2020 Tesla Model 3 complaints

Emergency braking is activated on highway when no obstacle is visible on clear sunny days. This has occurred over the last year but has become more frequent over time.

The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at 35 MPH, she encroached into the right light and was T-boned by a bus. The air bags did not deploy upon impact. The contact did not sustain any injuries and a police report was not filed. The contact managed to drive the vehicle away from the accident despite damage to both the front and rear passenger side doors. The manufacturer had yet to be notified of the failure. The contact stated that the lane assist feature failed to operate as needed. The vehicle had yet to be repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 22,000.

I get "phantom braking" on average about every 2-3 hours of highway driving with cruise control enabled. All of a sudden without any road obstructions or vehicles ahead, the car will suddenly break hard even at highway speeds. Sometimes it happens when I approach an underpass or get to a section where the pavement is darker than before.

I was driving to work on the morning of February 24th 2023 and it was raining. After some time, and while on the freeway, I noticed that my low beam headlamps icon (green telltale) on the center display was not showing. As I always drive with lights in AUTO, and since it was raining (windshield wipers were activated automatically), I expected the headlights to turn on automatically. I worried that I would not be seen well by other drivers, and had to navigate to the controls on the center display and switch the headlights from AUTO to ON manually. The headlights then turned on (I assume, since I couldn't see indications on whether they were on or off on the outside, but the green icon did appear after I pressed the "ON" button). Given that it was raining outside, relatively dark, and the windshield wipers were on, I would expect the headlights to be activated while in the AUTO mode. I have never had issues with this before, and wonder if this came from a software update. The switch to go from auto to manual lights isn't very easy to reach from the driver seat so I would expect the auto mode to work well so this situation doesn't have to happen.

The backup camera on my car (and countless others posted online) sometimes has a 1-2 second delay in starting when in reverse, and often will freeze momentarily while in motion. This problem was introduced when Tesla updated their software some time in 2021, where it was livable but noticeable. Then in a subsequent update, the lag and freezing became extreme and rendered the backup camera useless at times. Then, another software update COMPLETELY FIXED the problem. However, one of the recent updates has reintroduced the issue, albeit not as bad as at its worst, but still a safety risk as unexpected freezing of the rear camera, even momentarily, could cause a potential collision with an object that may appear behind the vehicle. I love the software update model Tesla has. But safety features code needs to be walled off from other functionality so it cannot be impacted by updates.

The ADAS system for the car includes automatic steering, which only works at the speed limit detected or less. The car incorrectly sets the speed limit in many instances as much as 30 mph under the limit. It isn’t safe to drive the car at such a different speed than the rest of traffic. Tesla claims it relies on map data and can read speed limit signs. Most rural roads have no posted limit, so they default to 55 mph. Even in the presence of a posted speed limit, the car defaults to their bad map data within seconds of passing such a sign. Tesla has no mechanism for reporting this bad data to get it corrected. This has been ongoing for more than a year.

My car was running in auto-steering mode. Last year it did phanthom breaking 3 times in freeway ( Arizona I-10 from casa Grande to tempe direction). Same happened on 2/14/22, it did phantom breaking for no reason. Speed dropped from 80MPH to 55mph. Luckily no one was ahead or behind me. This is high risk for drivers behind me.

The problem is my car has been in the shop six times for an issue that Tesla claims it is unable to fix. I started smelling a burning smell (smoke coming from my air vents anytime the air is on) and brought it in. The first three times they were unable to find anything the fourth time they noticed debris That was embedded in the heating fins. They replaced that unit. The fifth/sixth time they actually took the HVAC unit out and noticed the entire plastic underneath was melted and warped. Since the smell has continued and I’m worried that it’s dangerous, I had the air quality tested. The formaldehyde levels were 50 times higher than the EPA recommends as a safe level. (HCH0 level of 6 ppm) I’ve submitted all this to Tesla and they said they are currently working with their legal team to figure out if a buy back as possible. The New York Attorney General told me that the car is not viable for a lemon law due to the fact they didn’t do three chances to fix it in 90 days. (The first 2 appointments were in the 90 days but the 3-6th were just past it) The car is not safe to breath air in and my lungs hurt from even spending a few minutes in the car. I’m worried about the effects it has on my health and I feel morally wrong to sell it to anyone else. Please help.

