2021 TESLA MODEL Y Forward Collision Avoidance Adaptive Cruise Control Problems

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving at various highway speeds with either the cruise control or self-driving feature activated, the vehicle would independently brake without warning. The contact spoke with the service center about the failure and was informed that they were aware of the failure. The manufacturer had yet to be notified of the failure. The vehicle had yet to be repaired. The failure mileage was unknown.

Sudden and dramatic application of emergency collision braking for no apparent reason. No objects in the road in the driving path of the vehicle, but the emergency braking system engages. Available for inspection upon request. Having this occur during traffic can result in being rear ended as the braking can be so severely applied. Bodily injury in the form of whiplash is also foreseeable. The problem has not been reproduced by the dealer or service center. The vehicle has not been inspected for these problems. There is a warning chime prior to almost every event. Sometimes it just slows without warning. They first occurred on our first long road trip beyond twenty miles.

This vehicle when on ADAS (aka autopilot) and adaptive cruise control I experience constant "phantom" braking where car will slow down or slam on brakes for seemingly no reason. Most noticeable on a non separated highway phantom braking occurs constantly and is very predictable when large truck is near on the oncoming lane; happens probably 80% of the time. Slamming on the brakes for no reason is alarming and dangerous in my estimation. This system is completely unusable and very unnerving. Ironically I had a 2019 Model 3 with the same features and did this very rarely so this feature is much worse than it was on older vehicles with radar.

This is the second Tesla I have owned and the previous model did not have this problem at all. This vehicle has phantom emergency braking occurrences during use with the cruise control and also with the auto drive feature. It will randomly brake hard when there is nothing around the vehicle, either in front, back or sides. I have contacted Tesla 3 times, the first two they said nothing was wrong and the 3rd time is scheduled for February 28 here in Houston. The first two times Tesla told me to record the time and place of the occurrence so that they could look at the data that was being input to the vehicle. I did this but it did not work. When the vehicle has an emergency braking occurrence all of the occupants of the vehicle are violently slammed forward until the driver can push down on the accelerator...

I was driving on a 2 lane highway at about 60 mph in the middle of my lane. The adaptive cruise control was used to manage my speed. Another vehicle was travelling in the opposite direction going toward me, and in the middle of their lane. The other vehicle was an 18 wheel truck. Suddenly, with no warning, the braking system slowed my vehicle. Both myself and my wife felt our seat belts tighten quickly. There was a vehicle behind us, that nearly hit us when the brakes were applied so quickly, for no apparent reason. I had to quickly put my foot on the accelerator pedal to stop the braking, and get back to the correct speed. This has happened several times, usually when driving on a road that gently curves to the right. The sudden braking also occurred when there was no other traffic, just a new section...

Autopilot or Cruise Control Performance - Several times over the last couple weeks, when I disengage TACC/AP by pushing the stalk up during driving, the car shifts into Neutral instead of staying in Drive and engaging the regenerative braking. I cannot reproduce it on demand, it is intermittent. This causes a collision hazard as o am expecting braking to occur but it does not.

Frequent phantom braking events occur without warning in cruise control and range from light braking to very hard braking. This especially occurs on two lane roads and occasionally on four lane roads and rarely on freeways, but it does occur. For example, we recorded approximately 14 phantom braking events within 20 minutes on US 191 North in Utah (2/12/22), and 28 phantom braking events on US 6 in Utah (2:46 pm to 4:37 pm on 2/17/22). The "hard" braking occurs without warning and rapidly reduces speed by about 20 mph, which is extremely dangerous especially with traffic from behind when traveling the posted speed limit of 65 mph. The majority of observed phantom braking events will reduce speed from 5 to 20 mph. Phantom braking has occurred the entire time we have owned the vehicle (8/21)

Sometimes randomly but often in the spot, when in autopilot, the car will randomly brake hard when there is no car or obsticle in front of me. This has occured when I'm on the highway and I've noticed a pattern that it happens when I go under and overpass. Its usually very sunny and there is a strong shadow in front of the car. I think with the camera vision autopilot it thinks the shadow is an obstacle in the road but I'm not sure. This happens very suddenly and luckily has not happened when a car is following close behind me. But if it did this could definitely cause a rear collision at high speeds.

