2019 TESLA MODEL 3 Forward Collision Avoidance Adaptive Cruise Control Problems
122 NHTSA complaints on file
Forward Collision Avoidance Adaptive Cruise Control Issues in the 2019 TESLA MODEL 3
122 forward collision avoidance adaptive cruise control complaints have been filed with NHTSA for the 2019 TESLA MODEL 3. Of these, 5 involved a crash, 0 involved a fire, and 1 resulted in injury.
122
Complaints
5
Crashes
0
Fires
1
Injuries
2
Deaths
All Forward Collision Avoidance Adaptive Cruise Control Complaints
What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? The steering system failed due to corrosion and water ingress affecting both the steering rack and the associated steering wiring harness. These components were replaced by Tesla and are no longer available for inspection. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? The steering system is a safety-critical component. Corrosion and water intrusion created a risk of reduced or sudden loss of steering assist while driving, which could lead to loss of vehicle control and increase the risk of a crash. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? Yes. Tesla service confirmed water ingress and corrosion affecting the steering rack and wiring harness and performed a full replacement of both components. Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives...
Vehicle: 2019 Tesla Model 3 Dual Motor VIN: [XXX] Mileage: ~84,041 Software: v12 (2025.32.6 e575ed98d527), FSD Supervised v12.6.4 Date/Time: [XXX], ~[XXX] Location: [XXX] Incident Description: While operating Autopilot, I was stopped at a stop sign preparing to turn right. I lightly pressed the accelerator to prompt the turn. At that moment, the vehicle would not respond to steering or braking input. Despite applying full force on the steering wheel and brake pedal, the car continued straight ahead and struck a street sign. This represents a loss of manual override — I was completely locked out of steering and braking. Prior Behavior at Same Location: On prior occasions using Autopilot at this same intersection, the vehicle would attempt to make the turn but then immediately steer itself into the breakdown lane. I had learned to expect this and was prepared to take over. However, in this most recent incident, the vehicle...
For the last few weeks while driving, my car will automatically put itself into FSD with out me authorization. Mean I will we driving and the car will just put itself into FSD. This has happened about 15-20 times over the last 2-3 weeks. Tesla wants to clean the front camera? Which makes no sense and charge me for it. If the front camera was obstructed, like in the case of fog. The car would alert me that it could not due to being obstructed, which isnt the case.
Phantom braking (as it's referred to by experts) happened to me twice on the highway using Traffic-Aware-Cruise-Control. Very scary. I was on cruise control going 60 mph when suddenly my car braked suddenly and inappropriately, losing at least 20 mph in a split second before I was able to slam on the accelerator and prevent an accident (rear-end collision). This happened TWICE in the course of 5 minutes on the same highway! There was no obstruction in the road, no cars moving into my lane, nothing but normal road conditions, when it occurred. From my research, this is a huge problem with Tesla vehicles that thousands of individuals are loudly complaining about online and now in court cases in the country. I see there are thousands of reports to your organization about this, but it says you have only complaints from 2021 and later years. However, I have a 2019...
Two major safety issues need to be reported: 1) The left front lower control arm falling off in the middle of driving, caused car wheel stuck on a traffic street (luckily it was off the freeway 5 minutes ago). The long bolts connected the lower control arms were loss due to the defective design (the bolts are screwed upward vertically, falling off is definitely just a matter of time). I found there was a class action against Tesla due to this problem (it is referred to Model X and S) 2) The other major safety issue I encountered as I turned on the “advanced autopilot “ feature, the car could break suddenly without warning on the freeway. There were no cars or obstacles in the front. I researched online and found many Tesla owners have experienced this so called “phantom breaking” problem as I had (I had experienced this unsafe...
It brakes at highway speeds of 70 without reasons on cruise control and FSD. Happened three times on highway 46. It can be very bad if there was a car behind me. This happened to me through all these years since 2019.
I’m at the Tesla service center and Tesla is refusing to perform recall work without payment/diagnostic time. Even though Tesla’s website and notices states that they will perform recall work free of charge they are in fact refusing to perform recall work free of charge. They are mandating that I be charged diagnostic fees for them to determine whether they will perform the recall work as of 11/13 at 7:15am per Marc the service advisor at Tesla Service Center Kearny Mesa.
