2021 TESLA MODEL Y Forward Collision Avoidance Automatic Emergency Braking Problems

On July 16, 2022 I was traveling west on I-40, east of Tucumcari, NM. I was using Traffic Adaptive Cruise Control (TACC). There were no cars within a mile of me, front or back. The weather was clear, the road was flat. The car suddenly braked without warning. The objects stored in the back of the car flew forward, striking the two front seats. The wheels did not lock up. I immediately stabbed the accelerator. I saw the power line bar graph indicator go fully to the right. I contacted Tesla to request a service appointment. Tesla initially set an appointment but then cancelled it, explaining there was nothing wrong with the car. I was reminded that TACC (along with virtually all other Tesla driving aids) is "beta" and may therefore not function as intended or expected. It was the responsibility of the driver to assume the risks implied. Prior...

I own a 2021Tesla Model Y. I took possession of it on August 7, 2021, in Santa Barbara, Ca. Ever since, I continuously experience automatic emergency braking (phantom braking) episodes while using cruise control or autopilot. It is very dangerous because I almost got rear-ended. I've had it in Tesla's service center several times for inspection. They always say the technicians can't fix the phantom braking problem, that only the engineers can, and that they are working on it. It's been one year and there hasn't been a software update to remedy the dangerous flaw. Will you please force Tesla to fix the hundred, perhaps thousands, of Tesla Models 3 and Ys that have this problem? An investigation and recall would be welcomed. Thanks!

On a roadtrip between California and Wyoming, the adaptive cruise control, full-self driving, and emergency breaking engaged for absolutely no reason on dozens of occasions - what I understand is termed "phantom breaking." This was so bad that on Sunday, July 10, I noted each severe incident. Some of these occurred with absolutely no traffic in the road, some during busier periods. In each case, it was scary and dangers -- to the point where my dog went flying off the seat. While this was an issue throughout the road trip, I only noted incidents on July 10, but please be aware this happened on many other days as well. Here are the significant incidents on July 10. Please note there were less severe incidents on this day that I didn't note because it would have been too many to count. 12pm mountain time just outside Idaho Falls, ID --...

The vehicle was on cruise control (NOT auto-pilot). Driving on Freeway approximately 82 mph when the vehicle slowed to 60 mph instantly numerous time within my 160 mile drive. There were no vehicles in front or beside me. There were no obstacles in the roadway or on the side of the road. Sunny day with no clouds. There were no warnings lamps or messages that would indicate the car was going to brake. My safety was put at risk if there was another driver behind me, I could have been rear-ended. It Could also had been very dangerous if there was adverse weather. Tesla was not able to recreate the problem and never found any problems with the vehicle. This was not the first time we took the vehicle in for phantom braking. Tesla blamed the driver. I was also told by a tesla representative the the vehicle can brake...

While adaptive cruise control was engaged on highway, it would disengage and harshly break even though there was nothing ahead as an obstacle. If there was a vehicle behind, it would have created a significant change of collision. During a 5+ hour drive, this occurred 20+ times. It seemed to occur when cresting small hills where visibility was somewhat limited ahead and when there were few cars ahead. In a few occurrences, there was a warning chime, but in other cases, it disengaged and braked silently. This just happened yesterday, so it has not been inspected by Tesla.

Going 40 MPH on CA 210W in left lane. Full Self Driving available on vehicle but no autopilot/lane assist activated at time of incident. Steering wheel locked up completely; I was unable to turn the wheel at all so I ended up drifting across 4 lanes of highway (miraculously didn’t hit anyone) and ended up under a semi. Car airbags did not deploy and system did not detect a collision. Contacted Tesla to ask about the cause of the accident multiple times; never got an answer. They had us pull the USB in glovebox and see if anything is on there but there wasn’t even though dash cam was activated. They “escalated” the ticket to a supervisor and have been ghosted ever since asking for an answer. We scheduled a service appointment to have them check out the vehicle and they canceled it. It is a miracle that I did...

