2022 Tesla Model 3 complaints

While driving back from San Antonio TX, I engaged autopilot on the hwy. Multiple times my vehicle would experience phantom braking with no other cars on the road and would slow down drastically from 75mph to 20mph. This sudden braking for no reason could have caused an accident if there was another vehicle behind me. This phantom braking has also negatively affected my safety score for my insurance.

My brand new model 3 stopped in the far left lane of the highway in Camp Pendleton this October 7th. There was 139 miles in range left (40% battery), and it clearly was not out of charge. It was towed to Tesla Santa Monica service center, and the battery slowly drained in the 5 days before it was looked at. Once the Tesla service center looked at the car for the first time on the night of October 11th, the battery had dropped to 5%, and the service center tried to give it back to me after a simple charge. They would not listen to me when I told them it was charged when it stopped on the highway, and something else was wrong. They closed the case and told me to pick up the car. I refused to pick up the car and left it in their service lot. I made a few social media videos on October 13th about this. Tesla saw the videos, and re-looked at my car and found the rear drive unit had to be replaced. If I had not made this video, Tesla never would have found the faulty rear drive unit, and I would have been forced to take back my lemon car. In summary, Tesla tried to give me back an UNSAFE car after accusing me of causing the breakdown by not charging it. But the rear drive inverter needed to be replaced.

My car is brand new. When in Autopilot mode (not full FSD), the vehicle does u expected braking apparently randomly. There are no road obstructions or potential road obstructions visible at all to me as driver. Yet, the vehicle will brake suddenly. It does this so frequently that I no longer use Autopilot unless I know the road has no other vehicle driving behind me and is very clear ahead of me. I never, ever use it on the highway. In one incident, I was using my Autopilot and a motorcycle was traveling at a much too close distance behind me on a curve on a busy roadway, with a large RV driving in the lane next to me. As all three of our vehicles approached the curve in this cluster, my vehicle suddenly braked and the motorcycle behind me almost crashed into my vehicle’s rear end. It was terrifying. After that incident, I severely limited my use of Autopilot and take pains to ensure my foot is resting on the accelerator in case I need to apply a little pressure to counteract the unexpected braking while in Autopilot mode.

Multiple times traveling on Interstate 70 at 75 mph the car would brake itself without warning while the “Autopilot” (driver assist) was engaged. This probably happened 4 times over the course of 1 hour. I recalibrated the cameras after the 3rd event, but it did not help. This was very dangerous and unsettling. I verified no-one was close behind when engaging the autopilot in case the system “decided” to brake unexpectedly. If someone was behind me traveling at interstate speeds, they would have hit me.

Even with all automated safety options turned off, autopilot (cruise control) continues to implement sudden periodic "hard braking." This is occurring (a) when a vehicle crosses in front of my path *far* ahead of me, is not remotely close to causing an accident, and the way will be clear with plenty of room to spare by the time my car reaches that spot, and (b) sometimes for no reason I can detect: there's nothing in front of my car at all but open road. The second example above tends to happen at least once every trip in which I've engaged cruise control. This second case is especially startling and dangerous, because it seems to come out of nowhere.

Several times, while using the cruise control, the car automatically braked at highway speed. The car is available for inspection. My safety and my wife's safety were put at risk by the car suddenly slowing down on the interstate without my control. The problem has not been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or service center - I have not had the car serviced. It has not been inspected. There were no warning lamps or messages.

The adaptive cruise control. is subject to sudden phantom braking. On several occasions when the cruise control is engaged the vehicle will brake for no reason. On one occasion the sudden braking caused a semi-truck behind me to swerve just barely avoiding an accident. On another occasion the vehicle braked so hard that we skidded. There is no warning when the phantom braking will occur. The adaptive cruise control is useless on two lane highways and streets, because it sees cars in the oncoming lane and brakes. I have called the company to have the vehicle check on at least two occasions. Every time I schedule a service the company calls back and tells me they know about the problem and that they are working on the issue. I asked if they could do an update to turn off the adaptive cruise control and revert back the standard cruise control that does not brake or slow down. They said that is not an option. This is a real safety concern, and I will not use the adaptive cruise control except in stop and go traffic. It has been my experience that there has been no phantom braking in stop and go traffic.

The car slammed on the brakes while we were using auto pilot on the freeway, even though there was no one braking in front of us. This was the 2nd time this has happened. The ac and radio shut off for the rest of the ride and the ac has been working intermittently since. We have a baby and she was not in the car but she is in the car with us often. We have submitted a service request for this week.

