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

Software bug for sure. When car is in autopilot the windshield wipers start and cannot be turned off. This occurrs when the windshield is clean , not raining. The wiper off virtual switches cannot be turned off and the only option is to switch from auto to 1 to slow the wipers. If the car is not in autopilot the issue doesn’t not occur and the wipers operate as they should.

NHTSA ODI 11534038

Vehicle has experienced dramatic increase in so-called phantom braking incidents when adaptive cruise control is turned on. The vehicle suddenly and forcefully brakes for no apparent reason even when there are no vehicles or other hazards in front or on the sides of it. I have revisited sites where the incidents have occurred to see if there is some environmental factor such as reflective signs that might have triggered the incidents but have been unable to replicate them. They are completely random. I am aware that this phantom braking issue has previously been reported but based on a review of various Internet sites such as Reddit, owners have reported a dramatic increase in incidents over the past month or so.

NHTSA ODI 11532361

I have owned my Tesla Model 3 since early 2019. The adaptive cruise control worked incredibly beautifully for years up until a few weeks ago - I think sometime in June 2023 (could have been May 2023). All of the sudden, I was *frequently* experiencing phantom braking, ie. braking with no explanation, while using adaptive cruise control. Sometimes the braking was gradual, other times more forceful. It would happen at random places - Sometimes in/near intersections or around other vehicles, other times just out on the open road with no vehicles or stoplights anywhere in sight. Even on a 20 minute drive, it can happen three or four times. To me, this is a severe hazard. I have a disability, and I purchased this vehicle because of the incredible safety features. Prior to this, it has 100% lived up to what people said about it - just amazing. But now, the very reason I purchased this vehicle, its advanced safety features, I find not just unreliable but somewhat terrifying. I *believe* that Tesla may have (effectively / unintentionally) disabled the built-in radar in vehicles like mine. This is because I've read online accounts of people with the same year having the same problems as mine, also at around the same time that mine started. Specifically, my model year has radar built in. But I understand that newer Teslas rely solely on cameras, ie. "Tesla Vision." I understood that because my vehicle physically has radar installed, that my adaptive cruise control would still work at least as good as it had in the past - certainly not worse. If this can't be fixed I'll be forced to sell the car, which I desperately don't want to do, as I love the car and I think the world of Tesla. I just want it to work properly again.

NHTSA ODI 11532373

Driving on the highways in cruise control. Car auto braked when going under an under pass. No other cars in front to trigger.

NHTSA ODI 11529935

Driving in Full Self Driving mode, the vehicle made a left turn into oncoming traffic.

NHTSA ODI 11526624

The contact owns a 2018 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving with the Adaptive Cruise Control set to 75 MPH, the vehicle decelerated quickly to 45 MPH. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The contact was able to drive to his destination. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. A dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 80,000.

NHTSA ODI 11526595

Owner driving route on 680 approaching Omaha 6/9/23 at 4:43. Car abruptly slowed and braked while passing a semi truck in the right lane on a curve. Regained control by pressing accelerator. But the reduction in speed was large and could easily have caused a rear end collision had a car been following at the time. Logged using In Car Bug Report as instructed previously by Tesla Customer Support. However, follow up with Tesla service center was unproductive.

NHTSA ODI 11526423

2018 Tesla Model 3 was in cruise control (not self-drive) on an interstate with no other vehicles in the near vicinity. The car repeatedly applied brakes unexpectedly. I have traveled with this vehicle before and did not have unexpected braking problems. I have requested a Tesla service appointment but do not know if Tesla has an answer to what I hear is a widespread problem.

NHTSA ODI 11523575

Tesla Cruise Control was in use when passing a white van or suv on route 505 near Winters. On Friday May 19 at approx. 5:45PM. Our Tesla abruptly slowed from 70mph to approx 50mph before our driver regained control. A motorcycle following was forced to pass us using the left shoulder. The motorcycle was following at a safe distance but was put at risk due to abrupt slowdown by our Tesla. Tesla Customer Service checked vehicle remotely and states there are no current problems with the car. No alerts. Cameras are aligned. Tesla advised computer reboot and ongoing monitoring by owner. States that car may learn over time. Car is equipped with "Full Self Driving " feature but only "Cruise Control" was in use at time of event.

