Tesla Model 3 Complaints

2,178 consumer complaints on file.

#11455347March 5, 2022
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Drive Unit inverter failed. Yes my safety and the safety of my passenger and drivers behind me was at risk Problem was confirmed by Tesla repair center. They diagnosed this as the problem. No accident happened so no police, insurance reps, etc. Warning lamps came up after the car stalled. Or at least that's when I noticed them. while I was driving the car started jerking and came to a complete stop in traffic. No warning, just stopped. It wouldn't start or roll or anything and I was blocking traffic until I could get Tesla Roadside service to tell me on the phone how to put it into Transport Mode to push it to the side. This took 2 hours. My safety was DEFINITELY at risk. If I had been travelling at a high speed, it could have been fatal. The dealer/service center said it's the failure of the rear drive unit inverter and it was a US made part by Tesla. Warnings showed up on the screen but after the call stalled. It is currently at the dealership being replaced but now I am afraid to drive it as I have lost confidence in the company. I really hope you put pressure on Tesla to correct this problem. It is terrifying.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11455313March 5, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
When the cruise control is activated, phantom braking happens within about 20 seconds. Also, when autopilot is engaged, phantom braking also happens within about 20-30 seconds. The phantom braking happens when there are no obstacles in the road or other traffic.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11455136March 4, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Can’t believe there are a few hundred reports of phantom braking. This is essentially a standard feature of the car. Nearly every other highway drive using autopilot the car will hard brake for nothing. Most recently was Tuesday around 11pm on highway 91 between hartford and new haven, CT. In the right lane of the highway traveling at about 67 mph the car abruptly hit the brakes. I am accustomed to hovering my foot over the accelerator so was able to reengage and regain cruising speed. Luckily no car was behind me or anywher near me. There was no overpass, exit ramp, flashing lights or anything else obvious that might have caused the hard brake. I’ll not while I’m here that the auto brights feature is bizarre and potentially dangerous. Autopilot turns on the brights when there are no cars immeadiately in front and this can only be disabled per incident. When is it ever a good idea to have the brights on on a 3 lane highway during normal traffic hours? Annoying, sure, but could actually cause problems distracting or blinding other drivers
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11455128March 3, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
When either in autopilot or in cruise control especially in long drive car perform phantom breaking creating a risk of rear-end collision with following vehicles. Car vision system at times recognize cars coming in the opposite way as imminent collision and performs emergency phantom breaks.03/
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11455122March 3, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Three times, while using cruise control with autopilot, my Model 3 rapidly braked with no one in front of me while driving on the interstate at 70-75MPH. Luckily I was paying attention and quickly accelerated to avoid traffic following me from running into me. One of the times was a severe “brake check” on a following car. I don’t use the option in traffic anymore.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11455108March 3, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
In a 90 minute stretch of 2 lane highway on the way home from vehicle delivery, the car “phantom braked” for every semi-truck and most taller pickups which were approaching in the oncoming lane. At least 100 times on this maiden voyage. This unwarranted hard braking is unacceptable and unsafe.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11455031March 3, 2022
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
I had multiple episodes of phantom braking while at highway speeds on cruise control. Most were small taps on the brakes that I could feel. There was one instance of a sudden 20mph drop from 67mph to mid forties and a second similar one they also resulted in the alarm within the vehicle going off. There were no vehicles, pedestrians, or other objects in the road in front of me and no reason for the car to brake.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11455026March 3, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES, VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
When the cruise control is set at a speed or the line centering cruise control is used the car will slam on it's brakes and go from the set 75 to between 50-60mph then back to the set speed. This happens almost every time I drive the car on the highway and a few times in town(35mph) it happens so often I stopped using cruise control because I am afraid of getting rear ended. I have been looking online and others are calling this phantom braking.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11454950March 2, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
This vehicle phantom brakes during our last 2k miles trip. Happens while passing under pass, bridges, on coming vehicles on 2 way lanes, and just randomly when i was the only car on the highway.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11454936March 2, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES, VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Good evening, we took delivery of our Model 3 just over a week ago and have a big concern with Autopilot. Over a dozen times thus far, the car disengages Autopilot and begins to brake. This is MUCH worse at night when approaching hills or other cars and is very unsafe, especially for the people behind us. Is there a feature I can turn out to improve this? Perhaps add STD Cruise w/no emergency braking? Help!!!
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11454913March 2, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
The car randomly and violently applies the brakes, this occurs when it is in cruise control. It may occur due to shadows, oncoming cars both on two and four lane highways. Also occurs if I pass a semi truck on a 4 lane highway. It occurs nearly every time I use the cruise control. I have had cars in back of me nearly hit me due to the sudden and unexpected braking at highway speeds.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11454674March 1, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
