2021 TESLA MODEL 3 Forward Collision Avoidance Warnings Problems

The rear camera malfunctions intermittently and causes other errors to happen, like Automatic emergency braking unavailable or forward collision warning unavailable. When the camera error happens, it says the camera is unavailable. I took my car to the Tesla dealership three times. The first time, they did a continuity check and said the harness was degraded, and they replaced the harness and the rear camera. A week later, it happened again. The second time they reset the camera calibration and it worked. The day after, it happened again. The car is at the Tesla dealership for the third time (02/20/2026).

I drove into my neighbor’s driveway to drop her off. As I slowed down and applied the brakes to stop, the car failed to respond. It continued forward, running over the flower and plant pots at the edge of the driveway, crossing the backyard, and finally colliding with the trees and bushes at the rear of the property. All airbags deployed, and the vehicle was damaged beyond repair.

While using traffic aware cruise control or autosteer, the car occasionally detects a nonexistent person in the center of the lane I’m driving in, the proceeds to slam on the brakes when no hazard exists. It seems that tire markings in the road and certain lighting conditions cause the car to think there is a person in the road. Additionally, when driving on a highway with rolling hills, the car detects a forward collision alert and hits the brakes and disengages the autosteer. Both of these could cause a rear and collision at highway speeds. The dealer has claimed that the cause is functionally normally and I already tried to get it serviced but the car continues to have these issues. I do have video evidence of the car slamming on the brakes and detecting a forward collision.

I started receiving messages that the cameras were occluded and that there was an error and ALL of my system safety features were disabled. No front forward collision warnings, no emergency braking available, nothing available and the system computer that showed all of the traffic and everything completely disappeared from the screen, the car has literally gone blind. All of this started happening on with the camera issues in May, but I thought that it was a software issue and would be addressed in the next update, although the critical disengagements were supposed to be sent to Tesla. I took the car to the service center on 9/4/24 at 9am, and they stated that the did a system test and saw that the triple camera was showing a fault and so they replaced the camera and gave it back to me the same day. Everything worked for the rest of...

Tesla ADAS detects non existent objects and issues collision alerts and phantom brakes randomly if there is no cars in front of the Tesla, braking abruptly and almost getting me into rear end accidents. Tesla ADAS freaks out when making lane changes randomly, shaking violently and giving the driver and its passengers a fishtailing simulation. Auto wiper triggers randomly while it's sunny, distracting the driver and forcing an interaction on the center console to stop it. Auto wiper cannot be turned off as it reengages upon using Tesla ADAS. The rear view camera lags. It stutters and shows me a delayed view. Compounded by the Model 3's very small rear view mirrors and side mirrors, this is incredibly dangerous as I have no way of gaining sufficient visibility of the back of the car. Tesla service told me this is all normal.

While using the Full Self Driving Mode (FSD) the vehicle will randomly and without warning slam on the brakes at highway speeds and decelerate to 30-50mph on an active highway. If the highway is multilane, the car will slow and attempt to change lanes. It appears the vehicle thinks that something is in the road, even if the road is clear. This happens multiple times on my longer road trips, and is very concerning. It did this yesterday with a semi-truck closely behind me. The vehicle has gone into service and I did bring up the issue, but the service team was unable to assist on this issue (screenshots attached). The software currently installed in my vehicle is 2024.3.15, the latest available from Tesla. This issues has been ongoing from every software update I have had in the car however.

I leased a Tesla Model 3 on [XXX] in Tampa, Florida On [XXX] the car went into Sudden Unintended Acceleration as I was coming out of a "Hold" at a Yield sign where I was at a complete stop waiting for traffic to fully clear for a right hand turn onto a two lane street. I was coming off of [XXX] onto [XXX] in St. Petersburg, Florida. As I started the turn, the Tesla tossed me onto the curb and along a pedestrian sidewalk at high speed. I tried to brake, but the car continued plowing towards a traffic sign that I avoided hitting by making a hard left to try to get back onto the street. Instead of returning me to the street and my lane, the Tesla threw me left across two lanes of traffic, over a grass divider, and into two lanes of oncoming traffic heading straight...

FSD Computer module (AP3 module) when starting to fail causes all active safety systems to top functioning, including but not limited to Lane Assistance, Automatic Emergency Breaking, Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Departure Warning, Lane Keeping Assistance, Blind Spot Warning, Pre-collision systems, etc. This is due to the ECU that processes the video feeds from the cameras needed for these function begins to fail, and is not surprising. What is surprising is there are absolutely zero customer or service facing alerts for this issue. Customers simply are unable to manually activate some features, vehicle display has difficulty recognizing objects and lane markings, and the service menu (meant for vehicle service/repair) shows part of the ECU as critical in diagnostics, but does not provide an alert. I can only guess that as previously only half of the module was used at a time, with the second half being for redundancy incase of...

