Tesla Model 3 Complaints (2022)

773 consumer complaints on file.

#11449972February 2, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
When i drive on highway, it out blue slam brake several time i am not sure what trigger it. it was out blue from 70 mph to 50-60mph. i don't see anything around car to trigger phantom braking or brake. also on one lane highway, when semi truck or some car/trucks pass by me it slam really hard few time from 60 mph to 30 mph instant, some car almost hit my rear because of instant slam brake. I had to brake quick to undo it. it happen on cruise control only, also happen during auto pilot. the road was fine, other vechile wasn't going toward me.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11449950February 2, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
The car brakes SEVERELY on two lane highways when passing another car. Mainly occurs when passing semi trucks. It is going to get someone rear ended if this is not fixed. The cruise control is not usable.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11449945February 2, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
When the ADAS is active, during normal driving on a two-lane highway, where there is never any question of an obstruction in front of the car, the car unexpectedly and violently brakes; often the collision warning alarm sounds. This usually happens when the car meets traffic in the oncoming lane, but sometimes there's nothing else at all on the road. This is a new car (since January) and it has happened ever since I first used the ADAS. For example, last night, on a trip of about 50 miles it happened at least thirty times, nearly every time I met an oncoming vehicle of any size. Service personnel tell me this is normal behavior and they cannot do anything about it! The system is supposed to have switches to turn off the collision warming and braking so that it can be used as a normal cruise control, but setting the switches to off has no effect. This behavior is not only extremely annoying but also distracting for the driver and potentially hazardous when an inattentive driver is following closely.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11449936February 2, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
Phantom braking, almost caused a car to rear end me. This was on a straight two lane road a tractor trailer was coming the other way. This has also happened on a right hand curve with smaller auto where the software thinks I'm going to run into the car even though I'm turning right into the curve. Very dangerous. Same thing happens with the forward collision warning.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11449935February 2, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Every once in a while (once per 100-200 miles) I experience "phantom braking" when using Adaptive Cruise Control with Autosteering (not sure if Autosteering matters – I always use ACC with Autosteering together, so hard to tell). That is when ACC decides to quickly reduce speed significantly for no apparent reason (no cars or other obstacles in front). It could be dangerous as it could lead the car behind me to crash into me.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11449930February 2, 2022
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
The autopilot feature which keeps the car in it's lane and speeds up or brakes the vehicle based on its surroundings is not functioning properly. It slams on the brakes whenever a semi-truck or large vehicle is driving in the opposite lane on a two-lane road. Especially if there is a bend in the road. It thinks that a forward collision is going to take place.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11449913February 2, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
Autopilot and Traffic Aware Cruise Control systems are basically unusable on two lane highways. Almost every vehicle that passes on the opposite side of the road triggers an alarm, disengages Autopilot/TACC, and results in an abrupt, jarring deceleration. This occurred 10 times in a 160 mile trip, but would have happened many more times if I had not given up trying to use either system. Holding my foot on the accelerator for such a long drive was inconvenient, and the repeated sudden slow downs resulted in a strained, tired neck. It seems unethical for a $60,000 vehicle to lack basic cruise control capabilities.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11449888February 2, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
On a recent road trip while driving on highway 70 in CO and UT at speeds of around 70mph with Autopilot or Cruise Control engaged, the car phantom braked multiple times in response to nonexistent hazards on the road. Fortunately there were no cars nearby in both instances, as I am positive we would have gotten rear-ended in both situations (the car braked to around 40mph). These were both really scary scenarios and undermined my trust in those systems in the car, I have been hesitant to use them since
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11449879February 2, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, SERVICE BRAKES
When driving with cruise control on the car will suddenly apply brakes if it detects a car coming at me from the opposite lane. This is a safety hazard as the cars behind me would have no idea I would be stopping and poses a serious rear end threat.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11449825February 1, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
The car on a day basis exhibits random braking incidents when utilizing traffic aware cruise control (TACC). These have happened since the car was new (now has over 2,500mi) and can range from mild to severe. All of them happen without an obstacle ahead. Some times it seems the vehicle reacts to shadows from trees or larger structures, other times there's no obvious reason behind the reaction. The braking happens both on interstate highways as well as county two and four lane roads, and isn't related to elevation change or curves (happens straight and level). Several of these instances have been close to causing accidents due to traffic behind me getting caught off guard, which is usually followed by some sort of road-rage-like reaction. I no longer use the system when there's any traffic behind me due to the fear of getting rear-ended. I have recalibrated the cameras 3 times to no avail.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11449417January 29, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Driving on two lane road with oncoming semi truck traffic causes adaptive cruise control to abruptly apply brakes. As this has happened numerous times, I called Tesla who advised me to not use adaptive cruise control. I do most of my driving on two lane roads over long distances to shop or see a doctor, etc. Not having ANY cruise control is better than causing an accident, but why cant Tesla program a simple non-adaptive cruise control?
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11448951January 26, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
On 1/24/22: 9:11 am eastbound Redden Road east of Bridgeville, DE. This is flat terrain with mostly open fields on east side of the road. On a straight Regular 2 lane road, center yellow strips and white edging. West bound truck triggered braking and swerve to left. 9:14 Another truck and same circumstances further east and same result. Turned off steering assist and cruise control. 10:42 westbound on Redden Road roughly same area. Truck eastbound. Slight braking 150 yards in front of me then brakes slammed on while passing each other. Braking reduced speed by 10 mph or more and swerve to right. Hard braking and a swerve to the right for no reason. Anyone behind me would have hit me. Basically I have to make sure road behind me is completely clear before turning cruise control or auto steer on! Anyone within 5 car lengths would hit me. Not safe. Can they remotely download these events from the car? TESLA VIRTUAL DIAGNOSTICS Reviewed the logs and confirmed the phantom braking and confirmed it was due to not having a forward facing radar. System overly sensitive to err on the side of caution. They hope to fix it eventually via software updates. In my opinion, it isn't safe and should be de activated and money refunded.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11448854January 25, 2022
