2022 TESLA MODEL 3 Forward Collision Avoidance Warnings Problems
91 NHTSA complaints on file
Forward Collision Avoidance Warnings Issues in the 2022 TESLA MODEL 3
91 forward collision avoidance warnings complaints have been filed with NHTSA for the 2022 TESLA MODEL 3. Of these, 9 involved a crash, 0 involved a fire, and 5 resulted in injury.
91
Complaints
9
Crashes
0
Fires
5
Injuries
0
Deaths
All Forward Collision Avoidance Warnings Complaints
While at a red light, my car was stopped with Tesla Full Self-Driving (FSD) on. When the car in front of me nudged forward, my car, still in FSD , accelerated and drove into the car in front. Looking at the event report of my car, the automatic emergency break did engage but too late. This means the sensors in front failed to recognize the vehicle ahead.
Then forward collision warning system inaccurately reported and reacted to a park car that was not in my lane. This caused my car to slam the brakes and subsequently almost cause an accident behind me. This also raised my car insurance premium so they can charge me more money
I pulled up to a red light in a protected left turn lane. My car is set to use regenerative braking and hold/not roll once stopped. I felt my car roll forward a bit, which shouldn't happen when these settings are on. I quickly checked my rearview mirror, assuming someone had hit me from behind to cause me to roll forward. No one was behind me. I hit my brake and the car suddenly accelerated at full throttle speed, I would guess, into the intersection, despite the light being red for me. I quickly glanced down at my foot to confirm that it was on the brake pedal and it definitely was. I continued to repeatedly push the brake pedal down to no avail. I was steering and tried to navigate my way through 4 lanes of moving traffic because they had a green light. I hit the front end...
While driving on AutoPilot the I-10W on Wednesday July 16, 2025, the car suddenly and very harshly braked for no reason at all. The vehicle in front of me was visible on the vehicle's display, meaning it was keeping it distance and was actively adapting to its speed and distance, and at no time did I press the brake or move the steering wheel for the vehicle to use its emergency braking. It was so harsh, I felt the blood throughout my head and body lunge forward, and AutoPilot immediately turned off. If I wasn't aware of this sudden braking, I would have assumed AutoPilot would still be active, but knowing of Tesla's "phantom braking", I immediately took control once I noticed AutoPilot turned off on its own. I have a video of the dash cam available (over 10MB) if needed.
Forward collision warning was falsely triggered causing the car to inappropriately apply the brakes twice in one drive. This causes the car to brake harshly and causes cars behind me to either swerve or slam their brakes. This causes a chain reaction of extremely dangerous behavior. The forward collision warning system is far too sensitive when there’s literally no obstacles to cause a collision or avoid.
The cars forward collision warning system is far too sensitive and braked extremely hard when there was nothing to collide with. This caused the car behind me to slam their brakes and they got rear ended. This needs to be forced on Tesla to be addressed
Two false collision warnings were triggered when in fact, there was nothing to collide with. This caused the car to brake extremely forcefully nearly causing another can to rear end me in midday traffic. If they would have hit me, it easily would have caused a 10+ car accident.
The forward collision warning system is too sensitive. When cars are in a completely different lane, the car will sometimes think they are in your lane when they’re aren’t. This forces the FWC warning to alert and the brakes to slam. When this happens cars behind you sometimes swerve or nearly rear end me. This happened twice today march 14th.
As I was approaching a green light with stopped vehicles the car caught glare from the car ahead of me thinking it was stopping when it was turning. This caused aggressive breaking mid turn and caused a spike in my insurance as well as decrease in my safety score. I reported this as a bug to the car but they never get checked for fixed.
Computer system improperly triggered two false forward collision warning while changing lanes, today, on 02/02/2025. These forward collision warnings and applied excessive braking for no reason causing an increased chance of being rear ended or losing control. In heavy traffic, the car is constantly creating dangerous situations like this and the sensitivity of the forward collision warnings needs to be dialed back when the blinker is on or while in between lanes.
