NHTSA Complaint #11527534 — 2023 TESLA MODEL X

When driving at highway speed and using cruise control, the car periodically applies its brakes. Sometimes it will only do so for a second or two, then return to the cruise control speed; other times it will continue longer and I will have to intervene by applying pressure to the accelerator pedal. In shorter "phantom braking" episodes the speed may only be reduced by five or ten miles per hour; in longer episodes it could drop by twenty miles per hour before I intervene. I have driven the car for almost three months and have experienced this no fewer than twenty times. To be fair, I have driven almost nine thousand miles during that time, so I have spent a considerable amount of time on highways. When communicating with Tesla's service department, I received a reply message reading, in part: "... slowdowns for apparently no reason are generally caused by a few reasons ... This can easily be overridden by pressing the accelerator pedal ... There are no faults with any of the driver assistance hardware in the vehicle ... these behaviors are a limitation of software in the system ...A service visit is not needed at this time." I have owned cars for almost forty years and have never had these issues while using cruise control. That Tesla finds this acceptable is absolutely not acceptable. I believe it is an unsafe condition, as I have no control over drivers behind me and how they may act in the case of my car decelerating for no apparent reason.