What 175 owners told NHTSA about the 2021 Tesla Model S Bev

I have had multiple phantom forward collision warnings while driving and phantom braking while in autopilot. It happened twice today on a short 10 mile drive.

NHTSA ODI 11486650

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while driving 70-75 MPH with the Autonomous Self-Driving feature activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking on numerous occasions. The dealer was made aware of the failure and informed the contact that the vehicle performed as designed. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The contact related the failure to the Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta 10.69.2.2 software update. The failure mileage was 17,102.

NHTSA ODI 11486503

On at least nine occasions the car has very suddenly and with no input from driver braked hard during passing another vehicle, when assuming the original lane after passing a vehicle, and, on one occasion when no other vehicle was close by. I have brought all incidents to Tesla's attention. They tell me the problem resides in the software of the car and that they "are working on it". This is a very serious problem, which has been going on for over a year in my case. A totally unacceptable and extremely dangerous situation! Occurred in December 21, 2020; Several times during the summer of 2021, other sporadic times, and most recently on September 6 and 8, 2022

NHTSA ODI 11486229

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while driving 72 MPH with the autonomous self-driving feature activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 56,292.

NHTSA ODI 11484698

While using wildly falsely marketed $10k "full self driving" add-on across multiple software revisions and after reporting each and every bug to company I have experienced potentially fatal phantom breaking while at highway speeds and could have been killed by rear ending on at least 4 occasions. Have experienced 20+ erroneous forward collision errors with automatic breaking or lane assist corrections for obstacles such as hills, mailboxes, trees, absolutely nothing at all, etc. When driving around mildly banking left turn corners with 45mph speed limits whenever approaching a left turn lane within median the car will violently lurch into the turn lane causing panic for passengers and nearly causing a collision within resuming concrete median. While using autopilot the car failed to stop, correct or warn when a vehicle entered my lane and caused an accident with several thousand in damages. Car does not properly break for turns on highways requesting driver take over for what should be an easily navigable turn. Doesn't take apex or break early and will drift lanes making other surrounding drivers nervous. Moving the horn from muscle memory location to awkwardly placed touch button has prevented timely use of horn on multiple occasions which could easily result in fatal accidents. Overall this car is a literal death trap not at all even remotely ready for production use on public roads and neither I nor any of my passengers feel safe using the feature that was over priced, over promised and under-delivered. Tesla service center employees too worried about retaliation from management to inquirer about problems because of previous reparations from corporate offices. List of problems is shockingly egregious and should not be legally permitted on roads.

NHTSA ODI 11484540

On 4 Aug 2022, at 10:24am (CST), while traveling northbound on Hwy 287 just south of Henrietta, Texas with the Tesla Autopilot speed set at 80mph with a posted speed limit of 75mph, the car was in the left lane of a two-lane, high-speed highway, when the car suddenly and unexpectedly slammed on the brakes, gave a "TAKE CONTROL IMMEDIATELY" warning and rapidly shifted its lane position, almost causing a wreck with the car behind me. There were no vehicles beside me and nothing to the front or sides to cause concern or indicate that there was any reason for the sudden and abrupt braking maneuver.

NHTSA ODI 11478343

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while driving approximately 45 MPH, the vehicle approached another vehicle that had slowed for a traffic light and did not automatically start braking. The contact manually applied the brakes, but the vehicle crashed into the rear end of the vehicle in front. The contact stated he noticed no warning lights illuminated nor warning chimes sounded advising of a vehicle ahead. The contact said both air bags deployed. The vehicle had crashed and damaged the entire front end which crumpled to the front tires. The police were on the scene and filed a report. The contact and the occupant of the other vehicle were not injured. The vehicle was towed to a collision center. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 1,000.

NHTSA ODI 11472761

The vehicle put the brakes on when on adaptive cruise, but with very few cars around. The last time, there was no car in front of me, but the vehicle braked so fast the the car behind me almost rear ended me. I’ve noticed that it happened twice on a South bound stretch of I-35 in Temple texas. This needs to be addressed or there is a strong potential for an accident.

NHTSA ODI 11467559

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while driving approximately 20 MPH or slower, the pedestrian alert warning system failed to activate as designed. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer to be diagnosed; however, the mechanic found no failure. The contact related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V235000 (Electrical System, Forward Collison Avoidance). The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 6,000.

NHTSA ODI 11463610

On March 18th and March 19th we have experienced 4 episodes of unexpected emergency phantom braking while using auto pilot. Once on the 18th and 3 times on the 19th. Only once was there another car in our vicinity and that car was next to us within their lane passing us at the time. All 4 times the cars collision warning chimed and hard emergency braking was applied by the car for no reason. If there had been cars following us we would have been rear ended. To date these are the only times this has happened. Tesla says they have no current fix. There was no indication of any problems with the auto pilot/collision warning prior to this.

NHTSA ODI 11457412

Car experienced “phantom braking” at freeway speeds (it suddenly and unexpected applied brakes by itself) - AutoPilot was engaged and was on freeway. There were no vehicles or objects in front of car. It was a multi lane freeway and multiple lanes on either side. Was extremely dangerous and could have caused a severe accident had i not taken evasive action and taken control/overridden immediately (would have otherwise been rear-ended).

NHTSA ODI 11453334

With autopilot engaged, the vehicle will randomly apply brakes at highway speed with no vehicle in front of it at a distance of at least 1/2 mile. The issue seems to be weather independent. The issue occurs on every occasion where autopilot is engaged at highway speed. I scheduled a maintenance appointment for the issue. My last Tesla model S (2018) did same thing with less frequency. Severe auto braking at highway speed presents serious danger to vehicles behind me.

NHTSA ODI 11453408

Third time this has happened on my new Model S Plaid. On Autopilot, the car randomly slams on the brakes when we were driving down the interstate at 70 mph for no reason. There were no other cars around us.

