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Extreme phantom braking event tonight. No TACC or Autosteer

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I've read a lot of posts about phantom braking but it never really concerned me much because up until today I had only experience minor and infrequent events.

Tonight, however, my car really scared me. It slammed on the brakes to the point that the wheels locked up slightly and the car fishtailed a bit to the left. I was not using either cruise control or Autosteer at the time. Just plain old fashioned driving by hand at 35 mph. It was dark, and a pickup truck was approaching in the opposite lane of a hilly two-lane country highway. We were on a straight portion of the road both heading down toward a low point, and just as the truck passed my Model Y slammed on the brakes and the system started beeping and screaming it's very loud alarm signal. Also an indication popped up on the screen that Dashcam footage was being saved.

Fortunately I was driving slowly and it was easy to regain control, but what the heck?!! That was bad! I assume it was the collision avoidance system that was responsible since TACC and AP were not in use. I believe I have only experience phantom braking when AP was active in the past so this seemed unusual. And I have never experienced braking this hard. Is this normal?

Since I know the exact timestamp and have dashcam footage do you think I should contact Tesla? I've watched the footage a few times and there is absolutely no reason I can see that collision avoidance should have been activated.

Car is a 2021 Vision Only Model Y LR.
I'm sorry to hear of your experience. Have you tried recalibrating your cameras? That was supposed to work for me, but afterwards my Model 3 still brakes constantly when I'm in Autopilot and Adaptive Cruise (8 times in 20 miles!) Having these features was part of the reason I purchased the Tesla. They are unusable to me. I worry I have made the wrong decision in buying the Tesla.
 
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Hello Everyone,

greets from Ontario.

regarding the phantom braking apperances, I have to join the subject. I have a 2022 M3LR, received last saturday 18. Dec. 2021.
Yesterday evening , I was driving the route London, ON to Toronto Airport and back on the 401 Highway. The complete drive was after sunset. The set speed in cruise control only (110 to 120 kmh) , without autosteering. I do not have FSD.

The phantom braking did appear really out of the blue cruising with 110kmh when getting close to off-ramps, being on the most right snail lane. It appears, as if the car sees the speed limit signs at the off ramp and tries to obey. I do not think the brakes were applied, but the energy recovery braking slowed the car down from 110 to 90, even the cruise control was changed to the setting of 80 kmph.
I believe, the auto AEB, as described in the previous mesage from rjpjink was set on as well.
I do have the FSD auto recognition activated though.

The auto steering, I guess its called here Autopilot (beta) was not activated as the feature does activate the high beams in a erratic fashion, which does not comply with my high beam behaviour, being more moderate with it. I really do not understand the matter behind this kind of operational need to take over the high beams for the auto pilot option. Is the car blind at night to operate to have the need for the high beams with this ?
Not only the high beams, but you can't adjust the wipers when on TACC or Autopilot either. And the babysiter will also decide when you have set your cruise too fast for a corner. Ooo, you made too quick of a move? You were bad, turning off TACC until the car is turned off and restarted. (of course I'm a mellow driver so I've only heard of such things...)

But to get back to the braking. Whether phantom braking or collision avoidance, it is enough to make me sell my 2021 LR3.

I just returned from one of my favorite road trips through the Mojave desert from Palm Springs to Las Vegas. From 29 Palms through the on-ramp to 15 near Primm, I was a scared and hovering over the gas pedal ready to apply the juice if it decided (and it decided often with varying severity) to slam on the brakes. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe shadows? Dips in the road? Certainly oncoming trucks on 2 lane highways! Clouds? Shadows? They all seem to cause it but with no consistency.

Using TACC on a long drive on a 2 lane hwy with my foot poised over the pedal and hands firmly on the wheel it feels like I am at the dentist office holding my mouth open. It's muscles you don't usually use and on the recent trip to Vegas it caused my leg to tense up and feel about as bad as going to the dentist. And don't even try cruise control on Hwy 97 out of Bend, OR heading south. Your passenger will leave a stain on your seat when it locks up as it did to me - oncoming semi, corner with a off-ramp. Oh my, skidded with locked up seatbelts and all of the bells and whistles. Quite the first serious jolt. Now I'm more calm but still there's no relaxation using TACC on 2 lane highways even when the roadway is empty.

I have driven 7,000 miles now and being someone who has always "lived" on cruise control I will say TACC and TACC when using Autopilot SUCK!!! I saved a ton of money (for me) to buy this vehicle and want to love it sooo bad, but having to hover over the gas pedal always waiting to react if I want to use cruise control SUCKS!! And since I'm complaining about it, who the hell designed a cruise control system without resume? Idiot.

Beautiful car but I'm seriously moving on. They shoulda stayed with Lidar in addition to Tesla vision. That set-up also had some phantom issue but my car sees ghosts. My car was delivered with a true Gremlin and it isn't safe.
 
So far I have had pretty good experiences with TACC on my 2022 model Y running 2022.4.5.3. Sometimes I get a bit nervous and disable the system. I use it often around Los Angeles area. I do not think I have had many phantom braking incidents yet. In one case car did slow down a bit quickly when on freeway due to construction crew pointing bright powerful work lights towards traffic a bit. I assumed this situation would hinder TACC and was ready to disable it.
However, I’ve never had a car with any form of assisted steering before.
 