When using cruise control, the vehicle unexpectedly brakes on multiple occasions. This occurs when there are no other vehicles in the vicinity. It has also occurred when passing tractor trailers. I understand there have been hundreds of similar reports. No warning provided prior to the failure. This is a safety hazard that must be addressed. Tesla service will be notified.

44E east of Joplin car braked hard while on autopilot. Pressing the accelerator would override but as soon as you let up it would hard brake again even though the car was below the cruise control speed

At 12:21pm on February 20, 2022, while driving on a divided highway (US-36), the Tesla Model Y braked hard with no cars nearby. The braking occurred as the car encountered a shadow on the roadway from an overpass. The sun was very bright, so the shadow had very high contrast. We suspect this is a case of "phantom braking", as has been reported with many Tesla Model Y and 3. The problem is not easily re-producible, but we also do not feel safe using the cruise control feature any longer, so it's unlikely to be reproduced soon. The vehicle has not been inspected by Tesla, nor confirmed by the dealer. There were no warning lamps or chimes - just a sudden, hard braking for approximately 1 second, losing approximately 20mph, immediately.

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds with the cruise control activated, the braking system erroneously activated, causing the vehicle to abruptly slow down and reduce speed. The contact indicated that the failure had occurred on multiple occasions. 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 500.

While adaptive cruise control is enabled, the car will hard brake at random. The screen doesn't indicate why the car is randomly braking, not are there any other indicators as why or when this will happen. This occurs most often while going around corners, up hills, or when traffic is oncoming in the other lane. This happens on standard roads and highways - although highways are a little better as long as the opposite bound lane is separated by a wide median. Contacted Tesla support December 16, 2021 in which their reply was that "the car is learning... apply constant pressure to pedal in order to override braking system". I did try that for a couple of months, and instead of hard braking, it is a little gentler, but then I run the risk of going over the speed limit as constant pressure has to be applied ontop of whatever...

Phantom braking when adaptive cruise control engaged. More extreme braking occurs when oncoming traffic approaches from uphill or oncoming vehicle is large (e.g. box truck or semi tractor). Also occurs when large objects appear well off the right side of the road.

WHILE DRIVING IN AUTO PILOT ON HIGHWAYS, NOT FREEWAYS, THE CAR WILL SUDDENLY BRAKE WHEN IT SEES A CAR ON THE SIDE ROAD THAT IS NOT COMING INTO TRAFFIC. THE BRAKING IS VERY SUDDEN AND HARSH. THROWING DRIVER AND PASSENGERS FORWARD. I WILL NOT USE THIS FEATURE BECAUSE I FEEL IT IS UNSAFE TO USE. PLEASE MAKE TESLA MAKE CHANGES.

Multiple occurrences of unanticipated hard breaking. Adaptive Cruise Control will slam on the breaks when car is adjacent a pedestrian or bicyclist. The car car doesn't slow down as it approaches a pedestrian walking on the side of the road but slams the breaks on when the car is next to the pedestrian or cyclist. This unanticipated event causes the car to immediately drop in speed between 5 to 30 mph. Any motorists following will not be prepared for this illogical behavior and significantly increases the probability of a rear end collision. This behavior of the Adaptive Cruise Control has also occurred when the car approaches oncoming highway traffic regardless of whether the highway is divided or not. In this event, if the driver of the Tesla model Y does not instantly take over complete control of the vehicle a severe rear end collision can occur. I have not addressed...

The adaptive cruise control feature frequently hits the brakes despite no obstacles in the road. Major triggers seem to be: Oncoming cars on an undivided highway at night. Oncoming 18-wheelers on an undivided highway at any time in day. Going over the top of a hill. Small bumps in the road at night. A large vehicle with blinking red hazard lights in view. (This will slam on the brakes and set the speed limit to 50 as it seems to think it's an emergency vehicle) Blinking red traffic lights. Sometimes HOV lane entrances will use a blinking red light to show that the lane is closed, and the car will slam on the brakes thinking it's an emergency vehicle. There's a risk of rear-end collisions caused by the sudden decelerations. Most of these events happened on highways with low traffic. No warning lights or messages were displayed before the events.

The car ‘phantom’ brakes all the time. It is so bad that I cannot use the cruise control. I’ve had several instances where vehicles following me almost hit the back of my car because my car braked so hard.

While I’m adaptive cruise control or Autopilot the vehicle has phantom braking which occurs. Vehicle will slam on the brakes for no apparent reason.

