Trying to learn why I get Phantom Braking (video)

[TLLMRRJ]

So I have had 2 phantom braking incidents with my new Tesla. The first one was within 10 minutes of picking up the car, which then caused me to not want to use it again, but then I did, and I got another one yesterday.

I don't have video from the first one, but here are the cameras from the second incident. It's pretty hard to tell when the braking occurred because after the first one, I am now keep my foot close to the accelerator to override the stupid (aka phantom) braking. The braking was hard enough to throw my wife forward in her seat belt. Wish there was cabin audio because then I would have a clear marker of where it occurred in the video.

Here's the video:

There's nothing around the car, but the contrast of the forward facing camera changes (around the 3 second mark) dramatically, and I am wondering if that has something to do with the braking.

None of the other cameras had a contrast change.

Does anyone else have dashcam video of their phantom braking to see if this contrast change is a clue?

 

[ewoodrick]

We all get it. The car is trying to be safe instead of sorry. At this point in development it is what it is

 

[TLLMRRJ]

We all get it. The car is trying to be safe instead of sorry. At this point in development it is what it is

Then it’s pretty irresponsible of Tesla not to put a warning on the screen. How many people need to be in a near accident or an accident when it first happens before they start telling new owners?

But what you said has nothing to do at all with my original post. I want to see what your dashcam was showing when you had the phantom braking.

Please try harder to stay on topic

 

[house9]

I didn't watch the video but I am assuming this is occurring during 'Cruise Control' or 'Auto Pilot' mode?

Have you tried changing: Driving > Autopilot > Automatic Emergency Braking

Disclaimer: I am a newbie to Tesla, only had car less than a month and my wife has been primary driver

I did have this occur with 'Cruise Control' once, I was driving on two lane hwy at the time.

 

[gblinckmann]

I changed the setting on my Model 3 from early emergency braking to normal. That seems to help, but not eliminate the problem. I've had my Model 3 for less than a month.

 

[ewoodrick]

Then it’s pretty irresponsible of Tesla not to put a warning on the screen. How many people need to be in a near accident or an accident when it first happens before they start telling new owners?

But what you said has nothing to do at all with my original post. I want to see what your dashcam was showing when you had the phantom braking.

Please try harder to stay on topic

I'm pretty sure that the new owners hit OK to the beta software message.

 

[640k]

it would be nice if we could turn off the controls for CC and just let it keep speed.

 

[Phlier]

We all get it. The car is trying to be safe instead of sorry. At this point in development it is what it is

Phantom braking has gotten to be old news for a lot of us, but the OP is a brand new Tesla owner that is simply trying to understand why his car is doing what it’s doing. There is nothing wrong with that. Maybe if we all got together and posted detailed footage and narrative of phantom braking events, we could help Tesla narrow it down.

Keep up the good work, OP, and let us know if you’re able to narrow down the cause of your phantom braking events.

I’m still clueless as to why my car phantom brakes at the same locations consistently.

 

[ewoodrick]

Phantom braking has gotten to be old news for a lot of us, but the OP is a brand new Tesla owner that is simply trying to understand why his car is doing what it’s doing. There is nothing wrong with that. Maybe if we all got together and posted detailed footage and narrative of phantom braking events, we could help Tesla narrow it down.

Keep up the good work, OP, and let us know if you’re able to narrow down the cause of your phantom braking events.

I’m still clueless as to why my car phantom brakes at the same locations consistently.

I'm pretty sure that Tesla is well aware of it and doing everything that they can to get rid of it.
It's just that the AI sees some pictures and identifies something incorrectly. It's continuously being taught to do better, just no there yet.

 

[raptor5244]

So I have had 2 phantom braking incidents with my new Tesla. The first one was within 10 minutes of picking up the car, which then caused me to not want to use it again, but then I did, and I got another one yesterday.

I don't have video from the first one, but here are the cameras from the second incident. It's pretty hard to tell when the braking occurred because after the first one, I am now keep my foot close to the accelerator to override the stupid (aka phantom) braking. The braking was hard enough to throw my wife forward in her seat belt. Wish there was cabin audio because then I would have a clear marker of where it occurred in the video.

