2021 Tesla Model Y Complaint Log

While using cruise control, aka “Autopilot,” the brakes automatically engage, even with no reason to. It’s happened so many times at high speed, and while passing, that I am now scared to use “autopilot.” While using autopilot, I have to be ready to mash the accelerator peddle at any moment, due to unwanted breaking and it feels very dangerous. It can also be traumatic for passengers when the vehicle suddenly brakes hard at high speed. I’m worried it could also cause an accident if someone were right behind me and also traveling at a high rate of speed.

Chronic problems with phantom breaking. We’re deathly afraid of getting rear-ended on the interstate. It’s a scary situation - we’re terrified.

Sudden braking while passing semi-trucks on a 2-lane highway while using Autopilot and Traffic-Aware Cruise Control. I made a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW-nrsR1Bg0

The Tesla adaptive cruise control has been malfunctioning for the past 12,000+ miles (since new). Yes, it is available for inspection upon request. When the cruise is set, there are a significant number of phantom breaking events, making it a real hazard for anyone following our vehicle. The breaking can happen as often as 3 times every minute, and can decelerate 10-15 mph within seconds before I am able to react and override the cruise. The vehicle has been inspected 2 times by the manufacturer and has been found to have no hardware failure. There is no warning prior to the phantom breaking. However, periodically there are warnings during the phantom breaking events in the form of alarms sounding.

I have a 2021 Tesla Model Y. Washing Post reported an increase in phantom breaking recently. It's not just recent. I took delivery of my car in May 2021 and quickly learned that when in cruise control this car will randomly apply the brakes - at times going from 70's to 30's very quickly. In a simple drive from Las Cruces, NM to Albuquerque, NM with no traffic on the freeway the system will throw on the bakes while in cruise control at least 6 times. And it's repeatable. You simply cannot use cruise control on the free with any traffic for concern of the system engaging and causing an accident.

I have experienced many episodes of sudden, unexpected and seemingly inappropriate strong braking. The most common circumstance is overtaking semi truck/ trailers that are slowly ascending the mountain slopes of Interstate 5 in southern Oregon. Often the trucks have their emergency flashers in use. IT self-brakes from 65 mph down to perhaps 30-35 mph and I "take over" by depressing the accelerator. It also happens frequently with oncoming traffic on 2 lane highways night or day and usually on a curve. The problem is frequent enough to avoid using cruise control on 2 lane roads and on I-5 mountain grades. It happens reliably on my way to town where an intersection has a flashing light and the approach is downhill into a right hand turn. It does not happen travelling the other direction and does not require any other traffic. For all of these, the sudden braking puts myself and others at significant risk for a rear-ender" collision. There are no lights, warnings, or ability to learn what triggered the inappropriate braking. I do not have the full self-driving option on this vehicle. A call to Tesla for service concludes with, " There are no faults with any of the hardware in the vehicle and these behaviors are a limitation of software in the system at this time". I did not take it to them to look at the car as it is 5 hours of driving plus the service time to do so.

While using adaptive cruise control on my Tesla Model Y on a 1974 mile trip to Florida and back the car would emergency brake for no reason. This happened at least 25 times on the trip. I believe this is being referred to "Phantom Breaking". So far I have been lucky and no one has rear ended me but that is a strong possibility.

Cabin climate control failure, no heat

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds with the cruise control activated, the braking system erroneously activated, causing the vehicle to abruptly slow down and reduce speed. The contact indicated that the failure had occurred on multiple occasions. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer and manufacturer were not yet notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 500.

While I’m adaptive cruise control or Autopilot the vehicle has phantom braking which occurs. Vehicle will slam on the brakes for no apparent reason.

The driver assist feature was engaged, what TESLA calls FSD, full self-driving. This has happened multiple times where the car will slam on the brakes, even on the highway for obstacles not in the car's path. For example, a car is on the exit ramp and I am in the adjacent lane. The car on the exit ramp slows down to make its exit and the TESLA will slam on the brakes. The TESLA also has done this for cars making turns. It will not brake until the last second and then it slams on the brakes, even after the car in front of me has turned.