On several occasions (probably around 10 times) since I purchased the car in November of 2021 I have experienced phantom braking while using adaptive cruise control. Most have been minor with a couple instances of severe braking that could definitely have caused a rear end accident if there were cars behind me. These have occurred on busy city streets while traveling 40-50 mph. None have occurred on freeways. I have not notified Tesla but see that others are having problems too. Software appears up to date.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11454578February 28, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
While driving on the highway my car suddenly decelerated almost to a complete stop while going 60+ mph. It happened when I went under an overpass and there was a dark shadow on the road due to the overpass. It also happened when I was driving in the direction of the sunset which caused a big glare on the road.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11454547February 28, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES
I have owned this car for almost 4 months. In that time we have experienced 4 incidents of the car deciding that for no reason it needed to slam on the brakes so hard we were thrown forward in our seats and went from speeds of 50-60mph on relatively fast highways to about 20mph. 3 of the 4 times we were in cruise control. But this latest event happened NOT in cruise control and there was literally nothing anywhere in front of us. However there was a car behind us that had to swerve into a different lane to avoid a collision. This last time was terrifying and we have scheduled an appointment with the dealer. But recently we have come to find out this has happened to other owners as well.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11454544February 28, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle would independently downshift while in cruise control while passing semi-trucks driving in the opposite direction of traffic. The contact stated that while driving to work on one occasion, the failure occurred fourteen times. The contact stated that there was a beeping sound coming from the vehicle during the failure. The contact had called a service center where he was informed that the failure was normal vehicle operation. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was 0.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11454514February 28, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
While driving down the freeway in auto-pilot this morning, I was in the middle lane and somebody in the right most lane put on their turn signal to indicate that they were planning on moving into my lane after I passed, but my car suddenly panic-stopped from 65 to almost zero all at once, and I almost got rear-ended. It completely scared me, and I disabled auto-pilot for the rest of my drive to work! My car’s only 5 days old, and I now have anxiety about its auto-pilot capabilities!
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11454502February 28, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
On multiple occasions in different environments the autopilot system has randomly braked/slowed to a dangerous level. This has occurred during city and freeway driving. It has not yet caused an accident, but I am now hesitant to use the feature in most situations. There is little consistency or understanding as to when or why this occurs. Please analyze the situation and require Tesla to remedy this problem.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11454452February 28, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving approximately 75 MPH, the vehicle decelerated inadvertently. The contact stated that the vehicle would detect a non-existent road hazard causing the vehicle to slow down dramatically, almost causing a rear-end crash. The contact stated that there were no warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that while researching online he became of similar failures. The dealer and the manufacturer were contacted; however, no assistance was offered. The approximate failure mileage was 10,000. On a recent trip up the same two-lane segment of US-95 where chronic incidence of my 2021 Tesla Model 3 suddenly removing acceleration causing a very dangerous unexpected drastic slowing from high speeds, recurrence of this problem indicated what might be causing the problem. There are certain times of day when on a mostly level asphalt roadway it appears there are patches of water or grease on the pavement when seen from a distance.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11454432February 28, 2022
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Our company Model 3 is having repeated phantom braking issues either in Traffic Aware Cruise Control (TACC) or in Autosteer mode. Through time we have determined some expected situations but there are also many other times totally unexpected. The most common situation is while driving in TACC mode (standard cruise control) on a standard highway (one lane each direction) and passing a semi-truck. This situation results in phantom braking about in about 50% of instances. Beyond semi's, phantom braking can occur from other vehicles, shadows from trees, going up or down small inclines, changes in road coloration (going from cement to black top), and even when no obvious reason is present on a totally clear, flat road. During a 2-3 hour drive the average is about 20 instances of phantom braking. This has been reported to Tesla. They have apparently reviewed the information and determined nothing is malfunctioning with the vehicle and reminded us that Autopilot functions are all Beta and they are not responsible to resolve the problems. Attached below are reports completed for Tesla to describe information about phantom braking instances during a test period which was about an hour of driving.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11454377February 27, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Phantom braking when using either cruise control or auto pilot. This happens during the day and night. If there is a car on the other side of road, it will brake very hard. This happens on one lane highways or large freeways. It is extremely dangerous especially if you have another car behind you. It will go from 80 mph to 50 mph in one second.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0

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