2020 Tesla Model 3 complaints

During regular driving at highway speeds, and using Adaptive Cruise control and auto steer feature, The car would suddenly brake substantially for no reason. There was no object or anything that In the road. If there was a car traveling behind me closely a sever accident could have happened. This has happened on more than 10 occasions since owning the car in 2020 new from Manufacturer.

The Tesla rear facing repeater cameras show the driver's blind spot when changing lanes. The cameras are also used during automatic lane changes when the car is in drive-assisted (FSD) mode on the highway and in city (FSD Beta). The cameras have a manufacturer defect. At night, light from the turn signal led is blinding a large part of the vision field of these cameras. This renders the blind spot vision for the driver but also the computer assisted automatic lane changes for the car partially obstructed. Tesla has acknowledged this defect by redesigning the rear facing cameras so the blinding is remedied. Tesla is refusing to fix this issue under warranty and requires owners to pay for this safety fix. Tesla's statement on this issue: "Hi Stephan! The blind spot camera performance on your vehicle is neither a defect of materials nor workmanship. It is a characteristic of the product. And it's a characteristic that has been design enhanced in newer vehicle production. If you wish to upgrade to newer camera technology, you have an option to purchase the upgraded cameras and have them installed." I am having my cameras replaced, and will pay for it. I believe Tesla should, however, seeing how this is driver safety related even if they are unwilling to acknowledge this.

Phantom breaking on my car, just like everyone else. In autopilot on the highway my car will break pretty hard when there is nothing in front of it. Seems to occur when approaching bridges and large signs. If I drive on the highway every day, it will happen to some degree at least once a drive. At least once this nearly caused an accident (I was almost rear ended because my car braked for no reason)

The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 45 MPH and turning left, the vehicle experienced “Phantom Braking). There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to be diagnosed or repaired. Neither the dealer nor the manufacturer had been notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 12,000

In numerous instances since the vehicle was purchased in December 2019 and with all software versions to date, the vehicle has suddenly and with no warning or reason rapidly and forcefully applied the brakes while adaptive cruise control was set. This has happened on four lane interstates at speeds between 65 and 78mph and on two lane highways in both day and night. The "phantom braking" is worst on two lane highways and makes the use of cruise control at night on a two lane highway nearly impossible to use due to the frequency of occurrences. This braking has nearly caused accidents and has resulted in my wife's neck aching due to the unexpected and forceful application of the brakes.

On to different occasions while vehicle was in Enhanced Autopilot the car braked hard for no apparent reason. If another car had been close behind it might have hit me. Problem has not been confirmed by a service center or the dealer, nor has the vehicle been inspected by anyone. The described actions happened in a construction area on highway I-25, both northbound and southbound. Problem appears to occur at off ramps.

While driving down Interstate-5 my Tesla has been known to automatically brake from traffic safe speeds down to 40 immediately. It has happened multiple times. I have video to prove it as well. My video is too large at the moment but it does exist.

My car has experienced phantom braking for no apparent reason when on cruise control or auto pilot. Tesla claims to have to looked at the cars programming remotely and found no problem. I took the car to a Tesla dealer for a seat belt recall and asked them to also repair the phantom breaking. Again they said that they found nothing wrong with the car.

Late November of 2021, sunny weather, dry pavement. I was driving with Auto pilot (auto aware cruise control) on a 2-lane highway in rural MN. No traffic, I came upon a shadow cast by trees across the highway and the car suddenly braked. Later that same day, I was driving on a 4-lane expressway in a rural area—again with CC on. I was approaching an overpass that cast a shadow onto the roadway and the car suddenly braked. In both cases the car did not come to a complete stop but significant reduction in speed. Luckily in both cases no one was following close behind me. I have no interest in FSD and don’t agree with it as our highway/roadway infrastructure is a long way off from being ready. However, cruise control should be solid and I am now wary of using it and am tense under same conditions—I can’t rely on it. Tesla (Elon Musk) made a bad directive to have this system rely on cameras only. This system should also have LiDAR or at least radar. I informed Tesla of this issue. They acknowledged receipt of the complaint but never offered what they would do about it. Phantom braking is a big issue and FSD ought to be outlawed until infrastructure, vehicles and drivers are ready for it. For the life of me, I don’t understand why anyone would want FSD. Anyway, the issue with my car is not with FSD. Thanks