My Tesla Y suddenly decelerates while in cruise control at the same location on a highway. It occurs when I am passing an exit ramp, but not exiting. The car reads the exit ramp speed of 45 and suddenly decelerates from. 65 to 45. It never reads exit ramp speed when I am not using cruise control and am exiting.

On February 1st, 2022 I was driving with my wife from the Naperville, IL area to Holland, MI. We were on I 94 headed east, approximately 20 miles west of Michigan City Indiana headed east. I was driving around 65 miles per hour. We were on a 4 lane highway- all the cars on those 4 lanes were headed in the same direction. There was a truck in front of us ( headed in the same direction ) that was located to the right of us in the lane to our right and it was about 60 or 70 feet in front of us. All of a sudden the car, that had been operating on Autopilot, braked suddenly. We went from 65 to almost 0 in a split second and if my wife and I weren't wearing seat belts we would have been very seriously injured. My neck suffered a whiplash and I'm still in pain several days later.

Frequent phantom braking when in cruise control. The vehicle unexpectedly brakes often while in cruise control when there is an oncoming vehicle in the oncoming traffic lane, despite the fact that both my vehicle and the oncoming vehicle are in their respective lanes (in other words there is no apparent danger of collision). The phantom braking also sometimes happens apparently at random, in other words when I can't see anything in the vehicle pathway that could be interpreted as dangerous. I am entering a date under "Additional Details" below, but this has happened repeatedly on many different dates.

When driving with Adaptive Cruist Control on, the car will randomly slam on the brakes (phantom braking) for no reason. It can be with a shadow on the road or, VERY commonly, when any car or large truck passes on a 2-lane highway or road. It's extremely dangerous to any cars behind and to myself.

Phantom braking on Autopilot, multiple times Car just brakes out of the blue and it’s not safe

I drive on the highway from Dallas to Austin to Houston every week. Every trip I have about 2-4 phantom braking incidents at full speed. It seems to occur at similar points every time. It is incredibly alarming and I have to slam on the accelerator to not cause an accident. This needs to be repaired.

phantom breaking issues on 2 lane roads.

The vehicle driver assist system frequently has phantom braking in situations it should not be, especially when there are vehicles behind putting us at risk for a collision due to unexpected braking behavior of the car. This happens especially in setting of 2 lane roads with oncoming traffic, and guaranteed with a truck in the vicinity. On major highways it is less so, but does still happen occasionally. On local roads even if straight and no obstruction the automatic braking without notice occurs when least expecting. Also the lane departure system disables automatically for the remainder of a drive if you veer off a lane even once and didn't take the corrective action the vehicle thinks should have happened. That's not how a safety feature should work... It should remain on regardless. As much as I do enjoy this car, these quality issues definitely make you second guess and keep a closer eye on how you drive to avoid accidents if the system decides to not work as advertised

I’m experiencing “Phantom Braking” in my Tesla Model Y. I live in a rural area where 2 lane roads (1 lane each direction) are the only roads around. Larger pick up trucks, pickups with trailers, busses, semi trucks, dump trucks, sprinter vans, and other vehicles of that size in the opposite lane trigger my vehicle, when in cruise control, to slam on its brakes. This happens when it’s sunny, cloudy, any type of weather condition. Occasionally, when in cruise control, I notice the car makes slight braking attempts, even when there is no traffic in the other lane. It’s as if it’s sensing a ghost it doesn’t want to hit… This has happened ever since we purchased the vehicle. I do not use auto pilot because I do not see the point where I live. This issue happens when using the adaptive cruise control. I have not noticed it when using auto pilot as, mention before, I rarely use that feature. I recently say articles where many other Tesla owners were having this problem so I thought I would add to the awareness of this issue. My wife does not use cruise control nor auto pilot for fear the car will slam on it’s brakes and someone might rear end us. Speed limits range from 35-55mph in my area.

A well known phenomenon of "phantom breaking" occurs frequently and without warning with the Traffic aware cruise control engaged. This occurs not only on 2 lane highways, but even on undivided and divided highways. On the 17 mile commute to work everyday, this will occur 5-10 times, which results in rapid, unanticipated deceleration. At the time of these deceleration events, there is no visual cause to the driver that would have resulted. Often it appears to be activated by oncoming traffic lights, lights on the side of the road at businesses, when cresting the road, and when the road naturally has a bend or swerve in the traffic pattern. These rapid deceleration events place the occupants at risk of rear end collisions and also are uncomfortable as you must immediately place your foot on the acceleration pedal, which results in a jerking movement to the occupants. Telsa needs to either employ a "dumb" cruise control or greatly improved their TACC system before continued use of their system.