Driver assisst function for cruise control/autosteer failed/malfunctioned. Applied Emergency braking systems while autosteer/driver control active. Multiple times on freeway. OTA software Updates require additional data downloading and are not required to install. Never received update and safety issues resolved via OTA are already being exposed and they are not allowed to do anything to prevent any damage or loss to the vehicle. Wifi at all government EV charging stations is a basic requirement.

Recently on a trip between Wichita Falls and Quanah Texas, my Tesla Model 3 while on autopilot repeatedly braked hard while traveling at 75 mph in moderate traffic. While this is a frequent occurrence with my model 3, this is the first time I felt at risk of an accident due to how hard the vehicle was breaking.

While the Traffic-Aware Cruise Control was engaged, my car abruptly tried to stop 8 times on the interstate while traveling at 80mph (the speed limit on the open stretch of road in central Utah). The weather was clear, no clouds, no wind, very light traffic, very good roads, no debris on the road, about 85 degrees, no shadows were cast on the road and during the day. I was on a 5 hour road trip. Out of the blue on at least 5 of the occasions, with a vehicle about a half mile or more ahead of me and no vehicle next to me my car abruptly braked - like emergency breaking - for no apparent reason. Two of the phantom braking occurrences happened when after passing a vehicle and I signaled and pulled back in to the right lane with at least a 3 second space, and my car...

My full self driving computer has crashed for the 3rd time since owning the vehicle which controls all of the cars safety features.. Tesla says they won’t do anything because the car is past the warranty by 9,000 miles.. so I’m basically stuck with a 1980’s Tesla.

While using the base level of "autopilot," remaining in a lane and maintaining speed, the car will randomly slam on the brakes even when there are no vehicles or objects in front of it. The first incident occurred while driving late at night on an interstate. There were no vehicles in front of the car, but it rapidly reduced speed from 75mph to 30mph, before immediately speeding up again. The camera based "autopilot" is essentially useless and I have decided not to use it when driving.

In vehicle speaker system occasionally resets, keeping speakers from making noise during a 5-10 second window. This keeps in-vehicle chimes and collision warnings from sounding at appropriate volumes.

I was driving in Oklahoma on a straight interstate highway at 75 mph using cruise control (not autopilot) and experience a sudden application of full brakes. The application was so sudden the tires "chipped" and decelerated to below 45 mph before I could take control by applying throttle. On the same trip, I was near Midland, Texas and experience another serious phantom braking on a clear straight highway. By this time I experienced 10 additional minor braking issues. On my return trip, I did not use cruise control or autopilot and didn't have a single incident. I reported the incident to Tesla Service and reported ever incident via the feedback button (when it worked). I'm a retired Boeing engineer experienced in flight controls, fly-by-wire control, and aircraft subsystem design. I have no confidence in this design.

On an empty freeway I5 southbound over a crest, the car emergency braked from highway speed with no obstacles or cars in front of it. The weather conditions were sunny, 98f, and some mirages were on the road surface. Autopilot was engaged and set to the speed limit. Emergency braking alert sounded and the car applied full power braking. Car is running software version 2022.24.6. prior versions of the software with radar support did not exhibit this phantom breaking behavior. The current version disabled radar and used "Tesla vision"

Vehicle will engage breaks when there is no obstacle or while on a straight road when placed in cruise control.

Tesla Autopilot will disengage and brake when driving under a bridge or a freeway sign. Tesla detects the overhead object as an object on the road and logs a forward collision warning. This issue has been reported to Tesla and after multiple service appointments, tesla has failed to fix the issue. Tesla logs forward collision warnings and determines safety score for insurance price, having multiple false forward collision warning reduced the score and increases the premium which in return benefits tesla financially. I have video evidence for an instance that I have provided to tesla to look into and the issue is still not fixed.

This vehicle's basic "autopilot" and adaptive cruise control is dangerous. The vehicle is unable to pass a truck on the highway while either system is active without slamming on the brakes. This is major safety hazard on the highway as following cars do not expect any vehicle to slam on the brakes at highway speeds. Further, using the cruise control on two lane road is also dangerous. Any large vehicle in the opposite oncoming lane will cause the vehicle to slam on its brakes. These systems are essentially unusable and are very dangerous to use.