Driving on Interstate 295 (it is unclear what the official direction North, south, west). You are going south toward Philadelphia. Some signs say north but in reality it is only for a mile or two then the road bends due south. Every time I travel on this road and just before the Scuddersfall bridge, the car brakes to 30 MPH and it does it again on the other side of the bridge (the same direction). I have reported this many times on Tesla's "bug report" and for the 2 years + nothing has been done to correct the problem. The car doesn't have a problem in the opposite direction. I usually take it off the autopilot at this location to prevent the braking.

The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated he was not able to operate the rear windows in the vehicle. The contact referenced his concerns about regulation Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard: 571-6; not allowing him to open or close the rear windows. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure through the App. The failure mileage was approximately 44,300.

Using Autopilot on an empty highway at appx 65mph, the auto pilot system began to brake aggressively without any obstacles in front of me. As it approached 40 or 30 mph, I pressed on the brake to cancel the autopilot before I was hit from behind. Scary.

This is regarding the computer and the cameras on this car. From the first day that I got this car, I have had the issue that when I use the cameras or the backup camera on this it laggs and this is part of safety issue because I was going to ran over some people when I was reversing. The lagging is very noticibale and I took the car to Tesla multiple times and said is ok but when they send technician to my house, we went for drive and I showed him the cameras and he duplicated the problem. The problem is getting worst and last month the computer was blacked out while I was driving. I need you guys to help me out to either put a recall on this car or return and get my full money back for this junk.

On a recent trip, while using the adaptive cruise control on a divided, straight, flat four lane highway, the vehicle would randomly slam on the brakes for absolutly no reason, endangering us and other vehicles behind us, who were not expecting a random slam of the brakes. Driving conditions were ideal - sunny, excellent visibility and very low traffic. There were no oncoming or road-crossing vehicles and no vehicles in front of us on the divided highway to trigger the reaction. This happened 14 times over about 200 miles of driving on our return trip home and over 30 times on the trip out. On the outbound trip, I was using it on both the divided highway and sections where there was only one lane in each direction, so decided to just use the cruise control when there was a divided highway. This is a recent phenomenon, as cruise control has never done that before. The semi-autonomous mode does it all the time as well, so we stopped using it for fear of causing an accident.

On October 29, 2022 the Michelin tire on my 2020 Tesla Model 3 that had 16,000 miles on it, suffered catastrophic tread loss while traveling at 70 miles per hour on California Route 110. The tire was the original equipment tire supplied with this vehicle when my lease began in January, 2021. The DOT number on the tire was B9 EL 04 EX 0419 and the tire size was 235/45R18 98W. The tread did not wear out, the tread delaminated from the tire and was lost on the side of California Route 110.

My car is affected by a product defect where Tesla Model 3's which have blind spot monitoring cameras (all model 3s) during a certain time frame have extreme glare at night, preventing the driver from safely using the blind spot monitoring system. The camera is basically unusable, and this is a feature that drivers rely on to safely view their blind spots. I have done lots of research online, and Tesla repeatedly refuses to fix these product defects under warranty. There are tens of thousands (potentially hundreds of thousands) of affected vehicles, and I'm sure that Tesla is trying to avoid a costly recall, so they refuse to admit that this is a major safety issue and say that it is "within spec". If you search "tesla model 3 side camera glare" in Google, you'll find that there are thousands of complains on forums. Tesla fixes some under warranty, and refuses to fix others. I am aware that there was a recall on Model 3 vehicles already due to the rear view camera going out, which the NHTSA deemed a safety issue. I would argue that the defective blind spot cameras are a FAR more significant safety issue, because the rear-view camera is used almost exclusively during slow speed maneuvering into tight spaces, while the blind spot cameras are used on freeways for high-speed (60-70mph) lane changes. I have reached out to Tesla and requested that they fix this under warranty as it is a major safety issue, and they told me that newer production models have had the problem fixed, bu

I don't think TESLA has dealt with recall 22v-702. TESLA has not notified me of the status of the recall. Please let me know if they have solved the problem.

This is the first and only time this has occurred as of today, 1/1/23. Around 11:45am EST, I was driving down a side street with no traffic coming towards me, behind me, or in front of me (and with no objects in the road). Suddenly, my brakes were aggressively applied and a warning came up on my screen saying it was the Automatic Emergency Braking that had been applied. It then released a few seconds after. I do not have the Autopilot option on my car, and I did not have any type of cruise control engaged at the time. If this had occurred in traffic for no reason it easily could have caused an accident.