Tesla Model 3 with FSD (Full Self Driving) package. Engaged FSD to drive home today but vehicle failed to recognize ALL traffic control signals (stop signs, red & green stoplights. The first time this occurred, I had to brake emergently to avoid collision with cross traffic that had a ‘green’ light. Subsequently reactivated FSD to check the issue and vehicle attempted to run several more red lights and stop signs.It did, however recognize and stop for stopped traffic ahead and performed fairly well with autosteer. This is the first time we have had this potentially-fatal issue. We have, for several months had an issue where some or all of the Tesla cameras fail intermittently. This usually happens at the beginning of a drive and the vehicle alerts us ‘Automatic braking temporarily unavailable.’ Sometimes it recovers on a subsequent drive the same day and rarely recovers on same drive. When cameras...
Tesla has combined cruise control with their Auto Pilot feature. Now there is no human override to what speed limit to use, Tesla determines the speed to used based on certain criteria. This puts the driver at risk who may want to lower or increase the speed limit based on certain conditions Tesla may not be able to detect. For me it was a 9 PM run to the store thru an area that had temporary road construction and known to be a speed trap zone.
With the latest update of V12.3 FSD, the full self driving cannot predict the obstacles clearly, resulting in am incorrect left turn manuever, running over a central divider curb, and damaging tires. Not sure, what could have happened, if a human was standing there instead!
I was driving on the road at night a few days ago and there was a car that was pulled over on the side of the road with hazard lights flashing. The Tesla slowed down and applied the brakes very hard. The Tesla also applied the brakes for no reason. It was on adaptive cruise control, and all of a sudden it would hit the brakes really hard and I would have to take it off the adaptive cruise control because I did not want to get into an accident. The system automatically applied the brakes in both cases which I would call it, “The “phantom braking”. The car had done this before but not to this extent on adaptive cruise control. This only happened when it was on cruise control. I have been very hesitant on putting it on adaptive cruise control because it acts up at times.
Since nhtsa recommended changes, the assist driver require more input to confirm I am paying attention and is distracting me from paying attention to surroundings. For example proir to the vehicle being "safer" I was able to focus my attention on immediate risk but possible risk that were greater than 12 seconds ahead of me. The vehicle was safer prior to the recall.
Ever since Tesla updated my vehicle to 2023.44.30.8, the autopilot has become effectively unusable. It now nags and beeps at me whenever I am not looking straight ahead. It is ridiculous that Tesla has ruined one of the best aspects of my car due to (ostensibly?) NHTSA pressure. Please allow their previous driver attentiveness system with the steering wheel to be reinstated. It is so miserable to have my car nanny camera flip out on me every time I look anywhere other than straight ahead. At the very least, every other manufacturer should be forced to have just as annoying a system if my Tesla had to be ruined. Its wrong to punish every Tesla owner because some people misused autopilot.
FSD causing more Nagging to the steering wheel due to recent recall update, making it much more dangerous to constantly having to move the steering wheel while the car is in motion and can cause the car to serve out of control or into another lane, DANGEROUS RECALL, revert this back
Loss of steering power while driving on the highway. Came out of nowhere
Vehicle experienced phantom breaking previously documented for Teslas. The vehicle suddenly decelerated by 22mph from 75 to 58 mph in approximately 2 to 4 seconds while cresting a hill on an interstate and navigating on autopilot. There were no vehicles or objects ahead of the vehicle. There was one vehicle behind at an indeterminate distance at the start of the phantom breaking event. The driver had their hand on the wheel before the initiation of the phantom breaking and the autopilot system alarmed and prompted the driver to take control at the onset of the phantom breaking.
Manufacturer refuses to address outstanding FSD recall from February 2023 despite multiple service appointments and available remedies. This impedes ability to import vehicle to Canada.