Everyday I drive on highway i-10 I get severe Phantom Breaking, when I have auto pilot on or just my cruise control. Sometimes it’s as hard as you can brake. 30+ mph before I can push the gas and stop it, with absolutely nothing around me, and all my software updates are up to date. Extremely unsafe and needs to be corrected.

Constantly issues with the car braking hard without reason - also the car NOT braking when needed, and poor estimation of distance to the vehicle directly in front. When the car Phantom Brake, it causes traffic behind the vehicle to become in danger of a forward collision. When the car incorrectly estimates the distance to the next vehicle, it causes the car to apply maximum braking force to rectify the miscalculation. The "Autopilot" and "Cruise Control" are dangerous and hazardous to use in normal vehicle operation. The vehicle/component and behavior is repeatedly certified as "within spec" and no issues found with the vehicle or components.

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 75 MPH, there was a message displayed that stated, “Pull Over and Exit the Vehicle”. The contact stated that the vehicle then lost power steering and power brakes. The contact was able to park on the side of the road. The vehicle was not drivable. The contact towed the vehicle to a local dealer, where it was diagnosed with needing the front steering alignment control arm to be adjusted. The vehicle was repaired but experienced the failure two days later. The contact took the vehicle back to the local dealer but the mechanic was unable to duplicate the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 5,300.

While using auto throttle (cruise control) on a recent trip I had several instances of uncommanded slow downs. These ranged from slowdowns from the activation of regenerative braking to actual hard breaking. It occurred on both two lane highways and interstates. More often on two lanes. Often it occurred on topping a hill and some thing in the distance was misinterpreted as a hazard. At other times I could not determine what set it off. It ranged from a slight slow down to hard breaking. It could easily have led to a rear end collision had someone been close to me. I finally had to stop using the auto throttle as it seemed unsafe.

I was using the adaptive cruise control and experienced phantom braking.

Cruise control set @70 to 74mph on open highway with no vehicles in front or behind. Midday, sunny, clear, and dry. The vehicle suddenly applies brakes. This could have easily lead to being rear-ended if another vehicle were following too closely. This happened numerous time this last weekend. Contacted the manufacturer and they stated this is normal and no hardware faults were detected in the vehicle when diagnosed remotely.

With Tesla Auto Pilot engaged, I was driving on I-10 in Florida with no other automobiles in front, to the side or behind my car. I was driving the 70 MPH speed limit when suddenly my car applied full braking (Phantom Braking) upon which I took control and applied the accelerator to regain proper velocity disabling Tesla Auto Pilot. This was the only time I experienced this issue.

The passenger air bag light remains illuminated and the car indicates a passenger restraint system fault. Tesla service indicates it is a faulty sensor. I am concerned the system error will impact passenger safety in the event of a crash if the seatbelt tensioner and airbag fail to perform due to the sensor. Tesla has not resolved the problem to date and keeps rescheduling the repair weeks into the future. They deserve a strong reprimand for the safety risk this issue imposes.

I was driving through an intersection in san francisco on a green light and the car suddenly braked hard with no object in front of me to brake for. fortunately the car behind me managed to brake without rear-ending me. this was totally without warning and completely unneccesary. this was a "safety feature" that engaged to make me and the pedestrians and cars around me less safe! if the automatic emergency braking doesn't work (and is more dangerous to human life and property when activated as opposed to not), it should be able to be disabled for safety's sake. i can disable it for a trip, but then i have to remember to disable it every time i drive the car or it could put my life in danger! this is dangerous! the control panel informed me that the automatic emergency system was to blame for the dangerous stop. there was no warning before this happened. the vehicle has not been specifically inspected for this issue, but this appears to be a known issue for this model of car.

I drove from Denver to Amarillo using the cruise control. About 25 times the car braked hard for no apparent reason. Most incidents were a sharp 5-6 mile per hour drop. Three were a 15 mile per hour drop. I believe that roughly 15 of the incidents were the car responding to the optical illusion of shimmering water. This happened on the afternoon of September 28. It was a clear, sunny day with only occasional clouds. After sundown the hard braking on cruise control continued at a lower rate with 5-6 incidents between Amarillo and Vernon TX. If someone had been following too closely in any of the incidents it's likely they would have struck my car from behind. This cruise control is unsafe.