I was on the exit lane coming from Costco on 12/31/2022 at around 12:20 PM with a speed of about 40 miles . My exit is about 100 yards away. Tesla model 3 that I’m driving suddenly accelerated at high speed and pulled towards right and hit the wall next to freeway exit lane. Then it hit the wall on rear tailgate and rolled to middle of freeway within a fraction of seconds. Two vehicles coming on the freeway hit my car and after second hit my car completely stopped in the middle of freeway. I was able to come out safely and later CHP officers came and towed the vehicle

Recall 21v-00d was registered DEC 2021, notice said waiting for parts. It's been OVER 12 months and no parts yet? Also, the phone number Tesla has listed on the recall notice and their recall info on your website goes to a self-service site that states to use your Tesla app to schedule a repair so there is no way of contacting the company directly to find out about the status of the recall.

This vehicle has the phantom braking issue whether you are using adaptive cruise or autopilot, and has happened at least 15 times in the past two years. Because of the sudden braking, we almost had a collision with a semi-truck coming up behind us on I-5 heading south the last time and the driver thought I was brake-checking him, making him very angry and giving obscene gestures at us for it. We reported it to the Tesla service center, and they basically said it happens, and they disclosed it in the operator manual. That is unacceptable. This is very dangerous, and lives could be lost in the circumstance where someone is following close behind. Tesla basically is saying it can happen and there is no fix which absolutely unacceptable and this car is dangerous to drive.

While using the autopilot function car unexpectedly brakes almost to a stop for no apparent reason. This happened in different driving conditions, day, night, other cars around and on empty roadways, both divided and connected two and four lane freeway and side highways. Brakes so hard that objects fly off the seat and cars traveling behind my vehicle have had to break themselves and or change lanes.

Was driving Tela on 237 Clavaras Blvd heading towads 880 South just before Abott ave in Mlipitas town California Tesla Model 3 acelrated suddenly hitting the car in fronts, emegency automatic braking did not kick n. Earlier it had autopilot set not sure if it tured off. We were surirsed, my wife was driving and I was i passenger seat none of the safety measure worked in the Tesla. My car is totaled.

Phantom braking: While in cruise or autopilot mode, it suddenly brakes on freeway without any obstacles observed.

The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed on the highway, the vehicle was experiencing phantom braking. The contact stated that the failure reoccurred while driving at various speeds with the cruise control or while using the autonomous self-driving feature. The contact stated that the battery warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to an independent mechanic or local dealer to be diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.

The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while utilizing the ADAS features including the Adaptive Cruise Control, the vehicle independently applied the brakes while driving at highway speeds. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed. The vehicle was not repaired. The dealer nor the manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 25,000.

Phantom braking issue. Cruise control set at 68mph. Medium freeway traffic at 7pm. Noticed disabled car ahead on the shoulder. No danger. As we approached the car, my car went into a panic stop as if it thought a collision was ahead. Car braked and skidded. I was able to regain control and accelerate and avoid a rear end collision. No waring or repair issues

The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model 3. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V00D000 (Electrical System, Visibility, Back Over Prevention) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was not contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue and informed the contact that a request was not needed at this time and that he would receive a notification for an appointment for the recall repair. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect.

"Phantom braking" issue. When car is in autopilot or enhanced autopilot mode (an upgrade I purchased after I bought car), will brake suddenly and firmly at high speed for no apparent reason. Until September 2022 car would very occassionally brake too easily in autopilot mode (perhaps 3 times in two years), but it was not sufficiently forceful or frequent to cause alarm. However, on 9/26/22 and 9/30/22 during daytime driving car violently braked on highway at least 6 times over approx 500 miles of driving. Fortunately, these incidents caused no damage, collision, or injury. There was little additional traffic on the road at the time. However, items in car, and two cats in carriers on back seat were thrown forward and displaced, and the incidents were very frightening. When I realized this was happening in autopilot modes, I stopped using feature completely and have not since. At 11/19/22 service appt for issue at Alhambra Tesla dealer I was told this was a "known issue" with no current solution; however, I was told that the more I used autopilot and hit accelorator during phantom braking, the faster car would "learn" not to do this. Given that taking the risk of continuing to use autopilot at all poses a serious risk of injury, I am truly shocked at the suggestion that I continue to use this feature and essentially train my car not to be dangerous. Via Tesla app I gave information and dates to Tesla prior to service appt and was told that they would attach vehicle log to file

The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model 3. The contact received notifications of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V00D000 (Electrical System, Back Over Prevention, Visibility) and 22V702000 (Visibility) however, the parts to do the recall repairs were not yet available. The local dealer was contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect.