The car is plagued by "phantom braking." It occurs when I am on the freeway - the car suddenly brakes and/or decelerates. (Sometimes it is a sudden braking and sometimes the cruise control just turns off.) This is very unsafe - I am fortunate that it has occurred when there is no car close behind me. I feel it happen and put my foot on the accelerator as soon as I can. It's happened as many as 3-4 times during a long (@500 miles) drive, and other times only once. It occurs in various kinds of weather and I have never been able to figure out why it happens. It has happened when there are no cars in front of or next to my car. I believe this problem has been reported many times before. I do not know what system or part is responsible for this. I have had...
I experience frequent "phantom" braking while driving north or south on highway I-75. Many times this happens near state route 70 traveling north, but I have had this phenomenon happening driving south or headed north on 275. Cruise control is on, autopilot may or may not be on (I have had it happen in both modes). It's a frightening and very dangerous problem. Speeds decelerate from 75 or so to about 35 or 40. It's sudden and scary and potentially life threatening. I have immediately hit the gas in the multiple times this has happened.
Traveling west in I8 between Gila Bend and San Diego I experienced over 20 automatic hard braking events while using TACC. The road was clear, there were no vehicles in front of me within 400 yards. It appeared to be correlated with heat mirages on the road surface ahead though some may have been caused by differences in asphalt color in sections. The hard braking occurred at highway speeds of 70-75mph and dropped my speed rapidly, if a car or truck had been following me closely it could have result in an accident. The remedy is to press the accelerator to resume speed. Training drivers to hit the accelerator in response to phantom braking events is also dangerous as the automatic braking might be overridden automatically by a driver when there really is an event that calls for emergency braking. When the false positives out number to true positives by...
I own this Tesla model 3 for approximately 4 years. I was driving this car on US interstate highway 10 east, on July 8, 2023. Cruise control and Navigation on Auto pilot was on. A very serious Phantom breaking took place at around 10:52 am, about couple of miles before exit number 400 on I-10. It was clear a day, there was no car in front of me or on my left lane. I was on right lane. auto pilot suddenly reduced my speed from 72 miles per hours to 39 miles per hour in about 2 to 3 seconds. Due to this, a 16-wheel truck behind my car has to swerve to avoid hitting my car from behind and running over me. My wife was in passenger seat. If the 16 wheeler driver would not have taken evasive action, we will have at least two potential deaths.
Frequent phantom braking. If someone is following closely they may rear end us.
My vehicle, a 2019 Tesla Model 3, which is equipped with Tesla's Full Self-Driving Beta software, often fails to detect pedestrians and other objects in its path and react appropriately to them. It is highly concerning that this software is being trialled on public roads and pedestrians put at risk. I recently saw a video showing pedestrians being put at risk by someone testing FSD, which even put children in harms way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9JGviyMkzM&feature=youtu.be This software is highly dangerous and needs to be banned and people experimenting on public roads should not be allowed.
I recently updated my 2019 Tesla Model 3's software to version 2023.7.15. Ever since I did so I have been getting random, unexplained, and unnecessary decelerations in both adaptive cruise control mode and while driving using the vehicle's autopilot (not FSD). While this is annoying at least it is also unsafe as I could easily be rear-ended for no reason when this happens. It has happened every time I drive the vehicle and usually more than once per drive.
Driving on a clear, sunny day in Arizona on interstate 8 at highway speed with the Tesla AutoPilot engaged. There were no vehicles in front of me and no obstructions in the road when the car did heavy braking (aka phantom braking) for no known reason. I immediately had to override the braking with pressing on the accelerator. This occurred multiple times on the same road. If a vehicle had been traveling behind me when this happened, it would be highly likely that a collision would occur because of the random nature of the extreme braking. I did not use the adaptive cruise feature the rest of the trip in fear that a collision would occur. No warning messages were/are present. The Model 3 I drive is equipped with sensors on the front bumper that (I believe) Tesla has deactivated to use vision-only instead. I drove for years using the...
