NHTSA Complaint #11540483 — 2023 TESLA MODEL 3

While driving westbound on US Rt 50 in Nevada with AutoSteer Beta engaged, car repeatedly decelerated rapidly with no audible or visual warning presented. This "phantom braking" could easily put vehicles traveling behind mine at risk of a collision. I have been able to reliable reproduce this in certain conditions - when a mirage is present on the roadway ahead and there are no cars immediately in front, the visual object detection system is apparently thrown off by the refraction of light and incorrectly detects cars, pedestrians, or motorcycles where none exist. As I see it, there are two major problems in play here - one is that the camera-based object detection system is easily confused by the presence of mirages on the road surface ahead and there are no other sensors in other portions of the EM spectrum (IR LIDAR or RADAR) to confirm the presence of visually detected objects. The second is the lack of audible driver warning before deceleration takes place. The only indication that occurs is the energy use indicator (a thin line at the top left of the screen) shows energy use transition to regeneration. Together, these constitute a serious safety hazard for anyone operating these vehicles and those following behind them.