What 434 owners told NHTSA about the 2020 Tesla Model 3 Bev

The car has regenerative breaking where the car is supposed to slow down when you lift your feet off the accelerator. Since a new update, some times (10%), when you lift off the accelerator the car does NOT slow down and will maintain speed. This inconsistent behavior is extremely dangerous and you don't know if the car will slow down or not. Tesla refuses to acknowledge this is an issue.

NHTSA ODI 11483592

Phantom braking: While driving down the highway for no apparent reason the car brakes and one time we had a car behind us that almost hit us. This is very dangerous and Tesla need to fix this asap. This has happened multiple times since around March 2022. The passengers in the car are slammed forward without any warning. Today was the scariest because we were almost rear ended and my 6 year old granddaughter was slammed forward. This is unacceptable.

NHTSA ODI 11473267

Cars computer froze and I was stuck in cruise control. Hitting the brake would not disengage. Pressing up on the stalk would not disengage. I could manually slow/accelerate the car with the brake/accelerator but after letting off the car would continue on at that speed while everything else remains frozen. No turning signal function. I was afraid to attempt to stop the car fully as it would not disengage. Screen eventually went black and reset after what felt like forever. Functions returned to normal.

NHTSA ODI 11472462

My car when passing under signs or on two lane undivided roads will hit the brakes very aggressively. It’s difficult to reproduce and catches me and other drivers by surprise. The car didn’t do this during my first year of ownership, but now it happens several times a week. This will happen when using cruise control and autopilot. To me it’s rendered both features unusable.

NHTSA ODI 11467600

Sporadically when driving at highway speeds, car will experience an error. Steering assist IMMEDIATELY decreases (wheel harder to turn), cruise control (if enabled) will disengage, and following Error codes appear on flatscreen : - Vehicle Hold Feature Unavailable - Tire Pressure Monitor System Fault - Automatic Emergency Braking Disabled - ABS (Anti-lock brakes) disabled - Regenerative Brakes Disabled - Steering assist reduced - Traction control disabled Unsure of which component is at fault. Tesla Service center (Norfolk VA) has pushed off appointment for more than 30 days but has acknowledged that there is an issue. SAFETY: Loss of ABS is a major safety risk to occupants. Loss of steering assist also puts driver and others at risk due to increased steering effort. Loss loss of regenerative braking also a safety risk due to the instantaneous change of vehicle braking behavior when regenerative braking switches off.

NHTSA ODI 11461057

The emergency automatic brake, cruise control and auto pilot feature gets disabled frequently. All 3 features gets disabled at same time. Contacted tesla service center in decatur-GA. They are saying they cannot find the problem and hence cannot solve it. They say the engineers are looking into it, and my car needs a firmware update. No estimated time to fix these issues is given. The service center advised that the car is safe to drive! Please help. Thanks.

NHTSA ODI 11460914

While driving at highway speed, the vehicle's automatic emergency braking unexpectedly activated, without cause or warning, which caused a very rapid deceleration of the vehicle. Fortunately, the traffic on the highway was light and no other vehicles were around, but this "phantom braking" had the potential for a major collision. This is the first time this has happened on this vehicle. The vehicle has not been inspected by the manufacturer and there were no prior warnings.

NHTSA ODI 11456658

My car has experienced phantom braking for no apparent reason when on cruise control or auto pilot. Tesla claims to have to looked at the cars programming remotely and found no problem. I took the car to a Tesla dealer for a seat belt recall and asked them to also repair the phantom breaking. Again they said that they found nothing wrong with the car.

NHTSA ODI 11452440

Countless times, while driving on a two lane highway at speeds from 45-70 mph while on adaptive cruise control, the car unexpectedly braked when a vehicle was in the oncoming lane. This became so much of a problem that I needed to keep my foot on the accelerator if there was a car or truck in the other lane. It was dangerous because a car following me could have run into me or I could have skidded on ice. This has been happening for about a week. I think it is called phantom braking.

NHTSA ODI 11451717

Car will brake without any warning and with not reason to brake. Many complaints I’ve read online call this phantom braking. It has happened over ten times now and can be extremely dangerous as it will brake the car almost instantly and I have almost been rear ended because of it. Only matter of time before this happens and it results in a wreck.

NHTSA ODI 11451351

automatic braking happens for no reason. Happened multiple times on freeway .

NHTSA ODI 11450615

On Tuesday 2/1/2022 approximately 9:20am EST, as I was sitting in a stop-and-go traffic, as the traffic was freeing up and started moving going roughly 5 to 10 mph, the vehicle automatically applied phantom brake - with a notification of emergency braking applied. I was not on cruse control or autopilot. i was in full control of the car yet it suddenly applied the ebrakes nearly causing someone to rear end me since the traffic had started moving.

NHTSA ODI 11450425

Car decides to apply brakes for no reason

NHTSA ODI 11450195

There are two problems: (1) braking and (2) windshield wiper operation. (1) Braking: When driving on a highway and going by an on-ramp on the right side, without any warning, the vehicle would, al of a sudden, slam violently on the brakes, even though the cars entering the highway are nowhere near where I would be driving. This has happened repeatedly to me, creating a hazard of a rear-end collision. The Tesla Model 3 in such cases would already be in a mode that would drive itself (by me having clicked on the right stalk twice). Additionally, the car often misreads a traffic sign for a different part of the road, such as a stop sign for a side road. The violent braking would take place in such a scenario also. (2) Windshield wiper operation: I'm not sure if this would qualify as a safety issue, but the windshield wiper operation doesn't work in automatic mode. I rely on this while driving in a rainy or snowy day so that I can concentrate on the driving itself without worrying about something else to do (turning on the windshield wipers). This is problem that has plagued the car right from the beginning, and to me, it presents a safety hazard. For example, about a week ago, I drove in bad weather (snowy) on a turnpike to get to a medical appointment. The weather turned bad, and cars would pass me by, splashing water/snow onto the car's windshield. The automatic mechanism should have kicked in to help me focus on the driving, but it did not.

