2021 TESLA MODEL Y Complaints

While using adaptive cruise control we have experienced multiple incidents of our vehicle braking hard, fast, without warning, and for no reason. The most recent incident just happened (07/21/2022) while driving on a 4 lane highway. My husband was using ADP traveling at approx 65mph when suddenly our Tesla model Y began rapidly braking, throwing my upper body towards the dash and causing us to almost be rear ended by the vehicle traveling behind us. Thankfully, I did not hit the dash and the vehicle behind us was paying attention and swerved into another lane to avoid a collision.

The rear hatch can be opened while the car is in drive or reverse from a remote input from the app. On several occasion my hatch has opened from a remote input while in traffic while stopped at red lights. Tesla says this is normal behavior. So what is possible is someone can open the hatch from a remote input from anywhere without being able to see the car. My concern is when this has happened item could have fallen from my trunk into traffic resulting in damage or vehicles behind me. To close the hatch you must place the car in park first. Having a vehicle in park in traffic could result in a collision. You can not move the vehicle while the hatch is closing or it stops closing it takes several seconds to open or close the hatch and additional time to realize you must place the vehicle in park to close it. Remote input to operate the hatch should be disabled while the vehicle is in drive or reverse. The event has occurred on 4 occasions while driving the vehicle over the last year.

The vehicle loose power all of sudden while driving disabling all power including loss of power steering, failure of lane departure avoidance, regenerative brakes, parking breaks, traction and stability controls. This has caused hazardous dangerous conditions on the road. The vehicle had to be towed to local Tesla repair/service center on 4 occasions. We have been given false reassurance with no definitive fix yet, continues to be an ongoing issues that recurs after few weeks that vehicle comes back from service center.

On July 16, 2022 I was traveling west on I-40, east of Tucumcari, NM. I was using Traffic Adaptive Cruise Control (TACC). There were no cars within a mile of me, front or back. The weather was clear, the road was flat. The car suddenly braked without warning. The objects stored in the back of the car flew forward, striking the two front seats. The wheels did not lock up. I immediately stabbed the accelerator. I saw the power line bar graph indicator go fully to the right. I contacted Tesla to request a service appointment. Tesla initially set an appointment but then cancelled it, explaining there was nothing wrong with the car. I was reminded that TACC (along with virtually all other Tesla driving aids) is "beta" and may therefore not function as intended or expected. It was the responsibility of the driver to assume the risks implied. Prior to this event, I had already decided not to use any technology more advanced than the speed control (TACC) as they behaved poorly. I thought that adaptive cruise control (Tesla: TACC) was a such a common technology that it wouldn't exhibit phantom braking. I was wrong.

I own a 2021Tesla Model Y. I took possession of it on August 7, 2021, in Santa Barbara, Ca. Ever since, I continuously experience automatic emergency braking (phantom braking) episodes while using cruise control or autopilot. It is very dangerous because I almost got rear-ended. I've had it in Tesla's service center several times for inspection. They always say the technicians can't fix the phantom braking problem, that only the engineers can, and that they are working on it. It's been one year and there hasn't been a software update to remedy the dangerous flaw. Will you please force Tesla to fix the hundred, perhaps thousands, of Tesla Models 3 and Ys that have this problem? An investigation and recall would be welcomed. Thanks!

The vehicle was on cruise control (NOT auto-pilot). Driving on Freeway approximately 82 mph when the vehicle slowed to 60 mph instantly numerous time within my 160 mile drive. There were no vehicles in front or beside me. There were no obstacles in the roadway or on the side of the road. Sunny day with no clouds. There were no warnings lamps or messages that would indicate the car was going to brake. My safety was put at risk if there was another driver behind me, I could have been rear-ended. It Could also had been very dangerous if there was adverse weather. Tesla was not able to recreate the problem and never found any problems with the vehicle. This was not the first time we took the vehicle in for phantom braking. Tesla blamed the driver. I was also told by a tesla representative the the vehicle can brake unexpectedly by sensing a shadow on the road from a cloud. Apparently there is no way to disable this feature. The vehicle has been deemed unsafe to drive by our senior management as this is not the first time this has occurred and Tesla has not remedied the problem.

On a roadtrip between California and Wyoming, the adaptive cruise control, full-self driving, and emergency breaking engaged for absolutely no reason on dozens of occasions - what I understand is termed "phantom breaking." This was so bad that on Sunday, July 10, I noted each severe incident. Some of these occurred with absolutely no traffic in the road, some during busier periods. In each case, it was scary and dangers -- to the point where my dog went flying off the seat. While this was an issue throughout the road trip, I only noted incidents on July 10, but please be aware this happened on many other days as well. Here are the significant incidents on July 10. Please note there were less severe incidents on this day that I didn't note because it would have been too many to count. 12pm mountain time just outside Idaho Falls, ID -- car braked with no warning from 70 MPH to 60 MPH 2pm mountain time - 77 miles outside twin falls, ID 256pm mountain time - right outside twin falls 408pm mountain time - heading south from Twin falls towards Nevada -- the car braked three times in rapid succession 447pm mountain time - heading south past Jackpot NV 450pm Mountain time - same 420pm Pacific time - 16 miles north of Wells NV, braking multiple times in succession 524pm pacific time - just west of Wells, NV, sudden braking from 85 mph to 65 mph 643pm pacific time - half way between Wells, NV and Winnemucca NV

My car is experiencing phantom braking nearly every time I use cruise control. It only happens when there are no cars or other obstacles in front of me. It happens at various speeds. The braking slows the car to a stop within seconds if I don’t immediately disengage the cruise control, even at highway speeds.

While adaptive cruise control was engaged on highway, it would disengage and harshly break even though there was nothing ahead as an obstacle. If there was a vehicle behind, it would have created a significant change of collision. During a 5+ hour drive, this occurred 20+ times. It seemed to occur when cresting small hills where visibility was somewhat limited ahead and when there were few cars ahead. In a few occurrences, there was a warning chime, but in other cases, it disengaged and braked silently. This just happened yesterday, so it has not been inspected by Tesla.

Going 40 MPH on CA 210W in left lane. Full Self Driving available on vehicle but no autopilot/lane assist activated at time of incident. Steering wheel locked up completely; I was unable to turn the wheel at all so I ended up drifting across 4 lanes of highway (miraculously didn’t hit anyone) and ended up under a semi. Car airbags did not deploy and system did not detect a collision. Contacted Tesla to ask about the cause of the accident multiple times; never got an answer. They had us pull the USB in glovebox and see if anything is on there but there wasn’t even though dash cam was activated. They “escalated” the ticket to a supervisor and have been ghosted ever since asking for an answer. We scheduled a service appointment to have them check out the vehicle and they canceled it. It is a miracle that I did not die; I have severe PTSD from the incident which has affected my career negatively. I would like Tesla to take accountability for things like this; it’s scary that they don’t and threaten legal action instead.