I own a 2021Tesla Model Y. I took possession of it on August 7, 2021, in Santa Barbara, Ca. Ever since, I have had thousands of instances of automatic emergency braking (phantom braking) episodes while using cruise control or autopilot. On January 26, 2022, I had 47 episodes, in just a couple of hours. This is typical. My latest incident of phantom braking occurred on June 27, 2022. In August 2021, I was promised by Tesla that a software update would be issued soon to remedy the problem. It still hasn't. I'm very exasperated. I understand Tesla was supposed to give you information about this issue on June 20, 2022. I am anxious to hear about Tesla's response. Furthermore, I sincerely hope the Tesla has told you they are fixing the problem. Has it? Please let me know of updates and proposed fixes to Tesla's phantom braking.

The vehicle randomly applies hard brakes. This makes cruise unusable and presents a safety issue for cars behind. I was almost hit from behind when my Tesla applied brakes on interstate going from 65 to 35MPH.

There are 4 issues to report for our Tesla Model Y: 1) On the highway, our Tesla often presses on the brakes and slows down by itself when it should not be doing so. This occurs when we have adaptive cruise control on. We’ve noticed that at the time of the slowdown, the Tesla misreads the highway speed limit. For example, the Tesla will read the speed limit as 70 mph, then all of sudden without warning, the Tesla will suddenly read the speed limit at 40 mph, which then causes the Tesla to break and slow down by itself, when the speed limit is actually still 70 mph. This can happen several times on a single highway trip. Aside from the shock we receive as a driver as our vehicle slows unexpectedly, this could cause a rear end collision if a car is following us too closely from behind....

This is my sixth complaint to you. I own a 2021Tesla Model Y. I took possession of it on August 7, 2021, in Santa Barbara, Ca. Ever since, I have had several thousand instances of automatic emergency braking (phantom braking) episodes while using cruise control or autopilot. On January 26, 2022, I had 47 episodes, in two hours. This is typical. I was told immediately following my purchase last August that there would soon be a software update to remedy the problem. There hasn't! I have had five appointments with the Tesla service center, and they continually say "we can't fix it, only the software engineers can". The braking episodes are dangerous! I implore you to hold Tesla accountable and demand they fix the problem immediately. PLEASE!

I was traveling early morning before sunrise over the tehachapi pass towards Mojave in California. Someone had lost a camper shell from the top of a pickup truck in the lane. It was still dark outside. I saw the obstruction in the road but the car cameras did not pick it up. I pulled into the left lane to try to get around the camper shell. The lane assist pulled me right back into the camper shell which tore down the side of the car doing 10k in damage. The car never recognized impact or an accident. I have the videos from the cameras of the car. The lane assist, as far as I know, only doesn’t activate when the turn signal is used, which I did not have time for, as I had less than 200 feet between me and the camper shell.

Several instances of emergency braking applied without warning or obvious need during multiple driving sessions. This results in an unexpected rapid vehicle deceleration. Fortunately no other vehicle was following close enough to represent an imminent safety hazard though it is easily plausible this could happen. Typically the issue occurs when traveling uphill or around a bend and encountering traffic in an oncoming lane, structures (bridges) or dark shadows. The unexpected emergency braking has also happened when adaptive cruise control or autopilot is engaged while overtaking large vehicles on the left (tractor trailers in the right lane). I have also noticed several erroneous lane departure warnings despite turning off these notifications on the dashboard. They are more a nuisance than safety hazard so far but would like to completely silence them entirely. These issues have yet to be reproduced or inspected by the dealer, police, insurance or other investigator. No warning...

using autopilot adaptive cruise control, the vehicle on several occasions but mostly on non median highways the car for no apparent reason brakes hard. vehicles around me especially behind are put in danger by my sudden, hard braking for no apparent reason

I was driving to and from mammoth lakes California. Middle of the day, clear weather, with no other cars within thousands of feet if me. I put my vehicle into adaptive cruise control (not autopilot) and several times during the drive the brakes would slam to the point of reducing my speed from around 70 mph to roughly 40 mph very quickly. It was extremely happened and was repeatable but with no known reason.