NHTSA ODI 11450065

Using either cruise control or Full Self Driving mode, driving on divided highway, experienced sudden hard braking not due to any highway obstruction, road hazard, other vehicle, or weather. Without warning car dropped out of assisted control and abruptly applied brakes. This happened yesterday at 2:10 pm, 2:53 pm and 3:01 pm.

NHTSA ODI 11443645

I WAS DRIVING STRAIGHT ON A HIGHWAY USING TRAFFIC AWARE CRUISE CONTROL WHEN THE CAR SUDDENLY BRAKED HARD. IF SOMEONE HAD BEEN DRIVING BEHIND ME TOO CLOSELY I WOULD HAVE BEEN REAR ENDED AT A HIGH SPEED. I'VE SEEN ONLINE THAT PEOPLE REFER TO THIS AS "PHANTOM BRAKING," AND IT SEEMS TO BE A COMMON ISSUE WITH TESLA CARS.

NHTSA ODI 11354761

SLOWED DOWN TO MAKE A LEFT TURN AND THE CAR SUDDENLY SPEED FORWARD WHEN I PUT MY FOOT ON THE BRAKE. I LET GO MY FOOT AND SLAMMED THE BRAKE ONCE MORE. IT TOOK A SECOND TO RESPOND

NHTSA ODI 11351690

SEE ATTACHED FOR DETAILS. WE HAVE EXPERIENCED AT LEAST TWO UNEXPECTED HARD BRAKING INCIDENTS IN OUR 2020 TESLA MODEL 3 EQUIPPED WITH AUTOPILOT. IN ONE INCIDENT, JUST AS AUTOPILOT WAS ENGAGED, THE TESLA BRAKED SUDDENLY FROM 65 MPH TO 50 MPH. OTHER DRIVERS WERE FORCED TO BRAKE HARD TO AVOID COLLISION. ON THE SAME DAY, WHILE IN ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, THE TESLA SUDDENLY BRAKED HARD AT A SPEED OF 78 MPH, DOWN TO 60 MPH. TESLA HAS BEEN NOTIFIED BY OTHERS WHO HAVE HAD SIMILAR EXPERIENCES, SO THEY ARE AWARE OF THIS HAZARDOUS PROBLEM. THE ISSUE HAS BEEN REPORTED BY MANY ON TESLA SOCIAL MEDIA SITES SINCE AT LEAST 2018. IT STILL HAS NOT BEEN CORRECTED. I PLAN TO SEND A COPY OF THIS REPORT TO TESLA. *TR

NHTSA ODI 11324811

WHEN I SLOWED DOWN ON A CITY STREET, AND TURNED INTO A PARKING LOT, THE CAR SPEEDED UP BY ITSELF. AND THE BRAKE DIDN'T RESPOND WHEN I STEPPED ON IT. THE CAR GLIDED INTO A POWER POST.

NHTSA ODI 11302127

WHEN ON CRUISE CONTROL OR AUTOPILOT, CAR STOPS ABRUPTLY GOING FROM 65 MPH ON THE HIGHWAY TO 38 MPH BEFORE I CAN OVERRIDE AND TAKE CONTROL. THERE IS NO APPARENT REASON. THIS HAPPENS ON A CLEAR OPEN HIGHWAY.

NHTSA ODI 11301406

SO REGARDING THE CAR BRAKES THEY ARE VERY HARD TO FULLY DEPRESS AND I BELIEVE ITS BECAUSE OF THE REGENERATIVE BRAKING. FOR EXAMPLE WHEN GOING EAT HIGHWAY SPEED AND YOU NEED TO PRESS THE BREAK PEDAL HARD IT LITERALLY FEELS LIKE THE CAR IS REFUSING TO LET YOU USE THE FULL CAPACITY OF THE BREAKS. ITS VERY SCARY IT HAPPENED TO ME AND I COULD NOT PRESS THE BREAK PEDAL COMPLETELY DOWN. AND REGARDING THE LIGHTS MY CAR HAS FOG LIGHTS INSTALLED BUT I'M UNABLE TO TURN THEM ON BECAUSE ACCORDING TO TESLA SUPPOSEDLY I DID NOT PAY FOR THEM BUT THEY ARE INSTALLED ON THE CAR AND THEY DON'T WANT TO ALLOW ME TO TURN THEM ON BECAUSE ITS CONTROLLED VIA SOFTWARE. THIS IS AN UNNECESSARY THING BECAUSE IF THEY ARE INSTALLED ON THE CAR I SHOULD HAVE ACCESS TO THEM BECAUSE I BOUGHT THE CAR. THIS COULD PUT US THE DRIVERS IN A HAZARDOUS CONDITION IN FOG OR OTHER LOW VISIBLY CONDITIONS UNNECESSARILY.

NHTSA ODI 11300192

WHILE NAVIGATING ON AUTOPILOT ON THE FREEWAY THE CAR TOOK THE INTENDED EXIT RAMP, HOWEVER NEVER SLOWED DOWN UNTIL I HAD TO INTERVENE. REMINISCENT OF THE CHARACTERISTICS WHICH LED TO THE RECENT FATAL CRASH REPORTED OVER THE LAST WEEK.

NHTSA ODI 11297817