I have had too many phantom braking incidents to count, it has happened hundreds of times since I bought the car. Most incidents were mild slowdowns (3-10 mph) on some two lane roads through interstate and but some were quite quite violent, 20 mph or more slowdowns in a second or two. For example, using only adaptive cruise control or with autopilot also engaged and no other vehicles nearby, the car suddenly slammed on the brakes before I was able to step on the pedal and stop the deceleration. If there had been a truck behind me following close, it would have rear ended me. This sort of instance happens regularly, at least once or twice a week. Mild slow downs, as noted above, happen a handful of times most every time I drive the car. It happens when roads are empty or full, and slow downs also occur even when lines in the road are clear, there is no traffic. It also can occur when I am cresting a hill or making a blind turn

Phantom braking can occur when vehicles are passing at night and during the day for no reason. There is no adequate control to enable the windshield wipers. Many menus to access the wiper controls. Not safe

The car braked from 65 mph to 35 mph with no obstructing traffic, the car has done similar things on many occasions however. On the occasion of the most recent occurrence, I noticed that the car indicated a change in the posted maximum speed for that location from 65 mph (normal highway speed) to 35 mph, at which time it began slowing to the erroneous 35 mph limit. There was no reason for the change in speed, as there was no posting, construction or traffic.

Countless times, while driving on a two lane highway at speeds from 45-70 mph while on adaptive cruise control, the car unexpectedly braked when a vehicle was in the oncoming lane. This became so much of a problem that I needed to keep my foot on the accelerator if there was a car or truck in the other lane. It was dangerous because a car following me could have run into me or I could have skidded on ice. This has been happening for about a week. I think it is called phantom braking.

I recently brought my car in for routine servicing and informed the Tesla service technician that I’ve been experiencing significant lag with the rear (reverse) camera video feed since roughly early-December 2021. The rear (reverse) camera lag makes reversing hazardous, as any reliance by the driver on the the rear (reverse) camera feed can cause serious (potentially fatal) injury and/or property damage. I asked the technician to look into and address the issue; I told him I was aware there had been a recall and that I received a notice. He informed that they were unable to replicate the issue—which I find hard to believe, given it happens constantly—and that rear (reverse) camera lag is common in Model 3s as they age. My car is less than two years old—hardly classifying as “aged”. In looking at Internet forums, this appears to be a very common issue with Model 3s, and one that has yet to be resolved by the manufacturer through either hardware or software update(s).

Car will brake without any warning and with not reason to brake. Many complaints I’ve read online call this phantom braking. It has happened over ten times now and can be extremely dangerous as it will brake the car almost instantly and I have almost been rear ended because of it. Only matter of time before this happens and it results in a wreck.

The vehicle's side cameras (those near the wheels) have a defect that lets internal light shine through 3 holes in the PCB of the camera. Since the side cameras are mounted in the same assembly as the side blinkers, whenever the blinkers are on (hazards or turn signal), the side cameras become almost unusable either by the driver or, seemingly, by the car's computer to give any blind spot warning. Result: blind spot warning / automatic lane change is not working as expected when in total darkness and turn signal / hazard is on. When asked for a repair under warranty, Tesla refuses, saying that this is not a defect.

Tesla model 3 has side repeater cameras that work as blind spot monitor cameras and provide visuals for safe lane changes. However, my model 3 suffers from a manufacturing defect in the camera assembly which causes the visuals to wash out at night due to light bleed from the turn signal. This caused an unsafe condition where i almost ran into a car in my blindspot being unable to see them on the camera visual. I raised the issue with service and they do not consider it a manufacturing defect. The defect however has been confirmed by independent researchers like here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BUPsjguqdY

Automatic braking happens for no reason. Happened multiple times on freeway .

On Tuesday 2/1/2022 approximately 9:20am EST, as I was sitting in a stop-and-go traffic, as the traffic was freeing up and started moving going roughly 5 to 10 mph, the vehicle automatically applied phantom brake - with a notification of emergency braking applied. I was not on cruse control or autopilot. i was in full control of the car yet it suddenly applied the ebrakes nearly causing someone to rear end me since the traffic had started moving.

Car decides to apply brakes for no reason

Emergency braking kicks in at times when there's an oncoming vehicle in the opposite lane. It happens on straight roads in normal traffic when the oncoming vehicle is maintaining it's lane. The car will suddenly slam on the brakes when there's no chance of a collision. Afraid of getting rear ended, I avoid using the cruise control and "autopilot" due to this erratic behavior.

