2021 TESLA MODEL Y Complaints

Numerous times in the last 6 to 7 months, while driving my tesla on the freeway in auto pilot mode, auto pilot will just turn off and the car will abruptly slow down. Without reason, auto pilot turns off. And because of the settings on my car, this causes the car to quickly slow down. I rarely use auto pilot because I am afraid it will happen again and I’ll be rear ended.

My 2021 Tesla Model Y has two problems related to braking: (1) frequent unexpected and unnecessary slowdowns while driving on Autopilot adaptive cruise control. The vehicle seems to believe something is in the road but it is not the case. This has been called "phantom braking" by many online reports. I experience this on nearly every drive where adaptive cruise control is engaged. (2) On one occasion the car locked up its brakes and began swerving to the left for no reason whatsoever. An alarm appeared on the screen and audible tones and a video was automatically saved. The event lasted only a second but would surely have caused a collision if another car was following me. The event occurred as I passed an oncoming truck on a two lane highway at night in good visibility. I was driving manually. Adaptive cruise control and auto steering were *not* engaged at the time. The extreme braking event was caused by the Adaptive Emergency Braking (AEB) system.

I have owned two Tesla Model Y's, this one from 2021 and a 2022 version as well. Both vehicles have exhibited the type of "phantom braking" that I have now seen described by several other owners. When attempting to use either the full Autopilot system (which includes both adaptive cruise control and lane keeping assist), or when using just the adaptive cruise control (without lane keeping), the vehicle would brake suddenly and forcefully. This appears to be in response to a threat perceived by the car, but it would happen on totally clear roads, in great weather, without some of the typical false indicators experienced by "vision" based systems. It's noteworthy that both of my cars used the vision-only system, as this vehicle was one of the first ones that Tesla produced that did not include a radar-based system. I experienced phantom braking so often with this car that I was completely unable to use cruise control. On a ~1,000 mile road trip through Wyoming and South Dakota (with minimal traffic in clear conditions on well-marked roads), I experienced over 100 phantom braking incidents in 4 days of highway driving. After that trip, I never used cruise control again regularly, but I would occasionally attempt to see if it fixed itself, and every time I would turn it on, I would have a phantom braking incident within minutes. I was able to capture a few videos of this behavior that I can send, as well, but I apparently can't do that as part of this form so please let me know how I could provide those, if required. Finally, the dates that I'm entering below are for the first occurrence of the phantom braking that I experience, but between the two vehicles, I have probably had it happen to me 150-200 times now. I have since sold the second Tesla (largely to avoid these issues), but please let me know if I can provide more info. These cars are not safe right now, and I've been looking for a way to remedy that for a while.

While driving my Tesla Model Y with Cruise Control activated, the vehicle would inexplicably brake/decelerate rapidly without any vehicle traffic in front of the car. It would occur at its worst while changing lanes, as I approached another vehicle from behind and attempted to change lanes to overtake. I would either be mostly in the other lane, or had already successfully changed lanes, when the vehicle inexplicably braked/decelerated. It was alarming, frustrating, and infuriating as it seemed clearly unjustified. This occurred while on the interstate, which was extremely dangerous given the speed traveling at as well as the number of vehicles that typically travel on the interstate. I have not used the feature since, and have even attempted to try and disable the feature while still being able to utilize some sort of basic cruise control feature, to no avail.

At 55 MPH on clear day, with visible lines the car automatically braked when an on coming truck passed nearby causing near rear end collision. I have two good videos of this if you wish to see actual conditions. Dealer acknowledged problem but said there was no fix and I should turn off automatic braking.

