oncoming in the other lane. This happens on standard roads and highways - although highways are a little better as long as the opposite bound lane is separated by a wide median. Contacted Tesla support December 16, 2021 in which their reply was that "the car is learning... apply constant pressure to pedal in order to override braking system". I did try that for a couple of months, and instead of hard braking, it is a little gentler, but then I run the risk of going over the speed limit as constant pressure has to be applied ontop of whatever the cruise control is set to. Not too mention this defeats the purpose of having cruise control.

I DO NOT DRIVE THIS CAR OFTEN, BUT WHEN I WENT ON A ROAD TRIP FOR TWO WEEKS OVER CHRISTMAS I NOTICED THAT THE CAR WHEN IT WAS IN CRUISE CONTROL WOULD PICK UP VEHICLES COMING TOWARD ME ON A TWO LANE ROAD AND SUDDENLY SLOW DOWN. IT GOT MUCH WORSE COMING HOME WHEN I WAS IN NEW MEXICO ON I25 GOING NORTH. IT WOULD SUDDENLY SLOW DOWN COMING UP TO A CREST OF A HILL WITH NO OTHER VEHICLE AROUND ME. IT ALSO PICKED UP SEMIS GOING SOUTH THAT WERE HUNDREDS OF YARDS AWAY FROM ME. IT HAPPENED NUMEROUS TIMES AND SCARED MY WIFE. WHEN I WAS HOME I SET UP AN APPOINTMENT WITH TESLA SERVICE. THEY LATER CANCELLED IT AS THEY DID NOT SEE IT AS A PROBLEM.

Last year Tesla switched to a heat pump system for heating the interior of the car. Since that change the 2021 models are regularly loosing heat when the temperature gets below zero. Sometimes restarting the car will bring it back but not always. This can lead to drivers being stranded with no heat in potential dangerous temperatures. Tesla was aware of the issue last winter and it has still not been addressed and the issue is persisting in newly built cars.

Like many other Tesla owners, I’m having daily problems with phantom braking when using my adaptive cruise control.

While using adaptive cruise control the vehicle will suddenly brake. I thought it would get better after it’s system learned but still happens when a large vehicle or even a pedestrian is in an adjacent lane. Car has 3940 miles on it now. Last highway trip of 100 miles it happened five times. I don’t know how badly it brakes now because I keep my foot on the gas pedal while in adaptive cruise control so I can react quickly to it. We previously owned a 2018 Tesla 3 with radar enhanced “auto pilot” and did not experience this problem.

Sudden, unexpected breaking multiple times while using autopilot cruise control.

Heat stops working when it gets to cold. Windows can fog up and make visibility almost impossible. Unsafe as well for passengers in freezing temps. No news or update from Tesla

I was driving on interstate 285 Atlanta in rain. All of a sudden the screen froze. Wipers won’t work. Had poor visibility. Could not even put on emergency lights. Had to do hard reset and pull over. Before I could get them to work again. This was extremely dangerous in the middle of the road. Similar issue happened with my wife in a brand new model 3 a few weeks ago and we were told it was a software issue and resolved with an over the air update. I have the UpToDate software in my model y. Feel Tesla softwares should be approved by NHTSA before being sent to customers.

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while entering or exiting the driveway on an incline, the automatic braking system engaged and locked up the tires in icy conditions. While reversing, the contact noticed that he was unable to turn off the integrated braking feature. While driving the brake pedal was depressed but the vehicle failed to brake efficiently. There were no warning lights illuminated. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The approximate failure mileage was 1,500.

The car experiences phantom braking when adaptive cruise control is engaged. Happens most often when going under an overpass but has happened on clear open roadway as well (no cars around).

I was driving from Bend Or to Boise Id on January 1st 2022. The temperature was about 7 degrees out that evening and the heater stopped working. We bundled up and kept the blower on the windshield so that we could see, but by the time we reached Boise it was 22 degrees inside the car. We were very cold. Due to the remote area we were in we did not want to stop.

When driving with the cruise control on, the car suddenly and rapidly brakes for no apparent reason. Nothing in front of the car. Problem has happened multiple times. Very hard Braking that if someone was behind us it would likely have caused an accident. We no longer use the cruise control because we are afraid of it causing an accident.

