What 982 owners told NHTSA about the 2018 Tesla Model 3 Bev

Car speed control malfunctioned. There was a sudden acceleration when car was below 10 miles in the parking lot. The driver lost control on braking and car keep accelerating even no force was applied to pedal. Dribe had to steer out of parking lot and crash through a wood en fence on next door neighbor. Car still keep going thru front yard of two houses cross the street and eventually hit a concrete barrier on front porch of the house. Several parts breakoff underneath the car , fluid leaked and all wheels are severely damage. Severy damage to front body side of the of the car and battery system , has occurred . There was near miss body injury to pedestrians in the area and neighbor hood. No physical injury was reported at the time of accident. but driver reported psychologycal distress. Currently CAR is towed away per Instruction from Insurance company for evaluation. Police report CASE# 23021162 NORTH bRUNSWICK pd 710 hermann road North Brunswick, NJ 08902

NHTSA ODI 11518603

Our Tesla Model 3 had a failure of LV contactor which engages the HV circuit while driving the car in a 45MPH side road. The car had a sudden shutdown with emergency brakes engaged and the car came to a stop violently. It was providence that there were no vehicles following or car was not being operated in a 75MPH freeway and hence did not end up in a rear collision accident or worse involving an 18 wheeler. We talked to Tesla service and they indicated that such contactor failures occur and the car would typically behave like it did with stopping immediately as per design. I was telling Tesla service that the car should probably move into Neutral mode rather than stopping immediately. I also heard other instances where Tesla has stopped suddenly in the media. I would like Tesla to review their current logic with handling contactor failure and prevent violent and sudden stops of the vehicle to prevent accidents.

NHTSA ODI 11510912

My car Breaks as if i got in to an accident. This has happened more than two times. Car breaks so badly and it drops everything from seats. Very scary. Most of the time i was driving at 10-15 miles per hour in parking lots looking for parking. I always wear seatbelts. Not sure why this happens but it is very scary and had there been cars very close to me i could get rear ended. I did take the car to Tesla Dealer. They always come up with some excuses.

NHTSA ODI 11500590

While using the traffic-aware cruise control in my Tesla model 3, going down the highway with cruise set at 75 and no cars around, the Tesla suddenly braked unexpectedly and with no visible cause. I then googled for similar tesla experiences and saw the gov was investigating this on 2021 and 2022 models, however my car is a 2017 or 18 and exhibited the same situation.

NHTSA ODI 11496114

Phantom breaking. I was on cruise control only (not FSD mode) on HWY at 65 mile/hr, and my car breaking suddenly to 45 ml/hr until I took over. No one injured and no accident. There was a car behind of me when it happened, and the car changed line immediately.

NHTSA ODI 11494245

Multiple times when using the Auto-Pilot feature the brakes will engage and dramatically slow down the car for no reason. This has probably happened 5-10 times. At this point it is getting concerning. Luckily, no cars have been following me closely enough to cause an accident, but I'm afraid that this will occur at some point unless this is fixed. I am usually driving on the highway and there is nothing in front of me and the brakes will engage. On the screen I see arrows in the passing lane flowing in the opposite direction. I'm not sure what this means or if this is triggering the brakes.

NHTSA ODI 11493454

Periodically the driver side front brake will emit a squeal when travelling at low speeds. Reported to Tesla and they attributed the lack of braking as a contributory fault. They bevelled the brake pad and explained that this was normal behavior. However this did not fix the problem and it periodically reoccurs.

NHTSA ODI 11484793

On a recent trip from northern califorina to southern california, I experienced 5 episodes of phantom braking, that involved my brakes being applied at 75 miles per hour when no other vechiles were around me. This also happened 3 days later 4 times when traveling from southern california to my home in northern california. all incidents happened on hwy I--5 I have contacted Tesla service and they tell me nothing is wrong after checking vehicle logs. I believe this is a known issue, that is why i am reporting it. my first trip was sep 1st and second trip was sept 4th In all incidents adaptive cruise control was engaged

NHTSA ODI 11483246

On two occasions while on adaptive cruise control, my car slammed on the brakes while driving on the interstate going 65-70 mph. This was terrifying and the car practically stopped in the middle of the road. We are very lucky no one hit us from behind and that we did not lose control.