The Tesla Model Y had a software update at 12:05 am on Feb 13, 2022, which was complete. I drove the car to local YMCA at around 8:15 am on Sunday Feb 13, 2022, for my swim exercise and drove it home at around 9:30 am. I planned to park it by backing up to my driveway so that I can charge it. I positioned my car, with the front facing my neighbor's house. My foot was on brake and my right hand was moving the Drive Stalk towards R for reverse. The car all of the sudden flew forward on its own! It was only stopped after it hit my neighbor's house, making a big hole into her house, and causing severe damages to it outside and inside (smashed furniture and falling glassware), as well as to her landscaping. When this happened, my foot was still on the brake but pushing brake did stop the car. Additionally, hitting a tree also did not stop the car. Only the house and its strong frame stopped the car. The front of the car was totally damaged, including pieces falling out of the car and a big piece under the car falling down. Please come by immediately to take photos and examine damage. I called 911 immediately. The police and emergency trucks came. Since no one seemed to be visibly hurt (I had a whiplash and headache due to impact but was more was scared and shocked), the emergency medical crew left. The police said they are not making a report because the accident happened in private driveway and no crime was involved. I called Liberty Mutual to file a claim and was directed to file it online. I never bought the Tesla autopilot package but the new software update showed autopilot is an included package. This is a problem. I called Tesla customer service and reported this serious software malfunction. Thinking back, software problem caused another safety concern that started on Feb 6, 2022. Not only the right passenger door cannot be opened from outside, it also cannot be opened from inside. Someone could be trapped inside. This is a SAFETY alert!

I have had over 18 occurrences of phantom braking while on cruise control; rapid deceleration without warning. I reacted by accelerating with the brake pedal. I reported this twice to the service adviser. One response was I needed to return with a date and time when it occurs again. When I did this, they could not find it in the computer record. They explained this occurs because cruise control is part of the self drive software and that is only in beta stage.

I’ve been driving my Tesla mostly under autopilot about 90% of the time over the past 4 months. During that time, I’ve experienced about 30 or more phantom braking issues where the automatic braking system will engage when there is no object in front of the car. It’s all happened when autopilot was engaged. It happens during the day, generally on a single lane road, and also at night when on coming traffic lights are blinding. Each time it causes the car to rapidly slow down and causes the car behind me to slam on their brakes, potentially causing an accident. This needs to be fixed since it’s safety risk.

Several times over the past 6 months the car suddenly slowed down without any reason while driving on autopilot with nothing ahead of it on highway (there was no change of speed limit so that can’t be an explanation). Also known as “phantom breaking”

We are familiar with managing the controls which, in my experience, operate similarly to other vehicles with similar safety and driver-assist features. Unfortunately, in regards to the effectiveness and ease of operation of the TACC, our Tesla is by far the worst of the 5 vehicles with which I'm familiar. The experience of managing TACC with oncoming traffic is frustrating, distracting and sometimes unsafe. Autosteer, because it builds on TACC's systems, is similarly deficient although the features it provides would be extremely welcome when TACC is improved. Nearly every oncoming large truck (including many pickup trucks) caused TACC to brake the car TACC assisted braking was inconsistent. Sometimes an immediate, slight reduction in speed (5-10mph) and other times it was an immediate major reduction in speed, on the order of half-speed within 3 - 5 seconds. It was common to have the car brake from 65 - 35 for no other reason than a large, oncoming truck. After 3 or 4 occurrences of heavy braking, I would turn off TACC and manually maintain speed with the accelerator. This in itself is fatiguing and I would eventually resort to a system in which I would disengage TACC when approached by a truck, usually 200 - 300 yds away and then reengage when traffic was clear Heavy braking was severe enough that, if a there had been a closely following/unaware car, it would have rear-ended our vehicle TACC (and Autosteer) seem "happiest" when following other vehicles and, even on 2 lane highways, phantom braking was much less frequent A standard cruise control (no Traffic Assist except for Following Distance) is not available but would be welcome Summary: On the Interstate Highway system TAAC works reasonably well but could use improvement. On 2 lane highways TACC is more work and less safe than operating the vehicle manually and, as a system designed to reduce driver workload and improve safety, it fails.