2022 Tesla Model 3 complaints

While driving on the interstate with the adaptive cruise control engaged I’ve now had four incidents where I’ve had to over-ride the system because the car mysteriously slammed on the brakes attempting to stop the car when no threats were apparent. These were frightening and dangerous events. I’ve had several cars with adaptive cruise and never experienced this type of un-provoked emergency braking. The for situations were as follows: 1) The road gently curving to the right while I was in the second to far left lane and there was a concrete barrier left of the far left lane divining the opposing lanes. The car apparently mistook the barrier as a threat because it slammed on the brakes without warning. I override the system to avoid a collision from behind. 2) Driving down a three lane road in the center lane when a car entered the road into the right lane and was still going much slower than the center lane. My car slammed on the brakes despite the other car never coming close to entering my path or lane. 3) two instances of the car emergency braking on a two lane road because it apparently mistook oncoming traffic in the opposing lane as a threat. Again had to override to avoid being rear ended. This adaptive cruise system is too dangerous to use as I cannot trust it to not brake hard and unexpectedly.

My mother was driving my brand new 2022 M3P from Garfield, AR, to S. Coffeyville, KS, on a two lane highway when we experienced a major AEB event while in cruise control (if not w/ autosteer engaged). On the way there and back to Garfield, we must have experienced 5-10 AEB events where the traffic aware cruise control thought that the hard shadows from trucks were actually objects in our lane. This is a horrible and dangerous design flaw. Why are we not allowed to go back to dumb cruise control like we used to have where it doesn't cause an accident risk due to the possibility of a rear impact from another vehicle? In one of these events there was a truck behind us, and my 70-year-old mother had no clue how to protect us from being rear ended. We desperately need an option to disable TACC at the very least. I don't care about what laws may be in place for these systems, until it is perfect, we should be allowed to have full control over our vehicle without unpredictable events occurring. Trying to teach a 70-year-old how to drive differently isn't a proper solution when they've driven vehicles their entire lives that let them do what they want. Demand that Tesla allow permanent disablement of these systems, not just turning off AEB every time you get in the car! And I'm not convinced that AEB is even related to TACC braking. Regardless, fix it!

Car randomly auto braked at night while on cruise control (45 mph). Car turning across traffic was roughly 200 feet away and well out of potential collision range. Also, car won't auto break when there is an actual obstacle in front. Could drive the car into a wall (believe me, I've verified this).

This is my third report for the same phantom braking issue I drove approximately 250 miles today and had three episodes one while passing a 18 wheeler he was on the right and fully in his own lane it braked forcefully. And two episodes with no objects or any explanations why it applied the brakes hard while traveling at 78 mph once with a car following witch caused me great concern. Side note I gave up using it on two lane undivided roads any oncoming large truck or RV triggers braking.

On trip from Grand Island NE to Pueblo CO on Colorado state Hwy 76 when driving at highway speeds the auto steer function repeatedly (at least 8 occurrences) invoked emergency braking for no apparent reason. This occurred during daylight hours, in brilliant sunshine, on clear and dry road conditions with no other vehicles in the vicinity, in both the right and left lane. In some cases the car would brake upon cresting a slight rise where the horizon is not visible until the vehicle is at the top of the rise. In another case there was highly reflective silver steel guard rails on both sides of the road. Also experienced phantom braking when there was identical signage on both sides of the road at about head height of a person. We also experienced occurrences on flat sections of road with no signage. The braking is unpredictable and severe enough to cause a rear end collision If a vehicle had been behind us during any of the events we experienced.

On my daily commute to work on the interstate while in cruise control the car will slam on the brakes fro no apparent reason. This abruptly takes my car from 70 mph to 40. Happens multiple times in cruise control every day.

A warning displayed on the screen of the car alerted me to the vehicle having low coolant, recommending that I drive the car to a service center despite being unsafe to do so as the container that recycled the closed loop coolant system was completely empty. The warning caused me to check underneath the vehicle housed in my garage, which displayed a puddle of bluish liquid with a foul smell. There was a leak that was caused by an impact unknown to me to the aero shield protecting the high voltage battery pack. The impact ruptured the coolant line and fitting that connected the battery with the line. The manufacturer's service center recommended replacing the entire battery as they do not repair this part on the car.