Here's the video:

There's nothing around the car, but the contrast of the forward facing camera changes (around the 3 second mark) dramatically, and I am wondering if that has something to do with the braking.

None of the other cameras had a contrast change.

Does anyone else have dashcam video of their phantom braking to see if this contrast change is a clue?

Just curious, did you notice if you headlights turned on or off at that 3 second mark?

I had a phantom braking situation one time when I was in the middle lane of the highway and two cars were coming up on the left and right lanes from behind me. As they boxed me in the car applied braking. Not sure if it was programmed to do this or what but once they passed by the car accelerated on its own back to the previous speed.

 

[PianoAl]

Did you turn on the wipers for one pass right after the slowdown, or was that automatic?

We've seen our car slow down at a particular place twice. The freeway goes over a bridge there, and I'm looking forward to seeing if it happens again.

 

[ewoodrick]

Just curious, did you notice if you headlights turned on or off at that 3 second mark?

I had a phantom braking situation one time when I was in the middle lane of the highway and two cars were coming up on the left and right lanes from behind me. As they boxed me in the car applied braking. Not sure if it was programmed to do this or what but once they passed by the car accelerated on its own back to the previous speed.

Was this braking or just deceleration? This could be associated with the car slowing if it realizes that there's a lot of adjacent traffic and it's going faster.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

Was this braking or just deceleration? This could be associated with the car slowing if it realizes that there's a lot of adjacent traffic and it's going faster.

It was braking, and more than regen braking because it threw my wife against her seat belt. Not incredibly violent, but enough to startle a passenger and have them wondering what the heck you are doing as a driver.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

Did you turn on the wipers for one pass right after the slowdown, or was that automatic?

We've seen our car slow down at a particular place twice. The freeway goes over a bridge there, and I'm looking forward to seeing if it happens again.

Pretty sure I had the wipers on automatic, but I might have manually pressed the single wipe button on the left stalk.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

Just curious, did you notice if you headlights turned on or off at that 3 second mark?

I had a phantom braking situation one time when I was in the middle lane of the highway and two cars were coming up on the left and right lanes from behind me. As they boxed me in the car applied braking. Not sure if it was programmed to do this or what but once they passed by the car accelerated on its own back to the previous speed.

No, I didn't notice any change with the headlights. Not sure if they were on given it was overcast but only 30 mins after sunrise.

 

[ElectricIAC]

I’ve started noticing a pattern to some of the softer AP freak outs. Often there will be a speed limit change and NoAP will change my preset speed along with braking to match it.

Not terribly consistent same as with the phantom braking events but also an issue at times.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

I'm pretty sure that Tesla is well aware of it and doing everything that they can to get rid of it.
It's just that the AI sees some pictures and identifies something incorrectly. It's continuously being taught to do better, just no there yet.

I really wonder about whether Tesla gets any sort of alert or data from phantom braking. I wish there was way to know that data was sent to them.

It would also be very cool to replay back what the computer saw and any alerts. When something like a phantom braking episode happens, you're too busy driving to study what's on the screen at the time, including any warnings that pop up and go away before you have a chance to look at them.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

Phantom braking has gotten to be old news for a lot of us, but the OP is a brand new Tesla owner that is simply trying to understand why his car is doing what it’s doing. There is nothing wrong with that. Maybe if we all got together and posted detailed footage and narrative of phantom braking events, we could help Tesla narrow it down.

Keep up the good work, OP, and let us know if you’re able to narrow down the cause of your phantom braking events.

I’m still clueless as to why my car phantom brakes at the same locations consistently.

Thanks, and yes, I am thinking if we collectively share experiences and data with phantom braking we can learn more about how the programmers programmed this system and if we can give any feedback to Tesla.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

I changed the setting on my Model 3 from early emergency braking to normal. That seems to help, but not eliminate the problem. I've had my Model 3 for less than a month.

I'll check that setting and change it to see what happens.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

I'm pretty sure that the new owners hit OK to the beta software message.

It's one thing to have a warning that says it's "beta code," and it's another to have a huge warning across the screen saying, "Hey, this software is so bad right now that it's a known bug that it will slam on the brakes when you least expect it, so you're probably going to get rear ended, and we ain't going to pay for no stinking damages or funerals."