I had a very scary situation yesterday that almost caused an accident. I am uncertain whether there are problems with cameras or sensors or computer. Autopilot was on. I was going 70 mph on the fwy, luckyly no cars behind, a car towing a structure on my right side, ~ 2 cars space in front, no cars on my left, ~ 3 deg sloped down, everyone moving, no brakes, no cars cut in front. For no apparent reason, I get an audible collision alert and the car did a hard braking. I did not know how to make the car continue due to approaching behind traffic. If a car would have been behind me, for sure I would have been hit.
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Hard braking for no reason
- Thread starter LEBSD
- Start date
Tha_Ape
Active Member
That is whats known as "Phantom Braking" a fairly common problem in Teslas that somehow other auto manufacturers have figured out how to avoid. Google it and you'll see how prevalent it is. I cannot believe it hasnt been fixed.
Some people will tell you its because its an advanced system which sometimes gets confused and how the car is safer in other situations. I think those situations are much less likely and much less concerning than the situation you just mentioned.
Some people will tell you its because its an advanced system which sometimes gets confused and how the car is safer in other situations. I think those situations are much less likely and much less concerning than the situation you just mentioned.
SSonnentag
埃隆•馬斯克
Over time you’ll learn which situations tend to freak out the car and you’ll start driving with your foot hovering over the throttle. 
Did the OP purchase FSD? If so, then check to see if smart summons feature is available or if it is disabled. I thought they disabled some stuff like smart summon on pure vision cars until they get new software ready for vision only operation? One way to tell...
Edit: NVM, looks like 2021.4.18.10 restores this on pure vision cars.
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Feb 2021 cars still have radar. From what I understand (this could be propaganda) the pure vision cars have less phantom braking than the radar equipped cars. Mine has only done it once, and it was on a curve with a fast moving car going the other direction around the curve... car got confused about what lane was what and slammed on the brakes. The reason was obvious, not like your situation where you have no idea why the car did it.
Keith
Phantom braking does occur time to time. There are numerous threads about it in this forum. As Tesla and many others testified so far, AP and FSD are not perfect at this point. Thus, it is important to stay alert all the time so that you can apply the accelerator right away to maintain the speed. If you frequent the same route, you will learn to get ready for phantom braking... just like how I know that I will definitely have on near Temple, TX I-35 between Austin and Waco.. lol
Thanks all for your reply, my foot will be on the pedal next time. Although I can disable the emergency braking at the menu, confirmed that it will re enable upon restart. My wife tells me that the pickup towing a trailer on her side was very close to the lane marker; my theory is the sensor detected as if the pickup was cutting into my lane and applied the brakes. Next time I will press my horn to save the recording.
That's probably what caused it. If the car in the lane next to you even touches the lane line, it can cause the Tesla to react.
What I noticed is that when we move closer and closer to a car ahead in the next lane, the camera somehow thinks that car is getting closer and closer to the lane divider line. And as we pass that car, the visual on the screen shows that car actually on the line.
Not sure how all of this affects the phantom braking.
Not sure how all of this affects the phantom braking.
This is not quite true. Other manufacturers have issues with phantom braking too. I've posted a few IIHS videos that show some car makers simply have an implementation that fails to detect (sometimes by design) certain scenarios. There's one where a ford just ran over the pedestrian subject without even attempting to brake. There's a location near my kid's school, where I can reproduce a phantom brake in my other two cars 100% of the time.
Just my 2 cents, cruise looks at the distance in front of the car but not side. I use CC a lot, no surprises yet.
Just my 2 cents, cruise looks at the distance in front of the car but not side. I use CC a lot, no surprises yet.
Here is another observation re: side cameras and wonder if others experienced this: I am waiting on a red light in the middle lane, no cars are moving, but the camera image is not stable, showing my right vehicle "flickering", ie moving right/left/right.
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