What 592 owners told NHTSA about the 2019 Tesla Model 3 Bev

On long, straight interstate highway roads where speed limit is 80mph in GOOD to EXCELLENT weather and visibility conditions the vehicle on average would apply emergency braking at least 10x per 1,000 miles when no hazard or obstruction was present. This was often caused by asphalt color changes, slight hills, or shimmer in the distance…all of which are normal conditions for average driving. If vehicle was being followed closely by another car it had potential to cause high speed collision and injury or death.

NHTSA ODI 11516226

Driving on US 395 near Mojave, CA, with cruise control enabled, the car braked suddenly twice within a 20 minute period. There were no other cars on the road but there was still a "phantom brake" that came out of nowhere.

NHTSA ODI 11516196

The contact's girlfriend owns a 2019 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 73 MPH with the Adaptive Cruise Control activated, 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 approximately 41,000.

NHTSA ODI 11515615

On several occasions the autopilot mode braked unnecessarily. In one instance causing the big rig behind me to honk. Recently it braked hard when there were no cars around on the freeway. On a third time it braked as a car in a neighboring lane was close to crossing the lane but did not.

NHTSA ODI 11514127

The car on multiple occasions while driving on the highway with either the cruise control or autopilot engaged, drastically brakes and slows down for no reason. These slowdowns are drastic and have occurred when there are no other cars or conditions to cause the response. The braking is so dramatic that it is unlikely that I could have intervened in time to prevent a trailing vehicle from potentially rear ending my car. The speed change was so drastic that a trailing driver also may not have been able to react in time. This is a serious issue that must be corrected without delay. This typically issue occurs within 15 minutes of engaging the cruise control or autopilot and has happened multiple times. The date below is the most recent occurrence.

NHTSA ODI 11510494

My car restarted itself and wiped out the entirety of my saved settings. I’m very upset because I had to set up everything all over again. Additionally, the full self driving brakes randomly while driving and causing my body to slam and pushed back from the seat belt. The autopilot feature also failed to recognize yellow lights where it will cross it, which had to be disengaged by the driver in order to avoid accident. The fsd also failed to recognize merging lane when merging onto the freeway.

NHTSA ODI 11510214

On Feb. 18, 2023 when the Tesla model 3 was being driven on I-66E in a regular lane (55mph speed limit) parallel to an I-66 express lane (posted limit of 70 mph) going in the same direction, the car display showed the higher posted speed limit of the express lane. As a result, in assisted cruise control mode, the car would speed up more than 15 mph faster than the permitted speed for the non-express lane. Using assisted cruise control in such a circumstance is a serious hazard, but it has been observed many times on different highways since the vehicle was purchased in 2019. The problem puts the occupants of the car and other vehicles on the road at risk. The problem was initially experienced on I-395 and reported to Tesla in 2019 soon after purchase, but no action or follow-up was made. Recently, the problem has been consistently detected multiple times in similar circumstances.

NHTSA ODI 11508064

I have six recorded incidents over three different trips where I was traveling at highway speeds on I-84. While utilizing cruise control, weather was clear and roads were dry with no vehicles in front of, behind or to the side of me. The vehicle slammed on it's brakes unexpectedly and for no apparent reason. 5 out of the 6 times, it stopped so fast, nearly coming to a complete stop that it caused the vehicle to swerve almost out of control. Luckily there were no vehicles close behind me, otherwise I would have certainly been rear ended and possibly even killed at the speeds we were traveling. I have spoken to Tesla and they admit it is a known problem, but they don't have an immediate fix. The recommend not using cruise control in their vehicles. I think they should buy the vehicles back if you cannot use something as basic as cruise control. This problem is wide spread and extremely dangerous if not deadly under certain conditions. The date below is the 2nd to last time it happened. Last time was on 2/13/23. There were 4 similar incidents prior to 2/12/23

NHTSA ODI 11507728

The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that on several occasions while driving the cruise control or auto pilot activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking with a beeping sound coming from the vehicle with a manual control warning message appearing on the infotainment screen. Neither the Service Center nor the manufacturer was notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 28,000.

