What 379 owners told NHTSA about the 2017 Tesla Model S 90d

Software 2025.14.1, Full Self Driving 12.6.4 (FSD). Vehicle when using FSD continuously slows to 10 MPH below the speed limit. You can manually press the accelerator to speed up but FSD will not brake when doing so and warns you of the same. After a minute of being back at the speed limit, FSD again slows down. Repeat this process constantly. Very dangerous.

NHTSA ODI 11658805

Stoped at intersection. While trying to engage signal lights, hit the stalk below that engages full self driving. Car immediately jumped into intersection .in front of another car and almost collided. Since the last update, Cars with my configuration wave been acting irradely and it is not safe to use FSD.

NHTSA ODI 11655025

Approaching my garage door as it was opening when the car suddenly accelerated smashing through the garage door, through the back wall of the garage, through the laundry room and finally stopped in the main bedroom with the front wheels off the ground as the car rested on top of the washing machine.

NHTSA ODI 11631451

I received a safety recall dated 2/8/2024, recall no 23V-838. Tesla has failed to remedy the defect & claims a remedy is not necessary. Specifically, I took my vehicle to Tesla on 3/18/2024 to update vehicle software to incorporate additional autosteer controls. See attachment: "Repair notes: "No update necessary", despite the vehicle running a software version less than 2023.44.30 as specified in the Recall Notice.

NHTSA ODI 11583059

Autopilot drove me off the road during turning right on Hwy 183 on April 4, 2023. 9:04 pm. My tesla Model S was on Autopilot and Car went off the road during right turn and about to hit the red light pole.

NHTSA ODI 11581251

Tesla has failed to provide the software updates to fix the recalls on my and ALL other MCU1 cars that have FSD paid for. This is because Tesla has not delivered sent FSD to these cars, and hopes owners will pay $2,000 to upgrade to MCU2. Tesla has LIED that all cars with FSD paid for will be upgraded to the required hardware necessary to use FSD. This has now became a safety issue as recalls are not being addressed!! Tesla States vehicles should be running software version 2023.44.30 or later... We are stuck at 2022.8.10!

NHTSA ODI 11579551

Recall 23V-838; TC2023-657. Tesla not providing software update for recall from last year. I can't get an update for this recall unless I pay $2000 for MCU2.

NHTSA ODI 11576312

1. Previously listed Recall has been erroneously removed from Recall history for my VIN. I had tried to escalate this via Email and Twitter with no response from NHTSA, Sources: https://www.tesla.com/support/recall-fsd-beta-driving-operations Note: The remedy is not yet available for vehicles with NVIDIA Tegra and will deploy OTA once the software is available. 2. The car continues to make unsafe lane changes during left or right turns and struggles to make a smooth turn and is hazard for vehicles behind the car when making such turns as it makes suddent stops.

NHTSA ODI 11535632

An issue with "Pahtom Breaking." My Tesla Model S has suffered from phantom breaking since I purchased the vehicle. I have repeatedly mentioned it to Tesla repair representatives and am still waiting for a fix. The risks exceed those of operating a car—a danger to me and others on the road. Vehicles following me have no idea that my truck will randomly slam on the breaks. Even if following a "safe" distance, the Tesla stops so fast that driving at highway speeds, others cannot react in time to prevent an accident. This is an undone and unknown burden for other drivers as it is for me. Tesla must step up to the plate and correct this before people die.

NHTSA ODI 11528508

Random breaking was prevalent with driving computer 2.5, which recently upgraded to 3.0. The "phantom breaking" is more general and is very dangerous. There have been locations where the vehicle behind me almost wrecked due to my car brakes slamming on out of the blue. I looked up the issue online and found the problem has been happening for years. My wife will not ride in my car now due to the fear of an experience when this phantom breaking accused while she was with me. I am using adaptive cruise less often and not using autopilot. The downside is that the car's efficiency is reduced when not using these "smart" features.

NHTSA ODI 11489078

numerous incidents of phantom braking on open unobstructed highway, causing potential rear end collision. Reported to Tesla on several occasions. Currently on my 3rd MCU(media control unit). Service scheduled with Tesla but I am not optimistic since it has been a persistent issue since owning the car in 2017

NHTSA ODI 11486433

The issue occurred twice over the period of the past two months, both times I was driving on highway with Tesla autopilot enabled ( It is Adaptive Cruise Control), for no apparent reason the car hit the brakes, all vehicles driving behind me had to hit brakes or change lanes to avoid Collision. Both times I created service request with tesla and got no clear answer to why its happening, first time I was told it is because the exit on map was about couple miles from car location so car had to hit brake hard and change lane to make it to exit but car never tried to change lane, it just did hard braking. 2nd time I was told it happened due to wheel alignment not being accurate. After wheel alignment was done I reached out to tesla again but so far they can not confirm or deny if tesla autopilot is safe for me to drive. I was told to use autopilot at my own discretion. Are car manufactures allowed to sell hardware or software without taking responsibility for its safety ?

NHTSA ODI 11486057

Vehicle automatically and unexpectedly applies brakes when using Cruise Control when no other cars are in proximity or approaching. Sometimes braking is light but other times it is a jolt that is extremely starling. Often happens multiple times within minutes. Unpredictable when it will occur. I have taken the vehicle to Tesla 3 times and they say that they know about the problem but their Autopilot is still in Beta and are not actively working on a fix. On 4/28/2022, while on a trip, there were 5 incidents between 9:51am and 1:43pm.

