2021 TESLA MODEL Y Complaints

Every time I drive on a two lane undivided highway with traffic aware cruise control or AutoPilot engaged, the car will slam on its brakes when a large vehicle is passing in the oncoming lane, even if the passing vehicle is safely passing. Phantom braking with vision only.

While driving on a two lane highway at 70mph with adaptive cruise control on, every time a semi would approach the car, the car would brake really hard with no notice. Not one car caused this issue. It was only large semis trucks or trailers.

Car is frequently emergency braking when autopilot is enaged and large trucks or semi tractor trailers merge from the right. Car will also unnecessarily and prematurely emergency brake when cars are climbing a hill. The unexpected braking has nearly caused several accidents and we have discontinued use.

When placed in cruise control (which is called TACC: traffic aware cruise control), and driving on 2 lanes road, the car frequently (more than 10 times over 20 miles) slams on the brakes when incoming large vehicles on the other lane. This is generating dangerous situation with following cars being surprised for sudden (and unwarranted) braking occurs. I have a dash cam video of one such incidents

When driving with Cruise Control engaged, the car repeatedly brakes VERY HARD. Sometimes the braking is when there is a car in the opposing lane and is approaching but not over the line. Sometimes the sudden hard braking occurs for no apparent reason. But on a two lane highway this occurs VERY regularly. It occurs several times an hour. This is a serious problem because if there is a car behind me the sudden hard braking may cause that car to crash into me from behind. You can submit a bug report to Tesla by pushing the right hand steering wheel button, saying "Bug Report" and then describing the report verbally while driving. This will include all sorts of driving data being sent to Tesla. I have done this dozens and dozens of times. Each time I get a message on the screen thanking me for sending in the bug report. Never once have I ever heard back from Tesla other than the instantaneous message on the screen saying that the bug report has been submitted. I believe that Tesla has had a recall for a very similar problem with the Model S and Model X with Full Self Driving. This recall was fixed almost immediately with an over-the-air software update. However my problem does not relate to Full Self Driving (which my car does not have). This relates only to cruise control. I have spoken to several other Model 3 and Model Y owners who ALL report the exact same problem. A quick search online will reveal hundreds of other similar reports for Model 3 and Model Y owners who do NOT have Full Self Driving. I believe this is a very serious safety problem and needs to be addressed immediately. Regards, Ken Maples

Vehicle will brake hard when approaching oncoming large trucks. This may result in a rear end collision of the following vehicle and possible chain reaction incident. The vehicle has not been inspected and is two months old. This is an ongoing issue and common with this make and model.

On September 26, on our first long distance trip with our just delivered (9/17/2021) Tesla Model Y, during daylight nice weather driving with Adaptive Cruise Control switched “On”, on at least 6 occasions (strait roads, freeway and non-freeway driving), the car suddenly, without any reason, violently slammed on the brakes. These events are hair raising for me and passengers, let alone for a driver behind me. If he/she does not pay attention at that very moment, the result could even be disastrous. I would never have expected such a serious safety issue with a Tesla. Suffice to say that this is absolutely unacceptable to me. When checking out the web, many people reported similar issues with their Model Y vehicle. I had the car checked-out at the Tesla Lynnwood, WA, Service Center on September 30, 2021, and when picking-up the car I was informed that no anomalies had been found. At later dates, similar emergency braking occurred without any reason, while driving with Adaptive Cruise Control. Obviously, I do not trust this Cruise Control system one bit anymore, and no longer use it. I have written a letter to Tesla (11/12/2021) requesting a time frame when a solution can be expected, but so far, I have not received any word from them. I sincerely feel that Tesla should temporarily disable this Adaptive Cruise Control feature on ALL Model Y vehicles currently on the road and those still to be delivered (to unaware new owners), until this serious safety issue has been resolved.

When on Cruise Control or using Autopilot mode, there are frequent phantom breaking issues. On a long trip, we experienced phantom breaking consistently on the Highway both at night and during the day. These phantom breaking issues would sometime be significant and immediately drop speeds 10 miles an hour creating a danger of surprising people behind us. On a 2 lane country road, the issues are GREATLY compounded. The breaking would constantly trigger with oncoming traffic in the other lane and break VERY hard with the auto break alarm sounding. At night on a country road, it occurs with almost EVERY oncoming car. It is amazing to me that this made it through quality control because it is easily reproducible. The auto braking feature should just be turned off for country roads if this can't be fixed. At one point, I was right next to an older Model 3 on a mountain passing lane when an oncoming car was coming. The Model 3 was in the left lane closer to the 'danger' and my car phantom braked with the auto breaking alarm coming on and the model 3 just continued on, no issue. No idea if they were on cruise or auto pilot etc.

Driving I5N near Delmar with auto pilot in daylight, car suddenly braked while there was no obstacle, or any other car in front of it. Luckily no one rear-ended me. Max cruise speed was set to 75 MPH, and speed suddenly dropped below 45 MPH. The maximum cruise speed I set to also automatically changed to 45 MPH as well.

When driving on cruise control the car will suddenly and randomly decelerate and/or break for no reason. I have had this happen on empty two lane highways and on 4 lane highways with cars around me. It's incredibly stress full and if cars are following too close very dangerous.