NHTSA ODI 11506280

I was utilizing Tesla's self-driving feature and while traveling at about 75mph, the vehicle slammed on the braked on three different occasions for no reason. Fortunately, on all occasions, no vehicles were anywhere near me. There were no warning signs and this is the first occurrence. I have not utilized cruise control or the self-driving function, since.

NHTSA ODI 11504364

Tesla knowingly disabled the hardware sensor suite in a recent update of the software in their push toward "Tesla Vision". Unfortunately the disabling of the hardware sensor suite has made the car more dangerous to drive in certain conditions such as dark roads and inclement weather where the camera cannot detect a danger situation in advance the way it could with a hardware sensor suite. The disabling of this sensor is costing me $6000 in damage due to Tesla Vision not seeing a large, dead deer in the middle of the highway causing me to drive over it and damage critical components. Tesla's decision to use a plastic shield instead of a metal shield to protect the components lead to the piercing of the battery coolant line and damage to other components.

NHTSA ODI 11503661

Vehicle came to abrupt stop so hard the seatbelt locked and my head hit the seat rest once fully stopped in highway traffic. I was traveling in the middle lane of a 3 lane highway at night, with clear skies, and dry road. There nearest car ahead of me was about 40 feet, and I was traveling with the flow of traffic at around 20 mph. “Autopilot” was enabled and set to 35mph. I believe the ADAS camera system of my vehicle momentarily determined a nearby car in the left or right lane had suddenly moved into my lane when in reality none had crossed the white line and the road ahead was clear.

NHTSA ODI 11502306

Since disabling the radar, the car very frequently brake checks on the highway when there are no cars in front of it, due to the reflection off the surface of highways that are very flat. This happens at least every hour or 2 when driving.

NHTSA ODI 11502516

The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving at high speeds with the auto pilot feature activated, the vehicle experienced intermittent phantom braking. The contact stated that no warning light appeared on the instrument panel prior to the failure. The contact attempted to notify the service center of the failure but was informed that he could only report the failure soon after the failure. The service center offered no further assistance. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 20,000.

NHTSA ODI 11502230

This morning, I was driving using FSD beta and the car swerved and veered almost directly into the curb, head-on. I was able to capture the data using the car's built-in dashcam and saved it, though I can't upload it to this site. I was able to slam on the brakes at the last minute and luckily no one else was around as it could have easily injured someone else and/or damaged my vehicle.

NHTSA ODI 11501971

The car has repeatedly slammed on the brakes while using Tesla's Full Self-Driving functionality and made the car unusable at times. I've gotten into many near accidents, with the most recent happening on 1/8/23 where the vehicle slammed on the brakes on the freeway in front of a big rig, almost causing it to rear end me while me, my wife and two children were in the car. At the same time, the vehicle has also almost hit pedestrians while using the FSD beta, which I managed to avoid on 1/8/23 because I was paying attention. Had I not, I'm sure we would've struck a pedestrian walking across the street.

NHTSA ODI 11501085

My Handicap Son, Devdutt Srivastava, on Cushing Parkway and Fremont Boulevard. Fremont, CA, on US October 24 Evening with no Auto Pilot or FUSD engaged. At threshold the light had turned Orange and my son proceeded with same pace as usual, without accelerating. A cross car with an Autistic Kid, most likely as my son is a Special Ed Masters and trained to spot one, rammed into the Tesla 3 which was fully wrecked. The Auto Collision Emergency Detection and Braking should have worked as it was Stop and Go Traffic at Peak Evening Hours between 3:50 and 4:30 pm. I have seen Toyota Prius Auto Collison Braking Work. Someone needs to stop Elon Musk and Tesla charging premium on false promises and taking toll on lives of innocent people trusting their marketing false propoganda and constant spinning on Auto Pilot and FUD with new additional confusion creating packages and options and moving features too and fro. This complicates the software and causes more bugs.