NHTSA ODI 11453175

While in autopilot, the car brakes for no reason, phantom breaking. This happens while in right lane near exits, and happens inconsistently while in other lanes. It dropped from 83 on autopilot to 49 in one instance. The person in the back seat almost drove her head into the back of driver seat. The passengers will never buy a Tesla. Another issue, important controls for the car are not intuitive for use and provide distractions from driving. The blinkers and horn as well as tire pressure gauges and other items necessary for safety are too “non conforming”. Someone please address these issues with Tesla. Also, almost every control is so small and flat with no raised markings, those with essential tremors are susceptible to not be able to reach or activate controls due to the extremely small size of the controls.

NHTSA ODI 11452894

when travelling around 70-75 miles on AutoPilot car makes strong brakes which is known as phantom breaking. This is happening every single day on highway which is really scary.

NHTSA ODI 11452586

Automatic emergency braking on interstate where it is dangerous to slam on the brakes in the middle of traffic.

NHTSA ODI 11452601

I was driving on I39 north of Madison WI this afternoon, it was a clear day with light traffic and early afternoon on adaptive cruise control when the car on two occasions braked hard for no apparent reason. This braking would be a serious safety concern if a car had been behind me, as they would not have anticipated me braking so severely for no reason. From my reading this is a known problem with this car.

NHTSA ODI 11451788

Beta Autopilot was engaged, driver had hand on steering wheel, vehicle was traveling less than 35MPH (speed limit) and coming around a corner when it misjudged the road curve. The road curved to the left and as the car took the turn it took too wide of a turn and veered slightly off the road. Unfort the front right side of car went up and over the begining of a rock incline. The front right tire blew out and ONLY the side AIrBags deployed (both sides). The car traveled about 500 yards along the road and then turned itself off. I could not get the horn to work, nor put it in neutral. There were no warning signs before incident. In fact the I belong to a beta driving scoring rating and for that day Tesla rated me a 91/100. I called Tesla roadside assistance and they said they would not provide any help as it was viewed as an accident and not a self-driving issue. It was reported to Tesla and I have called several times to try and understand why the car didn't stay in the lane and why only the side airbags deployed. I reported this to Tesla Customer support and was now told they would not provide any information based upon their analysis, although initially I was told that it would take 5 weeks for engineering to review and get back to me. Vehicle is at repair facility and was told damage to car will be almost $28-30K. Car previously had issues with Forward Collision Warning system going off, although I was not aware there was a recall regarding this exact problem, back in October 2021

NHTSA ODI 11450079

My 2021 Tesla S has on multiple occasions hard braked when in cruise control when there were no vehicles in view. All occurrences were on four lane interstate highways with no surrounding vehicles.

NHTSA ODI 11450100

On Nov 14 at 09:01 AM while driving on the freeway with clear weather and autopilot is on for at least 15 min and and i am fully attentive and no traffic the tesla auto pilot decided to turn left and hit the cement barrier of the freeway damaging my left rear wheel then it tried to correct it fault by turning right to the right lane abruptly luckily there was no traffic coming on my right side too otherwise it would have been fatal I have the incident recorded by the sentry mode cameras and exact time and sec and the logs of the car black box proves that the tesla auto pilot was engaged at that time when it hit the cement barrier I reported this to tesla so they would take responsibility of their risky autopilot software but they dont care and told me i can report it to NHTSA it doesnt matter to them even with all the documented proof i have

NHTSA ODI 11446374

This was a Autodrive malfunction event on a brand new Tesla Model S. I was in standstill traffic when my car, which had been engaged in Autodrive, lurched forward and suddenly accelerated at a high rate of speed into the car in front of us, without any driver prompts. The problem was immediately reported to Tesla who has been delaying in providing the data logs and engineering analysis for over two months. Tesla did what they called a "safety inspection" after the crash and says the car is fine. They have refused to try and replicate the malfunction because they maintain the car is fine. Luckily, no one was injured, and there was only property damage to my car and the car in front of me, but there is something wrong with the software, the cameras, and/or the front end sensors and their calibration for the car to have done that.

NHTSA ODI 11443479

DRIVING ON HIGHWAY AT 65-70 MPH WITH AUTO PILOT AND SPEED CONTROL ENGAGED. WENT TO CHANGE LANES FROM LEFT TO RIGHT. PUT ON TURN SIGNAL, CANCELLED AUTO PILOT BY TURNING STEERING WHEEL TO RIGHT AND MOVED TO OPEN RIGHT LANE. THERE WERE NO VEHICLES AROUND US AT ALL. THE CAR SUDDENLY, UNEXPECTEDLY, AND VERY SHOCKINGLY SLAMMED ON THE BRAKES CAUSING ITEMS TO BE TOSSED AROUND IN THE CAR, ENGAGING ALL OF OUR SEAT BELTS WITH SOME DISCOMFORT, AND SENDING SOME LOUD ALARM OR WARNING SOUND TO GO OFF IN THE CAR. IT SCARED ME, MY WIFE AND DAUGHTER VERY MUCH. IF THERE HAD BEEN A VEHICLE IN THE LAND BEHIND US, THERE'S NO WAY THEY COULD HAVE AVOIDED HITTING US VERY VIOLENTLY AND CAUSING INJURY AND PROPERTY DAMAGE. THIS HAPPENED 2 OR 3 TIMES IN MY FORMER 2016 MODEL S, BUT I NEVER EXPECTED IT IN THIS 2021 MODEL. A GOOGLE SEARCH WILL REVEAL THE VAST NUMBER OF TESLA DRIVERS WHO HAVE HAD THE SAME OR SIMILAR EXPERIENCES.

NHTSA ODI 11373709