The driver seat occupancy weight sensor has to be replaced twice now. The car does not recognize someone is in the driver seat. It is unclear whether the airbags would deploy if I was in an accident as the car is unsure if someone is even inside. When I get out of the car it stays on. When I put it into reverse without having the seatbelt on it slams on brakes.

When using autopilot cruise control, the car will brake hard for no apparent reason. I only use cruise control on limited access highways. When this happens, I immediately disengage cruise control and drive manually. This can happen at any time. I have driven the car cross country several times, driving all day. Some days it won’t happen at all, and on some days it can happen several times. I’m concerned that if someone is close behind me, they could hit me from behind. This has been happening for the past two years

Phantom braking/slowing. Also, please do what you can to stop deployment of FSD by the end of 2022. Not only is the car and drivers not ready for it, the infrastructure is not as well. In addition, the 100% reliance of cameras for auto aware CC and FSD is absolutely flawed. Tesla must add radar—better yet, LiDAR—to their vehicles irrespective of FSD but, absolutely for FSD if they insist on pushing it before drivers, infrastructure, and the vehicles are ready for it. My opinion, FSD should never be allowed on any vehicles—maybe by the 22nd century…

The 2020 Model 3 uses a fiberboard front skid plate, that is intended to protect coolant lines that protect the battery. When wet, the fiberboard front skid plate degrades and exposes the coolant lines to damage from road debris, which could lead to a battery fire. Attached are photos of this damage. Tesla should be required to use a sturdier material to protect against this risk, and replace existing fiberboard front skid plates with the sturdier material.

Ever since a recent software update was downloaded and installed, my Model 3's incidence of "phantom braking" events while using traffic aware cruise control/autopilot has gone up by a very noticeable degree. It has always been a known issue, however since the redundant safety systems (radar and ultrasonic sensors) on my model year vehicle were disabled by one of the recent updates, phantom breaking events that can possibly CAUSE a collision event or loss of control of the vehicle happens far more frequently. Instead of occurring once every 1000 or so miles, it now occurs two or three times every 250 or so miles, judging from performance on recent cross-state road trips. My car does not use the "Full Self Driving" package that Tesla offers.

Side repeater camera are blurred because of light at night. Cannot see when switching lanes

Phantom braking when using cruise control. Happens practically daily, but most recently this morning at 9:25am.

The car broke down completely saying that "Electrical system failure". It is immobile. This is dangerous as I was driving on the freeway and it suddenly started showing lot of warnings. Warning included "12v power system failure", "Electrical system failure". "Brakes might not work". Somehow I got in to the garage and the car is now immobile. It does not even lock. It is in the same condition as I parked. Cannot open other doors. This could have been life threatening if it had stopped on the freeway. With the price and safety rating, I never expected Tesla to have total failure.

Traveling on a clear, dry highway on a sunny morning and once again the next day we experienced phantom braking. This occurred three times in two days. In all cases we were traveling at 75mph and were using the adaptive cruise control. In all cases there were reflections in the road from the heat mirage or from something far down the road. The car acted as if it saw something in the road and braked sharply. The driver had to accelerate to override the braking.

This cocksucker blasts oncoming traffic with DISCO HIGHBEAMS every single fucking time there's a lonely oncoming car on the highway. Someone's gonna shoot my ass for blasting them repeatedly with highbeams. Because autosteer is connected to auto highbeams, I can't turn it off unless I turn autosteer off and drive like a 1995 peasant.

The turn signal is attached to the left and right side blindspot camera. When using the blind spot camera at night, the turn signal light “bleeds” into the camera blocking your view. So it becomes a safety issue when switching lanes at night, especially on a dark freeway. I have contacted Tesla and stated that “the camera performance on older vehicles is neither a defect of materials nor workmanship… which is has been enhanced in newer vehicle production. “

This vehicle has frequent episodes of phantom braking at highway speeds. No obstacles, stop lights or other vehicles in proximity

Last March we drove to Tampa Florida and on 3 occasions using cruse control the car came almost to a stop felt like I hit brakes very hard. each time we were in the middle of a highway with no cars around us. I called Tesla they said do report a bug. The weird thing is each time it was at dusk. I just read an article and thought to report it. I am not sure if Tesla reported it. It has not happened in the last 6 months but very scary when it happens.

Phantom braking has occurred numerous times on cruise control. No cars or other objects nearby. Set up appointment with Dealer but the service dept said they are aware of the issue and at this time nothing can be done.