The car was advertised at 312miles on the battery. It is 265. The charging takes 45 to hr and I was lied to about the mileage overage and the ability to purchase the car. This car isn't as advertised. I reached out to tesla and they do t offer any solution. I was scammed. I want to return the car. The tires do t last as the cars are too heavy. If the tires don't last 1 yr that's a defect.
There has been numerous false Forward Collision Warning reports from my car over the past two years. Over 100 to be exact. These false collision warnings cause the car to brake abruptly increasing the change of being rear ended, causing accidents behind me or even causing my car to swerve. This has been witnessed by at least 3 different passengers of mine. Tesla refuses to acknowledge that their software can be flawed in any way despite my attempts to contact Tesla Service, Tesla Insurance, Tesla Support and Tesla Internal investigative services. I have requested a complete list of all Bug Reports and no one is able to reproduce them for me or give me a list. No my vehicle has not been inspected because Tesla claims that this is working as intended. Which, if that is the case, they're doing/using it to arbitrarily raise people's premiums and make them pay...
I was driving I the Highway and the car start to move in another car direction, I went to Tesla they said is computer fault, but I’m not involved in any accident to get a computer issued and now I receive the letter reporting a problem And they don’t wanna fix this
Tesla summons was used to summons the car. Vehicle drove forward as directed and failed to clear car on left when pulling out of the parking space to go left. Vision systems and ultrasonic sensors failed to detect and perform safety measures resulting in vehicle collision.
The Tesla model 3 from the factory does not have the option to get the trailer mode safety software. Aftermarket suppliers make and sell class 2/3 hitches for the model 3. And while the model 3 is not rated for towing. People still have the tow hitches installed and they tow trailers. The model Y with the tow package has what is called “trailer mode” which enables safety features for towing that allows the vehicle to do several things for safety while towing: - it adjusts the wheel braking and speed stability. - It routs to “pull through” charging stations for safe charging without having to unnecessarily and repeatedly unhook trailers. - auto steer, automatic steering, emergency braking, and following distance is all adjusted to account for the trailer and its weight. - light check, checking for functional trailer lighting. The Model Y that does not get the factory tow...
My Tesla sets off false front collision warnings multiple times a month, resulting in distraction, but more importantly, it increases my auto insurance rate through Tesla Insurance. I am not sure if Tesla is working on this "bug" or if it is intentional to keep driver safety scores below a certain threshold. I have video proof from the car itself indicating that there was no imminent collision threat.
Issues became more prevalent as soon as Tesla Insurance 2.0 came out. My car has become too sensitive often giving me several false forward collision warnings per day. This includes parked cars on my street as I’m coming in around a long corner, cars in turn lanes, and cars that I’m not even close to all being registered as collision warnings. This causes my safety score to drop for no real reason causing my monthly payments to be more. I think this is entirely done on purpose and has nothing to do with actual safety. I have scheduled service appointments and talked with Tesla insurance and they give me nothing but excuses and the run around.
The contact owned a 2022 Telsa Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at 18 MPH, the vehicle veered to the right hitting an electrical pole. The contact stated neither the autopilot nor cruise control was set to on, and the vehicle failed to stop. The contact stated it happened so fast he was unable to depress the brake pedal in time. No warning lights were illuminated and the air bags in the vehicle failed to deploy. The contact sustained a knee injury and later received medical attention at an urgent care. However, the contact stated he was traumatized from the crash. The vehicle was towed and deemed destroyed. A police report was filed. The contact notified the manufacturer of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 21,372.
the car started to abruptly accelerate when slowing down the car at a stop light and would not brake. the anti collision functions did not work. the car went into a truck.
