Tesla owners reported over 100 'phantom braking' incidents in the last three months

P

Polycount

Posts: 3,017   +590
Staff
What just happened? Tesla can't seem to catch a break lately. Just yesterday, the company found itself at the center of yet another PR disaster: the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a voluntary safety recall for close to 54,000 of the company's vehicles. Now, Tesla cars are under fire again for a string of recent "phantom braking" incidents in which they slam on the brakes for no apparent reason.

Naturally, this is not good news for Tesla or its drivers. While a few bugs are to be expected with software like Tesla's full self-driving (FSD) tech or Autopilot, you never want those bugs to put you in real danger. Unfortunately, danger is precisely what many Tesla owners have been faced with while using Tesla's tech -- at least, if 107 complaints recently filed with the NHTSA regarding phantom braking are anything to go by.

What's shocking about that number is just how quickly those complaints have stacked up. It's only factoring in phantom braking reports received in the last three months -- in the 22 months prior to October 2021, the NHTSA only received about 34 similar reports.

In November, one Tesla driver based in Mount Vernon, IA reported "multiple instances" of his vehicle applying "heavy braking" when cresting a hill or being approached by a large vehicle in the oncoming traffic lane (with "traffic aware cruise control" enabled). A driver in West Kill, NY, reported similar incidents: their vehicle reportedly slammed on the brakes "more than 10 times over 20 miles" when large vehicles approached in the opposite lane.

It's not clear precisely what's causing this sudden influx of suspicious braking activity among Tesla vehicles, but there are a few possibilities. One could be related to an FSD software rollback Tesla performed in October (which would fit the three-month timeline mentioned before) that was specifically intended to address the issue of phantom braking.

Beyond that, drivers and "safety experts" that spoke to the Washington Post feel these incidents may be related to Tesla's recent decision to stop using radar technology to aid in its vehicles' Autopilot and FSD technology. Instead, the cars rely on their built-in cameras and other sensors to detect their surroundings.

Whatever the issue may be, we hope the NHTSA and Tesla are able to get to the bottom of it sooner rather than later. If the former takes any official action against the latter, we'll certainly update you here.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/93236-tesla-owners-reported-over-100-phantom-braking-incidents.html

 
Nah, its just the car telling the drive to pay clucking attention to what they are doing and drive your damn car like the rest of us on the road.
 
Hmmmmm .... that will be embarrassing when they send that rocket into the moon ..... and it stops a foot short of impact .....
 
  • Like
Reactions: Theinsanegamer
Someone needs to keep track with auto news because looking back Elon was very mad for being left out of a meeting with president Brandon a few days ago. I think FORD & GM is getting more help from the government with the electric vehicle goals than most realize. Yeah call me a tin foil hat kind of person.

Save my comment and keep track with TESLA news. American news agencies will be even more bias towards Elon as time goes on. It was funny though when he called the president, " a damp sock puppet on his Twitter."
 
The recalls keep piling up don't they? Not great when they already have long wait times for parts to do other repairs under warranty.

I love the tech, but the execution is a deal breaker, and customers shouldn't be FSD beta testers on public roads. Period. That's just lazy. They make it so easy to pay for the beta don't they? $10K up front or $200/mo. But how else do you make billions so fast?
 
Last edited:
Isn't it amazing how well these AIs are coming to mimic human behaviour. If I had a quid for every time a human driver braked unexpectedly in front of me (especially at night) I'd be quite rich.
 
Uncle Al said:
Hmmmmm .... that will be embarrassing when they send that rocket into the moon ..... and it stops a foot short of impact .....
Click to expand...