Have owned this car for one month now and have put approximately 2,500 miles on since its purchase (2 miles on odometer at pickup). When using Adaptive Cruise Control or Autopilot the vehicle will apply hard braking without reason and seemingly random. No oncoming cars, no cars in front or to the side, road is paved and well painted. Speed would be suddenly reduced from 70mph to 30-35mph. This is a safety risk due to possibility of rear end collision by following vehicle. This event happened multiple (10+ times) on the 10 and 40 freeways in California and Arizona and on the 95 highway in Nevada as well as on other roadways. I have subsequently disabled Autopilot on my car and now avoid using Cruise Control as it is simply too frightening to use. I reported this to Tesla Service who advise that hardware-wise there is nothing wrong with the car and future software updates will improve the function. They advise that both Autopilot and Cruise Control are 'Beta' software. I could understand with their Full Self Driving and Autopilot that these advanced features may need further development but I consider Cruise Control to be a well understood and long-established vehicle function. They could at least offer both old fashioned 'fixed speed' Cruise Control along with their Beta Adaptive Cruise Control, but they provide only the Beta version. Beta software which is simply too scary to use!

Phantom braking in cruise control with or without autopilot. Sometimes braking is extremely hard. No apparent cause. Totally random This has happened several times since March 1, when we received the vehicle. Most recent events (more than 5 on September 23, 2023

Phantom breaking while driving down interstate.

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while her husband was driving 50 mph on cruise control, the vehicle began to decelerate independently. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The contact stated they continue to experience the failure five to ten times on the first trip. The contact stated she also experienced the failure on 9/23/2022, while driving 80 mph on cruise control, the vehicle began to decelerate independently to 70 mph and deactivated the cruise control independently. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The contact stated the force of the deceleration caused the seat belt to retract and caused her to have whiplash and headache left side of her head. The contact did not sought medical attention. The contact continued to experience the failure while driving to her destination. The contact stated she experience the failure for a second time on 9/25/2022. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. A dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 1,000.

We just went on a longish trip, covering a total of about 2,500 miles. While driving on interstate highways and using cruise control, the car would occasionally brake for no reason. The first several times it happened, the car braked mildly and we tried to explain it away. ("It must have seen the guardrail/traffic cone/butterfly," etc.) However, the last time it happened, with absolutely nothing anywhere near us to the sides or front, the car braked FREAKING HARD. I was driving, and it scared the $hit out of me. If the 18-wheeler behind us had been a little closer, we would have been toast. After that, we disabled the automatic emergency braking every time we started the car, and we'll continue to do that.

On our trip from San Diego to Sacramento yesterday 9/21/2022; while cruise control was on, the Tesla braked for no reason on 3 different occasions causing great alarm and emotional distress to all of us in the car. We were traveling at freeway speeds on the 5 north and thank goodness no one rear ended us when these events happened.

While going at 75 mph, no obstacles or cars ahead of us, on US30 W in Texas, the car applied a sudden strong brake (phantom braking) that almost caused a severe accident.

Multiple instances of rapid deceleration, i.e.; braking or regenerative slowing while at cruise speeds on my latest cross country trip.

On 9-12-2022 we drove from Chandler AZ. to Carlsbad NM. returning 9-15-2022 in this time we had eight Phantom braking events two with cars in close proximity very dangerous I also noticed the blind spot warning chime isn't working and is enabled in the Autopilot menu. Thank you. Mike

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds with the cruise control activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking with the Forward Collision Avoidance warning light intermittently illuminated. The contact also stated that a warning chime would sound during the failure. The dealer nor the manufacturer was notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 50. The consumer stated that the dealer was notified of the failure. The dealer informed the owner that the failure could not be repaired and that it was due to a poor GPS tracking. The consumer received a text from the dealer stating that the issue was "resolved remotely" but that is incorrect. The vehicle continues to have phantom braking issues.

My Tesla Model 3 has had multiple instances of phantom braking while the autopilot/cruise control has been engaged. All have been on the highway traveling 70-80mph. My car was delivered on 9/9/22, new from Tesla. I feel this is extremely dangerous at any speeds, but especially at highway speeds.

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving with the Adaptive Cruise control activated or while using the Autonomous Self-Driving feature, the vehicle experienced phantom braking in some areas with a posted Speed Limit. The dealer and the manufacturer were made aware of the failure and opened a case. The contact was instructed to reboot the vehicle. The contact performed the reboot several times however, the failure persisted. The failure mileage was approximately 2,000.

I rented a Tesla model three and have driven 5000 miles on it since I got it three weeks ago. In that time this car has done some very dangerous things that concern me about my safety. I stopped using the auto pilot function after one time when it tried to pull me off the road at highway speeds into the emergency lane. I have also started experiencing the phantom braking issue that you read about online. For some reason this car can’t go more than 10 or 15 miles without slamming on the brakes even though there are no cars anywhere close to me or any objects on the road that might trigger the automatic braking. I am afraid that this car is going to slam on the brakes when there is somebody behind me and cause an accident.