It was a raining day. When I turned 90 degree to my right into the parking lot from local road, I hit the brake and the car slowed down for turning. FSD or autopilot were off for sure. Then I felt the car was moving down suddenly and made a big noise due to the a slightly slope down when I turned. I saw a parking slot right in front of me. I hit the accelerator a fraction of second to prevent the car to stop. In a fraction of second, the car accelerated like crazy. I immediately hit the brake very hard (95% of my force on brake). I have 30 years of driving experience. I knew that I hit the brake tightly, but the car still kept accelerate like crazy. I could forever remember the feel and moment of my foot was in the brake. Even after the...
There has been several false forward coalition alarms each month so far with no reason when I’m even driving in an easy and not a crowd street or highway. The alarm is so loud that everybody in the car panics including me and it dangerously interrupts my driving. This has caused me suddenly hit the brake several times which also may cause panic the drivers around me or at my back and put the or us in danger.
There was a forward collision warning I got with a parked car when going less than 20 mph when the road was curving. The car is defective and I shouldn’t have gotten a forward collision warning which causes distraction from the loud and sudden noise it emits. It also negatively impacts my Tesla insurance safety score which is a scam.
I was in the carpool lane when traffic came to a complete stop. I pressed on the brakes but they were heavy as if I was not able to press it down all the way. There was no information prior to the accident from the Tesla trying to warn me about an incoming collision. It wasn’t until after the accident the Tesla acknowledged that there was damage done to the car. Prior to the accident there was a service required for the front passenger safety restraints. This accident could have been much worse as I tried to swerve out of the way to avoid traffic but wasn’t able to make it back in time.
On 8/3/23 on two occasions the vehicle suddenly applied brakes while in cruise/autopilot mode when there was no vehicle in close proximity in front of my vehicle. There was however a large commercial truck behind me on one occasion, which may have been effected by the application of brakes for no apparent reason. On 8/5/23, with the vehicle in the same mode, the system applied brakes.....there were no vehicles within a 1/4 mile front or rear. Tesla was contacted and reviewed the logs, stating that the vehicle braked for another vehicle..... As a 35 year police officers, my professional opinion is that this vehicle is dangerous when operated in this mode. I explained this to Tesla and their response was that sometimes you get false activations because the car perceived something that wasn't there and that's Ok. It's not Ok to unexpectedly step on the brakes at 70 or 80...
On Friday, August 11th. My wife and I were traveling on I-70 Eastbound from Colorado to Kansas. On several occasions during the trip, we experienced phantom braking while using the adaptive cruise control. The car would immediately brake at highway speeds, slowing rapidly when nothing was on the road. Luckily every time this happened there were no cars immediately behind us as it could have easily caused a crash. This happened both while I was driving [XXX] ) and while my wife was driving [XXX] ). At one point in the trip, we turned off the emergency braking feature and the phantom braking still occurred while using the adaptive cruise control. In all this happened around 10 times or so during the trip. I reported the event to Tesla on Monday, August 14 as neither of us felt safe using the adaptive cruise control after that event. Response from Tesla...
While driving on freeway with adaptive cruise control engaged, the vehicle suddenly slammed on the brakes with the wheels initially locking up (there was an audible screech from the tires). There was no traffic obstacle that would have suggested that there was a reason to do this. It was daytime and the weather was clear. I was able to immediately take control of the car and re-accelerate to prevent vehicles behind me from rear-ending me.
On multiple occasions (100+) during a 4,000 mile road trip, (May 7-26, 2023) this vehicle slammed on its brakes while driving down the highway while using the adaptive cruise control feature. Speed reduction was up to 25 MPH from highway speeds of 65 - 80 MPH. This braking was quite dramatic, just short of locking the brakes up. Traffic conditions varied from very light (no vehicles in sight) to moderate traffic (vehicles in front, in rear and/or to the side). Weather was mostly clear, roads were mostly in good shape, there were no animals, people or other non-vehicle obstacles noted. Several instances were lodged in the vehicles "bug report" functionality, but not all, so Tesla should have a pretty good record of the status of the vehicle when several instances occurred. On more than one occasion we were very close to being rear ended because of this phantom braking. In...