At 2401-2499 AL-36, Hartselle, AL 35640, 34.447019, -86.811335, traveling West, the car suddenly slows to 25 mph from the normal 55-60 mph. This sudden slow down startles the driver, passengers, and following traffic which rapidly approaches the rear. The problem is reproducible. Yes, the vehicle has been reported to Tesla using their voice reporting system. There are no warnings prior to the failure. It has happened ever since the road work replacing a bridge completed two years ago. BTW, Google Map Pro still shows the construction barriers at that location.
On 10/17/2021 my son was killed along with his passenger in this Tesla. The car was thought to be going over 100 miles an hour on a city road Coconut Point Road in Estero Florida. The car was thought to have hit a tree with the rear tire and was sent flying through the air and hit another tree and split in half. My son knew this road well as it was close to his home and drove it on his way home from work. I feel strongly that this was an acceleration issue!! He has driven this car for 2 years, so knew the car well.
The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while utilizing the ADAS features including the Adaptive Cruise Control, the vehicle unexpectedly braked. The contact stated that on another occasion while the accelerator pedal was depressed, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. Due to the failure, the vehicle abruptly stopped and caused the contacts wife’s seat belt to retract very tight. The contact stated that he disengaged the features including the Adaptive Cruise Control to operate the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it remained. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 50,000.
There is one spot on HWY 29 near me in Lake County CA where the car while driving on autopilot always sees an obstacle ahead and warns of an immediate collision. There is however, nothing in the road it is just the road dips down (a bit like a helter skelter) and the car does not recognize it. It is replicable and happens every time that highway is driven.
I live in a very rural area with very little traffic on two-lane country roads. When my cruise control is active, my Tesla sometimes brakes for no reason. A couple of days ago it violently braked from 70 mph to 50 mph for absolutely no reason. On that particular trip of 30 miles or so it "phantom braked" four times. I have had this car for almost 4 years and this problem appears to be getting worse.
The right camera and coax cable have gone bad. The coax cable is corroded and have water inside the camera. This is affect the car to use cruise control and the auto steer function.
While driving in Cruise Control at the Speed Limit at 65 mph with both hands on the wheel and my foot near the brake (on the 395 Freeway in CA on 5/5/23) and no vehicles in front of me, the car suddenly braked hard (the brake pedal fell to the floor under my foot without my foot making any contact with the pedal) and stopped, thus causing the driver/passenger and all contents to shift forward violently. Luckily, there was no one behind the car, no loss of control of the car, no collisions, and no injuries of the driver/passenger as we were both wearing our seat belts. There was a large 16-wheel truck approaching from about 100 feet away on the other side of the road that passed by without any adverse events. It was the second time that this phantom braking had happened on that same road this year....
The car will not allow me to use the cruise control, or put the car into auto-steer. Tesla says it do to a coax cable that is damaged or gone bad. Additionally the day a camera repeater also needs to be replace. The car has only 62,000 miles and is 4 year old. Which is out of Warranty.
The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds with the Autonomous Self Driving or Adaptive Cruise Control feature activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking, causing the vehicle to abruptly stop in the middle of the roadway. The contact stated that the failure had occurred on several occasions without any other vehicles or objects nearby. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer and manufacturer were not yet notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 28,000.
On long, straight interstate highway roads where speed limit is 80mph in GOOD to EXCELLENT weather and visibility conditions the vehicle on average would apply emergency braking at least 10x per 1,000 miles when no hazard or obstruction was present. This was often caused by asphalt color changes, slight hills, or shimmer in the distance…all of which are normal conditions for average driving. If vehicle was being followed closely by another car it had potential to cause high speed collision and injury or death.
Driving on US 395 near Mojave, CA, with cruise control enabled, the car braked suddenly twice within a 20 minute period. There were no other cars on the road but there was still a "phantom brake" that came out of nowhere.
The contact's girlfriend owns a 2019 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 73 MPH with the Adaptive Cruise Control activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. A dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 41,000.
The car on multiple occasions while driving on the highway with either the cruise control or autopilot engaged, drastically brakes and slows down for no reason. These slowdowns are drastic and have occurred when there are no other cars or conditions to cause the response. The braking is so dramatic that it is unlikely that I could have intervened in time to prevent a trailing vehicle from potentially rear ending my car. The speed change was so drastic that a trailing driver also may not have been able to react in time. This is a serious issue that must be corrected without delay. This typically issue occurs within 15 minutes of engaging the cruise control or autopilot and has happened multiple times. The date below is the most recent occurrence.
