2021 TESLA MODEL 3 Complaints

Terrible phantom braking. On a road trip, flat straight open roads, little to no traffic in front of me, and consistent full on hard braking from 75mph down to 35mph in a split second. Multiple times and so consistent I had to stop using the cruise control completely. This never happened like this in my day to day city driving. But as is, the cruise control is nerve wracking and dangerous. Thankfully no cars behind me because it could very easily cause a serious and deadly accident.

Recurrent, frequent, and unpredictable sudden braking while vehicle is being driven in TACC (Traffic Aware Cruise Control). These event, or "phantom brakes", occur when there is no visible obstruction ahead of the car (i.e. crossing vehicle or object), nor any environmental explanation (sun glare, heavy rain, etc.). Events occur in all conditions, including daytime, clear sky, with or without traffic. Frequently the collision warning will sound during these events. Given the episodes occur during highway driving, the unexpected hard braking is a set-up for being rear ended by cars behind me. These events are most common on 2 lane divided highways, and can occur as frequently as every 2-5 minutes. Brought in for evaluation at Tesla service center, and they refused to acknowledge any problem, stating the car is "operating as designed." This was based on the fact that they did not reproduce symptoms on their test drive. Although I had logged >20 of these events for them to review on the automated records, it was not clear this was done.

On a recent trip, we started experiencing extreme issues with our car's cruise control and autopilot features. Specifically, when in cruise control or auto pilot, the car would randomly disengage the cruise control or auto pilot and start braking. Taking the car out of cruise control or auto pilot, restarting the car, etc did not fix the problem. We noticed the problem was much worse at night and when we were traveling on a two lane highway. We would be in cruise control/auto pilot and often when another vehicle would approach us from the opposite direction the vehicle would suddenly brake. While this happened more often at night, it continued to happen at any point during the day and when we were on many different roads/interstates. This seems extremely unsafe to have our vehicle hard braking randomly when we are traveling at high speeds (60mph+). We scheduled a service appointment with Tesla and were told that this is a software issue and we would have to wait for an update.

Whenever TACC (cruise control) is engaged and the car is on a two lane highway with no divider, it will aggressively brake and trigger the collision warning system when a semi-truck passes going the opposite direction.

While using autopilot feature on interstate highway the vehicle independently applied braking while traveling at 70 mph although no other vehicle nor any other physical object was observed. Also while using the same feature and traveling on a two lane highway at 55 mph the car independently applied braking when an large truck approached in the opposite on-coming lane. This exact event happened a second time when another large truck while traveling the same two lane highway. Autopilot was no longer used.

The “traffic aware cruise control” feature is flawed to the point of being unusable add dangerous. My Model 3 (leased in late September 2021) exhibits very frequent “phantom braking” problems when TACC is active. Some are mild, the car applying the brakes and slowing down despite the absence of nearby cars or hazards. Some are dramatic, the car slamming on its brakes and sounding an alarm — again, with no hazards. I have a service appointment scheduled for Dec 3 but I’m not optimistic.

TRAFFIC AWARE CRUISE CONTROL WHILE CRUISE CONTROL IS OPERATING, DRIVING AT 70 MPH OR HIGHER, FOR NO APPARENT REASON, NO VEHICLES AHEAD OF ME, THE CAR BRAKES SUDDENLY. THIS HAPPENED AT LEAST SIX TIMES ON A 1000 MILE TRIP. IF A CAR HAD BEEN FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY, MY SUDDEN BRAKING COULD HAVE CAUSED AN ACCIDENT. I HAVE NOT FIGURED OUT HOW TO CONTACT TESLA ABOUT THIS. NO ONE HAS INSPECTED MY CAR. THERE WERE NO WARNING SIGNS. AFTER I GOT HOME, I GOOGLED THE PROBLEM AND SAW THAT OTHERS HAD EXPERIENCED IT TOO. I'M WRITING IN THE HOPE THAT YOU WILL TELL TESLA TO FIX THE PROBLEM, OR AT LEAST TO OFFER THEIR CUSTOMERS PLAIN CRUISE CONTROL WITHOUT THE TRAFFIC AWARE FEATURE. THIS HAPPENED EVERY TIME I WAS ON THE INTERSTATE FOR MORE THAN A COUPLE HOURS, MOST RECENTLY ON OCTOBER 31, 2021.

For the past week, my car phantom braked with no obvious danger from a parked car. It just happens on a city road, not a freeway. Ithappened about 4 times

While driving on C-470 westbound going 70 MPH with the car on Autopilot, the car braked hard dropping the speed to 40 MPH. If a car would have been behind me, they would have hit the back of my car. This issue is happening frequently, from neighborhood side streets, city streets, and on the interstate highway.

"Traffic Aware Cruise Control" (aka Autopilot) applied full braking and sounded collision warning when no collision was imminent. Had traffic been following closely, a rear-end collision could have occurred. Several other similar "ghost braking" incidents have occurred but this was the worst and most dangerous. Vehicle has not yet been taken to a repair facility. Vehicle has not needed inspection by law enforcement nor insurance company.