My 2021 Tesla Model Y has a huge problem with phantom braking. It even occurs when I am only using cruise control. Sudden stops and slow downs. I clearly has problems with large vehicles approaching in adjacent lanes. Not only does it scare the daylights out of my passengers, but it is a major safety issue is someone is following closely behind. The answer I get from Tesla Mobile service is to keep reporting it as a "bug". The answer I get from my Tesla Service center is "what to you expect...Tesla Vision is still in Beta mode". I am selecting a date below because your form requires it, but the problem has been occurring since I took delivery in July of 2021

The adaptive cruise control system is very dangerous due to constant "phantom braking" problems. With cruise control enabled, the car will randomly slow down, sometimes gradually and others times rapidly. Sometimes the deceleration happens when passing a large truck, or a car on the other side of the road. Sometimes it is in response to shadows on the road. Sometimes there is no discernable reason. Instances of rapid and unexpected deceleration make it likely we will be hit by another car or otherwise cause an accident. This problem is prevalent throughout all Model Y cars and detailed online. Dealers say that there is nothing wrong with the vehicle and they hope it can be fixed in the future by software. However, in the meantime, the dangerous situation exists. My vehicle has not been inspected by anyone for this purpose, at least not yet. There are no warning lamps or messages when this happens.

While driving 50-55 mph down a two lane highway, with adaptive cruise control in place, the vehicle suddenly slowed and signaled a front collision by beeping. It was terrifying as there was nothing in front of us. It was a clear day and we were lucky that there was no car behind us, as it could have easily caused an accident. We are now not wanting to use our cruise control or the autopilot that we purchased for this vehicle, until more is understood about the cause.

The car randomly brakes hard when the cruise control is on. It’s intolerable on roads with a lot of tree shadows or even clouds.

The full self-driving mode in my tesla does not react correctly to speed limit changes in small towns. I will be driving with the FSD at 65 MPH when I get to a small town and the speed limit changes to 45 and then down to 25 for residential area the cars speed does not decrease quickly enough to be at the correct speed limit by the time the car reachs the speed limit sign. Based on the speed limit laws I was taught was the car you are driving and are slowing down you must be at that limit when you reach the speed limit sign or else you can be ticketed for speeding. The Tesla FSD is not in compliance with that specific rule of the road.

Phantom braking

On multiple occasions when auto pilot engaged, car will suddenly brake with extreme force. I have not been rear ended because of it, but it could very well happen. On Jan 30, as an example, travelling on divided 4 lane highway, no one in front of back, autopilot engaged, for no reason, it tried to come to a sudden complete stop while going 70mph. There was nothing in the road whatsoever. MULTIPLE other instances of this. On 2 lane roads, this happens even more frequently, I would estimate once every mile, though not always as severe.

When cruise control is active, the car slams on the brakes for no apparent reason. This happens basically every time I drive the car. I’m always concerned it will cause me to be rear-ended.

When driving on divided interstate highways using adaptive cruise control the car would suddenly without warning brake heavily. This is happening up to five times a day on long trips. Weather was clear, no other cars in front and no obstacles on the road. The only recourse was to slam the accelerator to the floor and hope no one was tailgating. This has also been happening on two lane roads when a truck or other large vehicle approaches. This was so dangerous we can no longer use the feature on two lane highways.

The heat pump that supplies all heated air to the cabin stopped working completely. Safety was impacted because my windshield fogged up, making it impossible to see clearly out of my windshield or other windows. It was 11°F outside with no heating. I am not sure if a service center has been able to reproduce the issue, but I have images of the fogging and the error message. Nobody has inspected the issue yet. I received an error message "VCFRONT_a447" and "Cabin Climate Control System Requires Service" I have received this error message in two separate occasions now, both when it was lower than 15°F outside.

