Tesla Model 3 Complaints

2,178 consumer complaints on file.

#11480083August 18, 2022
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
In Autopilot there has been a phantom braking problem (automatic emergency breaking due to object avoidance) since day one. It happened more than just regularly and would be uncalled for, scary, and dangerous. Ever since the update I have done that the company sent though, this has become now not just more than regularly but more than frequently and uncontrollably dangerous. It has done it around 30 times on a 9 and a half hour road trip. It has done a 20 mph slowdown from the speed limit FOR NO REASON in as fast as about two seconds frequently. The ONLY thing that has saved us from getting rear ended is due to driver diligence and pure luck of being on an open interstate because of the road trip instead of it being through the congested part of a city…where it still can happen easily.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11479917August 18, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
While traveling on a highway (~ 50 mph) I engaged the cruise cruise control. After about 5 minutes -- while no traffic or obstacle anywhere near me -- the car suddenly applied emergency braking bringing the car near full-stop in the middle of the highway. I am fortunate there was no one behind me or it would have resulted in a collision. Obviously it was a terrifying event and I have instructed my family never to use that feature.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11479848August 17, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Cruise control engaged at highway speeed of 70 mph. Car applied emergency braking hard and slowed to 52 MPH. Road is 4 lane divided highway. There were no vehicles within a mile in front of car. There were no other obstacles on the road. Car did the same thing 4 other times under similar conditions. The way the car brakes on an unobstructed road can easily cause me to be rear ended. Speed control is not useable in this condition if any other vehicle is traveling behind. This is not an isolated Incident in my Tesla. It has happened multiple times on different roads in all environmental conditions. Todays event happened around 1500, bright sunshine, straight and flat road.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11479806August 17, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
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
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11479710August 17, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
We were using traffic aware cruise control on autopilot in Florida on our way back home from vacation, when st approximately 7:45am our model 3 suddenly slammed on the brakes on a very busy highway. We were almost rear ended, thankfully our quick response to take over and the driver behind us paying attention let us avoid a crash. Over the next 15 minutes the Tesla had one more phantom braking incident, thankfully we were ready as we no longer trusted it, then it began to reduce speeds to 30- 45mph saying that was the speed limit. The speed limit was 55 and 60mph. We have not experienced this problem until now but are very concerned about the safety of using autopilot or cruise control.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11479245August 14, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
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.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11479232August 14, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Multiple times, during a bright sunny day, I've been traveling on the highway, with no traffic around for a mile ahead, with cruise control on. There were times with no autopilot on, and times when it was on. The car slammed on the brakes, going from 80mph to 30 mph, and once the car realized there was no object on the road, it returned back to 80 mph, and kept going. This would be very dangerous if there was a car following behind me. This is "phantom braking". It has happened 10-12 times during a 200 mile trip, on divided, as well as undivided highways, with no traffic, and with oncoming vehicles in the opposite lane.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11479097August 13, 2022
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Unexpected acceleration while driving my car at about 20 mph and making a right turn the car suddenly accelerated. Using the brake immediately worked. This has happened a few times with my car. The sudden acceleration surprised my wife and she asked what happened. The car does not have Full Self Driving installed and Autopilot had been off for several miles. There were no warning messages or chimes. T
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11478932August 12, 2022
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
After updating to Tesla software 2022.20.6 (and 20.7 and 20.8) sometimes the regenerative braking fails to activate when lifting your foot off the go pedal. Sometimes the car just coasts at full speed, and sometimes it almost feels as if the car continues accelerating after the pedal is lifted. This obviously creates serious safety issues -- if you are expecting your car to brake after lifting your foot off the pedal and it doesn't, you risk slamming into the car in front of you. The brake pedal still works, but a feature of EVs is one pedal driving, which has been broken.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11478922August 12, 2022
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, SEAT BELTS