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I have had my Y full auto for 8 months and had a couple of braking incidents. However, with the new version 2022 13 3 2 they are worse and yesterday for no reason there were several in a row. This is not acceptable It is actually very dangerous with sudden hard breaking at 60- 70 miles
 
There's an important distinction between a false collision avoidance and run-of-the-mill phantom braking. The former sounds the collision avoidance alarm and the latter does not. The former evokes a maximum braking response while the latter is less aggressive. With collision avoidance, the vehicle has a very high degree of certainty that it is going to collide with another object. With the more common phantom braking, the vehicle is receiving conflicting information from sensors (e.g., a mismatch between vision and radar, obstructed view of the path ahead, etc.) and is less sure of the path ahead, resulting in less-than-maximum deceleration.

There's also a third type of phantom braking where the vehicle slows down due to erroneous speed limit changes, typically caused by road construction changing road alignment.

Fixing bugs, software and hardware problems is more difficult when you use general terminology to describe specific problems. It doesn't take much extra effort to be more specific when describing problems.
A very good explanation of Tesla challenges and even more reasons not to use these features on my expected M3 - can’t believe a member described phantom braking as “run of the mill” - not sure other owners are so forgiving of their cars almost causing accidents - ag
 
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Recently drove 800 miles using autopilot + autosteer most of the time on freeway. No phantom braking. 🤷‍♂️ There was one case where my car got a bit close to a semi so I took over since I like to get away from them. Just me being cautious. 2022 model y performance no FSD. Not sure which firmware since I update often recently.
 
Recently drove a Model S Plaid about 600 miles round trip and had many phantom braking incidents when trying to use Autopilot (TACC). I was on a mix of 2 lane and 4 lane highways, driving close to the speed limit the entire time. Nice sunny days as well and car was cleaned prior to the trip, so all cameras and windshield were clean. Only drove a night a few times for a quick trip to the store and didn’t really test TACC during those trips.

Sometimes it was a shadow due to an overpass, sometimes it may have been a car being slightly to close to a center line (when traveling the same direction), but many times I was really not sure what caused the car to apply the brakes as there were not indicators on the screen. This made for a very tense ride due to 3 other people being in the car with me that would react each time it happened. I eventually just drove the car without TACC and wished I could just turn on very basic cruise control (didn’t have time to stop and mess with the settings).

Overall, this makes me concerned about my MYP that I’ll pick up in the next couple weeks. The Model S Plaid is not mine (it’s a family members).

On a side note, I drove my wife’s brand new 2023 Subaru Outback Touring XT with EyeSite and it honestly seemed better than TACC. Yes it does not have all the features of Autopilot and FSD, but it just seemed to work and didn’t have any incidents. Also, the auto high beams worked better by a large margin.

Once I receive my MYP, I have another 600 mile trip to make for work. I’ll try it out and see if it’s any better than the MS Plaid. My hope is that I won’t experience the same issues.

**Cameras were recently recalibrated in the last few weeks since one of the side cameras fell off while driving.
 
That's funny. My wife also has a 2022 Subaru Touring (Forester) and yes, the EyeSite works well. I was pleasantly surprised. It is more of a "soft lock" though compared to my Model Y. The Tesla seems much more rigidly in control and confident to me. I wouldn't trust the Subaru around tight turns for instance. It doesn't feel as confident somehow. I think the Tesla may be more tied into controlling the speed as well as the steering so if it becomes unsure about navigating a turn it slows down and "thinks about it" a bit, but never relinquishes control. After driving both I feel the Model Y performs much better, but the phantom braking is just part of life with Tesla. It happens now and then, pretty much on every drive, and there's nothing you can do about it. It's a car trying to drive itself after all. Machines are not capable enough to do this well yet, but it is fun being an early adopter and watching them try. And in Tesla's case, even learn.

I guess what I'm saying is I don't mind PB as much any more. I am the OP, and I now understand that the event that I started this thread with was an Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) event, not a phantom breaking event. Two completely different ways to experience unwanted and unnecessary deceleration for "phantoms" in the road. The AEB events are *way* more serious though, and I would sell my car tomorrow if I experienced them regularly. Locking up the wheels and sliding all over the road is scary and dangerous. Fortunately it has never happened again in 14 months now.
 
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That's funny. My wife also has a 2022 Subaru Touring (Forester) and yes, the EyeSite works well. I was pleasantly surprised. It is more of a "soft lock" though compared to my Model Y. The Tesla seems much more rigidly in control and confident to me. I wouldn't trust the Subaru around tight turns for instance. It doesn't feel as confident somehow. I think the Tesla may be more tied into controlling the speed as well as the steering so if it becomes unsure about navigating a turn it slows down and "thinks about it" a bit, but never relinquishes control. After driving both I feel the Model Y performs much better, but the phantom braking is just part of life with Tesla. It happens now and then, pretty much on every drive, and there's nothing you can do about it. It's a car trying to drive itself after all. Machines are not capable enough to do this well yet, but it is fun being an early adopter and watching them try. And in Tesla's case, even learn.
I agree, defiantly not as rigid as Tesla. When we were not running into an issue, TACC was awesome. I was able to relax and let the car do its thing. It’s just that we ran into issues so often that I felt like I started spending most of my time slightly on edge waiting for another issue to happen.

