Tesla Model 3 Complaints (2022)

773 consumer complaints on file.

#11461751April 22, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
I have taken 3 road trips in my car since taking ownership, and on every single one of them, I have had multiple instances of severe phantom braking. They are quite alarming as the vehicle will drop 10-20mph on the freeway in an instant. These were always on large divided interstates (OH and PA turnpikes), and almost every time, there were ZERO cars around. I don't feel that I can even use the autopilot system at this point, for fear of getting rear-ended at 70 mph.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11461668April 21, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
The car suddenly breaks while in the highway apparently for no reason. It happened multiple times in the last two months. It may cause accident by a following car.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11461338April 19, 2022
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL:CRUISE CONTROL
The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving on the highway at 70 MPH, with the cruise control activated, the vehicle came to an abrupt stop. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to be diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 2,900.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11461179April 18, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
I was driving southbound on Interstate 5 in California mid-morning on Friday, April 15th. Adaptive Cruise Control (Tesla "Autopilot") was set somewhere near 75mph. There was no other traffic anywhere near our vehicle (at least 1/2 mile clear both ahead and behind). There was no debris of any kind on the road or on the side of the road. The car suddenly and unexpectedly began heavy deceleration. It felt as if the vehicle was performing an emergency braking procedure to avoid a front collision. Fortunately there were no vehicles around, so other than startling me, there was no other incident caused. Had this occurred with a vehicle behind, it very likely would have caused a rear-end collision.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11461025April 16, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
On traveling to San Diego on 4/13/2022 we had three Phantom braking events one severe enough that if a car was following a accident could have happened. Two on the return trip all with no indication of any vehicle or obstacle nothing but open road clear road ahead this is going to hurt some one at some point and time we need help this is my Fourth report of this problem to NHTSA I know better than to follow a Tesla to close but the public doesn't Thank you please help [XXX] Note VIN [XXX] INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11460567April 12, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Since taking delivery of my new car on 2/8/2022, I have experienced at least 3 instances of phantom emergency braking, all while cruise control was in use. The vehicle suddenly brakes hard for 1-2 seconds. In two of these cases, a vehicle or person was visible off to the side, but not in my lane, and not where I would have had to brake. I am concerned that cars behind me could be unprepared for this sudden slow-down. While the car's software does allow for turning off the emergency braking capability, that action must be taken each time the car is started if you plan to use cruise control. For this reason, cruise control becomes a danger to use.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11460286April 9, 2022
STRUCTURE:BODY, VISIBILITY/WIPER
Tesla model 3 2022 rear side windows shattered all of a sudden with no other accidents. My 6 year old girl was sitting in the car next to it and we are all in a shock . We are trying to find the right way to report to Tesla . We checked online and saw more blog posts with same issue . Please help.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11460103April 8, 2022
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
I275 southbound in Terra Ceia, FL. 11PM. Road surface damp. Speed 80 mph with adaptive cruise control engaged. No other vehicles within view. While on cruise control, the vehicle suddenly engaged the brakes slowing from 80mph to 65mph in a violent manner in a fraction of a second. Wheels broke traction slightly. This has occurred on a number of occasions to me since owned on 12/10/21. It's extremely dangerous to the point I rarely use cruise control on wet or slippery roads for fear of departing the roadway.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11459483April 4, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Experienced the "phantom braking" phenomena traveling southbound on I-75/85 just south of Atlanta approaching an HOV exit on the left. The car was traveling with "AutoPilot" engaged, not FSD, at ~70 mph, and the brakes were applied hard as the exit to the flyover approached on the left. I did not lose control and simply stepped on the accelerator to resume the correct speed.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11459480April 4, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
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.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11459066March 31, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES
For no reason at all the brakes stopped me in the middle of the road. I was nearly hit from behind because it was so sudden only driving about 20 mph and slowing up for a light but did not hit the brakes Happened approximately three times
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11458925March 30, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Have only had the vehicle on 2, 2 hour trips and have had the adaptive cruise control hard brake with no one around me or in front of me multiple times. It goes from 65 down to 50 or less in a second. Incredibly dangerous. Especially if I had vehicles behind me. Would've caused an accident no doubt. I hear about many teslas having this issue as well. Just give me dumb regular cruise control.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11458669March 28, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
I was using traffic aware cruise control (TACC) on a two lane highway to maintain my speed. There was a car behind me and no cars in front of me. My car suddenly reduced it speed (braked) for no reason. I turned off the TACC at this point because its erratic speed control did not seem safe, especially with a car following me. Later, when no one was following me, I again tried enabling cruise control (TACC) on the two lane highway, and multiple times it would unnecessarily and abruptly slow down the vehicle for no good reason (apparently becoming confused by oncoming traffic safely in the other lane, when approaching a hill, when approaching barriers on the side of the road, and sometimes for no discernible reason). I will say that TACC works well on multi lane freeways, but in my experience was non-functional and borderline dangerous on simple two lane highways. I contacted Tesla and inquired about turning off TACC and turning on standard (dumb) cruise control when driving on two lane highways. They stated that there is no option for standard cruise control, only TACC. So the options are to completely disable cruise control on two lane highways (inconvenient, but probably the best option), or use traffic aware cruise control and just deal with its erratic behavior on two lane roads (not safe in my opinion).
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11458417March 26, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
While driving on the interstate and state highways using cruise control the car braked suddenly for no reason.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11458385March 25, 2022
BACK OVER PREVENTION: WARNINGS, LANE DEPARTURE: BLIND SPOT DETECTION
Was in a tight parking space. The mirrors auto-folded in. The cameras seemed laggy when backing up to a significant degree. (Many, many others on the web report the same. Any search for "Tesla backup camera delayed" or similar should work.) In my case, my vehicle collided with a pole. Very concerned about this as a safety hazard.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11458326March 25, 2022
VISIBILITY/WIPER, UNKNOWN OR OTHER
When putting the car into reverse, the rear camera comes on, while reversing pulling up the climate controls to turn on heated steering wheel, after exiting the climate control screen (while still reversing) the camera doesn’t come back on automatically… there is risk for crash
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11458280March 25, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES, VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
There have been 3 separate instances in unexpected and sudden braking when using cruise control. All instances occurred when there were no nearby vehicles present. The first incident occurred on a 2 lane road when I was driving in daylight. I used the cruise control and twice over 10 min the car suddenly and unexpected slowed/braked startling me. After 2 times, I turned off the cruise control. Another incident occurred when I was driving on the interstate. Same experience. Sudden unexpected emergency braking as if I was about to hit something and there was nothing there, again daylight. Most recent occurrence my husband was driving, it was night on interstate and he had cruise control on and the car suddenly braked startling everyone in the car. There were no other vehicles present. He turned off cruise control for the remainder of the drive.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11457654March 21, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Report Phantom braking. It happened multiple times on Thru way from last 3 days. There were nothing in the front of the car but it applied brakes on thru way, lucky no vehicle on the behind. I am concern about safety of my family.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11457620March 21, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at 65-70 MPH with the cruise control activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. The calibration in progress message was displayed. The failure nearly caused a collision. The dealer was made aware of the failure and scheduled an upcoming appointment. The dealer later canceled the appointment and informed the contact that the vehicle performed as designed and advised him to review the owner's manual. 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 30.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11457554March 20, 2022
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
The Tesla will slam on the brakes unexpectedly while using cruise control. It does this for no apparent reason and has almost cause several accidents including me being rear ended while cruising at 60mph.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0

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