I read this morning that there have been complaints about the automatic emergency braking engaging when it shouldn't and I would like to add my car to the list. I've had my Tesla a little over two years and turned off the feature about a year ago because it would hit engage the emergency braking when there was no reason to. After a software update a month ago Tesla reactivated the feature without my permission and the only reason I knew it was activated is because the brakes slammed while I was on the freeway. The forward collision warning also activates often when there is no threat of collision of near by. The details below are an approximation of the last time the emergency braking engaged but this happened probably 4-5 other times during the year I had it activated.

I have experienced phantom breaking twice with my model 3. The first time was on the 101 freeway near Santa Clause Lane outside of Santa Barbara. There was no car in front of me or a hazard on the road but the vehicle made a sudden stop while I was traveling around 55MPH. The second occurrence happened on the 101 freeway near Santa Maria. Again, the vehicle made braked suddenly while traveling around 65MPH. The closest car in front of me was about 100 feet away. There was a car behind me but I was able to quickly hit the gas peddle to avoid an accident. I searched online at the time to see if anyone else had this issue but didn't have much luck. I'm thankful that I saw the Washington Post article.

Vehicle approached an upward slope which triggered a forward collision warning and (unsafe) emergency braking.

My car has experience phantom breaking issues since 1 month after purchasing in December 2019 when using autopilot. Each time phantom braking so far only happens during interstate driving. During the two year period, it has happened over 10 times. Fortunately, no vehicle was very close behind me when phantom braking occurs. Oddly, no forward collision warning occurred during the phantom braking.

Vehicle was driving on concrete-divided highway around 70 MPH. An ambulance with flashing lights came around a bend on the OPPOSITE side of the highway from the vehicle. Vehicle began to unnecessarily slow upon detecting the flashing lights.

There are two problems: (1) braking and (2) windshield wiper operation. (1) Braking: When driving on a highway and going by an on-ramp on the right side, without any warning, the vehicle would, al of a sudden, slam violently on the brakes, even though the cars entering the highway are nowhere near where I would be driving. This has happened repeatedly to me, creating a hazard of a rear-end collision. The Tesla Model 3 in such cases would already be in a mode that would drive itself (by me having clicked on the right stalk twice). Additionally, the car often misreads a traffic sign for a different part of the road, such as a stop sign for a side road. The violent braking would take place in such a scenario also. (2) Windshield wiper operation: I'm not sure if this would qualify as a safety issue, but the windshield wiper operation doesn't work in automatic mode. I rely on this while driving in a rainy or snowy day so that I can concentrate on the driving itself without worrying about something else to do (turning on the windshield wipers). This is problem that has plagued the car right from the beginning, and to me, it presents a safety hazard. For example, about a week ago, I drove in bad weather (snowy) on a turnpike to get to a medical appointment. The weather turned bad, and cars would pass me by, splashing water/snow onto the car's windshield. The automatic mechanism should have kicked in to help me focus on the driving, but it did not.

The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving on the right side of the road at 35-45 MPH, on autopilot mode with a passenger in the front passenger seat, the vehicle drove off the road independently and crashed into a tree. The air bags failed to deploy. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact's face hit the steering wheel. The contact sustained a black eye with laceration, bruised ribs, head, neck and back pain, sprained left ankle, bruises on her thigh, may have sustained nerve damage on the right side of the face that hit the steering wheel and sciatic nerve damage on the right side of her body. The occupant of the front passenger seat sustained neck, back and clavicle injuries. The contact sought medical assistance the next day. The vehicle was towed to a tow lot, then it was towed to a Tesla certified specialist body shop. A police report was filed. The contact has not been able to get a hold of the manufacturer. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was 55,000.

Tesla is putting passengers at risk by how much they are changing their user interface. They are moving critical safety around which makes the car more un-usable and drivers more confused and distracted. Here are some of the features they changed in their software update that creates danger to drivers: 1. Front seat heater settings are no longer on the home screen 2. Front/rear window defog buttons are no longer on the home screen 3. User profiles are no longer on the home screen. This controls the seat, mirrors, and temperature. Instead they have made non-safety features forefront: 1. Theater mode 2. Arcade Please view this forum of hundreds/thousands of people complaining about how their safety is put at risk by this update: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/v11-software-update-sucks.251711/

This is a general complaint: The new control panel user interface V11 is unsafe. It now promotes/requires distracted driving to use. The previous version was a bit busy, but most all needed controls were on the screen or one touch away. With V11, one must now navigate menus to get to hidden controls that were on the home screen requiring too much attention to the screen while driving. This is what I am finding. I fear accidents will result.