NHTSA ODI 11523437

This is an issue regarding the full self driving software. My car continues to run red lights at which it is already stopped. The light is solid red to the naked eye, and the camera definitely does not show the normal steady blink of a malfunctioning signal. The pitch forward in the video is me slamming on the brakes as the car tries to run the light (about 28 seconds in). I have previously reported this to Tesla on 12/28/21, 8/25/22, 9/21/22, 11/21/22, and 4/24/23. It has happened many more times than that, as I usually don't see a point in reporting the same bug multiple times on the same software version. As far as I know, nothing is being done about this and I have received no acknowledgement of the problem. The fsdbeta@tesla.com autoreply states that they forward this information to the correct department. This is, in my opinion, many orders of magnitude more serious than the previous Tesla recall regarding waiting too long at stop signs as this will cause a crash for an inattentive driver. https://youtu.be/ZvJASdlEEPU

NHTSA ODI 11519543

Multiple "phantom braking" events in which the car, on a clear day & no cars around, would suddenly slam on the brakes and try to stop. No messages were displayed on the screen. Tesla Service seems uninterested as it is a "software" issue. I tried a full reset of the car with no improvement.

NHTSA ODI 11519063

On a trip today from Pasco wa to Spokane WA (us395) there autopilot and full self driving would randomly phantom brake for no obvious reason. It happened every 5 minutes or so in both directions. Scary and dangerous.

NHTSA ODI 11518479

While attempting to park the car in a parking lot, the car did not respond to the release of the accelerator or the press of the brake but just continued. Car continued to jump the curb and run into a concrete wall without slowing or stopping. No auto functions were enabled on the car. Car was attempting to park in the spot on the right side of the photo but just continued on and ran into the stone wall.

NHTSA ODI 11508439

The contact owns a 2018 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 65 MPH, the contact attempted to activate the Autonomous Self Driving feature; however, there was a message stating that the Forward Collision Avoidance: Adaptive Cruise Control inoperable was unavailable. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for diagnosis and the dealer stated that an unstated computer needed to be replaced due to overheating. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and stated that the vehicle was not under recall, and that the Warranty had expired. The failure mileage was 99,000.

NHTSA ODI 11508410

This is a report of suddent unintended acceleration on a 2018 Model 3 performance with 47,800 miles on the odometer - the first known occurrence on this car. At 50% state of charge, I drove the Tesla on a 10 minute trip and pulled into an underground parking garage with 3 lanes of valet parking. At about 5-10 MPH, the forward collision warning came on as I was driving towards the cones and stop sign. I brought the vehicle to a full stop with the friction brakes (not regenerative braking, which was set to LOW). The drive mode was set to HOLD, which lets the car roll forward but not backwards and doesn't CREEP when foot is off the brake. About 15-30 seconds after coming to a complete stop, my foot was hovering over the brake with maybe slight pressure up to 5%. The car suddenly lurched forward with wide open throttle type acceleration. It has over 450 electric horsepower from 2 motors. The car moved between 2 feet and 5 feet. My passenger noticed and asked what I did, if anything. I did not ever once touch the accelerator. Since my foot was on the brake pedal but not pushing hard on it, I was able to depress it with my foot and stop the car. There was a concrete wall perhaps 25 feet in front of the car. No people were in the front of the car. I was at the stop sign in the garage where valet takes over. I do not know if the car would have kept accelerating if I wasn't able to engage the brakes hard.

NHTSA ODI 11508223

During rush hour traffic on Highway 101 Southbound near Redwood City, I experienced an incident while utilizing AutoPilot and AutoSteer. Despite being in stop-and-go traffic, the vehicle did not respond to the car in front which suddenly came to a complete stop. Neither the Automatic Emergency Braking system nor warning sounds, which has been known to activate erroneously, were triggered. As a result, I was forced to manually brake at the last moment, but there was not enough time for manual intervention and the vehicle collided with the car in front. It is worth noting that every other instance in which I have utilized AutoPilot and AutoSteer, which occurs on nearly every trip I take, the vehicle has been able to respond and brake, albeit with slow reaction times and close distances.