NHTSA ODI 11482894

Phantom braking is extremely dangerous and a cause for disaster! While in Autopilot, it will unexpectedly brake while driving on the freeway. This causes a jerk to the human body and cause a possible rear end accident. This is quite frequent.

NHTSA ODI 11482144

While driving my vehicle, no matter if I am on the interstate, country roads, side roads the vehicle will brake for unknown reasons. It will go from 65mph to 35mph, or 55mph to 45mph, etc. This happens whether in cruise control, auto drive or manual drive. It also will brake behind trash trucks with their flashing lights on, intersection flashing lights or warning flashing lights on the side of the road. It has also done it at night with oncoming vehicles. This is a daily occurrence. I have contacted Tesla service center on a few occasions and I am always told it is a computer issue, there is nothing that can be done. This is an extreme SAFETY issue and can cause a rear-end accident or another type of accident. I can not believe this issue has been going on for years and Tesla can not come up with a solution.

NHTSA ODI 11480311

With NO WARNING, and while on AutoPilot-Full Self Drive, our Tesla TOTALLY HARD AND LONG BRAKED out of nowhere, THRUSTING our necks forward for four seconds until I could disengage the brake, then SLAMMING our heads to the headrest. I have a CERVICAL SPRAIN, WHIPLASH, and a CONCUSSION! I was driving 65mph. I’ve been to the ER, to a chiropractor, and to physical therapy since this incident Sunday, July 31, 2022 at 6:37-6:38pm. On the 405 South. I’ve reported it to Tesla Service who said it was escalated to the Fremont location Engineers to review which takes 2-3 months! I have INJURIES! Phantom braking is usually unwarranted and terrifying but has not HURT ME until this time. I was almost HIT by the car behind us!

NHTSA ODI 11477464

Phantom braking that causes the vehicle to suddenly apply the brakes for no reason. Issue occurs at least once each time I use the Autopilot. Occurs on interstates as well as highways. In my 6 hour drive today it happened 5 times. Each time the vehicle decreases in speed by 15-30mph. This is extremely dangerous for vehicles following behind and for the passengers who are suddenly jolted.

NHTSA ODI 11476789

After purchasing the Autopilot feature on February 9th, 2022, on our first trip next day (Feb 10th), we experienced phantom braking with adaptive cruise control turned on, barely avoiding a hit from the rear by a truck in Toledo, OH. Later, during same trip, we experienced phantom braking with both ACC and Autopilot features turned on, and stopped using them out of safety concerns. After a new occurrence, while on cruise control on June 4th, I informed Tesla service in Clarkston, MI, but no repair, deletion of Autopilot and reimbursement was possible as I requested. We never had similar issues form November 2nd 2018 to February 9th 2022 (44.159 miles) , before purchasing and installing Autopilot.

NHTSA ODI 11475486

The car brakes by it and accelerates by it. Some time it says I am not holding the steering wheel and it cancels the autopilot in the middle of the long distance driving. The defective cabin camera does not see the hand position at all and randomly keeps on distracting from the front road view to the screen which is not in the same line as the road. Too many errors of auto pilot are very frustrating and distracting. The Tesla’s team tries to repair something and keeps on blaming their own departments not to fix things correctly. I have tried many times to make an appointment thru their app which is very buggy and it’s like one way communication. I have multiple recalls on my car but they don’t have time or parts to fix it. They will not allow making any weekend or within 20 mile radius service center. Once they do any repair their technician drops the ball and do not want to fix the original problem correctly. The full self driving is ridiculous I have not been able to complete even 10 miles trip without taking over in few minutes. This FSD software/hardware needs to be more accurate as soon as possible so that there is no harm done to the driver and passenger to the Tesla and other cars.

NHTSA ODI 11474591

Ghost braking hard and want refunded for full self driving because it’s not there

NHTSA ODI 11473002

PHANTOM BRAKING!!! Ever since purchasing the car in March 2018 and right up to the present, when using AUTOPILOT or more recently FULL SELF DRIVING (FSD), especially at highway speeds, the car will suddenly start significantly braking and slow down for no justifiable reason. This is dangerous enough that if the vehicle behind me is not paying attention, they could rear-end me. It’s totally unpredictable when this will occur, but it does happen frequently at highway speeds. This is a very well-known problem, but even after dozens of software update releases, Tesla has been unable to eliminate or even reduce the frequency of Phantom Braking.