After the OTA software updated to 2021.44.25.2 there were several changes to the graphic user interface and software system. Two direct issues of the update are: 1) The rear and side cameras that assist during backup now take longer to activate and have very jumpy (laggy) video feeds. So much so that the driver can backup at least 10 feet at low speed before an updated image is shown. This causes a very unsafe condition when backup up as there are multiple blind spots in the car. 2) The simplification of touchscreen controls requires the driver to be more distracted by having to navigate additional menus to turn on wipers, climate control, the radio, and safety features like the dashcam. Waiting on an appointment with Tesla but that is at least 20 days away.

There was a recent software update and Tesla rearranged items on the touchscreen. Passenger was trying to pair his phone with the vehicle, and touched his name as displayed on the screen. This caused the driver seat to slide back quickly to fit the pre-set for his height. He is considerably taller than the driver, and this caused the driver to be unable to reach the brake pedal or accelerator. Therefore, the driver had almost no control of the vehicle. This occurred on a quiet side street going uphill, so driver could steer the vehicle to the curb which caused it to stop, even though she could not reach the brake pedal. However, if this had happened on a busy street or highway, there would have been a terrible accident. Remedy is simple. It should NOT be possible to activate the driver side seat position pre-sets when the vehicle is moving.

The paint on the car is chipping all over.

Tesla issues an update to software that forces drivers to go through a jumble of menus to do important tasks like turning on defrosters and windshield wipers. These used to be one touch items on the home screen, but now require drivers to take their eyes off the road for a dangerous amount of time.

Tesla pushed an update (v. 2021.44.25.2) to my Model 3 a couple of days ago that has dramatically altered the usability of the car, and potentially has safety implications. There was no warning prior to the update being applied that such changes to the car's user interface were included, nor is there any option to revert to the prior user interface. Major issues with the changes are outlined below: - 1-button, single-click shortcuts to seat heating, defrost/defog functionality have been removed; when driving in bad weather where the screen may fog up rapidly, you're now required to take your eyes off the road, and click twice on a small target on the touch screen to activate the required functionality. - 1-button, single-click access to the wipers has been removed, now requiring one to either rely on the auto-sensing functionality (which works properly about half the time), or click through the HVAC menu to adjust the wiper speed. - The quick access driver profile selection dropdown in the previous interface has been removed. My spouse and I differ significantly in height, and about half the time, the car selects the wrong profile when we're both getting into the car (despite our phone keys being linked to our specific profiles). With the earlier UI, it took one tap on the screen to switch to the correct profile. Now, I have to dig through menus to select the correct profile, while my knees are being slowly ground into the steering column/dash. - When driving, the speedometer

I was trying to avoid a car parked on the side of highway on my right going between 45 to 55 miles an hour and slightly steered the car to the left, and the car swerved back and forth at the slightest steering wheel movement as if skidding in the snow. The road was dry (no rain) but the steering was not stable and the car ended up hitting a truck on the left. It caused a very serious accident and we are lucky that there was just a major car damage and no one was hurt. The steering seems to be uncontrollable and loose, and causes major swerving if one has to steer away at a high speed.

Using either cruise control or Full Self Driving mode, driving on divided highway, experienced sudden hard braking not due to any highway obstruction, road hazard, other vehicle, or weather. Without warning car dropped out of assisted control and abruptly applied brakes. This happened yesterday at 2:10 pm, 2:53 pm and 3:01 pm.

There is A LOT of phantom braking, not just on specific stretches of highway around Austin, but almost anywhere. There is a specific spot on US Highway 183 north in Austin where the speed is set at 65 and the Tesla M3 will rapidly brake without any warning. There is a danger of being rear ended. I manually disconnect the ADAS in anticipation. I shouldn’t have to. In general, phantom braking is dangerous and could be attributed to using vision only sensors?

Driving on Autopilot on a city street at 35 MPH speed limit, while passing next to a UPS truck parked on the right side of the street at the curb, but slightly protruding outside the parking lane, due to its size, my car sideswiped the parked UPS truck, causing scratches on my car and totally obliterating my passenger side mirror. My vehicle did not stop or try to veer away from the parked UPS truck, causing at a minimum $700 damage to my vehicle.

Https://youtu.be/_vSGyqX0HZg My car is constantly running red lights when on "Full Self-Driving". They claim that it should stop at red lights but it very often confused the left turn red for the green in the straight lane. The car randomly serves at other traffic for no apparent reason. The car randomly slams on the brakes super hard for no apparent reason. Full Self-Driving is UNSAFE

The contact owned a 2020 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while his wife was driving at 60 MPH on autopilot, she lost control of the vehicle due to an unknown reason. Once his wife lost control of the vehicle, she had run the vehicle into a fence. The airbags deployed upon impact. The contact's wife did not suffer any injuries and did not seek any medical attention. A police report was filed. Due to the failure, the vehicle was towed to an independent tow yard where the vehicle was deemed a total loss. The contact filled out a form online to recover the data from the vehicle but was later informed that only California residence could have access to that information. The vehicle had been destroyed. The failure mileage was approximately 14,000.