Phantom braking. I have had numerous incidents of phantom braking, and can reproduce the problem at will on a particular stretch of road. It happens regularly on city streets, occasionally on Interstate highways. It is sufficiently unreliable as to be worthless. I reported the problem to Tesla online in a service request, and was told that the problem will be or has been solved with software.

While using the adaptive cruise control on the highway, the car abruptly slowed down from approximately 70 mph to less than 55 within a few seconds before I was able to push the gas petal and reaccelerate. This has happened 3 other times in the last several weeks and I am now afraid to use the cruise control. Whereas no accident occurred, if it happened when another car was following me closely, it could have easily resulted in a crash. Each time this has happened, there were no other cars nearby so I don’t know what the car ‘saw’ and was reacting to. The date entered below for the incident is the most recent occurrence.

My Tesla Model Y has terrible Phantom Braking problems. The AutoPilot features on the Tesla is extremely dangerous. Phantom Braking can happened anytime whenever AutoPilot feature is used, it just suddenly slow the vehicle without warning, there’s no other vehicle in front of me. The problem occurred more on a less busy freeway/ highway, sometimes it’s totally useless because the the feature is too dangerous. On a two lane highway, when more car detect a larger vehicle on the opposite lane, it started slowing down, sometimes that’s very dangerous because cars behind me almost hit my car. Tesla’s AutoPilot is extremely dangerous, they should recall the car and fix the problem.

When using autosteer or adaptive cruise on I5, our car performed a phantom brake that cause the truck behind us to nearly flip over in order to miss hitting us. We were not in the lane by the divider, there were wide open lanes in front of us to the left and right by half a football field and no overpasses at the time. We slowed from 69 to about 39 before I could correct the braking. This happens so often we do not feel safe using the cruise control at all.

Wipers have frozen down in place. Car is garaged and the buildup was from the road and not parked accumulation. New car <7k miles. Phantom breaking on the autopilot system where it will slam on the breaks always at some points on a commute and when driving in some conditions such as oncoming opposite side of road traffic at night with headlights on. The car will momentarily and to an extreme degree sometimes slam on the breaks.

The car randomly brakes hard when the cruise control is on. It’s intolerable on roads with a lot of tree shadows or even clouds.

On multiple occasions the car triggers emergency braking when no obstacle is in front of the car, often at high speeds. The car is not equipped with radar, and relies entirely on camera-based adaptive cruise control. this is a safety risk and possible rear end collision cause. Due to the lack of radar, the vehicle also accelerates to desired speed slowly when using adaptive cruise control while on interstate. Often times resulting in traveling under the speed limit for an extended amount of time, causing a safety hazard.

While using adaptive cruise control on I-25 making round trips between Albuquerque and Ft Collins, I have experienced numerous (dozens) phantom braking events. They are so frequent that I have stopped using adaptive cruise control. Almost all of these events occur when there is no traffic and no discernible reason for braking. In many cases, my first response is to look in the rearview mirror since I'm worried that if someone is behind me it would cause an accident since the stop is very unexpected. To date, there has not been a close call. The stopping varies between slight hesitations causing 1-2 MPH decrease to dramatic decreases of over 20 MPH. I have made numerous 'bug reports' using my voice in the car immediately after many of the events. I also scheduled a service call but was told that they examined the software and could find no problem. There is...

We have had multiple incidents from July through Dec 2021when the vehicle is operating in cruise control and brakes hard for no good reason. Most of these are on highway 86 between Tucson and Sells. For some of those incidents there was an oncoming school bus, which may have been the visual trigger. For others we do not know the cause.

Car slams on brakes at inappropriate times. Ex: 1. When a car makes a left turn across my travel lane several blocks away. 2. When a vehicle moves into my travel lane, going the same direction, several blocks in front of me. 3. For no reason I can discern. Cars behind me often honk. Could easily rear end me. Thankfully hasn't happened. You are welcome to inspect it. Don't think service center has tried to replicate the braking. No accident so not reports. Just very scary, thankfully. No warning lamps, etc. Anticipating question about dates, happens randomly, but pretty frequently. At least weekly. Speed also variable. Sometimes 35, sometimes 70, and in-between

Multiple phantom braking incidents using cruise control on 2 lane roads when there is no hazard

Car braked for now reason when the entire roads in front was clear and there was a car behind me. It was a hard brake which scared me and my family. That was very very close to being in an accident. Need compensation from Tesla for going through such an incident after paying so much money for the car.