I have experienced multiple situations where my 2022 Tesla Model 3 has issues with the automatic emergency braking feature, which causes the car to slam on the brakes unnecessarily while operating in the autopilot mode. Generally, I've seen this the most on 2 lane roads, especially when large vehicles (semi trucks, etc) are in the opposing lane. In some cases, the car will brake when there are no cars in the opposing lane. My concern is that the cars traveling behind me may not have the reaction time to brake, due to not expecting my car to brake in front of them.

This has happened on a couple of different occasions but the one thing that has been the same is it has happened while utilizing the adaptive cruise control system. These incidents come out of nowhere and can be dangerous and cause an accident luckily we have not had that misfortune. While driving on the highway with adaptive cruise control enabled, the vehicle has suddenly and without warning activated the emergency braking. The first time this occurred the assumption was that it must have picked up something on the road because it only lasted for a brief moment, it slowed down the vehicle by 10-15 mph. Throughout this trip, adaptive cruise control was used and it didn't occur in that manner again. What is more alarming are the next couple of incidents which abruptly slowed the vehicle down by 30-35 mph this was very unsettling, luckily no one was behind the vehicle at the time of these incidents. The adaptive cruise control has not been utilized since the last incident which occurred the third weekend of January 2022. The severity and abruptness that the vehicle slowed and I must mention without warning can potentially cause a fatal car accident, especially while driving on the highway. The vehicle has not been inspected or serviced since the incidents and as long as adaptive cruise control is not used there have been no further incidents of this nature.

Multiple times while driving using adaptive cruise control while approaching a semi(both oncoming and overtaking) the car will slam on the brakes(phantom braking).

On a four-lane divided highway and again on a two-lane road my Tesla 3 long range AWD phantom braked for no apparent reason several times over a 145 mile trip while on cruise control and/or on auto pilot . On the two-lane portion of the trip I assumed the braking occurred because of shadows on the road. On the four-lane highway it braked for no reason. If someone had been closely following me, I am sure a serious collision would have occurred. I will not use either cruise control or autopilot until a fix is made. This Tesla on cruise control makes for a dangerous driving situation.

Freeway driving on a clear day in low traffic on a straight road using Tesla’s TACC adaptive cruise control the car abruptly slowed from 73 mph to @ 50 mph with no vehicle in front of my car. This was a very brief deceleration. The braking released after @ two seconds and the car returned to the set max speed (73 mph).

While using adaptive cruise control or the autopilot systems, the car will unexpectedly brake very hard (dropping speed anywhere from 5-20 mph). This can cause a safety issue due to other cars behind that aren’t prepared for a car to randomly hit the brakes and drop up to 20mph quickly. The problem is easily reproducible by using the systems while driving anywhere. Complaints and requests to the manufacturer have gone unfixed and brushed off as not a concern. This happens every single time I use cruise control, not just the date I had to select for the incident.

When driving on two lane highways and using the "autopilot" cruise control, the car will occasionally panic brake for no valid reason. This occurs almost every time an oncoming semi passes in the oncoming lane as well as going over bridges with raised sides or when there is crack seal on the road that is slightly more reflective. This has happened several times when crossing a bridge with cars following closely, almost causing several accidents. Tesla service was contacted immediately and I was told that it was a "software issue" and that there was nothing I could do. I tried disabling emergency braking in the car interface however it had no effect on the issue.

I would like to add my voice to those complaining about the phantom braking problem in recentlly built Teslas. On more than one occasion, the car has slammed on the brakes, in broad daylight with good visibility, FOR NO GOOD REASON. At the very least, Tesla should be compelled to add plain-vanilla cruise control that permits the driver to switch off any traffic-aware assistance features. This problem is ongoing and occurs nearly every time I attempt to use the traffic-aware cruise control. The problem makes this feature too dangerous to use.