While turning into a parking spot in a covered parking garage the car seemed to speed up and lurch. It hit the cement wall and pushed the car back with such force the air bags deployed. Thank God it was just a wall. The car is now at the repair garage and have not heard back regarding how much damage and if the car is going to be "totaled". When I mentioned this at a party we were at, a friend of mine said she had the same problem. There were no collision warnings. It happened in a split second. The parking garage was at my Doctors office so I was able to have my wrist x-ryed right then. No serious injury. Just a little leary of driving this model car if not any electric vehicle.

The lane departure assistance in my car was malfunctioning. Yes it is available for inspection if you would like. Today I.e. 10/25/2021, I was driving manually on Interstate 5. The car wasn’t on autopilot or cruise control. I was trying to merge into right lane and had my right turn signal on and made sure there was no one in my blind spot. As I was merging there was a warning signal and message displayed on the screen that read something like- lane departing corrective steering applied. The car was trying to pull me back into the lane I was departing from and it was applying sudden brakes to slow me down. I had to apply lot of force to the steering wheel to pull the car into the lane I was trying to merge. It was rush hour traffic and the cars around me were going pretty fast. It was a really dangerous situation and there could have been a big collision if I didn’t apply that force to bring the car into the right lane. There were no warning signs leading up to what happened today. But there was some malfunctioning in my car previously when the car just stopped without any warning on the ramp to my driveway. It’s a steep ramp and the car stopped all of a sudden and would not move. I contacted Tesla service about this and no action was taken whatsoever. I am really concerned about the safety of myself and the drivers around me not knowing what kind of bugs are going to come up in the future. Please take some action to make Tesla responsible for this.

Aero shield on the model 3 collapses when driving through a puddle of water. Tesla said they fixed the issue. I was charged for the service to do it which was $250.that was in June 2021x And now again today October 2021, the same thing happened and they said that won’t be covered under warranty

My front windshield has chipped and then cracked twice in about 6 months. I heard a pebble hit the windshield the first time, but it sounded very small and I did not expect it to chip/crack. The second time I didn’t even hear anything hit it. My friend has the same vehicle and her back windshield cracked unexpectedly and another friend’s cracked when she hit a bug that was on the windshield with her hand.

The contact stated that while idling and waiting to pick up the elementary school kids in their vehicle, a 2020 Tesla Model 3 suddenly experienced unintended acceleration causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle and crash into the rear of the contact's vehicle and trailer. During the incident, the contact sustained a lower back injury and the driver of the Tesla Model 3 suffered a chest injury. A police report was taken at the scene. No further information was available. The failure mileage was unknown.

I was driving down the Interstate and had my Tesla on Self driving. For no reason at all it did a aggressive left turn causing me to go off the road into the median. It tore up pieces of my car and Tesla wouldn’t do anything about it and have no idea why it went off the road. I have a video of the Incident

The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving in the rain with the autopilot engaged the vehicle accelerated without warning and was incontrollable, flipped two times, and hit the curb. The contact sustained neck injuries and medical attention was provided at the hospital. All the air bags deployed. There was no reported fire. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to an independent body shop. The local dealer was contacted who referred the contact to the body shop. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 29,000.

On July 19th, 2021 at around 2:38PM I was using Tesla's Smart Summon feature to summon my car to me. The car was unoccupied at the time of the incident. The car was in a covered parking space approximately 40 feet South of my location. The app said the car would "Come To Me" and displayed a blue line which was the path the car should take to get to me. The blue line showed that the car would turn right (North) and come to me. I then pressed the "Come To Me" button to begin the summon. This is when the car immediately turned left (South), which is the opposite direction of me, and ran into a pole. The user does not have the ability to steer the car and the car acts erratic when using Smart summon. It's path is unpredictable and unsafe.

Drive away door lock feature does not lock the doors. After driving several minutes a rear seat passenger attempted to roll down the window but hit the door open button instead. The door opened. Warning message received. Testing again after driving several minutes the lock icon shows locked but front seat passenger able to open the door. The door lock icon changes to unlock. Passenger closed door I hit lock icon to lock, NOW passenger cannot open the door.