On a cross-country trip from Washington, DC to Oklahoma City on Feb 5th and 6th (Saturday and Sunday) I tried to use the "adaptive cruise control" for the first time. Terrifying. The car would be driving along at 80mph, and then it would suddenly slam on the brakes, seemingly without provocation... with a 30-35mph sudden deceleration (absolutely nobody/nothing in either of the lanes in front of me). This was not while using the "full self-driving" feature, as I did not pay the extra $10k for this functionality, only the adaptive cruise control. Another very disturbing thing was that when the adaptive cruise control was enabled, it would not allow me to turn off the windshield wipers... and every so often the wipers would just start frantically wiping despite only a small bit of rain hitting the windshield (again, disturbing, as it is very startling when it happens out of nowhere)....

When driving with the cruise control on, the car suddenly and rapidly brakes for no apparent reason. Nothing in front of the car. Problem has happened multiple times. Very hard Braking that if someone was behind us it would likely have caused an accident. We no longer use the cruise control because we are afraid of it causing an accident.

This issue has happened numerous times since I’ve taken possession of the car. The vehicle perceives a potential collision when no such potential collision exists. The car will suddenly brake while traveling down the interstate at high speeds (maximum speed limit). Fortunately, no one has been so close behind me that this has resulted in an accident, but it is only a matter of time. I took it in to a Tesla dealership this week to have it looked at. Despite the adjustments made at the dealership, it happened again on my drive home from the dealership. I feel this automatic breaking system is unsafe. It also breaks suddenly at sharp turns or curves in the road, even at low speeds. It doesn’t anticipate the turn and thinks the driver is heading straight into an obstruction. Part of the issue is learning to think like a computer and learning to...

I have had over 18 occurrences of phantom braking while on cruise control; rapid deceleration without warning. I reacted by accelerating with the brake pedal. I reported this twice to the service adviser. One response was I needed to return with a date and time when it occurs again. When I did this, they could not find it in the computer record. They explained this occurs because cruise control is part of the self drive software and that is only in beta stage.

While driving my Tesla Model Y with Cruise Control activated, the vehicle would inexplicably brake/decelerate rapidly without any vehicle traffic in front of the car. It would occur at its worst while changing lanes, as I approached another vehicle from behind and attempted to change lanes to overtake. I would either be mostly in the other lane, or had already successfully changed lanes, when the vehicle inexplicably braked/decelerated. It was alarming, frustrating, and infuriating as it seemed clearly unjustified. This occurred while on the interstate, which was extremely dangerous given the speed traveling at as well as the number of vehicles that typically travel on the interstate. I have not used the feature since, and have even attempted to try and disable the feature while still being able to utilize some sort of basic cruise control feature, to no avail.

My 2021 Tesla Model Y has two problems related to braking: (1) frequent unexpected and unnecessary slowdowns while driving on Autopilot adaptive cruise control. The vehicle seems to believe something is in the road but it is not the case. This has been called "phantom braking" by many online reports. I experience this on nearly every drive where adaptive cruise control is engaged. (2) On one occasion the car locked up its brakes and began swerving to the left for no reason whatsoever. An alarm appeared on the screen and audible tones and a video was automatically saved. The event lasted only a second but would surely have caused a collision if another car was following me. The event occurred as I passed an oncoming truck on a two lane highway at night in good visibility. I was driving manually. Adaptive cruise control and auto steering were *not* engaged at...

Numerous times in the last 6 to 7 months, while driving my tesla on the freeway in auto pilot mode, auto pilot will just turn off and the car will abruptly slow down. Without reason, auto pilot turns off. And because of the settings on my car, this causes the car to quickly slow down. I rarely use auto pilot because I am afraid it will happen again and I’ll be rear ended.

I have already reported this to TESLA and they did nothing for the following except to ask for a "time stamp". As I'm driving in Auto or Full self drive mode the car will suddenly brake as though there is something on the road in front of the car and at the time there is nothing present on the road or coming out into traffic. The car will make an alarm noise (internally) as though I did something wrong and as I said will decrease in speed dramatically and scare the driver behind me if there is a driver present.