While using “Traffic-Aware Cruise Control” the car regularly sounds an alert and breaks rapidly in preparation for a forward collision despite no such danger existing. Most often this occurs on a two-lane highway when a large van or semi-truck is traveling in the opposite direction; in its own lane, nonetheless. This feature is marked as “beta” but there is no standard cruise control option. This issue can be easily reproduced and happens multiple times on any given day when said circumstances exist. Tesla service advisors have told me the only fix is to not use the feature. I am scared the sudden breaking may cause whiplash, a rear end collision, or other danger presented by sudden unnecessary breaking. When using the additional Autopilot feature, “Autosteer,” the incidents seem to happen even more frequently and invoke a slight swerve right - away from the vehicle in question. This could make it even harder to recover from the phantom breaking event.

This vehicle has frequent issues with phantom braking whenever cruise control is engaged. The brakes are suddenly applied automatically and sometimes severely. This occurs dozens of times on long drives and I purchased the car new 6 weeks ago. I have reported it to Tesla and was told this is a “known software characteristic”. I brought it in for service and provided date and time stamps for dozens of occurrences. The service manager confirmed with me that this is a known issue that Tesla is looking into and that even her own Tesla has this problem regularly. This is clearly a safety issue and makes me feel unsafe to drive this car, which is especially concerning since one of the biggest selling points for me was its rating as the safest car on the road.

Phantom braking issue. Usually occurs on two lane roads, sometimes there is a vehicle in the opposite lane, other times there is nothing in front of the vehicle in either lane. I have reported to Tesla, they say they’re aware but have no solution. I have kept a log of when it happens since the first time I reported it to Tesla and was told there is no solution. I commute 128 miles a day and the below log shows it happens on daily basis multiple times a day. 1/5/2022 5:32pm 1/5/2022 5:35pm (multiple times) cruise set at 65, speed got down to 45 1/5/2022 6:30pm 1/6/2023 5:59pm 1/6/2023 6:01 1/6/2022 6:33pm 1/6/2022 6:34pm 1/6/2022 6:37pm 1/10/2022 6:37am 1/10/2022 5:11pm 1/12/2021 7am 1/12/2022 5:49pm 1/12/2022 5:50pm 1/12/2022 5:53pm 1/12/2022 5:55pm 1/13/2022 6:13am 1/13/2022 6:15am 1/13/2022 6:16am 1/13/2022 6:18am 1/13/2022 6:21am 1/13/2022 6:09pm 55 to 38 1/13/2022 6:11 pm 55 to 44 1/13/2022 6:13 pm 55 to 46 1/13/2022 6:14 pm 55 to 42 1/18/2022 6:09 am 55 to 41 1/18/2022 5:39 pm 1/18/2022 5:43 pm 1/18/2022 5:44 would not resume speed on cruise control 1/18/2022 6:17 55 to 42 mph 1/18/2022 6:18 55 to 44 1/19/2022 6:14 55 to 37 1/19/2022 6:47am 70 to 32 1/20/2022 6:10am 55 to 47 x2 1/24/2022 7:32pm 70 to 53 1/26/2022 6:33am 1/26/2022 6:07pm 55 to 45 1/26/2022 6:06 55 to 48 1/26/2022 6:15 55 to 49 1/27/2022 6:48 55 to 47 1/27/2022 6:50 60 to 43

On 2-3-2022 on a 200-mile day trip I had two false braking events one while passing a large truck on a divided AZ Hwy 260 and one for no notable reason what's so ever on the same Hwy. I do not have FSD just autopilot this is my second compliant to NHTSA thank you. Mike

Twice now the car abruptly slowed down from about 75 to 50 in the left lane of the highway with nothing in front or next to my car. Falsely thought there was something in front of the vehicle and it quickly decelerated. Oddly happened both times in the same spot on the highway. Seems to be an issue with that area on how it looks in the "Tesla Vision" software. Both times almost caused an accident with the car behind me.

Random "phantom braking" while on cruise control. Unexpected and significant braking. On icy or wet roads, this could cause a departure from the vehicle path and road. It happens often enough that I'm rarely using it anymore. And fora feature that is supposed to be a safety feature (reducing driver fatigue, backup to emergency braking, safe following etc.) this is very bad.

