Complaints on Tesla Vehicles Surge Over "Phantom Braking"

Complaints have surged over the past three months against Tesla over what owners are calling “phantom braking.”

The complaints lodged to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have reached 107 over the period as compared to a total of 34 in the 22 months prior, and detail a phenomenon where a Tesla vehicle would unexpectedly engage its brakes and almost completely stop the car despite having no particular reason to do so, causing potentially dangerous situations if you’re on a highway or in the middle of traffic.

It’s not the first time the automaker has known of its vehicles behaving this way. Back in October, Tesla had to recall a version of its beta Full Self-Driving software due to its emergency braking system being triggered erroneously by the update, but it seems that many vehicles are still experiencing the issue now. As The Washington Post points out, the phantom braking complaints also coincide with Tesla’s shift from using radar sensors to just its surround-view cameras and ultrasonic sensors in what it calls Tesla Vision.

“Phantom braking is what happens when the developers do not set the decision threshold properly for deciding when something is there versus a false alarm,” said Carnegie Mellon University professor Phil Koopman, who specializes in autonomous vehicle safety. “What other companies do is they use multiple different sensors and they cross-check between them — not only multiple cameras, but multiple types of sensors…With only one sensor type, it’s harder to be sure because you do not have the cross-check from a different type of sensor.”

The news comes shortly after the automaker also had to recall 817,000 vehicles over faulty seatbelt notifications.

Elsewhere in the automotive industry, Aston Martin has unveiled the world’s most powerful luxury SUV.