We have an ongoing issue with our Model 3 stopping for no reason at speed when using cruise-control or auto-pilot. We have had the car in for service at Kearney Mesa and the “manager” observed it happen. But nobody gets back to us and nobody knows anything. The car suddenly brakes for no reason. This happened multiple times. Including once with the “service manager” in the car. Answers below are for that occurrence. No other warnings on the display. If a car had been behind us, we would have been rear-ended. We are being “stonewalled “ by the attitude “I know nothing” or “someone will get back to you”. I cannot get through to anyone at Tesla HQ and the local service center is completely unhelpful. Please advise.

I am renting this Tesla Model 3 on monthly basis Rental from Hertz. ON SEP 5TH, 2022 I was at a stop sign fully stopped and all of a sudden the car started accelarating by itself. I try to call Tesla about it and their answer was as I am not the owner they won't even talk to me. I tried to call Hertz but their Customer Service no available just in a circle of press this and press that for hours..Today Sep 16, around 10:58 am , I was Stopped at an intersection on a Red light waiting for the signal to turn Green , Then all of a sudden the Car Accelerated and Luckily no Cross Traffic and I proceeded through the Intersection. This is a Serious Issue.This car does not have Self Driving Feature, and twice in 10 Days this speed issue occur. Also on three different occasions while I was driving on a freeway other Cars from left and right swerved into my Lane and extremely close to my Car and the side Sensors didn't Beep.

On Wednesday, 8/24/2022 around 1:30pm, when I tried to park my Tesla Model 3 on a residential street, suddenly and without any warning the steering wheel lost control, accelerated, made a right and then a left turn, hit an electric box and landed on the neighbor's driveway. No one else was injured, only myself with severe back pain and I could not move. Several neighbors came out of their house and checked on me and called the Homeowners Association Office and called 911, the homeowners experienced power outage. An ambulance came & took me to the Irvine Hoag Hospital Emergency Center. The medical staff took X-Ray for me and gave me Tylenol pills and ice pack on my back. I was diagnosed with compression fracture of T12 vertebra, per doctor's exam: It will take two-to-six-month to heal my back. A police report #[XXX] was filed on 8/31/2022. CA resident since 1976 very healthy, enjoy working, and helping school and do community services. Do not take drag, no alcohol with over 46+ year's careful driving skill, and a safe driver with good driving record.

During recent drive from the Kansas City area to downtown Denver over the period of September 11-12, I experienced what's known as "phantom braking" no fewer than five times along I-70. At least one of these instances was so aggressive that it slowed the car down from 77mph to 60mph. This is an extremely dangerous situation that must be addressed by Tesla ASAP. Someone is going to die.

While traveling northbound on I-25 between Las Vegas NM and Raton NM, the car auto breaked several times for no reason,Going from 75 MPH to 57 MPH, throwing us forward against the seatbelts in the car. The incident Happens again between Colorado Springs and Cheyenne Wy and outside Cheyenne again on I-25 N. All incidents happened while using the cruise control, which is what Tesla recommends to get the most miles per charge. We are just very lucky there was no traffic behind us to rear end is.

On Saturday, September 3rd 2022, we were on a highway with Autopilot system engaged at 75mph, and without any reason, the autopilot system reduced the speed to 50mph, even thought the highway speed limit was not reduced/changes, there was no vehicle or event requiring the vehicle to reduce the speed, and the Autopilot settings were to keep the current vehicle speed limit. It was a sudden unintended braking action in Autopilot, which could lead the vehicle behind us to crash and a severe accident on the highway. The sudden unintended braking happened 2x during this road trip, without any warning or symptoms.

The adaptive cruise control, or traffic-aware cruise control (TACC) as Tesla calls it, phantom brakes with no prior warning a few times per hour. It usually happens on straight stretches of road when there isn't much traffic in front of the vehicle. The event that prompted me to write this complaint was when I was travelling on a highway in Utah. I was driving about 80mph slammed on the brakes and slowed to about 30mph. There were a few vehicles behind me when this happened. Thankfully they were able to brake in time to avoid a rear-end collision. I always drive with my foot on the accelerator with TACC because I experience lots of phantom braking, but this particular event happened too quickly to intervene. I have reported this to Tesla, but they claim it's normal operation of the vehicle.