When driving using either the "traffic aware cruise control" or "autopilot" (I do not have full self driving), the care frequently slams the brakes when there is no instance of an obstacle in-front of the vehicle. This has happened consistently and frequently causing instances with cars having to go to the shoulder to not rear end me. Most commonly this has occurred on rural 2 lane roads when a vehicle is coming from the other direction. As the vehicle from the other direction approaches the Tesla will suddenly emergency brake unexpectedly. This issue is even further exacerbated at night when this can happen with almost every passing vehicle. This issue has occurred enough times with either near rear end incidents or catching me so off guard I struggle to maintain my composure I often do not use the feature and am looking at getting rid of it due to being...

The automatic emergency brakes would go off while driving on autopilot at highway speed, when there is nothing in front of the car. The brakes are very unexpected and aggressive, potentially putting the car at risk of being rare ended. Tesla states that I should press on the accelerator to override the brakes, but most times the braking is so aggressive that the override isn’t affective. Moreover, my car would give false forward collision warning if the car in front of me slows down even a little bit, even when there is at least a 5 car distance from me to the car in front of me, and we are no where near colliding. Tesla would use these false forward collision warnings to drive down my “safety score” and raise the premium of the insurance they offer me.

I was on I-470 east of I-25 going east. I was traveling at 83 MPH, therefore the car was not in Autopilot, only had cruise control on. I signaled a lane change, made the lane change, and then the car applied brakes hard, going from 83 MPH down to 66 MPH. This happened in front of a late-model full-size pickup truck. The driver of the truck was not happy and tailgated for about 2 miles. I reported this problem to Tesla. They first don't want to even allow a service visit on the issue. Second, they want to charge me over $80 for a service visit on a car that is under warranty. When we had FSD beta in January 2022, we didn't face these issues except once or twice. Tesla advisor even admitted to me that cars with FSD beta and cars with Autopilot have different navigation software. Therefore,...

When either in autopilot or in cruise control especially in long drive car perform phantom breaking creating a risk of rear-end collision with following vehicles. Car vision system at times recognize cars coming in the opposite way as imminent collision and performs emergency phantom breaks.03/

The Tesla model 3 has unexpectedly braked very hard with no traffic ahead of my vehicle. So fast and hard that seat belts had to restrain passengers. This has happened several times while the Autopilot is engaged. This usually is on a 2 lane road and there is traffic on the opposite side of the road. I have noticed if a semi-tractor trailer is approaching on the opposite side it happens 100 % of the time. The auto also steers hard to the right. This is very scary and a vehicles behind the Tesla have no warning either. I have almost been hit twice from behind. Makes a lot of angry drivers behind me. I have not used the feature in a month. I called Tesla and they said this was NORMAL. It never happened until a recent software update and then it started doing this all the time. Please...

My 2021 Tesla model 3 has a issue of what is called Phantom Braking. On 2 lane undivided highways and on all types of roads the car will randomly slam on the brakes to what I assume is to prevent hitting a obstacle that doesn’t exist. The car will apply the brakes extremely fast and drop roughly 20 MPH or more in just a few seconds. I am unable to use cruise control on 2 lane highways because it slams on the brakes it seems like anytime it sees a dip in the road or a mailbox on the side of the road it triggers the emergency braking system. I feel lucky that no one has been behind me while these events have happened. It happens almost every time I drive the car. I have contacted Tesla about this issue and they say everything is fine and they would rather...

The car was on FSD jerked right toward a semi truck then jerked left toward the posts in the median as it was accelerating and FSD would not turn off. Was trying to control the car but it kept pushing and accelerating causing us to crash in to the median posts. Normally FSD would turn off if it was unsure but this day it would not. Plus other times it would phantom brake if we were on 2 lane road and met on oncoming large truck. We also had other times of phantom braking going over a hill. We have reported this to Tesla but no response yet. We owned this car 11 days when our wreck happened.

Driving on an open 2 lane highway between Lecanto and Gainesville, car slammed on the brakes while in autopilot. There were no obstructions or other reason to stop.

On 2/17/22 at appx. 8:08am with adaptive cruise control engaged the collision warning alarm chimed and the car beaked quickly for 50mph to 30 mph. There was an SUV in the oncoming traffic lane. This has happened several times. The system sometimes does not recognize that approaching vehicles are in a correct lane. This happens with larger approaching vehicles such as large SUVs and trucks. Additionally we have been getting many (dozens) of dashboard error warnings that one or more of the cameras are blocked or blinded. As Tesla has chosen to delete lidar and depend solely on cameras as safety system detectors this affects Adaptive Cruise Control, Automatic Emergency Braking, Blind spot warning, Forward Collision Warning, Lane Departure Warning, Lane Keeping Assistance, and cross traffic alert.

