Tesla EVs may be coming off the production line fast, but recent reports suggest they’re pumping the brakes when driving themselves on the highway.
As The Washington PostThe Washington Post reports, an increasing number of Tesla owners are complaining about "phantom braking," in which their cars slam on the brakes at random to avoid something that isn't actually there.
Complaints submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) include reports of Teslas slowing for oncoming trucks on two-lane highways and a 2022 Tesla Model Y suddenly slowing from 25mph to 15mph, seemingly to avoid hitting a plastic bag. Some drivers have reported phantom braking even when Autopilot is turned off.
The Post found there have been 107 NHTSA complaints of phantom braking on 2019-2022 models of the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y in the last three months, compared to 34 in the 22 months before that. Phantom braking reports make up the majority (57%) of complaints about the cars since the start of November.
"NHTSA is aware of complaints received about forward collision avoidance and is reviewing them through our risk-based evaluation process," NHTSA spokeswoman Lucia Sanchez tells the Post. "This process includes discussions with the manufacturer, as well as reviewing additional data sources, including Early Warning Reporting data. If the data show that a risk may exist, NHTSA will act immediately.”
In October, Tesla rolled back a software update for those in its early access Full-Self Driving (FSD) beta amid reports of accidental emergency brake activations. (That didn't stop it from raising the price of FSD from $10,000 to $12,000 in January.)
Earlier in 2021, Tesla shifted away from using radar in favor of a camera-only approach, dubbed Tesla Vision. "Vision has much more precision, so better to double down on vision than do sensor fusion," Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted in May.