Tesla Model 3 main computer system failure. Failure was not cause by any negligence by the operator. The vehicle was parked over night and upon attempting to operate the vehicle the following day there was no power to the screen. There were no warnings prior. The screen which displays vehicle speed, vehicle battery level, seatbelt warning indicators was inaccessible. Also as a result of the computer failure the vehicle did not emit the required pedestrian safety sound, the front and rear collision warnings were disabled, charging was not possible, the ability to disable passenger airbags in case of a child needing to be transported in the front was inaccessible, if the vehicle was operated during winter the ability to defrost the windshield would be impossible and all safety and security features were disabled. The screen/computer has been an issue for several owners as easily viewed by a simple google search. The vehicle is only a year and a half old and was purchased new. The issues that occurred from the defective computer could of easily have caused of an accident or a caused disabled pedestrian to have been hit. The computer was deemed the cause by Tesla’s service professionals.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11478862August 11, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Phantom braking. The car had autopilot enabled and applied brakes to slow down even though there was nothing in front that would have caused a collision. Fortunately there was no vehicle behind otherwise it may have caused a collision.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11478681August 10, 2022
UNKNOWN OR OTHER, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Phantom braking!! This car is almost undriveable due to it “hitting the brakes so hard” so often… TESLA PLEASE!! Fix this!! I want “dumb” cruise so it doesn’t ever hit the brakes… I am going to get rear ended someday!! The car hits the brakes so hard that it actually leaves black marks on pavement sometimes when there is literally NOTHING on the road and it’s completely clear!!
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11478108August 8, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS, LANE DEPARTURE: ASSIST, UNKNOWN OR OTHER
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.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
1
Deaths:
0
#11478007August 7, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
The Autopilot applies the brakes for no apparent reason, when there are no other vehicles in front of it, under good driving conditions; in clear daylight, on empty roads and on straight stretches of highway. My family could have been involved in a serious rear end collision, or caused other vehicles behind me to collide, if traffic was heavy at the time the system determined it needed to apply the brakes.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11477547August 4, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
When driving on a 4 lane divided highway using adaptive cruise control at 70mph+, the emergency braking will suddenly activate, even when the road ahead is completely clear with no surrounding traffic. The car will suddenly brake, sometimes dropping 30mph or more off of speed, from 75 close to 40. Stepping on the gas pedal will abort this braking. If left alone, the car will stop braking and accelerate back to the original speed with no driver input. This will happen multiple times over 40 miles of highway driving. If it happened when being closely followed, the chance of being rear ended by the trailing car is high, though thankfully this has not occurred yet. The problem happens daily on commuting and has happened since taking ownership of the car on Jun 29, 2022 through today.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11477340August 3, 2022
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Numerous times while on cruise control “autopilot” the car suddenly and rapidly decelerates for no apparent reason. Most often when no other cars or obstacles are seen and during full daylight (no rain or other complicating weather) but has also occurred at night. Typically while driving at highway speeds 65-80mph and the deceleration is rapid and significant (decreases by estimated 20 mph within 1 sec).
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11477088August 2, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES
The contact owned a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while her husband was driving 35 mph on traffic aware/cruise control, he attempted to depress the brake pedal but it failed to stop the vehicle. The contact stated the brake warning light was illuminated. The driver purposely steered the vehicle into a tree to not hit a house. The air bags did deploy. The driver had bruising on both legs, lower abdomen, and pelvic areas. The driver sought medical attention with his primary care, four days later of the accident. The police report was filed. The vehicle was not drivable. The insurance company deemed the vehicle a total loss. The vehicle was towed to towing lot. The vehicle was not diagnosed. A dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was 5,224.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11477019August 1, 2022
ENGINE
While driving, car just cut down in speed and prevented being driven faster than 50 mph. A yellow turtle appeared. Went to charge the vehicle. Vehicle wouldn't accept charging anymore. Manufacturer confirmed vehicle at fault and repaired under warranty.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11477005August 1, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES
We experienced the following phantom braking (vehicle braked without warning with no obstacles present) incidents while using cruise control: July 1 2:14 & 2:15 pm: from 74 to 55 mph 2:21 pm: 74 mph to 69 mph 2:34 pm: 74 mph to 60 mph 2:40pm: 74 mph to 60 mph July 2 11:08 am: 74mph to 63mph. A car had pulled up close behind us to prepare to pass on a heavily trafficked, two lane interstate highway . Our vehicle braked. The car behind almost rear-ended us. If I had not moved to the right onto the shoulder and the trailing vehicle had not swerved into the left lane (which was fortunately empty), it would have hit us. We reported these incidents to the Tesla service center on July 8 when we dropped off the car for another service issue. When we picked the car up they told us that they had adjusted the car's cameras. We have not tried using cruise control since then.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11476939August 1, 2022
VISIBILITY:WINDSHIELD
The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 60 MPH, an object struck the windshield. The contact became aware of little holes on the front windshield. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and the contact was informed that the failure was impact related and she had to pay out-of-pocket for the repair. The manufacturer was not contacted. The approximate failure mileage was 200.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0

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