NHTSA Complaint #11455282 — 2022 TESLA MODEL Y

While driving from San Francisco to Salt lake city and back on highway 80 this past week, my vehicle frequently experienced “phantom braking” while using “autopilot”. At least 15 times on the drive, my car, while using “autopilot”, would forcefully apply the brakes when no hazard was present. While most times it slowed the car from 80mph to 70-75 and then resumed normal operation, one time it slammed on the brakes so hard and dropped the vehicle speed down to 50 before I could intervene and avoid a rear end collision. The system was even worse at night, but only when passing large semi-trucks. They were in the right lane and as my car would approach to pass in the left lane it would slam on the brakes and slow down. It got to the point where I would turn off autopilot every time I was about to pass a truck at night. I also noticed it only seemed to happen on two lane highways—two lanes in each direction, and only when I was in the left lane, again mostly as I was passing a large truck that was driving in the right lane. This is particularly concerning as a few times there were cars behind me that could have easily rear ended me as there was no hazard indicating that they should slow down.