From June, 2019 to June, 2021 we owned a Tesla Model 3. We have had the Model Y since June, 2021. The current Model Y has a significant phantom braking problem. Worse than the Model 3 that we owned. Our Model Y relies on "Tesla Vision" without radar. Last week we drove 1,400 miles from Montana to Southern California. On more than a fifteen occasions phantom braking occurred, to the point that we were reluctant to use it. Driving on an Interstate at 80 mph, the car would suddenly brake. The 1st reaction is to overcome the braking with acceleration. On one occasion when there was no traffic behind, I didn't accelerate until 45 mph. From 80 mph to 45 mph suddenly. Dangerous. On city streets we also experienced phantom braking, yet not so dramatic. Some thoughts on what causes this issue: pavement glare, a change in pavement color, concrete barriers on an overpass, reflection from on coming traffic. Traffic Assisted Cruise Control is an important feature for me and now I'm reluctant to use it.

I was driving to and from mammoth lakes California. Middle of the day, clear weather, with no other cars within thousands of feet if me. I put my vehicle into adaptive cruise control (not autopilot) and several times during the drive the brakes would slam to the point of reducing my speed from around 70 mph to roughly 40 mph very quickly. It was extremely happened and was repeatable but with no known reason.

While traveling on US 93 southbound, the vehicle raandomly saw oncoming traffic as a threat and applied braking. This was most pronounced seemingly with large trucks, usually white in color, and occasionally apparently with flashing lighted signs. This phonenomen has occured at other times. Often in city traffic on city streets, it is overly sensitive and applies braking when cross-traffic occurs but is not yet a threat. I have not yet been rear-ended but have decided to only use this feature when I can be reasonably sure no one will be close behind me. Tesla's response is that this is a Beta feature. Your safety rating included this "feature" as one of the positive factors. Maybe that was a mistake?

Car randomly breaks while in autopilot mode. Very dangerous since someone can crash into me from behind. There is nothing on the road in the way and no emergency vehicles nearby and no stoplights or stop signs when this happens. The car does not always notify of blind spots when backing the car up.

Sudden acceleration. I was stopped in my driveway (flat surface). The car started to roll forward and I pressed brake hard. Vehicle came to a complete stop but when I removed my foot from brake car lurched forward. Car hit a retaining wall approximately 3 feet away before I could stop it again by braking hard. When the car was put in park I was able to remove my foot from the brake without it lurching forward again. Little personal safety risk in this situation in my driveway with no other people around. the car hit the retaining wall at relatively low speed when it lurched forward.

Heat pump failed when driving in minus 7F weather. Windows fogged up and car was dangerously cold. Only heat seater and steering wheel to stay warm.

The display of the rear view camera on the screen is not synched. Sometimes it shows something that happened moments earlier. For example, it may show me as I am walking toward the car. Then it “lags” as you back up, meaning that it shows you in an earlier position than where you really are. This is super dangerous as it may not show the real time presence of another car, a pedestrian who is crossing behind your car as you back up, or an object. It also give the driver the false sense of being in the wrong place. We have two Teslas, this is a model Y and the other is a model 3. We have experienced the same problem in both since Tesla pushed a software update in January. I notified Tesla and asked for a repair. The response was that a software patch would be forthcoming. That was weeks ago. Again, this is a super dangerous flaw in the software for the display of the back up camera. I am worried that a pedestrian will get run over by a Tesla driver who does not “see” that pedestrian in the back up screen, or a crash.

Each time I'm on a two lane rural road (one lane on each direction with the double yellow line between the lanes) the phantom breaking is unbearable (MYLR vision only). 90% of the time if there is a large truck going on the other side, Autopilot will slam on the breaks and beep like crazy thinking that the truck is going to hit me head on. I don’t think it is the forward collision warning as this never happens when I don't use autopilot.

Driving a 4 lane road with not other vehicles in site the car suddenly braked to the point of locking up the seat belts and throwing items around the cabin. I reported this to the manufacturer and they were able to review logs and confirm that the car mistakenly saw something and applied the brakes. I would have been hot from behind if a car was following. I was told not to use this feature on certain roads. But I asked how to disable it I was told there is no way. This needs to be addressed before there is an accident. I was not using full self driving. I only had cruise control on.

I have written to you before on my Tesla automatic emergency braking (phantom braking) problem. I am updating you on the issue. Please see the enclosed file.