I don't understand how some one can take a used rocket floating in space who's trajectory looks like it might hit the moon to be SpaceX purposefully sending it into the moon. Also an object in space stopping before hitting another object would be an anomaly and scientists around the world would be studying the data around the event.

shark975 said:
It's interesting how techspot is attacking Tesla. Elon's politics or just some random reasons?
Click to expand...
How are they "attacking" Tesla by running a story about vehicles suddenly applying hard breaking? Tesla isn't a perfect company or even close to it. If Tesla does something wrong it should be pointed out and not ignored. Elon has taken a bunch of risks that no one else in the industry is willing to accept and so far he's been very lucky. Calling their not-fully-autonomous-self-driving "Autopilot" was a bold move.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Diwiak
Dimitrios said:
Someone needs to keep track with auto news because looking back Elon was very mad for being left out of a meeting with president Brandon a few days ago. I think FORD & GM is getting more help from the government with the electric vehicle goals than most realize. Yeah call me a tin foil hat kind of person.
Click to expand...
Do you have any data to back up your theory about Ford and GM getting *more* help from the government? GM has been working on electric cars well before Tesla was a car company.
 
QuantumPhysics said:
We've tried that for decades. Accident after accident after fatality after fatality.

AI driving has an opportunity to drive better than any human ever could.
Click to expand...
An opportunity, yes. But Tesla is failing, exceptionally badly, especially when you take into account the Teslas crashing into PARKED emergency vehicles, at taking advantage of the opportunity. WTF??

Who the F would drop using radar as a tech in autopilot AI?😵 It is far more difficult to determine the distance at which an object is in relation to where you are when you are trying to triangulate its distance from cameras that are spaced only a few feet apart (which becomes your baseline distance) than it is determining its distance from RADAR. RADAR tech is far, far better at it than using cameras separated a few feet apart.

As I see it, this is just another episode in "The Hot Air of Elon Musk: the Fake Stable Genius" :facepalm:IMO, his brain is made of moldy dollar bills. :rolleyes:
 
  • Like
Reactions: captaincranky
Bobbydpue said:
I don't understand how some one can take a used rocket floating in space who's trajectory looks like it might hit the moon to be SpaceX purposefully sending it into the moon. Also an object in space stopping before hitting another object would be an anomaly and scientists around the world would be studying the data around the event.
Click to expand...
Orbital mechanics. Its just the orbit that the rocket is in. It is not being sent deliberately into the moon. Think of any random asteroid orbit. Such an orbit could end up causing it to hit any planet, and there is no one deliberately sending it into the planet unless you think some Great Maker put it on that course at the beginning of the solar system. The orbit of the rocket is similar to a random asteroid orbit.
Bobbydpue said:
How are they "attacking" Tesla by running a story about vehicles suddenly applying hard breaking? Tesla isn't a perfect company or even close to it. If Tesla does something wrong it should be pointed out and not ignored. Elon has taken a bunch of risks that no one else in the industry is willing to accept and so far he's been very lucky. Calling their not-fully-autonomous-self-driving "Autopilot" was a bold move.
Click to expand...
Who cares that Elon has taken a bunch of risks that no one else has taken? To me, with incidents like this and especially Teslas crashing into PARKED emergency vehicles, these risks are being taken with the lives of those driving the cars. NO ONE, no matter how f'ing rich he is or how many risks he has taken with HIS MONEY, has the right to take any kind of potentially mortal risk with someone else's life.
 
  • Like
Reactions: captaincranky
Bobbydpue said:
Do you have any data to back up your theory about Ford and GM getting *more* help from the government? GM has been working on electric cars well before Tesla was a car company.
Click to expand...

You have any data on them not getting more help? Being serious though do you think my comment is far fetch? Are you the same person that thought INTEL would never cheat and was caught giving other companies like DELL bribery money? Not sure how old you are but you should know that this stuff happens daily. Governments only care about money, look at Obama bailing out GM and DODGE.
 
Imo Yoke steering wheel would've been helpful. A wide view while driving is one of the factors to avoid accidents, somehow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

midian182
Tesla is offering a free month of full self-driving, Musk enforces demo requirement for deliveries
Replies
9
Views
156
p51d007
p51d007
Shawn Knight
Tesla production snags send deliveries tumbling
Replies
21
Views
337
mdenigma
mdenigma
Daniel Sims
Tesla recalls all of its over 2 million US vehicles due to autopilot flaws
Replies
9
Views
329
mountains
M

Latest posts

Back