While in cruise control the car baraked excessively on a straight 4 lane divided highway even though there was no other vehicles in front, to the side or coming on the opposite direction. This happened on 101 north of Paso Robles

The 12 volt battery on my T2020 Tesla Model 3 failed without warning last week when I entered the driver's side and closed the door. There was a very brief warning on the control screen that the "12 volt battery should be replaced soon." Then the screen went blank and all controls to the car were rendered inoperable. I could not open the door. I had to go on line on my mobile phone to the Tesla website to get the manual to remind myself how to use the mechanical latch on the door. I then exited the car, and could not re-enter the car. My biggest concern is that if a child or an animal were in the back seat there would be NO WAY to get them out without breaking a window. The Tesla technician came the next day to change the 12 volt battery. To do this on a Tesla Model 3, he first had to use an external 12 volt battery to open the "frunk", which he did. However, the car's 12 volt battery was so dead that he could not jump it. He then had to "break in to the car" by inserting a pneumatic pillow into the driver's side window so that he could insert a coat hangar he made himself (he told me Tesla does not supply them!). It took him about an hour of fumbling before he was able to open the mechanical latch on the driver's door; this allowed him to disconnect the main battery unit below the rear seat so he would not be electrocuted when he changed the 12 volt battery in the frunk. So even if I had had a set of jumper cables and an eternal battery at the time the car's 12 volt battery

I had 2 incidents of "phantom braking" in the vehicle this past week. I was just in cruise control, and the roads were in good condition, visibility and skies were clear, there were no cars in front or behind me, and we were cruising about 70 mph. In 2 cases, the car just slowed by itself for a few seconds and then I disengaged the cruise control. In 1 other cases, the car made an abrupt braking from 70 to about 40 mph. I disengaged and then did not use cruise control any longer. I've been told by Tesla service that the car's "radar" feature was replaced/disengaged in lieu of Tesla Vision, which apparently is in "beta" phase. In any event, this should not be happening, especially in just basic cruise control under ideal road conditions.

While driving on an open highway using the Tesla Auto Pilot (Adaptive Cruise Control, NOT Full Self Driving), we experienced 3 separate instances of unexpected braking. In each case, we were on flat terrain with no vehicles in front of us for hundreds of yards. The weather was sunny and warm with few clouds in the sky. We were driving westbound between 10am and 1pm at the time of the incidents. During the first incident, the vehicle began to brake sharply and violently enough to startle, awake and scare a sleeping adult passenger in the front passenger seat. From memory, the braking rapidly dropped our speed by 15-20 mph. Thinking it was a simple glitch, I attempted to re-engage the system two more times and the same type of behavior occurred each time. I drove the remaining hours of our drive without engaging Auto Pilot. After researching the issue following the drive, I learned of the "phantom braking" issue many customers have reported. We then reported the issue to Tesla and created a service appointment to check out the vehicle. Tesla responded back that the ran a full remote diagnostic and the vehicle has no hardware issues reported by any sensors and said the service appointment was unnecessary because there was nothing to look at.

Car randomly apply brakes when no obstacle present while Auto Pilot is engaged. Also gives a lot of false collision warnings.

Driving on cruise control (not autopilot), in the following conditions: on an interstate highway with all lanes in the traveling direction clear, no obstructions and no traffic to the front or to either side of the car, on a straight road with no bridge or on or off ramp in front of the car, daylight and no rain or or other participation, the car can unexpectedly and without warning aggressively brake. If the driver does not immediately regain control of the speed (by pressing the accelerator, or turning off the cruise control) the braking has caused the speed of the car to go from 75mph to 30mph. Unlike other Tesla accident avoidance features, the braking occurs with no indication that an obstruction is being avoided. I have owned the car since it was new and until Saturday 8 October 2022, the adaptive cruise control worked as expected. Since that Saturday (less than a week) the braking has occurred several times. Each time it required a sudden depress of the accelerator pedal to recover speed control of the car. The first photo I've attached shows a screengrab of the moment of one deceleration on Monday 10 October saved as a dashcam video. As you can see there is no obstruction and no other traffic around the car at the time. The second photo is a snapshot of the chat session I had with Tesla service where they claim that this behavior is caused by a curve, off ramp, a bridge, a two lane road. As you can see in the first photo, none of this is the case.

The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 75 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 made aware of the failure and informed the contact that a technician would inspect the vehicle at the residence. The failure mileage was 26,498.