While driving with cruise control engaged my car has now on several occasion suddenly and without warning applied the brakes on its own when there was no reason for the brakes to have been applied. Sometimes it has done it when a truck is approaching in the opposite direction, but sometimes it does it for no reason at all. Recently it did it with such severity that it was clear to me that if a car had been behind me I would have been hit from behind. Also, it was startling to the point where I could have lost control of my vehicle.

The driver assist feature was engaged, what TESLA calls FSD, full self-driving. This has happened multiple times where the car will slam on the brakes, even on the highway for obstacles not in the car's path. For example, a car is on the exit ramp and I am in the adjacent lane. The car on the exit ramp slows down to make its exit and the TESLA will slam on the brakes. The TESLA also has done this for cars making turns. It will not brake until the last second and then it slams on the brakes, even after the car in front of me has turned.

After seeing news reports about the problems with Tesla "phantom braking", I realized this is not an issue localized with my vehicle. I also have this problem where the car will slam on the brakes when using the advanced cruise control system. It's jarring, to say the least. I reported the issue to Tesla a month after buying the car (10/21) and they instructed me to do a power cycle on the car but this has not helped. Incidenct occurance varies on the type of driving, but it's probably every 5 miles or so on a 2-lane road.

I am aware that NHTSA is investigating Tesla over the emergency braking issue when using its advanced features. When I have read articles about this they always reference auto pilot or full self driving. I wanted to make sure you knew that this issue also impacted adaptive cruise control. When I brought my Model Y home in August of last year I quickly learned I could not safely use the adaptive cruise control. I live in rural NE Iowa, and mainly drive on two lane roads. If I was on a downhill slope and meeting a vehicle with any kind of height to it the car would activate emergency braking, even though the other vehicle was completely in its own lane. It appears to me this issue has gotten better as updates have been issued the last six months and I have started to gingerly use cruise control again. It...

Per previously reported cases, by Tesla Y suffers from “phantom braking” when I am using adaptive cruise control at highway speeds. In general it will decrease up to 20MPH very suddenly. This is always in response to a falsely detected hazard; it will sometimes do the same when passing a vehicle that has exited an off ramp and has break lights on but is no longer in my lane of traffic. in general i drive with maximum 5-6 car lengths in my adaptive cruise control and this should not be happening. This has been an intermittent but ongoing issue through 2021; have not experienced in 2022 but have not done a lot of high way driving. Scares the heck out of my passengers. Love the car but please fix the software or it will be my last Tesla.

While driving on the interstate (divided) highway at 73 mph with adaptive cruise control engaged, the vehicle abruptly braked. There were no other vehicles or obstructions within 250' at the time of braking. No warning lights or messages appeared. To correct the situation, I immediately pressed the accelerator to increase speed. Conditions: daylight, dry road surface. If another vehicle was following close by this could have caused an accident. I've had the car about 7 months and this type of braking has occurred 7 times, all with no vehicles nearby. It has happened both in the daytime (6) and night (1) at similar speeds mention above. I brought car in for service at Tesla on two occasions for this problem and they could find no faults in the software or braking. Basically, I was told Tesla continues to update software.

Autopilot suddenly breaks to a dangerous levels while driving in the highway. Sometimes this happens with incoming cars/trucks on the other line. I have to manually take over control as I am worried I might be rear ended. These events are very likely to happen at least once on a given commute. This sudden braking also happens while going over a certain bridge. This has happened to all drivers in this car.

Phantom braking when using Tesla autopilot

This has happened multiple times. I am on the highway and have the cruise control set. The car suddenly decelerates but there is nothing in front to cause this. It is very jarring to me as the driver and to those behind me. When it happened during the day time I think it reacted to a shadow in the road from an overpass. It happened last night when it was dark. I had stopped using the cruise control because of the uncertainty, but decided to try it again on my trip yesterday. I received the car in September and I believe this has happened four times. I am reporting this now because I heard of the investigation. Now, I will keep closer track of the times, conditions and other facts. I have not reported it previously to Tesla, but will do so now. I looked on the Tesla forum and...

The vehicle engages automatic emergency braking frequently and repeatedly without reason, especially on two lane highways with oncoming traffic. This occurs during the day and at night. The vehicle also engages phantom braking (without emergency braking notifications) during normal driving on freeways and highways. Video of this incident is also available.

North bound on interstate highway, my vehicle rapidly deaccelerated and then accelerated without warning