NHTSA ODI 11469671

Tesla has announced their intent to use "Tesla Vision" instead of radar to detect forward obstacles. "Tesla Vision" is a camera-only approach. Tesla cars receive OTA (over the air) updates, and these updates cannot declined. If an OTA update changes my car so that it no longer uses the radar with which it is equipped, I will have a much less safe vehicle, one that can't detect obstacles when there is poor visibility such as in the heavy fogs, rains, and snow conditions that we often encounter here on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. NHTSA should forbid the use of "Tesla Vision" without radar, and should require all Tesla vehicles to be retrofitted with functional, forward-looking radar.

NHTSA ODI 11468671

The car had multiple computer issues causing it to break unexpectedly, turn unexpectedly, avoid things that were not there unexpectedly. It was brought into the dealer multiple times, who actually viewed the error, and when they were driving it, they were involved in an auto accident. Even with the warranty, they could never fix it, and it was amazingly dangerous almost killing me several times.

NHTSA ODI 11465228

The 2017 Tesla Model S we purchased has a known issue with the MCU. The MCU rewrites information in a log chip repeatedly and has been known to burn itself out after short periods of time. Tesla has agreed to replace the MCU owners when it malfunctions, but they will only do so when the chip has completely destroyed itself and will no longer boot. Ours was malfunctioning every ~40 mins...all of our screens would black out while driving. Tesla refused to replace it. Additionally, we purchased Full Self Driving from Tesla with a contract that stated "all needed equipment and software included." This was not a true statement. Those of us with the malfunctioning MCU1 were not included in the FSD program and were forced to bribe Tesla with $2500 to update our MCUs even when they were under warranty and should have been included under the FSD contract.

NHTSA ODI 11464939

While the tesla “traffic aware” cruise control was engaged (part of the “auto pilot” system), the car breaked aggressively for no good reason. This has happened 4 times over the 9,000 miles I’ve driven the car, always at freeway speeds. Although no injuries or damage resulted so far, serious injury could occur if a car is following me too closely when this happens.

NHTSA ODI 11461162

Four separate issues to report: 1.) multiple instances of car braking while in self-drive mode. This has included driving at high speeds on highway and having vehicle slam on brakes nearly causing an accident. I took over as I was paying attention on all occasions. 2.) While is self-drive mode and a lane widens, car veers to “middle” of wide lane. This does not act in a way a normal driver would. 3.) Issues with middle screen stopping or resetting during driving. This was a reported recall issue and I did get the recall taken care of. Issue still persists. Tesla has not been responsive in getting this resolved. 4.) Recent issue with main screen panel behind steering wheel resetting while driving. Vehicle maintained operations, but I could not see speed or change gears while driving. This has happened before. Tesla updated CPU, issues persists.

NHTSA ODI 11454372

Driving with autopliot engaged. I was in the left lane of a two lane highway when another car entered the highway to my right and car suddenly slammed on the brakes. i disengaged the autopilot. It happen several more time, so it is now a function I no longer use unless the highway is empty. I believe is was a $1000 option.

NHTSA ODI 11453887

2/23/2022. Driving on highway with Tesla autopilot on and speed set to 65 MPH. Car was suddenly braking without any obstacle in front. Good thing that car behind me was quite a distance away, and I also noticed it slowed down immediately after seeing my car slowed down. This happened just after my Tesla model S with latest firmware update last week. The new firmware version is 2021.24.28. This is the first time I engaged autopilot after the firmware update.

NHTSA ODI 11453637

I experienced the "Phantom Braking" phenomenon while driving on freeways. It has happened 3 or 4 times in the last year or so. I did not see any obvious reason for the car to have slowed down dramatically because there wasn't a car in front of me at such instances. it occurred while Autopilot was engaged. It has happened on different freeways (I-680, I-880), traversing in different directions and at different times of the day.

NHTSA ODI 11453251

The contact owns a 2017 Tesla Model S. The contact stated that on three separate occasions while driving at highway speeds with cruise control engaged, the vehicle would suddenly brake on its own. The contact was uncertain if any warning lights would appear on the instrument panel prior to the failure. The service center nor the manufacturer had yet to be notified of the failure. The contact stated that he was able to document the exact time that the latest failure occurred on the vehicle. The vehicle had yet to be repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 48,000.

NHTSA ODI 11452686

Ever since I purchased this car I have suffered from Phantom Braking when using Cruise Control. As a result, I am unable to use any of the advanced Autopilot features. I spent $10,000 for something that has never even begun to work. Phantom Braking occurs seemingly at random, with no vehicles in front, nothing on the road and no overpasses or shadows. I try every few months to see if anything has improved, most recently in January on 101 north of Petaluma. The car suddenly braked, freaking out my passenger. I only try it when no other vehicles are around, so that I am not rear-ended when it happens, after some very scary near-rear-ending events early on. I have reported this problem to Tesla on MANY occasions but after being told "it is a known problem" I have given up reporting it. Is it repeatable? Yes, just drive on cruise control. Safety risk is being rear-ended. Has the problem reproduced by service? No, has it been confirmed, Yes. Has it been inspected by Tesla? Yes Warnings prior to the failure? No

NHTSA ODI 11452895

The brakes have engaged while driving at high speeds (perhaps on about a half dozen occasions) when using either the adaptive cruise control or auto pilot, at a time when there were no road hazards or other cars in the forward or side vicinities. The braking that occurred was severe - a hard braking if you will. On two occasions, this same kind of braking occurred at the same point on a certain freeway that I was traveling on. This braking also occurred once while driving on a city street at low speeds with auto pilot engaged. The dates in which these incidents occurred were all in 2021. The only specific time frame I remember was in July 2021

NHTSA ODI 11452476

Multiple times during our drive experienced random braking and alert sounds going off. Had wife and dog in the car which were also jolted forward due to the sudden braking in the middle of the freeway. Clear weather (post-rain) in night conditions.

NHTSA ODI 11450521