My car restarted itself and wiped out the entirety of my saved settings. I’m very upset because I had to set up everything all over again. Additionally, the full self driving brakes randomly while driving and causing my body to slam and pushed back from the seat belt. The autopilot feature also failed to recognize yellow lights where it will cross it, which had to be disengaged by the driver in order to avoid accident. The fsd also failed to recognize merging lane when merging onto the freeway.
On Feb. 18, 2023 when the Tesla model 3 was being driven on I-66E in a regular lane (55mph speed limit) parallel to an I-66 express lane (posted limit of 70 mph) going in the same direction, the car display showed the higher posted speed limit of the express lane. As a result, in assisted cruise control mode, the car would speed up more than 15 mph faster than the permitted speed for the non-express lane. Using assisted cruise control in such a circumstance is a serious hazard, but it has been observed many times on different highways since the vehicle was purchased in 2019. The problem puts the occupants of the car and other vehicles on the road at risk. The problem was initially experienced on I-395 and reported to Tesla in 2019 soon after purchase, but no action or follow-up was made. Recently, the problem has been consistently...
I have six recorded incidents over three different trips where I was traveling at highway speeds on I-84. While utilizing cruise control, weather was clear and roads were dry with no vehicles in front of, behind or to the side of me. The vehicle slammed on it's brakes unexpectedly and for no apparent reason. 5 out of the 6 times, it stopped so fast, nearly coming to a complete stop that it caused the vehicle to swerve almost out of control. Luckily there were no vehicles close behind me, otherwise I would have certainly been rear ended and possibly even killed at the speeds we were traveling. I have spoken to Tesla and they admit it is a known problem, but they don't have an immediate fix. The recommend not using cruise control in their vehicles. I think they should buy the vehicles back if you cannot use something as...
Tesla knowingly disabled the hardware sensor suite in a recent update of the software in their push toward "Tesla Vision". Unfortunately the disabling of the hardware sensor suite has made the car more dangerous to drive in certain conditions such as dark roads and inclement weather where the camera cannot detect a danger situation in advance the way it could with a hardware sensor suite. The disabling of this sensor is costing me $6000 in damage due to Tesla Vision not seeing a large, dead deer in the middle of the highway causing me to drive over it and damage critical components. Tesla's decision to use a plastic shield instead of a metal shield to protect the components lead to the piercing of the battery coolant line and damage to other components.
Since disabling the radar, the car very frequently brake checks on the highway when there are no cars in front of it, due to the reflection off the surface of highways that are very flat. This happens at least every hour or 2 when driving.
This morning, I was driving using FSD beta and the car swerved and veered almost directly into the curb, head-on. I was able to capture the data using the car's built-in dashcam and saved it, though I can't upload it to this site. I was able to slam on the brakes at the last minute and luckily no one else was around as it could have easily injured someone else and/or damaged my vehicle.
The car has repeatedly slammed on the brakes while using Tesla's Full Self-Driving functionality and made the car unusable at times. I've gotten into many near accidents, with the most recent happening on 1/8/23 where the vehicle slammed on the brakes on the freeway in front of a big rig, almost causing it to rear end me while me, my wife and two children were in the car. At the same time, the vehicle has also almost hit pedestrians while using the FSD beta, which I managed to avoid on 1/8/23 because I was paying attention. Had I not, I'm sure we would've struck a pedestrian walking across the street.
12/24 between 7:54am and 8:55am driving on the 10 west from Arizona to California while on auto drive within one hour experienced 4 times the car engaged the brake while traveling 80 mph on the highway. All 4 times there was nothing in front or side of the vehicle. The vehicle did not alarm a sensor that something was in the way. Fortunately we reacted quickly and continued with the accelerator so we didn’t stop abruptly on the Highway. 2 out of the 4 times it was a very hard brake the other two times it was hard but not nearly as forceful. Again nothing in the road, sun behind us, no indicators of obstructed cameras. We haven’t been on a long trip with the car in a long time, however my son drove from Orange County , CA to Los Angeles one evening about 6 weeks ago and he...
