2020 Tesla Model S Collision Avoidance Problems

Which parts fail

• Adaptive cruise control
  14
• Automatic emergency braking
  11
• Warnings
  6
• Warning
  2
• Sensing system › Camera
  1
• Assist
  1

Components named in complaints (automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise, lane keeping, backup camera).

Mileage when the problem started

• Under 25k
  267%
• 25k–50k
  133%
• 50k–75k
  00%
• 75k–100k
  00%
• 100k–150k
  00%
• 150k+
  00%

Owner reports

Selected complaints filed with NHTSA by 2020 Tesla Model S owners, lightly cleaned up (personal details are redacted by NHTSA).

On 09/18 , I was using the Smart Summon feature of my Tesla Model S in the parking lot of Costco, Greenwood (Indianapolis, IN). The intent was to have the vehicle autonomously navigate from its parked spot toward my location, as designed and advertised by Tesla. During the Summon operation: 1.The vehicle failed to correctly detect and avoid a fixed obstacle (the cart return stand where shopping carts are housed). 2.Instead of stopping or rerouting safely, the car collided with the structure, causing visible damage to the front of the vehicle. 3.While there was no damage to public property or injury to people, the incident demonstrated a serious safety risk, since pedestrians or nearby vehicles could have been struck had they been present. …

When backing up, multiple systems failed at the same time including backup camera, backup sensor distance visuals, backup sensor audio alerts, writing data to flash drive, GPS sensors. Tesla was unable to diagnose the sysfiles to identify the hardware issue behind the simultaneous failures because they are deleted after seven days. Scheduling a service appointment takes much longer than seven days. No one at Tesla can tell me why this happened. No one can assure me that it will not happen again. I hope this is not a widespread issue. I was not injured and my rear bumper only sustained minor damage. But what if someone had been hit because all these systems failed simultaneously?

The tesla full self driving was on and it turned my car into the guardrail in the middle of the highway all by itself for no reason at 70mph. It looked like a truck was turning into my lane and instead of stopping the car swerved into the grass and I hit the guard rail. The car was totaled. I have a video of the incident. This is one of the videos: https://www.veed.io/view/8e44fe01-a7ab-457c-90ee-4f7089bfe33c Full self driving was on the whole time. When I tried to take over it was too late to stop it and the brakes did not work or stop. The airbag did not go off. There had to be an error with the full self driving that decided I should go into the guardrail.

The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model S. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds between 40-50 MPH, the vehicle experienced phantom braking, causing the vehicle to abruptly stop in the middle of the road. The contact indicated that the failure had occurred on multiple occasions at the same road location. Also, the contact indicated that the vehicle had erroneously attempted to switch lanes and at one time attempted to switch lanes into oncoming traffic. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The manufacturer and local dealer were notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 100.

The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while driving 75 MPH with the Adaptive Cruise Control activated, the vehicle inadvertently decelerated to 52 MPH. During the failure a second vehicle nearly crashed into the rear of the vehicle. The contact indicated that no warning lights were displayed. The failure occurred on several occasions. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The manufacturer and local dealer were not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 30,000.

Vehicle was tested for concern about self driving after test drive with tech told ok 3 days later Summoned car and immediately turned into adjacent vehicle all captured on video in 1-2 seconds. No issues with summons for over 4 years $2200 damage to adjacent vehicle but Tesla no damage left front wheel caused damage on start.

The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model S. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 100.

While driving my daughter to school at approximately 8 AM I turned onto the merge lane of southbound Interstate Highway 280 at the junction with Wolfe Road, Sunnyvale. At that time of the morning the sun was low in the sky. After I turned into the merge lane and started accelerating to merge onto the highway the car was pointed directly towards the sun. While accelerating and at about 60 MPH the car braked hard without warning and a message that corrective action had been taken was displayed together with an audible warning. There was no vehicle in front of my car for some hundreds of feet. The vehicle following my car was able to slow in time to avoid a collision but came very close to the rear of my vehicle. While there was no collision, the driver of that vehicle sounded his horn for an extended period of time and gestured at me. …

The vehicle still exhibits random forward collision alerts. I can be multiple car lengths away from the car in front traveling at no more than 40 mph, and it will still trigger. Tesla is using these to determine a safety score, which it then uses to determine monthly auto insurance rates. There is no way to request review of a potentially false forward collision alert. Worse, on the freeway, the autopilot still randomly emergency brakes. This is a well known reported issue for all Tesla vehicles. Over-the-air updates have not fixed this issue. Lastly, the passenger side mirror keeps getting stuck in rear view mode (faces down) when shifted to drive gear. I've brought this up with the service center, and they claim nothing to fix. This has been ongoing since I purchased the vehicle. I have had near misses when attempting to shift to the right and cannot see vehicles on the right lane.

While driving today on I-25 northbound at approximately 9:50 am from Albuquerque to Santa Fe we had the cruise control set at 85 mph. There were no vehicles or obstacles in front of our 2020 Model S when the automatic braking suddenly engaged bringing the vehicle to a sudden stop. Multiple vehicles behind us had to make emergency maneuvers to avoid hitting our stopped vehicle. The vehicle was set on cruise control, NOT full self driving. This type of life threatening malfunction is not acceptable in a $100,000 vehicle. The car was serviced 1 week prior to this incident at the Tesla service center in Pojaque NM. There were no warning lights, messages, or other notifications prior to the phantom braking incident. We plan to sell the vehicle as we no longer feel safe driving it.

Related recalls

NHTSA investigations

Collision Avoidance complaints in other Model S years