NHTSA Complaint #11458668 — 2021 TESLA MODEL Y

We have had issues with the “autopilot” function braking when no obstruction exists. Situations that trigger these unnecessary breaking events generally involve shadows on the roadway, visible disturbances such as reflected sunlight, or other visual circumstances that in some way impact the appearance on the roadway surface. These appearances are generally widespread on county roads and state highways, but are less frequent on the Interstate highways. Due to the severity of these breaking actions we have greatly reduced the use of the “Autopilot” feature, and now only us it sparingly on the interstate when the lighting conditions are good. Due to loss of confidence we use it very infrequently, only once every few weeks at most. These emergency breaking events are greatly unwarranted 95% of the time. In addition, we feel that the unexpected nature of these events and the severity of them have increased our risk of collision. This is due to the unexpected and unintended breaking causing an accident from a vehicle rear ending us on the highway. We have not been in a collision yet. I feel that this feature is not yet ready for release and it should be disabled or rolled back until such a time it can be trusted to not increase the risk of collision for the occupants. To answer the questions specifically: What component or system failed or malfunctioned: Autopilot / automatic emergency breaking. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk?: Uncommanded and unwarranted emergency breaking increases risk for an accident. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center?: No Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer or others: Remote diagnostics performed by manufacture. No problem found. Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear?: Other then alerting to the breaking action, no warnings have been displayed.