complete shutdown or blanking screen while driving causing GOD knows what is working and what not. definitely driver won't know his/her speed, car systems status like blinker, auto pilot,...etc until the system comes back to become available. 1st time this happened, Tesla sent me its service mobile service person who mentioned that he could not find anything wrong and if it happened again he will schedule the car for an in-house service center appointment for the main computer unit to be replaced. When the incident happened again Tesla scheduled the service appointment but after inspection the report came back that this is a recurring incident in many teslas and require a firmware update! Service report attached (Job number 4 and 5)
the window is opening alone
Ghost forward collision warnings appear from time to time even tho there is no one in front of the vehicle. Sometimes when the vehicle in front of me is turning left/right the collision warning will alarm me of possible impact even tho there was no real threat for anything to happen. Also, it happens when you want to park behind a parked vehicle (it happened to me today) and alerted me of a possible crash, while i was crawling to park. I wouldn't mind these ghost warnings, but since I am using Tesla Insurance which gives monthly insurance premiums based on the safety performance of the driver (FCW is one of those and the most important one) this is always impacting me financially at the end of the month. Tesla should be forbidden to use a technology that is not perfect in order to determine the price of the insurance.
while driving on north on I79 with auto cruise / steering on, the car tried to stop by itself at a speed of 70mph....almost causing the cars behind me to re-end me...this is the 4th time the car has had a phantom brake issue at speed...very scary and very dangerous
Even with all automated safety options turned off, autopilot (cruise control) continues to implement sudden periodic "hard braking." This is occurring (a) when a vehicle crosses in front of my path *far* ahead of me, is not remotely close to causing an accident, and the way will be clear with plenty of room to spare by the time my car reaches that spot, and (b) sometimes for no reason I can detect: there's nothing in front of my car at all but open road. The second example above tends to happen at least once every trip in which I've engaged cruise control. This second case is especially startling and dangerous, because it seems to come out of nowhere.
Constantly issues with the car braking hard without reason - also the car NOT braking when needed, and poor estimation of distance to the vehicle directly in front. When the car Phantom Brake, it causes traffic behind the vehicle to become in danger of a forward collision. When the car incorrectly estimates the distance to the next vehicle, it causes the car to apply maximum braking force to rectify the miscalculation. The "Autopilot" and "Cruise Control" are dangerous and hazardous to use in normal vehicle operation. The vehicle/component and behavior is repeatedly certified as "within spec" and no issues found with the vehicle or components.
While driving down our rural highway, with little traffic, the cruise control is basically unusable. The cameras see the heat shimmer on the highway (100 degrees plus) as another stationary vehicle and slam on the brakes suddenly and frighteningly. If there is traffic (rarely) in front of this, the sudden deceleration never happens. However, the traffic free environment causes this kind of reaction on a regular basis. On a 60 mile trip that we regularly make it happens enough in the first 10 miles that we don't use the cruise control again on the trip. We try again after each software update but this hasn't improved anything yet.
Phantom braking aggressively appearing during a family road trip. Violent braking leading to a 20-30 mph drop in speed.
Several incidences of phantom breaking occurred when no other cars were around. This took place during our road trip from Michigan to Montana. One of the days, it occurred over 10 times, with the worst resulting in a hard brake from 75mph to 50mpg before I could intervene. The majority of the time there were no cars within 200 yards ahead or behind me. If there were a car behind me, it could have resulted in a severed accident. The braking was hard enough to throw me and my children hard into seatbelts, even causing the belts to lock. I reported these incidents to Tesla but have heard nothing back.
While using the Autosteer/ Adaptive cruise feature on a recent long trip multiple times while at speeds of 55 - 75 MPH the car aggressively applied the brakes almost causing an accident where an 18 wheeler was following closely passing another truck. The other times it occurred were on flat roads with no vehicle in front or on either side.