I hope it was just a general fluke, and know it’ll get better overtime. So much focus on FSD right now that I hope a bit more focus comes back to the basics as FSD eventually moves out of beta.

On a side note, the acceleration is the MS Plaid is out of this world. Launching it with others in the car that have not been in anything remotely as power is fun times. Heck, even 1/4 acceleration is amazing!
 
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I agree, defiantly not as rigid as Tesla. When we were not running into an issue, TACC was awesome. I was able to relax and let the car do its thing. It’s just that we ran into issues so often that I felt like I started spending most of my time slightly on edge waiting for another issue to happen.

I hope it was just a general fluke, and know it’ll get better overtime. So much focus on FSD right now that I hope a bit more focus comes back to the basics as FSD eventually moves out of beta.

On a side note, the acceleration is the MS Plaid is out of this world. Launching it with others in the car that have not been in anything remotely as power is fun times. Heck, even 1/4 acceleration is amazing!
Definitely…not defiantly lol. Not sure how to edit a post just yet….
 
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I must be the only person to never experience “phantom braking” or I’m just desensitized. I use autopilot with auto steer often. Overpasses casting shadow, no issue. The car slows down fairly smoothly for a curvy section of road since I am going 70 and the posted speed says 50 but that’s kinda nice right? Not sure if car is reading signs or wants to slow down since the road has a long curvature. I’ve driven from southern to Northern California and all around the Los Angeles area. No I am jinxed myself and I’ll get a nice phantom brake soon 🤣
 
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Recently drove a Model S Plaid about 600 miles round trip and had many phantom braking incidents when trying to use Autopilot (TACC). I was on a mix of 2 lane and 4 lane highways, driving close to the speed limit the entire time. Nice sunny days as well and car was cleaned prior to the trip, so all cameras and windshield were clean. Only drove a night a few times for a quick trip to the store and didn’t really test TACC during those trips.

Sometimes it was a shadow due to an overpass, sometimes it may have been a car being slightly to close to a center line (when traveling the same direction), but many times I was really not sure what caused the car to apply the brakes as there were not indicators on the screen. This made for a very tense ride due to 3 other people being in the car with me that would react each time it happened. I eventually just drove the car without TACC and wished I could just turn on very basic cruise control (didn’t have time to stop and mess with the settings).

Overall, this makes me concerned about my MYP that I’ll pick up in the next couple weeks. The Model S Plaid is not mine (it’s a family members).

On a side note, I drove my wife’s brand new 2023 Subaru Outback Touring XT with EyeSite and it honestly seemed better than TACC. Yes it does not have all the features of Autopilot and FSD, but it just seemed to work and didn’t have any incidents. Also, the auto high beams worked better by a large margin.

Once I receive my MYP, I have another 600 mile trip to make for work. I’ll try it out and see if it’s any better than the MS Plaid. My hope is that I won’t experience the same issues.

**Cameras were recently recalibrated in the last few weeks since one of the side cameras fell off while driving.

Recently drove a Model S Plaid about 600 miles round trip and had many phantom braking incidents when trying to use Autopilot (TACC). I was on a mix of 2 lane and 4 lane highways, driving close to the speed limit the entire time. Nice sunny days as well and car was cleaned prior to the trip, so all cameras and windshield were clean. Only drove a night a few times for a quick trip to the store and didn’t really test TACC during those trips.

Sometimes it was a shadow due to an overpass, sometimes it may have been a car being slightly to close to a center line (when traveling the same direction), but many times I was really not sure what caused the car to apply the brakes as there were not indicators on the screen. This made for a very tense ride due to 3 other people being in the car with me that would react each time it happened. I eventually just drove the car without TACC and wished I could just turn on very basic cruise control (didn’t have time to stop and mess with the settings).

Overall, this makes me concerned about my MYP that I’ll pick up in the next couple weeks. The Model S Plaid is not mine (it’s a family members).

On a side note, I drove my wife’s brand new 2023 Subaru Outback Touring XT with EyeSite and it honestly seemed better than TACC. Yes it does not have all the features of Autopilot and FSD, but it just seemed to work and didn’t have any incidents. Also, the auto high beams worked better by a large margin.

Once I receive my MYP, I have another 600 mile trip to make for work. I’ll try it out and see if it’s any better than the MS Plaid. My hope is that I won’t experience the same issues.

**Cameras were recently recalibrated in the last few weeks since one of the side cameras fell off while driving.
I've driven my Subaru Ascent all over the Western US and Western Canada multiple trips and have essentially had zero phantom braking incidents. I use adaptive cruise all the time and it's a pleasure to use. I do not rely on the lane centering at all as I prefer to just steer myself. This is a far far different experience than I have in the Tesla. It's NOT fun being so tense and dreading phantom braking events while driving the Tesla, especially when I have the wife and kids in the vehicle.