NHTSA ODI 11498887

12/24 between 7:54am and 8:55am driving on the 10 west from Arizona to California while on auto drive within one hour experienced 4 times the car engaged the brake while traveling 80 mph on the highway. All 4 times there was nothing in front or side of the vehicle. The vehicle did not alarm a sensor that something was in the way. Fortunately we reacted quickly and continued with the accelerator so we didn’t stop abruptly on the Highway. 2 out of the 4 times it was a very hard brake the other two times it was hard but not nearly as forceful. Again nothing in the road, sun behind us, no indicators of obstructed cameras. We haven’t been on a long trip with the car in a long time, however my son drove from Orange County , CA to Los Angeles one evening about 6 weeks ago and he said the same thing occurred 3 times while on the trip and on the highway. I did Google the situation and it sounds like I am not the only one who has experienced the phantom braking situation. We have disengaged the auto drive and auto pilot the remainder of the trip.

NHTSA ODI 11498750

"Full Self Driving" (FSD) 10.69.3.1 disconnect events lock out driver after five 'strikes.' This makes it impossible to diagnose repeatable faults until a future version unlocks FSD. My testing suggests there are problems with controlled intersections making a left turn. However, the lockout prevents documenting the problem(s). Locking out the software also makes it impossible for NHTSA, IIHS, and even the National Transportation Safety Board to identify and document failures with FSD. It also impacts car reviewers as well as this owner.

NHTSA ODI 11498480

The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Modal 3. The contact stated while driving approximately 65 MPH with the autopilot activated, the cruise control suddenly deactivated and the braking system erroneously activated causing the vehicle to abruptly decelerate. The contact immediately depressed the accelerator pedal to avoid being rear-ended by a second vehicle. The cause of the failure was not determined. The local dealer and manufacturer were not yet notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 25,291.

NHTSA ODI 11498383

Phantom braking is occurring regularly on a road trip from CA to LA. It has happened on clear roads with sunny conditions and no obstructions as well as in shadowy or dark conditions. It only occurs with cruise control on.

NHTSA ODI 11497856

Two lane highway I was in the left lane with the cruise control on not Full Self Driving. In the right lane was a semi which I came up along side off on the left , I was driving 70mph. (Speed limit) The car suddenly hard braked on it’s own. The car behind me had to brake to avoid an accident and went into the dirt. After that on this same drive, there were at least 6 more instances of phantom braking when traveling over a “wash bridge “ going under a highway sign, driving along side another semi and once without anyone near and an open road. This also happened 3 months ago and when I reported it to Tesla they said when I received the FULL self driving down load which I got the next day, the problem should be corrected. I also reported the previous problem to you, the case # 11488958.

NHTSA ODI 11495626

Was using autopilot feature on the vehicle on thanksgiving. Was going about 75 miles per hour when suddenly autopilot failed and the car lost control. I had to quickly regain control of the vehicle before I crashed. I took photos of the error messages and reported the incident to tesla via the tesla app. Typically autopilot fails gracefully and provides notifications. I’ve never seen it fail with no warning and loss of control of the vehicle.

NHTSA ODI 11494815

While freeway driving with autopilot (adaptive cruise control) engaged the car will suddenly break VERY hard when there is no reason to. This is SUPER dangerous when traveling at 70 mph and someone is behind me. This is a known issue (phantom breaking) that has been a problem for years and not resolved.

NHTSA ODI 11494106

The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 65 MPH, the vehicle experienced "phantom braking". The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The contact was able to continue driving to his destination. The contact informed the manufacturer of the failure through the Tesla App and the mobile service unit was dispatched to inspect the vehicle. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact stated that recently he had experienced the failure five times within an hour and a half. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 21,100.

NHTSA ODI 11493980