There are 12 owner-reported driver assist & adas complaints for the 2020 Tesla Model Xin NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
On or about 20Jun2025: Tesla Driver Assistance Features - After the most recent 2025.20.3 softball update and installation my safety feature of the blind spot monitoring doesn't chim when a car is in my blind spot the car will show red in the font display but the sounds are now inoperable
I drive a 2020 Tesla Model X long range plus. I bought it new and now have about 50,000 miles on it. Over the years, I have experienced quite a few phantom breaking incidents when the car was in auto pilot (self steering mode). Most of these were fairly minor in nature and not much of a concern. This July I drove the car to Colorado and back and had innumerable severe phantom breaking events. In the past the breaking would be fairly gentle and a tap on the accelerator would return the car to the preset speed. In July, the car was essentially “slamming on” the brakes and required an aggressive press of the accelerator to disengage the breaking. It felt like the car was going to come to a stop in the middle of the highway. I was cruising about 70 mph and would say that by the time I could get to the accelerator the speed would be down to about 60 mph. None of these events created any problem with other vehicles, but they were disturbing, nonetheless.
I have driven this vehicle approximately 28,000 miles. I am the original (and only) owner. When using the cruise control the car will break suddenly and aggressively for no apparent reason on the open road. This has happened more than a dozen times. I cannot say what percentage of my driving is done with adaptive cruise control functioning but I would suspect well less than 30% of the 28K miles. On several occasions I surmise it my be related to oncoming vehicles in their normal lane. Fortunately, these episodes have not resulted in any collisions to date.
On multiple occasions (between 6 and 10) while driving east and west on interstate highway 80 between Reno and Salt Lake City the vehicle executed a phantom braking maneuver while autopilot was engaged. I was east bound on 2/2/23 and 2/24/23 and west bound on 2/7/23 and 3/5/23, i.e., these events occurred on multiple days in multiple locations. On no occasion was there any danger of collision with another vehicle or other obstacle. In fact, the braking was most likely to occur as my vehicle topped a rise in the highway followed by a gental downgrade with no other vehicle or turn in the road for at least a mile ahead. The braking was very hard and caused my vehicle to slow by at least 10 mph before I could react. On one occasion, I immediately accelerated to return to the posted highway speed of 80 mph and the vehicle twice more braked hard after I accelerated back to highway speed. Had there been a vehicle behind me, it's likely I would have been rear-ended on multiple occasions. The problem has not been independently verified (though I understand the NHTSA has received many similar reports). The vehicle has not been inspected. There was no warning that the vehicle was going to brake hard though I recognized the circumstances in which it was likely to occur and was prepared to accelerate to counteract the effect. The section of I-80 in which these events occurred is lightly traveled and if Tesla autopilot should be flawless, it should be flawless there! Another source of autopilot phantom braking is flashing lights next to the road warning of animal crossing or prison zones. However, in this case, the braking is gentle and not a hazard. In contrast, 2022 when driving the same section of I-80, phantom braking, as described above, was much less of a problem but flashing lights prompted the vehicle to brake hard. It appears Tesla has fixed flashing light-related problem.
Sudden acceleration
When I'm using the driving assistance on the highway, and I'm doing like 60 or 70 mph, all of a sudden the car brakes to 45mph if it (falsely) thinks we are in a construction zone I believe. I have almost gotten in 3 accidents because the car suddenly brakes hard on its own, without me braking.
When using any driver assistance function (autopilot, adaptive cruise control, or autopilot with navigation), phantom breaking is common and terrifying. I am scared to use the systems now because of how unpredictable phantom breaking can be and how jarring (and unsafe it could be) when it happens.
While idling in drive having applied my foot to the break, the dash displayed H for holding the break. My car accelerated by itself forcefully into the vehicle in front. My seat belt did not lock up, air bags did not deploy, emergency braking didn’t work, the Tesla box report does not match the dash cam timeline. This was sudden unintended acceleration and I pray it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
Vehicle randomly breaks hard when either in cruise control or auto pilot. Either on normal highway lanes or in the diamond lane. Happens frequently - at least weekly on local Southern California Hwys
The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model X. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds with the cruise control or autopilot functions activated, the brakes inadvertently engaged, causing the vehicle to come to an abrupt stop. The vehicle experienced phantom braking. The contact stated that after the full self-driving beta program was installed, the failure occurred. The vehicle was taken to the dealer. The dealer transferred the contact to the tech department. The tech department informed the contact that they would repair the failure with an over-the-air software update. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 46,000.The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model X. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds with the cruise control or autopilot functions activated, the brakes inadvertently engaged, causing the vehicle to come to an abrupt stop. The vehicle experienced phantom braking. The contact stated that after the full self-driving beta program was installed, the failure occurred. The vehicle was taken to the dealer. The dealer transferred the contact to the tech department. The tech department informed the contact that they would repair the failure with an over-the-air software update. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 46,000.
Rear View parking camera will freeze. At times when putting the vehicle in reverse the rear view camera will freeze and be stuck on the same frame. When rolling back slowly this can, at times be hard to recognize. Especially in areas of bad visibility this has led to near misses. Recently when backing out of a parking spot at Rady Children's hospital, the camera was once again stuck and I only realized 1-2 seconds into slowly backing the vehicle out of the parking spot inside a cover parking garage. During the time I almost hit cross traffic that was invisible on the stuck rear view camera. Even after finally backing out without the help of the camera, the image was still frozen.
We received the Full Self-Driving Beta software from Tesla this week. How NHTSA has permitted Tesla to enable this software for use on public streets is mind-blowing. IT IS THAT DANGEROUS! Do the public a favor and go drive a Tesla with FSD enabled. You can read my full comments on our blog: https://nerdvittles.com/the-10000-hoax-meet-teslas-full-self-driving-vehicle/
Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA. A high complaint count may reflect vehicle popularity, not defect severity. Data sourced from NHTSA public records.
Data synced from NHTSA on May 4, 2026