Phantom braking so bad I want to return my car

[RHINO SKIN SOL]

We live in Central Oregon and drive A LOT of rural 2 lane highways. Sometimes I feel like tesla programmers dont even know these roads exist. Phantom breaking is a huge issue on these roads. Below are the major issues. We have tried every configuration of functions being on or off and phantom breaking still persists. Worse in Auto Cruise but still pretty bad in autopilot.

Traveling on two lane rural highway. 1 lane each direction traveling about 65 MPH.

Truck in proper oncoming lane: moderate to heavy automatic breaking
Truck in proper oncoming lane at night with lights on : severe breaking
Car in proper oncoming lane: light to moderate breaking
Car in proper oncoming lane at night with headlights: moderate to severe breaking
Open road Skid marks on road: Moderate breaking
Open road with standard sage and other shrubs: occasional random moderate, moderate+ or light breaking

Is there any way to report these issues. Ver frustrating and at time scary.

These are very frustrating and really should be solved ASAP or give us complete ability to stop autobraking. The button available to turn off autobraking does not work.

Also FYI we made it from Hines, OR super Charger to Winnemucca, NV super charger on one charge. drove 55 for 180 of the 220 miles. Ended with 35 miles of range left.

 

[Thepugster]

Press the voice command button and say report bug phantom braking at location

 

[glide]

Press the voice command button and say report bug phantom braking at location

That does absolutely nothing. Those reports do not leave your vehicle.

The real answer is: don’t use autopilot if it scares you. Drive it like a normal car.

 

[GeezerSquid]

OP, your level of phantom braking is astonishing me. I live about 20 miles outside of Baton Rouge, LA. I drive with FSD almost constantly and have had 1 real case of PB since I was updated (about 10 days ago??) to 2021.12.25.7. You should consider contacting a service center. I also recommend keeping your foot lightly resting on the accelerator so you can quickly over rule the braking. Good luck!!

 

[Fourdoor]

That does absolutely nothing. Those reports do not leave your vehicle.

The real answer is: don’t use autopilot if it scares you. Drive it like a normal car.

If he had the option to use "dumb" cruise control I am sure he would... we are not given that option.

My phantom braking isn't nearly as bad as the OP, but regardless of severity I shouldn't have to deal with "advanced" systems that are outperformed by virtually every other manufacturer. It is something that I can deal with as a price of getting the performance I want that is not offered by other manufacturers. But I HATE dealing with my wife giving me dirty looks for it. I want all passengers in Tesla's to give Elon a piece of their mind, and leave the driver alone.

Keith

PS: Are you saying that the bug report system is a placebo to make me not rip Tesla a new asshole in social media?

 

[glide]

If he had the option to use "dumb" cruise control I am sure he would... we are not given that option.

My phantom braking isn't nearly as bad as the OP, but regardless of severity I shouldn't have to deal with "advanced" systems that are outperformed by virtually every other manufacturer. It is something that I can deal with as a price of getting the performance I want that is not offered by other manufacturers. But I HATE dealing with my wife giving me dirty looks for it. I want all passengers in Tesla's to give Elon a piece of their mind, and leave the driver alone.

Keith

PS: Are you saying that the bug report system is a placebo to make me not rip Tesla a new asshole in social media?

So don’t use cruise control period. As I said, drive it like a normal car.

And yes, the bug report “feature” does not send anything back to Tesla. It adds a “bookmark” internally for the vehicle that no one ever looks at.

The only time Tesla potentially collects bug report data is when you are enrolled in the FSD beta. So that applies to like 5 people.

 

[jpfive]

We live in Central Oregon and drive A LOT of rural 2 lane highways. Sometimes I feel like tesla programmers dont even know these roads exist. Phantom breaking is a huge issue on these roads. Below are the major issues. We have tried every configuration of functions being on or off and phantom breaking still persists. Worse in Auto Cruise but still pretty bad in autopilot.

Traveling on two lane rural highway. 1 lane each direction traveling about 65 MPH.

Truck in proper oncoming lane: moderate to heavy automatic breaking
Truck in proper oncoming lane at night with lights on : severe breaking
Car in proper oncoming lane: light to moderate breaking
Car in proper oncoming lane at night with headlights: moderate to severe breaking
Open road Skid marks on road: Moderate breaking
Open road with standard sage and other shrubs: occasional random moderate, moderate+ or light breaking

Is there any way to report these issues. Ver frustrating and at time scary.

These are very frustrating and really should be solved ASAP or give us complete ability to stop autobraking. The button available to turn off autobraking does not work.

Also FYI we made it from Hines, OR super Charger to Winnemucca, NV super charger on one charge. drove 55 for 180 of the 220 miles. Ended with 35 miles of range left.

There are three levels of emergency braking sensitivity. They can be adjusted. I say this from memory, without walking out to the car to get the screen page and exact terminology, and also with my evening Scotch in hand. I can if you need me to, but if you play around with the settings you will find it.

