NHTSA Complaint #11569461 — 2023 TESLA MODEL Y

Component that failed: Automatic Emergency Braking What happened: When traveling at night on an ice covered road, the car abruptly and erroneously engaged the automatic emergency braking which almost resulted in a crash. I was driving the vehicle using full manual mode and the car does not have a full self driving subscription; no cruise control was engaged and I was traveling at a steady speed of 35MPH. There was no inclement weather, but the road was covered in snow and ice. The road was a two lane county road with opposing traffic. As a light duty truck passed me traveling in the opposite direction the car abruptly engaged automatic emergency braking. I was centered in my lane, there were no obstructions in my lane, nor was the oncoming vehicle in my lane. The AEB was so incredibly aggressive that I briefly lost control due to the slick road. The AEB also appeared to override the antilock brakes as I did not feel any vibration to indicate that the brakes were oscillating in an attempt to maintain control. The AEB event lasted less than a second and I was able to recover control. HOWEVER, if my car had slid to the left instead of to the right, I would have been in a head on collision with a larger truck at an equivalent of 70MPH, given the size difference and a potential half overlap crash, there is a non-zero chance that it would have been fatal. I contacted Tesla and have received no response and there is no ability to disable AEB. I DO NOT WANT safety features that can kill me without warning based on some nebulous neural network implemented at a breakneck pace by employees that have never driven in snow.