Incident 208: Tesla Phantom Braking Complaints Surged, Allegedly Linked to Tesla Vision Rollout

Description: In late 2021, Tesla owners’ complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about sudden unexpected automatic braking rapidly increased, coinciding with when radar was no longer equipped in its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

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Alleged: Tesla developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed Tesla drivers.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
208
Report Count
8
Incident Date
2021-05-01
Editors
Khoa Lam
Tesla has a serious phantom braking problem in Autopilot
electrek.co · 2021

Tesla is seeing an increase in complaints over serious and dangerous phantom braking events plaguing Autopilot in the latest software updates.

Phantom braking is a term used to describe when an advanced driver assist system (ADAS) or a self…

Tesla drivers report a surge in ‘phantom braking’
washingtonpost.com · 2022

Owners say their cars are suddenly slamming the brakes at high speeds, nearly causing crashes in many cases.

Teslas are unexpectedly slamming on their brakes in response to imagined hazards — such as oncoming traffic on two-lane roads — whi…

Tesla owners report dozens of instances of ‘phantom braking’
theverge.com · 2022

Over 100 complaints have been made in the last three months.

Tesla vehicles are inexplicably slamming on their brakes for no reason, frightening owners and eliciting over 100 complaints to the federal government in the last three months alo…

107 drivers recently complained about their Teslas making random, jolting stops
protocol.com · 2022

The so-called “phantom braking” increased after Tesla both made a software update and stopped using radar sensors in October.

Some Tesla drivers say they're experiencing an increase in "phantom braking," in which their cars make random, jol…

Tesla (TSLA) falls as more attention is brought to Autopilot's serious phantom braking issue
electrek.co · 2022

After opening strong in pre-market trading, Tesla’s stock (TSLA) fell this morning as more attention is brought to its serious phantom braking issue on Autopilot.

Back in November, Electrek released a report called ‘Tesla has a serious phan…

US has over 750 complaints of Teslas braking for no reason
apnews.com · 2022

DETROIT (AP) — More than 750 Tesla owners have complained to U.S. safety regulators that cars operating on the automaker’s partially automated driving systems have suddenly stopped on roadways for no apparent reason.

The National Highway Tr…

Hundreds of Tesla Owners Report Phantom Braking
iotworldtoday.com · 2022

Tesla’s self-driving tech continues to be under increased scrutiny.

Tesla’s Autopilot driver-assistance system is attracting more negative headlines after it emerged that 758 owners have complained to U.S. regulators about incidents of “pha…

Teslas Are Braking for No Reason, But That’s Not Autopilot’s Only Problem
gizmodo.com.au · 2022

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has released a damning report on Tesla’s Level 2 driver assist systems, called Autopilot and Full Self-Driving. Over 750 Tesla owners have reported their vehicles have mysteriously …

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.