Over a 4500 mile road trip, I experienced about 75 emergency braking incidents that were not caused by anything visible in the road or due to conditions. In nearly all cases there were warning chimes, but not always. Most were at highway speeds and were a sudden attempt to brake which required me to immediately react by stepping on accelerator to maintain distance in front of cars or large trucks behind me. It seemed more likely to happen at higher speeds (70-85 mph) and often times in more hilly areas of highways and often times as well coming just over the crests of hills. Tesla reviewed logs and said they didn't see anything and have been unhelpful. This is a high risk issue if cars stop on highways and people are not able to react quickly enough. So
During a recent trip from San Diego to Tucson and back, I had several incidents, in each direction, of sudden deceleration/phantom braking when the Autopilot feature was engaged, while driving on the I-8 and I-10 highways. The first time it happened, the collision avoidance alert also went off with very abrupt braking. Each time, the car did not brake to a stop, bud did suddenly and quickly decelerate several mph. After a couple of incidents, I prepared to intervene by pressing the accelerator to counter the slowdown. I thought it might be the autopilot causing the issue, so I started using the adaptive cruise control only without the steering feature, but it happened once with only adaptive cruise control too. Altogether, there were about 4 incidents per direction of travel.
I was hit by a woman driving a Tesla with autopilot turned on. The system did not detect the red light, and she hit the right front quarter panel of my vehicle, totally my vehicle. The autopilot system malfunctioned and should have detected both the red light and the collision which was likely to occur. To my knowledge, the vehicle is in the control of either the driver's insurance company or the Police.
I have experienced multiple instances of what I see others seem to be referring to as Phantom Braking. The car will decelerate from 70 mph to 40 mph in seconds with absolutely no other vehicles, obstacles, etc. in sight. Typically the issue happens on 2 lane divided highways )2 lanes in each direction separated by a natural median) during the day time. Without any warning the car will rapidly decelerate using the brakes so aggressively the anti-lock brakes are being engaged as you can hear the tires skidding/squealing. The braking is so aggressive everything loose in the car flies forward including occupants. My typical reaction is to press down on the accelerator immediately to get back up to speed in case there is someone behind me. I picked up the car in March 2022 and experienced the issue in the first couple days. While a Tesla tech was at my...
Phantom braking at highway speed nearly caused an accident. Happened several times over a 400 mile trip. Tesla's "Navigate on Autopilot" feature apparently confused other vehicles on the highway for hazards, and slammed on brakes, creating a collision risk for cars behind me. It also happened when the painted line on a highway ended and the road split. The car may have confused this for the road ending altogether, and it slammed on brakes while I was going at 65 mph. This is a new car (3 weeks old).
I'm looking for an update to the reported Tesla "phantom braking" issue when on Autopilot. We experienced this at least 5 times during an April 2022 road trip from SLC to Vegas, so bad we didn't feel comfortable enabling Autopilot (cruise control) on the drive home to SLC. This made for a very difficult 6 hour drive as Tesla's are very hard to keep a consistent speeding since they are so quiet/powerful...w/out some sort of auto speed regulation. I didn't know where to report this and was simply waiting for an over-the-air update for this to be addressed by Tesla and have seen none and no follow up news reports. I'm assuming this must be affecting 100's of thousands of Tesla owners.
We are on a trip from California to Indiana and have had 9 instances so far of the car suddenly stopping while the cruise control is on. The last incident we are doing 75 mph and car stopped suddenly and car following us almost hit us and driver was pissed to the extent of road rage. This needs to be addressed!!
My car continues to slam on the brakes completely at random while using cruise control. This is unsafe because it could easily cause a collision from the vehicle behind me. It also causes road rage because people think I am brake-checking them. Someone waved a gun at me after my car braked randomly in front of them on interstate 10 in Phoenix. Tesla service center says this is currently normal behavior for Teslas without radar and nothing can be done. They offered troubleshooting options which I tried, but there has been no change. My car has no warning lights present.