 

[Iain]

You can do a bug report and then when you contact Tesla they can pull it and look at everything.

 

[Tdriver]

Why complain here, go talk to Tesla.

 

[TSLA Pilot]

And, consider using the correct word: BRAKING, not "breaking."

That said, you have a lot more issues than most; be sure to log the date and time of these events as the remote diagnostic team might be able to solve the issue.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

If he had the option to use "dumb" cruise control I am sure he would... we are not given that option.

Liked for this.

On the list of "reasons why I don't have a Tesla".

Why complain here, go talk to Tesla.

This _is_ how you talk to Tesla.

 

[dhrivnak]

I am 900 miles into a trip and I think this is the FIRST one taken without phantom breaking. So for me at least I have seen an improvement. I am on 2021.12.25.7

 

[MP3Mike]

We live in Central Oregon and drive A LOT of rural 2 lane highways. Sometimes I feel like tesla programmers dont even know these roads exist. Phantom breaking is a huge issue on these roads. Below are the major issues. We have tried every configuration of functions being on or off and phantom breaking still persists. Worse in Auto Cruise but still pretty bad in autopilot.

When did you buy it? (Does it have radar or is it a Tesla Vision based car?)

It seems that TACC isn't well-suited for 2 lane non-divided highways currently. That will probably get better over time, but who knows when.

As far as the braking, they cover it in the manual:

 

[AlexHung]

I’ve drive 3500+ miles with about 50% on AP. Zero phantom braking. But then I’m in “Tesla Country” aka Bay Area so

 

[linux-works]

disabling braking other than keeping the true following distance from the thing in front of you that is mostly matching your speed - that WOULD be a nice option to have.

yes, its a step backwards in smarts and automation, but sometimes, turning off a 'smart' feature gets you better usability.

so yes, I would also like to be able to enable standard cruise control that just follows the thing in front of me (if it sees a thing it thinks is a car; and those are not that hard to 'pick out' from the radar/vision noise) and if there's nothing in front that really 'seems' like a car, then just keep going and dont brake.

that algorithm is almost trivial. but could they disable enough of the current system so that it reduces to this. that is not so clear from the outside.

but I agree, it should be an option.

 

[Madsen203]

Can’t you disengage automatic emergency braking in the safety settings?

 

[MP3Mike]

Can’t you disengage automatic emergency braking in the safety settings?

What he is experiencing isn't AEB.

 

[harpac]

I have had my MY (204xxx) since the beginning of June with just under 5k on the odo. Live in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. I use the cruise control about 70% of my driving, since it helps reduce power use overall.

The amount of phantom braking I get is far more than I could have ever imagined. There are a couple of places on I294 that cause the max speed to magically drop to 35 or 55 mph, while I'm cruising at 65 or 70 with the cruise on. (Have tried all the settings in Autopilot section). Happens to me in Wisconsin on I94 in the right lane NB and SB.

I was on a 2 lane road at night recently and experienced the same issues as the OP with oncoming traffic, or just cresting small hills.

If Tesla reads this, I would like to put in my vote for an option to just have a basic cruise mode until they figure this out.

 

[stopcrazypp]

disabling braking other than keeping the true following distance from the thing in front of you that is mostly matching your speed - that WOULD be a nice option to have.

yes, its a step backwards in smarts and automation, but sometimes, turning off a 'smart' feature gets you better usability.

so yes, I would also like to be able to enable standard cruise control that just follows the thing in front of me (if it sees a thing it thinks is a car; and those are not that hard to 'pick out' from the radar/vision noise) and if there's nothing in front that really 'seems' like a car, then just keep going and dont brake.

that algorithm is almost trivial. but could they disable enough of the current system so that it reduces to this. that is not so clear from the outside.

but I agree, it should be an option.

I think they leave it out to avoid mode confusion. As for the implementation, they definitely can just offer regular CC as they did offer that for cars when AP was an option. I'm sure a lot of people with phantom braking would prefer to just have the option for regular CC when it's acting up.

But there are some simple settings that Tesla can add also that can help. For example some systems allow turning off all speed limit related slowing. This would help for a lot of cases.

 

[DannyW]

I just got mine and it’s still at 2021.3.106 (Canadian MY performance) and I observe very similar issues. I‘ve definitely seen it put on the brakes for no obvious reason. It seems to have more trouble with oncoming motorcycles, oncoming trucks with no headlights, encountering oncoming vehicles when cresting blind hills and being too conservative/soon with vehicles merging or exiting. So very similar issues as reported by the OP.

100% agree it would be great to have an option to disable the braking when cruise control is active, even if it was temporary. Personally I find I have to hand hold the system enough that it’s almost not worth using it at all for now. I will say though that when the system is working (minus PB issues) it’s significantly better than other cars I’ve driven that have similar features.