The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Modal 3. The contact stated while driving approximately 65 MPH with the autopilot activated, the cruise control suddenly deactivated and the braking system erroneously activated causing the vehicle to abruptly decelerate. The contact immediately depressed the accelerator pedal to avoid being rear-ended by a second vehicle. The cause of the failure was not determined. The local dealer and manufacturer were not yet notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 25,291.
"Full Self Driving" (FSD) 10.69.3.1 disconnect events lock out driver after five 'strikes.' This makes it impossible to diagnose repeatable faults until a future version unlocks FSD. My testing suggests there are problems with controlled intersections making a left turn. However, the lockout prevents documenting the problem(s). Locking out the software also makes it impossible for NHTSA, IIHS, and even the National Transportation Safety Board to identify and document failures with FSD. It also impacts car reviewers as well as this owner.
Phantom braking is occurring regularly on a road trip from CA to LA. It has happened on clear roads with sunny conditions and no obstructions as well as in shadowy or dark conditions. It only occurs with cruise control on.
Two lane highway I was in the left lane with the cruise control on not Full Self Driving. In the right lane was a semi which I came up along side off on the left , I was driving 70mph. (Speed limit) The car suddenly hard braked on it’s own. The car behind me had to brake to avoid an accident and went into the dirt. After that on this same drive, there were at least 6 more instances of phantom braking when traveling over a “wash bridge “ going under a highway sign, driving along side another semi and once without anyone near and an open road. This also happened 3 months ago and when I reported it to Tesla they said when I received the FULL self driving down load which I got the next day, the problem should be corrected. I also reported the previous problem to...
Other 2019 TESLA MODEL 3 Problem Areas
Electrical System
82 complaints
Forward Collision Avoidance Automatic Emergency Braking
75 complaints
Suspension
73 complaints
Unknown Or Other
73 complaints
Air Bags
70 complaints
Vehicle Speed Control
69 complaints
Lane Departure Assist
58 complaints
Service Brakes
58 complaints
Steering
51 complaints
Seat Belts
45 complaints
Seats
38 complaints
Visibilitywiper
24 complaints
Forward Collision Avoidance Warnings
22 complaints
Structurebody
19 complaints
Lane Departure Warning
17 complaints
Back Over Prevention
11 complaints
Power Train
10 complaints
Visibility
10 complaints
Fuelpropulsion System
8 complaints
Lane Departure Blind Spot Detection
8 complaints
Exterior Lighting
6 complaints
Back Over Prevention Sensing System Camera
5 complaints
Electronic Stability Control Esc
4 complaints
Forward Collision Avoidance
4 complaints
Wheels
4 complaints
Tires
3 complaints
Electrical Systemadasautonomousself Driving
2 complaints
Electrical Systemadasautonomousself Drivingsoftware
2 complaints
Engine
2 complaints
Lane Departure
2 complaints
Air Bagssrs Malfunction Warning Lamplight
1 complaint
Back Over Prevention Rearview System Braking
1 complaint
Back Over Prevention Warnings
1 complaint
Carry Handle Shell Base
1 complaint
Chest Clip Buckle Harness
1 complaint
Electrical Systemwiring Rear Compartmenttrunk
1 complaint
Equipment Adaptivemobilityvehicle Controlsspeed Control
1 complaint
Firerelated
1 complaint
Lane Departure Lane Keep Steering Assist
1 complaint
Latcheslockslinkages
1 complaint
Service Brakes Hydraulic
1 complaint
Service Brakes Hydraulicfoundation Componentshoses Linespiping And Fittings
1 complaint
Service Brakes Hydraulicpower Assist
1 complaint
Suspensionfrontcontrol Arm
1 complaint
Tiressidewall
1 complaint
Vehicle Speed Controlaccelerator Pedal
1 complaint
Visibilitydefrosterdefoggerhvac System
1 complaint