Driving on a two lane rural road with a 55mph speed limit, I had traffic aware cruise control engaged with the speed set to 55 mph. A truck crested a hill coming the opposite direction, fully within their lane, and the car engaged the emergency breaking system. Fortunately, no one was behind me at the time as this could have resulted in me being rear-ended.

I was driving on a two lane road using auto pilot. I was going 55mph when all of a sudden my car slammed on the brakes down to 32mph as a school bus approached us. There was no reason to brake. The school bus never entered my lane. If a car had been following me closely I would have been rear ended for a system malfunction. Very scary.

Vehicle frequently brakes hard to prevent a collision with an object that does not exist. Also known as phantom breaking that is a commonly known issues with Teslas autopilot.

Cruise control is completely unusable on two lane roads. Automatic braking ensues every single time a car is in the opposite lane. Sometimes it only slows 5-10 mph but other times the car gives the warning for an imminent collision and tries to brake to zero. This is exceedingly dangerous on the highway when other cars are behind me. It generally functions fairly well on the interstate but it does happen occasionally there as well.

When using cruise control (TACC) with or without using lane centering (Autosteer), my vehicle will often brake suddenly (and harshly) for no reason at all. It's worse on undivided highways (with no median). I've noticed the phantom braking occurs most often when an oncoming tall vehicle (18-wheeler, RV/motor home) approaches, or I approach an underpass, or I approach a large shadow on the road (from a building or large tree). During a 90-mile trip last weekend, my car phantom braked almost a dozen times, sometimes severely. Fortunately, no one was following close to me. I feel this is a safety hazard and should be fixed.

Traffic aware cruise control is dangerous to use. Automatically slams on brakes on 2 lane roads with large vehicles in oncoming lane. Brakes at the top of any sort of hill, brakes for shadows of overpasses on the highway. System is dangerous and has caused several situations where I would have been rear ended on 2 lane roads and larger highways. Recent road trip had almost a dozen phantom braking events on a one hour drive on a straight 2 lane road during the day.

The TACC (traffic aware cruise control) applies sudden, hard braking especially on two lane roads and almost always when meeting a large truck (semi-tractor trailer). This is commonly referred to as “Phantom Braking“. Drivers should be allowed to disable automatic braking while using cruise control on two lane roads. It is very dangerous in that it may cause a rear end collision. The cruise control as currently implemented in Teslas is unusable and without a doubt a safety hazard. I have experienced phantom braking events every time I have used cruise control on a two lane road. It will hard brake 9 out of 10 times it meets a large truck and sometimes when meeting small cars.

On February 2, 2022 at approximately 8:00 a.m., MST, I was driving north at 50 mph on a stretch of two-lane highway with moderate traffic. Adaptive cruise control was engaged. A large truck was approaching, traveling in the opposite direction. Suddenly, and without warning, my vehicle’s brakes were applied, without my involvement, slowing my vehicle to approximately 20 mph and causing the driver of a vehicle traveling behind me to slam on its brakes to avoid a rear-end collision. No collision occurred and no one was injured. It could have been a lot worse, but this problem needs to be identified and fixed.

Our Tesla is experiencing a Phantom Braking that appears to be a known issue. We drove the car from eastern KS to western CO and experienced multiple occurrences (more that 10) of unexpected braking while using either the adaptive cruise control or the auto pilot feature. The car would dramatically slow from 75 to perhaps 65 and then accelerate back to 75. My wife also takes the car to work on a 20 mile commute and she has also experienced this. I have not discussed this with Tesla Service yet, but have read many posts about this and that we should report. So....here it is!

Vehicle applies 100% braking sporadically when traveling at highway speeds on cruise control, causing loss of control and risk to vehicles behind it. It seems that the vehicle’s forward sensors mistakenly interpret an imminent collision and apply full braking force, without any potential collision risk present. This happens in all scenarios, single to multiple lane highways, dense traffic to no traffic. This is commonly referred to as “phantom braking”.