NHTSA ODI 11468616

Our model 3 was purchased with Tesla’s “full self driving (FSD)” software installed in 2018. Throughout our entire ownership period, whenever FSD is active, there are specific locations known to us - mostly at certain points on freeways - where the car will “phantom brake,” in other words suddenly decelerate the vehicle very rapidly and require *immediate* driver intervention. For instance, there is a freeway interchange ramp that passes under a bridge and doglegs to the left. The car will always phantom brake about 200 feet before it reaches the bridge. This has been happening for years, and we’ve reported this defect and this specific location to Tesla many times. There are other locations known to us as consistent phantom brake triggers, but there are of course times where this occurs when we are not expecting it as well, and that’s when it’s most dangerous. We believe it may have something to do with the car’s sensors when they sense certain shapes or objects while the road is also curving slightly, as this is the most common phantom brake scenario for us. Again, this has been happening since we purchased the car in 2018. It occurs randomly at least a few times a month, and it *always* occurs in certain locations.

NHTSA ODI 11467581

I received access to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system in late 2021. In the lead-up to that access, Tesla used a series of driver scoring metrics to select which users would get access first. Consistently, my metrics for forward collision warnings would show as alarmingly high, despite never coming within remote striking distance of another vehicle. On more than one occasion, a vehicle passing in other lane or turning left but in the other lane tripped the warning. At the time this registered as a red flag but more a bug of the evaluation system than the car’s recognition software. As time with the FSD suite has gone on, and subsequently with every new update, the phantom braking problem a number of users have described has plagued my experiences. Numerous times I’ve been driving with FSD engaged on two lane roads with no cars, shadows, animals or distractions of any kind around only for the car to suddenly and rapidly decelerate. Additionally I’ve received warnings repeatedly, without explanation, that the emergency braking system is disabling itself, then the warning will clear without any indication it’s either become reactive or is still disabled. Further, I’ve noticed through the new blind spot camera feature Tesla has released that my left rear-facing repeater camera can be blinded by the flashing of the embedded turn signal in the housing - but only the left signal, the right is not. This has led to, on more than one occasion, FSD disabling itself while active with little or no warning. I’ve listed the approximate date the first phantom braking occurred, but all of these problems have been an ongoing issues for months.

NHTSA ODI 11467459

The automatic emergency braking system activated when there was no collision imminent. (7:13am, 5/22/22) Neither cruise control nor autopilot was engaged at the time of incident. I was nearly hit from behind by a driver who did not expect me to stop as there was no hazard or other vehicle. Tesla inspected the vehicle and found no fault and claimed that I needed driver education. Also on a subsequent interstate trip with cruise control engaged, the automatic emergency braking system activated unnecessarily. It appears to be related to shadows on the road or pavement changes.

NHTSA ODI 11467340

Phantom braking, i.e. apparent engagement of brakes on car for no apparent reason during routine driving

NHTSA ODI 11467370

Stopped in left turn lane. On green light car in front and I began our left turn. I was some distance behind the car when suddenly my brakes applied automatically and I came to complete stop. Luckily car behind did not rear end me. Also, my car started beeping and a warning said something to effect: automatic emergency brake activated.

NHTSA ODI 11460262

Sudden Unintended Acceleration: While pulling forward onto our driveway (with incline) at a very slow speed, the car suddenly accelerated and brake was not working. Automatic emergency braking also failed.

NHTSA ODI 11456690

My Model 3 regularly brakes at highway speeds for no reason it does this in daylight but more frequently at night also - it appears more common in the rain - where reflections off the wet pavement seems to appear as solid objects to the cruise control i have stopped using the cruise control now - it is frightening to have the car suddenly slam on the brakes at highway speeds

NHTSA ODI 11455867

regularly experience phantom breaking and unwarranted early collision warnings

NHTSA ODI 11453589