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Phantom braking in city and highway with no obstacle in vehicle path. Sudden and strong emergency braking enough to cause a rear end collision if being followed. Very scarry in one 700 mile road trip we had 11 such occurrences . Thank you for your help. Mike
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11448556January 23, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Dangerous or phantom braking of vehicle on two lane road at highway speed.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11448347January 21, 2022
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Last night I plugged in the car (2022 Tesla Model 3 Long Range) as I normally do and, via the Tesla app, scheduled the car cabin to be heated and the battery to be pre-conditioned by a specified time. When I entered the car at that time, the cabin had not heated up - the message on the display screen stated that the cabin heater was not functioning properly and that I should seek service. The temperature here in northern Wisconsin at the time of this incident was -13 F. Since I had planned to take a long trip across Michigan's Upper Peninsula this morning where there are few charging opportunities, and since I cannot assume that the battery pre-conditioned (which extends the range of the vehicle), if I had not aborted my trip I feel I could have been in a life-threatening situation due to extreme cold.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11447934January 18, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
I took delivery of my Tesla Model 3 in mid December and have have driven approximately 2,000 miles, almost all highway commute miles. I have had horrible experiences with the Autopilot cruise control slamming on the brakes for no apparent reason. Nothing in front of the vehicle, sometimes nothing around the vehicle at all. Behavior is sometimes a quick deceleration of 10 mph or so; however, in some cases FULL brake is applied, coupled with an audible collision warming. Again, these things are happening with NOTHING present in front of my vehicle, and sometimes with nothing around me at all. During my daily commutes, I experience, on average, 5 to 10 instances of this unsafe slowing/stopping procedure. In one instance, the vehicle decelerated from 64mph down to 37mph, for no reason, with a line of other vehicles following me. We narrowly avoided a multi-vehicle collision, caused by a completely unnecessary braking application. Needless to say, as the line of cars passed me, each of the other drivers were very unhappy with me, probably assuming I had “brake checked” them, considering there was no one in front of me and no reason to quickly decelerate from 64mph to 37mph. Had they been following closer or not paying attention we surely would have all be involved in a collision. I reported the issue to Tesla and was told “the vehicle detected a ghost object…This is currently a normal characteristic of autopilot…” There is no other “normal” cruise control feature on the vehicle, it’s either use Autopilot and risk being involved in a collision, or drive the vehicle myself (which defeats the purpose of purchasing the vehicle for commute reasons). Very unhappy that Tesla did not offer to even look into my issue, considering it’s not an occasional problem, it occurs several times per commute trip,
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11447397January 13, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
@ 1:36pm, while driving on US State Route 50, in IL, I had adaptative cruise control engaged, but autosteer unengaged. While a semi-truck was passing in the opposite incoming lane, the forward collision warning system falsely activated with warning chimes, and applied full braking. There is another vehicle that was following me, which had to take evasive maneuvers to avoid an accident. This was reported to Tesla Motors for which they responded that the vehicle log shows no hardware errors, and a software bug report need to be created when this happens. This happens daily, more than six to eight times a day, and is very dangerous.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11447208January 12, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
As widely reported by Tesla owners, I have also experienced issues with the TACC - traffic aware cruise control - feature of this vehicle. I have owned it for almost 2 weeks and in that time on both highways and city streets the 'cruise control' feature has initiated braking for no reason. The system is supposed to be 'traffic' aware however in these instances there was no vehicle in front of me in any position to cause a braking event. This type of erratic behavior could easily cause an accident (being rear ended). This is happening when the 'autopilot' feature is not engaged, but rather just using the only available cruise control feature the vehicle provides: TACC. It seems as though the software is interpreting shadows, changes in painted line/lane markings, or other environmental stimuli as 'traffic' and reacting, but that's just a guess. All I know is that it is very annoying at a minimum and potentially quite dangerous!
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11447184January 12, 2022
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
The heating system gave out on my 2022 TESLA Model 3 on the coldest day we've had here so far. -5F - Gave an error code on the screen VCFRONT_a447 - with message - Cabin climate control system requires service cabin heating / cooling limited or unavailable. - The problem has occurred to many people who have complained online in the facebook owners groups that I am a member of. Surprisingly the system is working again after it had some time to thaw out. It appears to be a design flaw with this heat pump system which should include a recall of sorts so that TESLA can retrofit some sort of heating or thawing element onto the valves that are icing over and preventing the HVAC system from working properly.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11446758January 9, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
Traffic-aware cruise control unexpectedly decelerated and/or activated collision warnings and automatic braking approximately 20 times during a 300 mile, 5 hour drive. All incidents occurred on undivided highways and state roads. This unexpected braking reduces speed by 10 to 30 miles per hour on 60 mile per hour roads. This braking issue greatly increases risk of accident, specifically if another vehicle was following too closely. Braking events occur sporadically, usually attributed to large vehicles driving well within the opposite lane. Some events happened for no reason. Occurrence of unexpected braking is higher at night. This vehicle has been inspected by Tesla in the past due to this same issue and the cruise control and autopilot system was confirmed by technicians to by working properly. The ability to disable adaptive cruise control to standard “dumb” cruise control may solve this issue. This issue instills no confidence in Tesla’s so-called “full self-driving computer” and has me avoiding using these features for my safety, as well as other drivers’ safety. This vehicle is available for inspection upon request. Dashcam video is available on request.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0

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