Phantom braking with autopilot on one lane highways when larger vehicles approach the vehicle in the other lane. This is easily repeatable on any one lane road, happens literally all the time. My older Tesla that still had radar never had this problem. This is a problem with Teslas vision only approach to cruise control

When using the traffic-aware cruise system on the interstate, the car will sometimes dramatically reduce its speed (within seconds)/apply the brakes for what appears to be no reason at all (often referred to as phantom braking). The most recent incident occurred while accelerating up an interstate entrance ramp. The car had reached the target speed of 75 MPH before suddenly braking and reducing the speed down to around 65MPH before I hit the accelerator to prevent it from slowing down any further. Within a few seconds, the care went back to accelerating normally again. There were no warning indicators on the display that would explain why the vehicle slowed down. I've noticed that sometimes there are certain spots on the interstate where this behavior will happen repeatedly. I will be cruising along at a set speed and the vehicle will suddenly slow down for a few seconds then continue back...

When driving with Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Autopilot the car will randomly apply the brakes in causing a severe drop in speed frequently from 70 MPH to less than 50 extremely quickly. This happens primarily on undivided highways with no pattern - sometimes when other vehicles are approaching, no distinction between large or small or color, but most frequently and most violently occurs when no vehicles or obstacles are present. This sudden drop and alarm notification from the car can cause me to quickly jerk the steering wheel in response and potentially losing vehicle control. In some occasions this happened at highway speeds with people behind me almost causing a rear-end collision. I put in a repair notice with Tesla and the response was that the TACC and Autopilot are beta and upon review of trip logs they noticed no faults and closed the repair request. This feature is...

PHANTOM BRAKING When cruise control is engaged (not auto steer or full self driving) the vehicle will intermittently slow down or apply corrective braking when no hazard exists. This happens more frequently on 2 lane roads but also happens occasionally on multi-lane freeways. On a 2 lane road, my vehicle will either slow down, brake or break HARD when anything larger than a SUV is coming from the other direction at normal speeds and in his lane. I have also experienced this when there is nobody for 1+ mile in front of behind me. If there are cars behind me, I find myself covering the accelerator and ready to floor it in case my car suddenly slams on the breaks. This make cruise control very unsafe and stressful. I have another Tesla vehicle doing the same thing and will post separately on that one. Thank you.

Since we received the car in November 2021 on two lane roads when meeting large profile vehicles like semi's or UPS it gives us a collision warning and hard brake, which in heavy traffic scares us of a rear end collision. It happens on both cruise and autopilot. Have been in touch with Tesla and they say everything is working correctly. They say they are trying to correct the problem but It's been four months and we are still scared to use the cruise on two lane roads.

I was driving down the freeway at highway speeds. A motorcycle passed me in the left lane. My car sudden slammed on the brakes at freeway speeds and if a car was following me closely I would have been hit. The motorcycle did not cross my path and I was in no danger of hitting it. I was using cruise control at the time. This has happened more than once. Usually it is when a motorcycle is around. I have stopped using cruise control if I see a motorcycle on the road.

While on autopilot I experience regular abrupt phantom breaking around semi trucks. This has nearly caused several accidents. I will be going from 60 mph to nearly full stop. This is incredibly unsafe and I no longer feel comfortable using this feature around semi trucks.

Forward Collision Warning and Automatic Emergency Braking system failed/malfunctioned. The car is in a Tesla authorized body shop for inspection. The airbag deployed and prevented any injury but the accident did put my life and others at risk. The car was inspected by Tesla's authorized body shop. There was no warning lamps, messages, or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure. The car was brand new, and I believe a possible explanation is Tesla taking out the radar and replacing it with Tesla vision. I tried to contact Tesla for an investigation but no response. I received a 30k bill to fix the car, and Tesla did not take any responsibility. Here is the footage: https://www.dropbox.com/s/sat1w5i0gl6bwsr/2021-12-20_10-56-45-front.mp4?dl=0

Tesla is phantom breaking for no reason. It could cause me to be rear ended by another car. This is happening more and more to me. Tesla purchased in Oct.

The car makes sudden braking when cruise control and/or autopilot is engaged. It’s very frustrating as the car thinks it’s emergency braking because of something in front of the vehicle but the sensors are misreading the stopping. It’s very scary.

What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? - cruise control. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? - traveling at 55-60 mph on a 2 lane highway at night when the car suddenly put on brakes because it must of saw something but there was nothing. I believe this is called "ghost braking". There was a car behind us and had to slow down as well. Luckily no accident was caused but scared my wife and I. 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, police, insurance representatives or others? NO Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? It happened so fast I did not...