Phantom braking when cruise control activated and truck approaches on two-lane roads. Braking can be so hard that it can be dangerous and unanticipated. It happened virtually every time a truck (e.g., log truck, 18 wheeler) approached as I drove on Highway 99E from Corvallis to Monroe, OR on 22 June 2022. My remedies: Turn off cruise control, definitely keep hands on the wheel, and remain very aware.
Phantom braking occurred multiple times while driving on hot days in the Desert. Traveling at around 70 mph, the car would apply the brakes hard and slow down until the driver takes over and disengages autopilot.
I have a 2022 Tesla Model 3, VIN # 5YJ3E1EBXNF115096, and anytime I use adaptive cruise control or auto pilot on a 2 lane road, I run into issues with phantom breaking. It also happens on 4 lane divided highways, but not as consistent. I’ve submitted “bug reports” via the voice commands every time it happens, but have not gotten a response. This is extremely dangerous as it can cause my car to be rear ended, or cause me to react incorrectly to the phantom breaking.
Vehicle brakes randomly when in autopilot or cruise control. It happens at least every 15 miles. There seems to be no cause or current emergency which would cause this to happen. Vehicle brakes hard, which is dangerous to myself and all traffic behind me. Was reported to manufacturer as a warranty item. Was told that this is not a defect or broken component, and could not be fixed.
I have had this car for exactly one month, and on three separate occasions, while using cruise control, the car suddenly braked although there was no obstacle visible in front of the car. On one instance I was driving on a four-lane highway, and there was another vehicle rather close behind me, who was quite surprised by the sudden braking. On the two other occasions, I was driving on a two-lane road with no-one behind me. I don't think there was oncoming traffic in the opposite lane, but I can't be sure. I have searched on the web and found that there are other reports of "phantom braking" in the Tesla 3. Otherwise the car is fine.
Other 2022 TESLA MODEL 3 Problem Areas
Forward Collision Avoidance Adaptive Cruise Control
381 complaints
Forward Collision Avoidance Automatic Emergency Braking
303 complaints
Service Brakes
166 complaints
Vehicle Speed Control
160 complaints
Unknown Or Other
83 complaints
Electrical System
42 complaints
Steering
29 complaints
Lane Departure Assist
26 complaints
Lane Departure Blind Spot Detection
13 complaints
Power Train
13 complaints
Seat Belts
12 complaints
Visibilitywiper
12 complaints
Wheels
11 complaints
Air Bags
10 complaints
Lane Departure Warning
9 complaints
Fuelpropulsion System
8 complaints
Seats
8 complaints
Structurebody
7 complaints
Engine
6 complaints
Exterior Lighting
6 complaints
Electrical Systemadasautonomousself Driving
5 complaints
Suspension
5 complaints
Back Over Prevention Warnings
4 complaints
Electrical Systemadasautonomousself Drivingsoftware
4 complaints
Vehicle Speed Controlcruise Control
4 complaints
Forward Collision Avoidance
3 complaints
Visibility
3 complaints
Back Over Prevention
2 complaints
Vehicle Speed Controlaccelerator Pedal
2 complaints
Visibilitydefrosterdefoggerhvac System
2 complaints
Air Bagssrs Malfunction Warning Lamplight
1 complaint
Back Over Prevention Rearview System Braking
1 complaint
Back Over Prevention Sensing System Camera
1 complaint
Engine And Engine Cooling
1 complaint
Equipment
1 complaint
Equipmentelectricalinfotainmentvideo Touchscreenmonitorunit
1 complaint
Forward Collision Avoidance Adaptive Cruise Controlsoftware
1 complaint
Lane Departure
1 complaint
Lane Departure Lane Keep Automatic Steering
1 complaint
Latcheslockslinkagesdoorslatch
1 complaint
Latcheslockslinkagestrunk Lidlatch
1 complaint
Service Brakes Air
1 complaint
Structurebodyhatchbackliftgatehinge And Attachments
1 complaint
Tires
1 complaint
Visibilitypower Window Devices And Controls
1 complaint
Visibilitywindshield
1 complaint