What 748 owners told NHTSA about the 2022 Tesla Model 3

When putting the car into reverse, the rear camera comes on, while reversing pulling up the climate controls to turn on heated steering wheel, after exiting the climate control screen (while still reversing) the camera doesn’t come back on automatically… there is risk for crash

NHTSA ODI 11458326

Was in a tight parking space. The mirrors auto-folded in. The cameras seemed laggy when backing up to a significant degree. (Many, many others on the web report the same. Any search for "Tesla backup camera delayed" or similar should work.) In my case, my vehicle collided with a pole. Very concerned about this as a safety hazard.

NHTSA ODI 11458385

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at 65-70 MPH with the cruise control activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. The calibration in progress message was displayed. The failure nearly caused a collision. The dealer was made aware of the failure and scheduled an upcoming appointment. The dealer later canceled the appointment and informed the contact that the vehicle performed as designed and advised him to review the owner's manual. 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 approximately 30.

NHTSA ODI 11457620

Report Phantom braking. It happened multiple times on Thru way from last 3 days. There were nothing in the front of the car but it applied brakes on thru way, lucky no vehicle on the behind. I am concern about safety of my family.

NHTSA ODI 11457654

While using auto-pilot, the vehicle suddenly applied brakes without apparent reason. E.g. while crossing an intersection and another vehicle crossing the same intersection in opposite direction, Another occasion was when climbing a steep slope on a two lane road. Yet another was on a four lane highway. I was in the right lane and another vehicle was in the left lane and ahead of me.

NHTSA ODI 11457467

Using adaptive cruise control the car will often brake for no reason. This has caused me to not trust a system I was promised and paid for and I can't use any form of cruise control as there is no option for standard cruise control on the model 3 Multiple times during a trip the ACC will lightly apply the brakes when there is no objects in front of the car. About once per week of heavy use of ACC the car will slam on the brakes unexpected and for no reason. This has caused me to be honked at and almost rear ended on multiple occasions. I no longer use the system because of this. My ask is for the NHTSA to recall the model 3 and force Tesla to install radar on affected Model 3's. Vision only is a terrible system and Tesla greatly downplayed the pitfalls of it when I was purchasing the vehicle

NHTSA ODI 11457470

The Tesla will slam on the brakes unexpectedly while using cruise control. It does this for no apparent reason and has almost cause several accidents including me being rear ended while cruising at 60mph.

NHTSA ODI 11457554

While I generally love the car during the 6 weeks i’ve owned it, I am concerned about the fact that occasionally, while traveling at freeway speeds with cruise control engaged, the car will slow dramatically as if I had jammed on the brakes. The rapid deceleration has occurred at least once a week during my time with the car. This week, while traveling from North Carolina to New Jersey, the car “braked” from 70mph to about 40mph four times. This happens suddenly, no warning. As frustrating and annoying as this is, it is also dangerous given the high number of brain-dead tailgaters that populate the highways.

NHTSA ODI 11457374

No one around me on the interstate with my cruise control on. With no cars near me or any recognizable object to detect, the car phantom broke for me without warning. Nearly caused an accident for the car behind me.

NHTSA ODI 11457434

While driving with cruise control set to 90 mph, my vehicle rapidly decelerated to 70 mph — with no other vehicles around. The vehicle suddenly braked for no reason at all, multiple times. Autopilot was not engaged and I was steering the vehicle myself. This while driving West on HWY 76 in Colorado a clear sunny day around mile marker 141, near Proctor, CO. The middle of nowhere. I have a 50 second video I would be happy to share but no video upload option.

NHTSA ODI 11457452

Using the Autopilot system on a recent road trip, I experienced numerous incidents of “phantom braking”. I previously owned a 2018 Tesla Model 3 with witch I made the same 500 mile RT journey several times without ever experiencing this phenomenon. There were vehicles following mine in a few of these of these incidents which created a serious concern about a rear-end collision. I immediately reported the issue to Tesla service who confirmed the problem via remote diagnostics but did not offer any solution other than to wait for future software updates. The incidents occurred without prior warning in the form of messages or alerts of any kind.

NHTSA ODI 11457284

With cruise control on the vehicle abruptly applied breaking system without driving involvement and quickly reduced speed from 85 to 60 before driver could engage accelerator to prevent chance of being rear ended. I have a video file if needed.

NHTSA ODI 11457312

While driving with cruise control on the vehicle will automatically brake for no reason. I was just on a road trip and had this happen multiple times while going 80mph. If someone was behind me it could have caused a accident and someone could get seriously hurt or possibly die. I scheduled service at the dealership and it sounds like this is a well known problem that does not have a fix. I could see this issue causing some bad crashes. I put 3/5 as the incident date, but this happens almost on a daily basis.

NHTSA ODI 11457350

Tesla "Phantom Breaking" - Traveling at freeway speeds using cruise control, the car applied panic breaking without warning. There were no obstacles anywhere near the car. If I had not applied 100% throttle immediately I would have been rear-ended at high speed. The problem occurred with no obvious input and without warning. I am not able to reproduce it. I have not reported it to Tesla because the problem is well known yet Tesla has not publicly acknowledged it. There was a audible alert that sounded at the moment the breaking occurred, not before. The on-board camera system did not record the event. The car is new, Nov. 2021 delivery, I have driven it less than 1000 miles and this was the 4th, and most violent, "Phantom Breaking" event. I now consider the cruise control too dangerous to use. Because all of the other driver assist features depend on adaptive cruise control, they are now also useless.

NHTSA ODI 11457347

We just purchased this vehicle new one week ago. Several times while using cruise control on Highway 101 in Mason County, WA we have experienced severe "phantom breaking". There is no reason for the sudden breaking and seems to be quite random and dangerous.