When autopilot, it’s sudden breaks with no reason. My wife got neck injury.

Unexpected and rapid slowing/braking of vehicle since new in November of 2021. Occurs when on cruise control usually at highway speed, more often on open highways and have possibly (though not always) related it to cresting a hill, distant reflective “water mirage” on our western roads, passing large trucks, two lane highway having large oncoming trucks +/- on curves. On one occasion while passing a semi truck with car on my tail came within a foot or so of being rear ended. Many other occasions where got to point I do not feel safe using the cruise control. We have driven it from Denver to Tucson in November and back in May, both times was worse on wide open western roads, sometimes tho not always with bright sun, pretty unpredictable and random but often to point of not using any of our autopilot or cruise control functions with confidence of...

This is a supplement to NHSTA Safety Issue ID 11467902. I requested service from Tesla. Attached is the service center's response writing that it is software subject to updates. This is unacceptable to me as the car is not driveable with this safety issue.

The vehicle phantom breaks spontaneously upon an interstate drive for 1.5 hours on cruise control it will slam on the breaks between 3-5 times when there is no car or object near the vehicle. This has been reported to Tesla and they do nothing and pose no solution to the problem. It is dangerous and going to cause accidents.

Recently, I had a long distance trip and and Tesla Model Y braked the vehicle at highway speed when it was on Advanced cruise control 3 or 4 times with obvious reasons. I had to push the acceralator pedal to speed up in order to avoid rear ended collision in a bumper to bumper traffic.

The car had a phantom braking incident where I was on the freeway with the autopilot set and the car slammed the brakes on because it thought it saw a person in the freeway. This is what it showed on the screen. The car decreased the speed from 70 mph to 40mph. There was no notification of this decrease. This has happened before in the car, but not as drastically and it doesn’t happen very often.

I have been experiencing that my Tesla suddenly automatically slammed on the brakes while it’s on self driving mode on highway specifically I-66 and while returning from my work from Nebraska Avenue complex to Ashburn VA. This automatically phantom braking is very dangerous.

During 350 miles of driving, I experienced over 35 phantom braking events. Most were while driving at 75 mph. Some were while driving 45 mph. It did not matter whether I was in Autosteer with cruise, cruise alone or driving manually. I turned off Emergency Braking on the screen. I still had incidents. Some incidents were severe to the point that I could feel the ABS. There were no other cars, structures, signs etc. in the vicinity. Had there been a semi following me, there would have been an accident. If another car, I could only hope that they had traffic aware cruise and emergency braking. This is unacceptable as it is so dangerous.

Driving on I-43 in Wisconsin on June 2 around 2pm CDT while in cruise control the car suddenly went into emergency braking and slowed down dramatically requiring me to override the system. There was very little traffic and a semi-truck about 200-300 yards ahead of me.

Phantom braking. Had car on cruise control and FSD and car would brake excessively for no reason.

I was driving on Auto pilot and with no obstacle in sight or the need to do so, the car AEB system get activated ( PHANTOM BRAKING) another complaint that I got is went the traffic lights changes to green and I'm on Auto Pilot and the car slower down on the middle of crossing that intersection that can create an accident because the car from behind do not expect you slower down, the AEB system get activated went it's nothing in front of you.

For the last several software versions, the car experienced “phantom breaking” when on a high speed roadway with no apparent obstacles in the road.

The car suddenly stops as if the traffic ahead is stopped. I noticed it happens when the auto pilot is on. I gave up using the autopilot because I have experienced the sudden break and I have missed having an accident. It kind of feel like the sensors from the sides get the idea that if the side lane is going slow the car has to break suddenly.

Driving on I95 in Florida. Cruise control engaged at approximately 70 mph. Problem: sudden braking without my stepping on brake pedal. Car started slowing down immediately and veering to the left almost out of lane of traffic. I immediately pressed accelerator and avoided any collision. This happened 3 times to me, always on I95 where I do most driving, always with cruise control engaged.