Car will phantom break while using autopilot. I will be driving 80 mph on a main free way (I-80) and all of a sudden it will slam on the breaks and go to 40 mph.

During a road trip of around 600 miles when using the adaptive cruise control feature without autopilot active I experienced no less than 6 phantom braking incidents. Most were when coming over a crest of a hill. There were no warnings or indications on the instrument screen. During each event I had to press off the accelerator to stop the braking. The car resumed the set speed with adaptive cruise control active. During some of these events a car was behind me that could have either hit me or lost control of their vehicle and caused an accident.

While driving down our rural highway, with little traffic, the cruise control is basically unusable. The cameras see the heat shimmer on the highway (100 degrees plus) as another stationary vehicle and slam on the brakes suddenly and frighteningly. If there is traffic (rarely) in front of this, the sudden deceleration never happens. However, the traffic free environment causes this kind of reaction on a regular basis. On a 60 mile trip that we regularly make it happens enough in the first 10 miles that we don't use the cruise control again on the trip. We try again after each software update but this hasn't improved anything yet.

Phantom braking aggressively appearing during a family road trip. Violent braking leading to a 20-30 mph drop in speed.

Often when driving on the highway with the cruise control on, the car will activate heavy braking without provocation. Sometimes it happens once on a 2 hour drive other times it happens 3 or 4 times on an hour drive. One time, I was the only car in sight when I was in a double lane 65mph divided highway. I am not using full self driving or auto steer, however it has occurred while using Auto Steer (beta). I'm not sure what causes this braking, but it's dangerous. One time it brake checked a semi truck before I slammed on the accelerator pedal to disable the braking system. Other times I can feel short choppy accels/decels on the highway again without having a car/object in front. Today a driver was following closely and it went into full braking mode. I'm not convinced it's emergency braking, however when you take your foot off the accelerator pedal it does brake heavily with regenerative braking. In our ownership of the car, the collision warning has chimed at us once but not actually activated braking to my knowledge. So far I've seen complaints about Full Self Driving autopilot Phantom Braking, however we don't have that package. However the same systems are physically installed that may feed into the safety systems.

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 70 MPH with the self-driving assist feature activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. The contact stated that the failure occurred approximately 6-10 times within 7 hours. The contact stated that the failure reoccurred 4 times within 4 hours while driving with self-driving assist and auto-steer mode the following day. The contact notified a Tesla Service Center who informed him to submit a service request online. The contact submitted a service request online and later received a remote diagnostic test report stating that no hardware issues were found and the vehicle was operating as designed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 5,200.

The adaptive cruise control thinks that those heat shimmers/pavement mirages you get on asphalt are trucks stopped in the middle of the road and slams on the brakes. It happened dozens and dozens of times on my drive on I-80 from Reno to Colorado. It seems like this is a common experience from searching the internet. I will take it in for service but it seems like its happening to everyone so not likely to get fixed. Sometimes it will only slow down a little bit, 5 or 10 mph, but I've also had it hit the brakes hard and slow me down to 25 below the speed limit. Sooner or later this is going to cause accidents, if it hasn't already.

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at 5 MPH to park at her residence, the vehicle experienced unintended acceleration and inadvertently veered to the right. The vehicle then crashed into a transformer box in a residential yard and came to a complete stop. The contact had a broken backbone and received medical attention. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to a body shop where it remained unrepaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and informed the contact that it was a human error, mistaking the accelerator pedal for the brake pedal and that they would review the computer log. The failure mileage was 1,062. The VIN was unavailable.

While I was driving the car Unintended acceleration and jumped . Cause an accident

The car will dramatically, without warning, and unexpectantly brake while using the adaptive cruise control. This has occurred with absolutely no issue that should provoke the braking. One instance did occur with traffic behind me, which led to those vehicles having to emergency brake. I do note that this issue has been frequently reported and characterized as "phantom braking". It is real and it is a genuine risk and concern. I will report yesterday's incident, but it has occurred several times previously.

My Tesla model 3 has detected imaginary object while using auto pilot feature and applied FULL brake pressure to stop the car, which puts us in danger of being rear ended.

Several incidences of phantom breaking occurred when no other cars were around. This took place during our road trip from Michigan to Montana. One of the days, it occurred over 10 times, with the worst resulting in a hard brake from 75mph to 50mpg before I could intervene. The majority of the time there were no cars within 200 yards ahead or behind me. If there were a car behind me, it could have resulted in a severed accident. The braking was hard enough to throw me and my children hard into seatbelts, even causing the belts to lock. I reported these incidents to Tesla but have heard nothing back.