Owner-reported complaints naming the driver-assistance system, filed with NHTSA
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Reports naming forward-collision avoidance, lane keeping, back-over prevention, cruise control and related electronic driver-assistance systems. Every record below is an owner-reported complaint about the 2019 Tesla Model S submitted to NHTSA — not a confirmed defect, not a recall and not a manufacturer bulletin. 16 reports on file name it.
Complaints are reports submitted by owners and drivers to NHTSA. They are not verified and do not establish that a defect exists.
Shown in the owner’s own words, exactly as filed
Tesla’s software updates have rendered systems useless the vehicle wants to hug and sometimes cross the left double yellow lines. It cannot hold a constant speed and since their implementation of “supervised” full self driving, have made my vehicle unsafe
My Tesla supervised FSD is a safety hazard. Promised programming updates have not improved the erratic, UNSAFE “assistance. I try it after each update, but I’m afraid to rely on it other than 5-10mph bumper to bumper road conditions. I don’t have one specific occurrence to report and thank goodness no fatality!
Vehicle suddenly stopped on highway luckily there were no drivers behind me. The vehicle all of a sudden started beeping even though there was a clear path and no obstructions. Then stopped. I was panicked and in awe at what was happening. I couldn’t get the vehicle to drive I was just stuck for 10-15 seconds. I was finally able to get the car moving again but the problem hasn’t happened since. Any information as to what may have gone wrong may help other Tesla owners who may or may have not experienced this… yet
DRIVING ON AUTOPILOT ON THE HIGHWAY, THE CAR SUDDENLY BRAKES WITH NOT APPARENT REASON.
The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while driving 76 MPH with the adaptive cruise control activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking and decelerated to 45 MPH. The contact stated that the cruise control function then activated and operated as designed and the vehicle then regained speed and accelerated to the desired speed. The failure occurred twice within 20 miles. The contact stated that during the first failure, there was no other vehicles nearby; however, the contact had passed another vehicle the second time the failure was experienced. The dealer was made aware of the failure; however, the mechanic was unable to duplicate the failure. The vehicle had not been diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 24,500.
driving on the HOV lane, no traffic at all, and the tesla applied the brakes x 2. It happened today at 4:03 pm.
WITH INCREASING FREQUENCY IN RECENT WEEKS, MY TESLA BRAKES WITHOUT WARNING. IT SEEMS TO OCCUR WHILE UNDER ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL. AT TIMES THE CAR IS APPROACHING A ROAD SIGN. AT OTHER TIMES THERE IS NO REASON APPARENT TO ME. THE ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL WORKS WELL OTHERWISE.
When driving with AutoPilot enabled, I am experiencing the same issues as many others. Without any warning or reason, the car will sometimes slam on the brakes which puts the occupants in my vehicle and the cars behind me in danger. I have had to punch the throttle quickly to correct the situation but often the car has slowed 20 MPH by that point. My estimate is that it happens ~5 times per hundred miles travelled on freeways.
Repeated unexpected emergency braking incidents, similar to those described in the recent Washington Post article. The first one happened on the day that I bought the car, and has never improved. One scenario is the same as described in the article - oncoming car/truck on a two-lane road. But it also happens on freeways. If cruise control is on, it's likely that there will be at least one event during a 30 minute or longer session. As others have mentioned, these are often in congested traffic. When a car is following closely, they have to react very quickly. In several cases they have gotten angry because they think I'm slamming on the brakes to discourage them from tailgating. The very first incident, on the day I bought the car, was hair-raising. The car slammed on the brakes in the middle of an interchange where a semi was close behind and there was dense traffic all around both of us. Fortunately the driver was very alert and avoided me without endangering anybody else. But things could have gone the other way. I've mentioned it to local Tesla service people who (at the beginning) said that the car was in the learning period, calibrating the sensors. The user documentation mentions this and suggests that the training interval could be as much as 100 miles. It gets worse and better as Tesla fiddles with the software. It did indeed get quite a bit worse with the release of the Full Self Driving beta -- which I have qualified for but never actually used because... heck, if they can't get cruise control right, I sure don't want them to take on any more responsibilities.
The car would apply the brakes for no reason while using cruise control.
HUNDREDS of times this car (as well as our other Tesla Model S) would brake hard for no reason, usually on the highway. Often there was no car nearby and no bridge ahead so we have to guess that it's due to the sky. The car will often go from 75 mph down to 25 mph in seconds, sometimes with tire squealing noise. When it happens now we instantly look into the rear view mirror for traffic that might hit us, and we hit the accelerator if necessary. If nobody is behind us, we let it play out to see how slow the car will get. 25 mph on an interstate, which is usually where this occurs, is unsafe. Recently my wife saw an approaching truck that would have hit her had the truck not been able to change lanes.
This is my 6th trip with 2019 Tesla S from Chicago to San Francisco / 1st time SO MANY “PHANTOM BRAKING” incidents / FLAT TIRE WARNING error / screen shut off 3 times …..