While the car is in “autopilot” (we did not pay for full self driving package), the car will apply braking often while at posted speeds on interstates and highways in Montana, Idaho, Nevada, California, and Utah. Our observations notice it happens when the road color transitions between older and newer road surfaces and in curved sections of roadway (especially curves to the left). We are looking for a replacement electric vehicle now due to this problem.

My Model Y Tesla, while driving on the freeway using full self driving, would abruptly slow down from 70mph to 40 mph in matter of seconds without warning and luckily there was nobody around me. I did a bug report on it many times but Tesla discounted that. Also my front windshield wipers would come on for no reason even on a sunny day. Sometime on a raining day when going into a tunnel the windshield wipers would stop and would not come back on when I get out of the tunnel and that is really scarily as I was unable to see during heavy rain. I had to manually turn it on and that took a few seconds and in the meantime I could not see anything due to heavy rain. I brought this to Tesla and they told me that the windshield wiper control and the headlight use...

Tesla Phantom breaking issues on my Model Y. Clear roads and then sudden deceleration in perfect weather conditions with no nearby cars

I am reading about the Tesla braking for no reason & wanted to report my own experiences with this. I have not reported this before to anyone at Tesla, just told my husband. Numerous times (at least 5) over the past year I have owned my Y it has suddenly braked for no reason. It either always or almost always happened when I was going freeway speeds on a turn & there was a vehicle in the lane next to me that I think my Tesla thought I was going to hit. But I wasn't. It was a sudden brake that if I had not been in full control of the car with my feet ready to move so I had to hit the accelerator pedal quickly there could have been a big problem if there was a car behind me. This issue made me stop using the auto pilot...

Driving on highway at 65 mph suddenly drive speed to 30 miles as if emergency brakes were applied.

My Tesla model Y will experience phantom braking while in Auto pilot / adaptive cruise. It happens randomly but does occur every time at one point in Tacoma on I-5 head south on a bridge just before the Tacoma dome.

While driving using cruise control or auto drive the car randomly brakes while at highway speeds. There are often no cars or objects in front of the car. I have almost been rear ended, because the car hit the brakes to almost stop. This happens every time the vehicle is placed in regular cruise control or auto drive.

Driving on 2 lane highway at about 70mph with auto pilot enabled in left lane. There was a large truck on the right. No vehicles in front of the car. The truck on the right remained in its lane. The Tesla suddenly applied the brakes, dropping the speed to about 50 mph very quickly and unexpectedly. I disabled autopilot and pressed the accelerator to get back to the original speed. It almost seems like the auto pilot decided that the truck was in front of the Tesla when it was actually in a different lane. No accident or problems except for the shock of the car breaking suddenly.

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while driving 60 MPH with the adaptive cruise control activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. The contact stated that the speed was then reduced to approximately 35-40 MPH inadvertently, and then resumed the set speed. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that there were no other vehicles or objects nearby to cause the failure. The contact stated that the failure had been reoccurring while driving in self-driving and adaptive cruise control modes. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 10,100.

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while driving 79 MPH with the cruise control activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. The dealer was made aware of the failure; however, the vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while driving 70 MPH with the adaptive cruise control activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact depressed the brake pedal to disengage cruise control. The contact then depressed the accelerator pedal and was able to continue driving. The contact stated that there were no other vehicles around the vehicle at the time of the failure. The contact stated that the failure reoccurred three more times while driving. The manufacturer was notified of the failure through email. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 4,300.

Repeated random automatic braking while using cruise control at highway speeds. Near miss of rear end collision. Tesla service representative just said to live with it and be careful.

While in cruise control, our 2021 Tesla Model Y (WE DO NOT HAVE AUTO PILOT!) applied the brakes HARD dropping between 10-40 mph with no warning. Cruise control stays active. There were no cars anywhere near us, either in front or in the rear. Over thirty (30) Tesla bug reports were recorded on April 25 and April 26, 2022. While we were not SERIOUSLY hurt, had a vehicle actually been behind us, we would have ended up with a vehicle in our back seat and certainly serious injuries. This same thing happened six months ago on our last road trip. Tesla has blown us off saying that this simply cannot occur. Their response is that the computer cannot slow the car without seeing something. Therefore it must have seen something. This is circular reasoning and is meant to blow off the consumer. This is a serious safety issue. The braking...