At 55 MPH on clear day, with visible lines the car automatically braked when an on coming truck passed nearby causing near rear end collision. I have two good videos of this if you wish to see actual conditions. Dealer acknowledged problem but said there was no fix and I should turn off automatic braking.

In 16 months I have experience 2 episodes of dramatic emergency braking while traveling at highway speed in the carpool lane adjacent to a concrete barrier wall estimated 5 feet high on the left side of the vehicle. The car decelerated from 65 mph to roughly 30 mph in roughly 2 to 2.5 seconds. Had someone been following at an unsafe distance an accident would have occurred. Thankfully it did not. I never experienced this in my previous Tesla Model S. Overall I love the vehicle, but these 2 incidents were disconcerting.

The heater of the vehicle just stop working, due to MN cold weather and since there is no heat and just cold air blowing. It freezes the windshield and frost would build up with out any way to melt it since there’s no heat. It also fogs up the interior in the car since you can’t open the windows due MN minus windchill weathers. It’s hard to see and keep warm in a cold climate state. Tesla doesn’t see this is an emergency and it’s very concerning

On 2 occasions within the last month my Tesla Y experienced a radical but brief stopping response. This happened on a freeway while passing a large truck in an adjacent lane. The car suddenly slowed down and then immediately speeded back up. This happened a second time on a freeway but I am unsure of the specific circumstances. I got delivery of the car in Oct 2021 and both of these incidents happened in Jan 2022. It has only happened those 2 times. Thank You [XXX] INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).

WHILE DRIVING IN AUTO PILOT ON HIGHWAYS, NOT FREEWAYS, THE CAR WILL SUDDENLY BRAKE WHEN IT SEES A CAR ON THE SIDE ROAD THAT IS NOT COMING INTO TRAFFIC. THE BRAKING IS VERY SUDDEN AND HARSH. THROWING DRIVER AND PASSENGERS FORWARD. I WILL NOT USE THIS FEATURE BECAUSE I FEEL IT IS UNSAFE TO USE. PLEASE MAKE TESLA MAKE CHANGES.

This car has had numerous phantom braking incidents. It is unusable on 2 lane roads. It breaks suddenly for trucks in the opposite lane. It can also begin to brake for cars in the opposing lane. The only remedy is to press on the accelerator to turn off the Autopilot. It also slows down periodically for shadows (for example when going thru an underpass). It was reported to Tesla service and evidently nothing can be done since it seems to be a software issue. I am unsure of that since this car no longer has the radar that previous versions of this car did have.

75 MPH on interstate with FSD 10.9. 6 separate phantom braking events over 350 miles. Very dangerous in traffic.

This report is not about a single incident, but rather a REPEATED problem over several years with the adaptive cruise control on 3 different Tesla cars I have owned. These cars are a 2017 Tesla S, and 2 different 2021 Tesla Y models. in each case, whenever these cars are driven on a highway with the adaptive cruise control engaged, several times during each hour of driving, the cars will rapidly brake/decelerate with no action taken to cause the situation by the driver, nor any external situations with the traffic that would justify them. With the Tesla regenerative braking, these deceleration events are so extreme that it would be easy to imagine an accident with a car following closely behind. Indeed, with these situations occurring with no warning and extreme braking they are quite frightening to the passengers traveling in the car. During the most recent occurrence, I noted the exact day and minute of it's occurrence, and filed a service request with the local Tesla office. Even with the exact time of this event, the service center was unable to find anything wrong with the car. The Tesla service center attributed this issue to problems with the Autopilot and Full Self Driving software, but none of my cars have had this optional software-only the software which came standard on each of these cars. While otherwise appreciating the good characteristics of these cars, this unexplainable deceleration problem is what caused me to sell the prior 2 models before purchasing this latest model Y, hoping that this problem would not recur. It is worth noting that I have owned several other make and model cars with comparable adaptive cruise control, yet this situation never occurred even once on any of these other makes of car.

When using cruise control or autopilot the vehicle will suddenly slam on the brake which almost caused an accident on multiple occasions. The lack of lasers has caused the cruise control and autopilot to become very dangerous to myself and others in road as the phantom braking it does for no reason is very powerful.