I have a Tesla with Full Self Driving software. On Oct 15, around 1:15 PM Central, in Austin, we had finished lunch. Testa was parked around 100 ft away and I pressed Summon to have the car come to where we were. Completely line of sights. The car while pulling out hit the car parked next to it and sustained body damage. No one was in the car. While I realize that the Summons software is in Beta, the car should not have hit the car safely parked next to it. I feel it is a big safety hazard to release software in a car which can cause damage including human. I feel Tesla should be marketing and selling FDS software while claiming it is in Beta and perhaps buyer should not use it. This is false advertising and can put human lives in danger. I can afford to fix the damage but I would like for Tesla to stop releasing untested software and refund buyers for FSD who are uncomfortable using it. Tesla has been making a lot of promises including how cool Summon works and I know from my own experience it does not and can cause damage. I will be happy support the investigation. I have saved the USB drive where Tesla might have captured information. In addition, Tesla has been collecting driving data and can share the data with the investigators.
AT ~5,000 TOTAL VEHICLE MILES, OUR 2019 MODEL S PERFORMANCE HAD SUDDEN AND COMPLETE POWER STEERING ASSIST FAILURE AT HIGHWAY SPEEDS, POSSIBLY CONCURRENT WITH AUTOPILOT (AUTOSTEER) FAILURE. EITHER I, OR THE AUTOPILOT SYSTEM, TURNED OFF THE AUTOPILOT FEATURE AT OR NEAR A SLIGHT CURVE ON AN INTERSTATE FREEWAY. IMMEDIATE "STARTLE" REACTION WAS THAT THE AUTOPILOT FEATURE WAS "FIGHTING" ME FOR CONTROL AS I TURNED THE STEERING WHEEL TO KEEP THE CAR ON THE FREEWAY, WITH EXTREME EFFORT. THE REALITY IS MOST LIKELY THAT THIS "FIGHTING" WAS ONLY THE IMMEDIATE IMPRESSION CAUSED BY THE MASSIVE AMOUNT OF EFFORT REQUIRED TO TURN THE STEERING WHEEL, DESPITE BEING AT SPEEDS IN THE 60-70 MPH RANGE. SOON NOTED A SCROLLING SERIES OF WARNING MESSAGES: A. "STEERING ASSIST REDUCED: STEERING MAY REQUIRE INCREASED EFFORT." [WHICH IS A GROSS UNDERSTATEMENT.] B. "AUTOPILOT SAFETY/CONVENIENCE FEATURES UNAVAILABLE: FEATURES MAY BE RESTORED ON NEXT DRIVE." [WHICH, AFTER THE CAR HAD SAT PARKED FOR ~30 MINUTES, WERE RESTORED.] USER-VISIBLE MCU-DISPLAY FAILURE LOG REVEALED THE FOLLOWING SUPPLEMENTAL FAILURE CODES (WITH THE PROBABLE TIMES OF FAILURE):: 1. 17:26/APP_W207: AUTOSTEER TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE 2. 17:20/APP_W264 AUTOPILOT SAFETY/CONVENIENCE FEATURES UNAVAILABLE: FEATURES MAY BE RESTORED ON NEXT DRIVE I FEEL VERY STRONGLY THAT THIS SORT OF POWER STEERING FAILURE WOULD LIKELY HAVE RESULTED IN A LESS EXPERIENCED DRIVER SUSPECTING THE STEERING HAD "LOCKED UP" AND BE CAUSAL TO A MAJOR ACCIDENT. GIVEN THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE FAILURE MODE, AND AT THESE SPEEDS, FATALITIES COULD BE LIKELY. OF NOTE, THIS IS AT LEAST THE FOURTH TIME THIS HAS OCCURRED TO US, BUT THE FIRST WITH THIS CAR; ALL OTHER EVENTS WERE IN A 2017 MODEL S PERFORMANCE, ALSO AT VERY LOW TOTAL MILEAGE. AFTER A FAILED REPAIR ATTEMPT, THAT MODEL S WAS TRADED IN TO TESLA FOR THIS MODEL S . . . .
I WAS DRIVING MY 2019 MODEL S TESLA ON AUTOPILOT DOWN THE FREEWAY AT FREEWAY SPEED WHEN SUDDENLY IT STARTED BRAKING AND THE ALARMS WENT OFF AS IF REACTING TO AN IMPENDING COLLISION. ONLY, THERE WAS NOTHING IN FRONT OF ME TO REACT TO. THE GUY BEHIND ME REAR ENDED ME AND SPUN ACROSS TRAFFIC LANES. THANKFULLY, EVERYONE WALKED AWAY FROM THIS WITH WHAT WE THINK IS JUST WHIPLASH AT THIS TIME - IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH WORSE!
TL* THE CONSUMER OWNS A 2019 TESLA MODEL S. THE CONSUMER STATED THAT WHILETHEY WERE PULLING INTO THE DRIVEWAY UNKNOWN, THE VEHICLE ACCELERATED AND CRASHED INTO THE GARAGE DOOR AND WALL. THE AIR BAGS DID NOT DEPLOY, AND THE STEERING WHEEL AND BRAKES SEIZED. THERE WERE NO INJURIES. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT TAKEN TO A DEALER OR AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC FOR DIAGNOSTIC TESTING. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOT MADE AWARE OF THE FAILURE. THE APPROXIMATE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 76.2. *BF ORI NUMBER (XXX) ('PARTS OF THIS DOCUMENT HAVE BEEN REDACTED TO PROTECT PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).')*JB *BF *AS
Higher-selling and older vehicles accumulate more reports. Counts are not failure rates and are not directly comparable between vehicles that sold in very different numbers.
Categories with enough reports to have a page of their own
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