I received my 2022 Tesla Dec. 3, 2021. I have experienced approx. 100 phantom braking incidents in roughy 3,000 mi. Driving. The system causes a loud alert and extreme braking which is extremely concerning while driving. This has happened in all conditions (daytime sunny, cloudy, night, etc.). Several camera warnings though I have cleaned them and alerts still happen. It happens on 2-lane roads more often than multi-lane highway. Happens at residential and highway speeds. The extreme braking could easily cause rear end collisions if traffic were close. As a driver the abrupt alerts and braking could cause driver errors. This is a “safety” feature which is extremely disruptive to drivers is in fact a safety issue in my opinion. The data below is the most recent incident and it happened 3-5 times in a 300 mile drive. Tesla Service cancelled an appointment to look at my car. In a chat exchange they deflected it as environmental, driver error, dirty cameras, etc.

Phantom braking is real. The car slams on brakes randomly while in cruise control. So much so that I will not use cruise control when another car is behind me.

Issue is consistent on 2 way lane roads but sometimes occurs on Highway roads going in the same direction. Whenever I travel with autopilot or cruise control if there is a semi-truck on the opposite lane driving towards me the car will slam on the brakes for no reason. This has also happened a few times on the highway when passing a semi-truck on the same flow of traffic as myself. This has not only terrified myself but also my family and other passengers. It makes this feature almost unusable.

While traveling on a two lane highway while using Traffic Assist Cruise Control I have had several collision alarms and emergency braking situations that were severe enough to cause my unprepared wife to say that she could have gotten whiplash. Luckily there was no one following us closely enough to cause a rear end collision. I have notified Tesla and they said that since it is actually in beta that the system is working properly. With the software capabilities that Tesla has I feel that they should provide a workable basic cruise control that can be used.

When driving with cruise control on the car will suddenly apply brakes if it detects a car coming at me from the opposite lane. This is a safety hazard as the cars behind me would have no idea I would be stopping and poses a serious rear end threat.

On a recent road trip while driving on highway 70 in CO and UT at speeds of around 70mph with Autopilot or Cruise Control engaged, the car phantom braked multiple times in response to nonexistent hazards on the road. Fortunately there were no cars nearby in both instances, as I am positive we would have gotten rear-ended in both situations (the car braked to around 40mph). These were both really scary scenarios and undermined my trust in those systems in the car, I have been hesitant to use them since

Autopilot and Traffic Aware Cruise Control systems are basically unusable on two lane highways. Almost every vehicle that passes on the opposite side of the road triggers an alarm, disengages Autopilot/TACC, and results in an abrupt, jarring deceleration. This occurred 10 times in a 160 mile trip, but would have happened many more times if I had not given up trying to use either system. Holding my foot on the accelerator for such a long drive was inconvenient, and the repeated sudden slow downs resulted in a strained, tired neck. It seems unethical for a $60,000 vehicle to lack basic cruise control capabilities.

The autopilot feature which keeps the car in it's lane and speeds up or brakes the vehicle based on its surroundings is not functioning properly. It slams on the brakes whenever a semi-truck or large vehicle is driving in the opposite lane on a two-lane road. Especially if there is a bend in the road. It thinks that a forward collision is going to take place.

Every once in a while (once per 100-200 miles) I experience "phantom braking" when using Adaptive Cruise Control with Autosteering (not sure if Autosteering matters – I always use ACC with Autosteering together, so hard to tell). That is when ACC decides to quickly reduce speed significantly for no apparent reason (no cars or other obstacles in front). It could be dangerous as it could lead the car behind me to crash into me.

Phantom braking, almost caused a car to rear end me. This was on a straight two lane road a tractor trailer was coming the other way. This has also happened on a right hand curve with smaller auto where the software thinks I'm going to run into the car even though I'm turning right into the curve. Very dangerous. Same thing happens with the forward collision warning.