NHTSA ODI 11457104

When driving with Traffic Aware Cruise Control or Autopilot enabled, dangerous automatic braking occurs when the car senses conditions that do not warrant automatic braking. This unnecessary automatic braking occurs randomly when encountering overhead roadway signs, parked vehicles safely on the shoulder, oncoming vehicles fully in their lane on 2 lane highways, cross traffic that is far enough ahead of the vehicle that it is not a threat, and for no obvious reason at all. These automatic braking events are violent and slam on the brakes when they occur and create a danger from rear end collisions from other drivers since they are unexpected and occur for no obvious reason. Tesla service states that the Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Autopilot systems are Beta systems and thus require driver monitoring to maintain control of the car when using the systems and nothing can be done until improved software is developed and implemented. Driver intervention for unexpected violent braking is difficult because the events are unexpected and create driver shock which slows a reaction to slam on the accelerator pedal to stop the inadvertent automatic panic braking. In my vehicle, I find that the Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Autopilot systems are essentially unusable as they pose too great a risk of a rear end collision.

NHTSA ODI 11456977

I have a 1 month old Tesla Model 3 that when i use the cruise control every time i go past a truck on a 2 lane highway, my car will initiate emergency breaking. This has caused cars to almost rear end me. I took the car to Tesla to be serviced, and the issue didn't get any better. I have videos of this happening if you need them

NHTSA ODI 11457004

When Adaptive Cruise Control or Autopilot is active the vehicle will brake suddenly, often with no apparent reason. On flat roads, highways, clear weather and even no traffic from time to time it will randomly regen brake for no reason. The only time this occurs and is duplicated regularly is when driving on a single lane highway. Whenever a 18 wheeler is passing on the opposite lane the vehicle always regen brake suddenly, regardless of the position of the passing 18 wheeler even when it's apparent that the passing 18 wheeler is staying in its lane. Sometimes if the 18 wheeler has a wide load the regen braking is much more aggressive and the forward collision will give a warning. These instances can be overridden by pressing down on the accelerator and that will override the automatic regen braking. The problem with that temporary fix is that when I know it's going to happen I'm prepared but when the times it happens randomly I might as well just never use adaptive cruise control or autopilot.

NHTSA ODI 11457020

Vehicle's adaptive cruise control is ON. Auto-steer is OFF. Vehicle rapidly phantom breaks under these observed conditions: 1. As the vehicle is passing a semi-truck with the semi in the lane immediately to the right. The camera shows the semi clearly in the lane to the right. The semi is not veering over into my lane. The cruise control seems to think (incorrectly) that the semi is in danger of coming into my lane. The vehicle rapidly slows by +/- 5 mph, which made a couple of folks following me irritated as my car is slowing and brake lights are coming on for no reason. I can decrease this reaction by the vehicle by steering the vehicle to far left side of my lane when passing the semi, but even then, it would still sometimes phantom brake. This happened about 15-20 times during a 2000 mile trip. This reaction by the vehicle, is decreasing safety, not increasing it. 2. Same condition with the adaptive cruise control on (auto steering off), passing a semi that is in the lane immediately to the right, but this time the car rapidly slows itself when I am about 5 car lengths back of the truck. This is an unsafe problem and needs to be fixed asap. If fixing it is going to take time, then Tesla should be required to turn off the adaptive function with cruise control so only speed control is functioning.

NHTSA ODI 11456811

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 70 MPH with the Cruise Control activated, the phantom braking system engaged inadvertently, and the vehicle almost came to a complete stop. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact depressed the accelerator pedal and was able to continue to drive the vehicle. The contact stated that the failure had been reoccurring daily while driving. The manufacturer was notified of the failure an informed the contact that they were working on the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 150. The VIN was not available.

NHTSA ODI 11456826

Multiples times while the car was using cruise control we have had it unexpectedly and aggressively brake. This seems to happen when a car is coming towards us in the opposite lane. We have only had the car for 4 days. It is to the point we do not use the cruise control. If someone would have been behind us we would have gotten in an accident. We have also had the forward collision warning go off while not in cruise control.

NHTSA ODI 11456554

Using auto pilot on highway car would apply hard breaking for no apparent reason. Several times this nearly caused crash as cars that were behind me has to swerve to miss hitting us. This happed at least half a dozen times. Most of the breaking was quick and abrupt, but at least twice they were abrupt but took the car from 75 to 20 on the interstate.

NHTSA ODI 11456627

I was using "Autopilot" on a 4 lane divided highway. There were no other vehicles on my side of the road, nor on the other side. There were no close objects, vegetation or buildings. I was going 65mph (the limit for the road) when the car suddenly, without any warning braked very hard and the speed fell to 47mph in a a second or two. I quickly cancelled Autopilot and regained control. This has happened more than 20 times during in 3 weeks of driving this Model 3 Long Range AWD. It has occurred with the speed set at 45, 55, 60 and 65. In the media, this is referred to as "phantom braking"

NHTSA ODI 11456677

Driving on a 4-lane limited access road while using adaptive cruise control (Tesla calls it "Autopilot", my car suddenly reduced speed dramatically. There were no other cars nearby, nor was there any kind of obvious obstruction. I was able to turn off Autopilot and resume speed, but I worry what might have happened if there had been another vehicle behind me.

NHTSA ODI 11456481

The adaptive cruise control system (Autopilot) brakes even when there's no obstacle on the road, or if there's a truck on the opposite lane. This also triggered the forward collision warning system. If there was a vehicle behind me, this would've caused a crash

NHTSA ODI 11456393