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while driving 60 MPH with the cruise control activated, the radar detected a hazard ahead on the roadway and deactivated the cruise control, causing the vehicle to experience phantom braking. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 3,000.

We were driving roughly 80 mph on an open highway. Clear skies. No cruise control/autopilot engaged. Vehicle slammed on the brakes. Threw both occupants rapidly forward in our seats. Lucky no cars behind us.

I was driving on full self driving assistance on the highway on the far left lane. I wanted to change lane to exit but notice a car was in my blind spot so I tried to take over the car my tugging the wheel. The car sounded an alarm indicating I was going to crash I think into the left median, so it auto corrected to pull towards the right lane. I didn't want to hit any incoming car so I tried to tug it left. I believe I was fighting with the car to regain control of the car and ended up hitting the left median which ricochet the car all the way to the right hitting the median, where the car came to a stop.

When driving the vehicle primarily on highways and with the Adaptive Cruise Control active, the car randomly reduces the cruise speed by up to 35 mph and then proceeds to slam the brakes. This happens intermittently on open road, 4 lane highways, with and without any traffic nearby. We logged the times that these occurred and took them to our local Tesla service center and they said “This is a software bug that we have to wait for Tesla to fix. There is no way to disable the adaptive nature of the cruise control either.” We informed them that this has been occurring for about 6 months now and they said “You’ll just have to wait until Tesla fixes the code. It gets better every release so eventually it won’t do this anymore”

While driving on interstate 25 the adaptive cruise control braked hard for no reason. There wasn’t any hazard and no traffic on clear days on a well marked road. It happened quite often . More than 100 occasions on a 65o mile drive.

Frequent abrupt and unsafe phantom braking while using cruise control. Mostly due to headlights from semi-trucks coming in opposite direction but occasionally from just a dark patch on the road. On a long road trip from WA to AZ, it made using the speed control feature impossible. The vehicle would lurch hard enough to physically throw you forward in your seat and rapidly slow the car (increasing potential to be rear ended). No warning messages or failure notifications. The problem was reported to Tesla (not to police, insurance, etc because no accident ensued) and the response was in a nutshell “it is working how it should “.

We have had issues with the “autopilot” function braking when no obstruction exists. Situations that trigger these unnecessary breaking events generally involve shadows on the roadway, visible disturbances such as reflected sunlight, or other visual circumstances that in some way impact the appearance on the roadway surface. These appearances are generally widespread on county roads and state highways, but are less frequent on the Interstate highways. Due to the severity of these breaking actions we have greatly reduced the use of the “Autopilot” feature, and now only us it sparingly on the interstate when the lighting conditions are good. Due to loss of confidence we use it very infrequently, only once every few weeks at most. These emergency breaking events are greatly unwarranted 95% of the time. In addition, we feel that the unexpected nature of these events and the severity of them have increased our risk of collision. This...

While driving on the highway from Ohio to Arizona in December and returning to Ohio in February when using the adaptive cruise control, my car would suddenly and without warning brake and felt as if it would stop if I had not pushed the accelerator. I drove a total of 10 days, and it happened on some days two or three times, once happening five times. Luckily when it happened the traffic was light, but if someone had been behind me, I'm sure there would have been a rear end collision. It caused my wife and me to lurch forward from the sudden deceleration, and our seatbelts kept us from hitting our heads. When I got home, I reported it to Tesla by phone and was told that someone would get back to me. On March 24 I received an email, stating that "this behavior is a known limitation" and...

I have experienced the now well-documented "phantom braking" problems with my 2021 Tesla model Y. This happens on long trips when I use "Traffic-Aware Cruise Control." The problem seems to occur most often at the crest of a hill, especially if there is a guard rail.