When the ADAS is active, during normal driving on a two-lane highway, where there is never any question of an obstruction in front of the car, the car unexpectedly and violently brakes; often the collision warning alarm sounds. This usually happens when the car meets traffic in the oncoming lane, but sometimes there's nothing else at all on the road. This is a new car (since January) and it has happened ever since I first used the ADAS. For example, last night, on a trip of about 50 miles it happened at least thirty times, nearly every time I met an oncoming vehicle of any size. Service personnel tell me this is normal behavior and they cannot do anything about it! The system is supposed to have switches to turn off the collision warming and braking so that it can be used as a normal cruise control, but setting the switches to off has no effect. This behavior is not only extremely annoying but also distracting for the driver and potentially hazardous when an inattentive driver is following closely.

The car brakes SEVERELY on two lane highways when passing another car. Mainly occurs when passing semi trucks. It is going to get someone rear ended if this is not fixed. The cruise control is not usable.

When i drive on highway, it out blue slam brake several time i am not sure what trigger it. it was out blue from 70 mph to 50-60mph. i don't see anything around car to trigger phantom braking or brake. also on one lane highway, when semi truck or some car/trucks pass by me it slam really hard few time from 60 mph to 30 mph instant, some car almost hit my rear because of instant slam brake. I had to brake quick to undo it. it happen on cruise control only, also happen during auto pilot. the road was fine, other vechile wasn't going toward me.

Sunday, January 2nd, on the way back from Vegas back to Sacramento, on the highway with Lane assist driving, the car suddenly braked going from 70+ miles to almost a complete halt. I was able to steer it into the oncoming lane to avoid the pick up truck from hitting us from behind. The braking system again slowed the car down significantly a few more times on this trip and wee have not used this feature since. Car was bought on December 26th and we are fairly new owners of a Tesla.

My vehicle brakes suddenly when auto pilot is actuated for no reason. Often times, this is a very abrupt brake. This happens many times every time driven

While driving on an undivided highway at night using either traffic aware cruise control or autosteer, about every minute the car would aggressively decelerate up to 15mph. Every time a car would pass in the other direction, the deceleration would be abrupt and would slow to ~10mph below the speed limit. This occurred at least 3 times within a ~7 minute window. The road was straight, unlit, with a 50mph speed limit, and was sufficiently wide to safely pass oncoming cars. Random deceleration with no oncoming cars would be less severe but frequent. I contacted Tesla about this and they confirmed these occurrences but stated it was in response to a curve in the road or a vehicle being detected. They claimed the system performed appropriately. Despite being alert, these decelerations are startling in the absence of visible explanation to the driver. If I was being tailgated, a rear end collision would have been highly probable. I owned a 2018 Tesla Model 3 and have driven the same road at night and never experienced this.

The vehicle is having a very serious problem with phantom braking whenever the cruise control is engaged. The problem occurs randomly regardless of road conditions or traffic conditions. While driving at any speed with cruise control engaged the car with randomly brake hard and sound an alert. The road has always been clear of obstructions and debris. It will also engage braking abruptly when a large truck or bus is coming towards me in the opposite lane on a two lane road. At first I thought it was an anomaly. But now after 3400 miles of ownership I fear for my safety while driving because of the conduction. To the point that I have stopped using the cruise control and auto pilot because of the issue. Considering that autopilot was one of the main reasons for me to purchase the vehicle, it seems like I have been missled and sold a vehicle that is unsafe for public roads.

On multiple occasions, my car has slammed on the brakes while using adaptive cruise control when nothing is in front of my car. It’s concerning because drivers behind me have almost rear-ended me and have gotten road rage at me because they think that I am brake checking them.

The car on a day basis exhibits random braking incidents when utilizing traffic aware cruise control (TACC). These have happened since the car was new (now has over 2,500mi) and can range from mild to severe. All of them happen without an obstacle ahead. Some times it seems the vehicle reacts to shadows from trees or larger structures, other times there's no obvious reason behind the reaction. The braking happens both on interstate highways as well as county two and four lane roads, and isn't related to elevation change or curves (happens straight and level). Several of these instances have been close to causing accidents due to traffic behind me getting caught off guard, which is usually followed by some sort of road-rage-like reaction. I no longer use the system when there's any traffic behind me due to the fear of getting rear-ended. I have recalibrated the cameras 3 times to no avail.