We recently purchased a new Tesla Model 3. This vehicle has Tesla Vision and doesn't have the radar unit to assist with TACC or Autosteer. With this vehicle, it has phantom braking on a frequently basis. For example, I drive on a two lane highway and in a 20 mile drive in clear daylight the vehicle will phantom brake anywhere from 5-10 during the trip. These phantom braking vary from random light braking for no reason to full on hard braking. Fortunately, we've been lucky not to have anyone behind us when these incidents occur. I've contacted Tesla and given them multiple dates and times. I was told that they were able to look at some data on the car and it appears everything is working as it should and it "should" get better with updates. I was also given a bunch of excuses why it was working as it...

The car keeps abruptly braking between 10-20 mph speed reduction while at highway speeds. Seems to be when there's minor hills or curves but otherwise entirely open road without nearby vehicles. Happening in a 4 lane and 2 lane highway with cruise control set (not self driving or autopilot) and the autopilot, autosteer, forward collision warning, and automatic emergency braking options are all confirmed OFF.

I've complained to Tesla as well. No known fix at this time. When Autopilot is engaged, it will pick up phantom objects and brake hard to avoid. I notice this happens mostly when passing semis, RVs, trailers. I see this happening on any turn where a vehicle is in the lane next to you or on the other side of the road. The latest one I had autopilot engaged, I was alone on the highway, and it braked hard for no reason. Brought me from 75-80 mph down to 20 mph in an instant. It then accelerated hard up to 80 again. Within a couple of seconds, it braked hard again down to 20 mph. Autopilot doesn't work. Tesla had no fix and their recommendation was to not use it anymore. I bought the Tesla for that reason. Full Self Driving is even worse. I'm afraid to use it because...

Any time I have the car in autopilot, it unexpectedly phantom brakes. Even when I'm not using autopilot, and I am using cruise control, the phantom braking still occurs. In several instances I have had people come close to hitting my car's rear. The braking is not subtle. It is rapid and aggressive. This issue creates a major danger for anyone in my car and others on the road.

This has happened frequently since I took delivery of the vehicle, I did have one repair request with tesla but they said they could not duplicate and the vehicle did not store enough data to confirm an issue. when driving with adaptive cruise control or cruise control with lane centering (autopilot) enabled the vehicle will SLAM on brakes (Like full emergency braking) with nothing in front of me. sometimes it chimes warning of a potential collision, sometimes it gives no visual or audible reason. It also will have more frequent events of mild to moderate braking. These events happen on interstates and two lane roads mostly but has also happened on multiple lane lower speed roads as well. it has gotten to where I do not use these features as I have almost been rear ended multiple times now due to these events. Tesla's general attitude to this was that...

When using traffic aware cruise control or auto steer the car phantom breaks and issues warning chimes when it senses large vehicles approaching on undivided 2 lane roads. The car also phantom brakes when it misidentifies shadows on these same 2 lane roads. I have almost been rear ended by closely following traffic several times. This has been happening since new. We have been patient, hoping a software update would fix this very well known problem.

Since my ownership, I have experienced multiple phantom braking incidents with my 2021 Tesla Model 3 Long Range. I would estimate that I experience 3 to 5 severe phantom braking incidents per week. It is nearly a daily occurrence during my daily commute to work. Sometimes there are multiple incidents during one leg of my commute. I have filed several requests for service with Tesla through their application and every time the technical support says the system is working properly. I have given them explicit details and information about the incidents which have helped them to identify the time and location but they have never fixed/changed/remedied the phantom braking issue. I have filed these requests for service to protect myself if I'm ever involved in a serious accident due to these phantom braking incidents.

Driving on the interstate in autopilot with nobody in front of me but there was somebody riding my rear. And the vehicle decided to phantom break which almost caused the guy to rear end me while going 75 mph it could have been lethal.

When vehicle is in full self drive mode, sometimes it mistakenly detects an obstacle on the highway and applies brakes. This event presents risk of getting rear ended at high speed on highways.

Phantom braking when using cruise control. Car suddenly braking or rapidly decelerating for now discernible reason when traveling at speed on highways, both two-lane and multilane. The problem has occurred many times since first acquired in December 2021.

Recently, at least it was noticed starting in Dec 2021, while driving on two lane highways under cruise control or self driving, the vehicle would brake hard at vehicles approaching in the opposite lane. Large trucks especially triggered the response. The braking response definitely put the safety of the occupants and following vehicles at risk. I have not taken it to a dealer or service center. There were no warning lamps, messages or any symptoms prior. I have stopped using those features while on two lane roads. I certainly am hoping for a software update to solve this issue.