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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.