I was traveling in -5 degree (Fahrenheit) weather and the cabin heater stopped working (a notice appeared on the screen explaining that it was malfunctioning). Windshield began to fog up, so turned on fan and outside air in order to remove the fog. Ended up driving 8 hours in -5 degree weather with outside air coming in the car. Seat heaters and steering wheel heater continued to work. My passengers and I had to wear coats, boots, gloves, and a hat and still got numb hands and feet. I felt this was a dangerous situation, unable to keep warm while driving or when pulled over. Manufacturer looked at the issue and said the refrigerant was slightly low and replenished it. I don't feel confident that this was an actual fix.

In short: Phantom Braking While driving on single lane highways with Autopilot enabled my car slams on the brakes and alerts whenever a semi is safely approaching. What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? - I assume the Tesla Vision System + Autopilot are what fail in this scenario. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? Immediately this puts us in risk of a rear end collision. Alert fatigue from false alarms creates a long term risk as drivers are trained to ignore / cancel alerts. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? Not explicitly. We have mentioned it to a dealer and said it was a common complaint. Also it is a well known (under addressed) issue amongst Tesla owners. Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? No, given the lack of property or personal injury it doesn't seem right to alert those institutions. Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? No, all systems appear to be functioning correctly. That is a large part of the problem - if the Tesla Autopilot is unable to function reliably on one lane highways it should at least warn drivers.

Heat did not work in -15F temperatures.

While on a 475 mile road trip, my vehicles emergency brake system was activated while using cruise control on more than one occasion with no visible hazard ahead of me. This caused my car to brake at speeds upward of 70 miles per hour on two lanes highways, leaving me to fear that any car behind me could easily rear end me and harm me or my children who were in the backseat. On another occasion during this same trip, the weather began to turn. Snow began to fall heavily leading to poor road conditions. My model y activated corrective steering twice at speeds of 10-20 miles/hr, both times attempting to swerve my car into the lane next to me occupied by a semi truck. These issues are unacceptable and need correcting as they pose a threat to passenger safety.

I am driving down the highway and the car brake checks hard 3 separate times one one occasions for no reason while using Auto Pilot.

I have experienced several instances of the phantom braking in my Tesla model Y. it primarily happens when I’m on a two-lane road and there is a large truck approaching on the opposite lane. However it will also phantom brake on a highway where there are two lanes going in one direction separated by a median with two lanes going the opposite direction. It seems to happen when it’s coming up on a slight hill, where you cannot see over the hill. The car will slam on the brakes in the middle of the freeway, which when going at speeds of 65 to 75 miles an hour when traveling with other vehicles going the same speed, it can be especially dangerous in Texas where the giant pick up trucks like to tailgate electric vehicles. In one instance the pick up truck behind me thought I was brake checking him and jamming on my brakes to be a jerk; he then “coal rolled” me, putting out a giant cloud of black smoke. This situation has made it so I am afraid to use traffic aware cruise control, which I need to be able to use on road trips. It is especially bad in the two-lane winding roads around Amarillo, Texas, but I’ve also had it do this on a much larger road that goes through Chandler, New Mexico to Colorado. I absolutely love my Tesla, but the phantom braking is concerning, and the response I’ve gotten from Tesla service is that the car adapts and will eventually learn where not to do it. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it doesn’t seem to be getting better, and it does it at the same locations on the road. I need cruise control to be working. Another suggestion might be to have the ability to turn off traffic aware cruise control. I paid for full self driving but have not had the courage to apply to use it because of phantom braking. I would also like to see federal laws passed to address coal rolling of electric vehicles. It is extremely dangerous and it’s happening a lot in Texas.

the new user-interface design removed the defroster icon from the home screen. the driver now has to swipe up on climate controls then select the defroster. this is significantly unsafe, especially when you are having difficulty seeing due to unexpected fog. recommend they add the defroster icon to the home screen.

When using Autopilot, I experience multiple, repeatable phantom braking issues on a regular basis. While it is worse on two lane highways, I've also experienced the issues on separated freeways and interstates. The phantom braking varies from a minor throttle response to decrease speed to full emergency braking that drastically reduces the speed at a rapid pace resulting in unsafe driving conditions for occupants of my vehicle as well as those who might be following behind me. Situations that seem to trigger the phantom braking include cresting a hill with oncoming traffic, navigating a turn with oncoming traffic, a larger than average vehicle (commercial truck/tractor trailer) approaching in the opposite late, shadows cast by large trees or overpasses, and changes in pavement color - for example, transitioning from gray concrete to black asphalt.