NHTSA ODI 11508023

Hello, The side camera in our Tesla model 3 have stopped working. Because they have stopped working, the GPS, and the car status (360 overhead view) parts also stopped working. This means that we can't use the Enhanced Autopilot with the car. This is a huge issue as the side cameras and the car status are very important for safety. It looks like this is a known problem but Tesla isn't issuing a recall to fix this https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/06/tesla-is-replacing-faulty-autpilot-cameras-in-some-model-s-x-3-cars.html This started happening in mid-Jan, when our car had 41K miles and 4 years 1 month age. Tesla's warranty only goes 40K miles and 4years

NHTSA ODI 11507739

The contact owns a 2018 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 68 MPH, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. A dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was 41,023.

NHTSA ODI 11507813

The car has FSD Beta - When exiting on freeway off ramp numerous error codes came on and car lost ability to steer effectively. The car was not in Autopilot mode when the incident occured.

NHTSA ODI 11507892

Full Self Driving was engaged, my hands were on the steering wheel, and vehicle made very unexpected and wrong turn sharply to the right directly into a barrier with front bumper. I have the incident recorded on the dash cam. The time from the sharp turn until the collision was less than 0.5 seconds, not allowing driver response. I have the video of the dashcam recording of the accident. Tesla also has the cabin recording of my engagement during the accident. I cannot send the video through this web page unfortunately

NHTSA ODI 11507096

FSD Beta code version: 2022.44.30.10 seems to have a nasty bug where due to some bad speed limit data for highways, will automatically change the max cruising speed set by me. Hence the car results in abruptly slowing down on the highway. I have filed bug reports via the car as soon as its happened. Locations it has occurred: On I-90 eastbound right after the Framingham on-ramp around the place where the service plaza exit happens. And on Route-2, eastbound between the I-95 offramp to Rt-2 thru Rt-2 exit to Winter Street. Its due to bad navigation data as the speed change happens very predictablely in the same area, regardless of road conditions, car position in lane, or weather conditions. This never happened in the past 4 years. FSD automatically changed max speed from 75 to 61 miles per hr, causing the slow down.

NHTSA ODI 11506593

The contact owns a 2018 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that there was no vehicle or objects around the vehicle at the time the failure occurred. The contact was not using autopilot at the time the failure occurred. The contact stated that the failure had been reoccurring while driving. The contact stated that the failure reoccurred while driving at 5 MPH with her 12-year-old son sitting in the front passenger’s side seat. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that they were not aware of the failure and the issue would be escalated. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 20,000.

NHTSA ODI 11506452

While driving a Tesla Model 3 on an interstate highway at a speed of about 75 MPH with Full Self Driving engaged, the car aggressively applied the brakes for no apparent reason. This action could cause injury to passengers in the vehicle or an accident involving another vehicle that is following too closely. No information about the reason this occurred was presented. Tesla is aware of this issue.

NHTSA ODI 11505689

The automatic wiper does not always work. Set to auto but despite poor visibility on the windshield, it failed to start until I manually adjusted the wiper control on the screen. With poor visibility and having to look at the infotainment screen to adjust wiper while vehicle is in motion, my safety was put at risk. Every time it rains, the auto wiper is unreliable and often fails to start or is too slow to start as if there is a huge delay and does not keep up with in heavy rain as it sometimes wipes too slow and I have to look at the screen to find the settings for the wiper to manually override the wiping speed. Also, the adaptive cruse control accelerates too aggressively at stop and go traffic causing hard braking by the car and I worry this will cause rear end collisions. The blind spot side cameras are unusable at night when turn signal is on as the light blinds the camera image and can’t see anything from it, multiple visits to service center and they told me it is normal and refuse to replace but this cannot be normal as the image from the camera is blinded by the turn signal.

NHTSA ODI 11502514

Significant phantom braking issues on two lane highways like US95 in NV. The vision system cannot reliably tell if something is in the road or not when there clearly is nothing, cars or objects. Unclear if my 2018 if the radar is still active, but the vision software cheats I believe by using traffic in front to know the road is clear, but when there is no traffic on a rural highway, it panic stops from 70mph down to 45mph quickly before I can disengage Autopilot. No shadows over the road, no tree, no over passes. Happened several times going south on US95 south on a cloudy day and several times going north a few days later on a sunny day. At all times nothing in the road. It seemed to be more confused on slight rise and downhill, but occurred in even flat road sections. I think the AI has not been trained in non-traffic rural roads and unclear if the radar is still active.

NHTSA ODI 11501477