Problems · by component

2019 Tesla Model 3 vehicle speed control problems

71 owner complaints to NHTSA about the 2019 Tesla Model 3 cite vehicle speed control, 11% of all 623 complaints for this model year.

Complaints
71
11% of all complaints
Crashes
19
Reported by owners
Fires
0
Reported by owners
Injuries
6
Reported by owners
01 —Owner reports

What owners say about the vehicle speed control

Verbatim from NHTSA complaints, newest first
“The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while the vehicle was stopped at a residential gate, the vehicle unexpectedly accelerated. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was towed to a private residence. No warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 80,000.”
Owner complaint to NHTSAFiled Apr 23, 2026Vehicle speed controlODI 11733256
“Phantom braking (as it's referred to by experts) happened to me twice on the highway using Traffic-Aware-Cruise-Control. Very scary. I was on cruise control going 60 mph when suddenly my car braked suddenly and inappropriately, losing at least 20 mph in a split second before I was able to slam on the accelerator and prevent an accident (rear-end collision). This happened TWICE in the course of 5 minutes on the same highway! There was no obstruction in the road, no cars moving into my lane, nothing but normal road conditions, when it occurred. From my research, this is a huge problem with Tesla vehicles that thousands of individuals are loudly complaining about online and now in court cases in the country. I see there are thousands of reports to your organization about this, but it says you have only complaints from 2021 and later years. However, I have a 2019 and it's happening to me. And it's happening to every single model year out there, just from researching and talking to Tesla owners. This is a major safety hazard, plain and simple. I was inches of being in a rear-end collision, and drivers behind me are extremely upset and vengeful on the road after an…”
Owner complaint to NHTSAFiled May 5, 2025Vehicle speed control, Service brakes, Forward collision avoidanceODI 11658874
“When cruise control or self-driving systems are engaged, there have been numerous times when the automatic emergency braking system mistakenly slowed the car suddenly. At 70+ mph, this is incredibly dangerous. The AEBS apparently sees shadows as dangers. Fortunately, there has never been an instance when another vehicle has been close behind.”
Owner complaint to NHTSAFiled Feb 18, 2025Vehicle speed control, Service brakes, Forward collision avoidanceODI 11643341
“Tesla has combined cruise control with their Auto Pilot feature. Now there is no human override to what speed limit to use, Tesla determines the speed to used based on certain criteria. This puts the driver at risk who may want to lower or increase the speed limit based on certain conditions Tesla may not be able to detect. For me it was a 9 PM run to the store thru an area that had temporary road construction and known to be a speed trap zone.”
Owner complaint to NHTSAFiled Jun 18, 2024Vehicle speed control, Forward collision avoidanceODI 11595134
“I was at a toll booth paying for tow. All of a sudden the car accelerated forward by itself, ramming into the toll bar. At that time, my arm was still sticking out the window while interacting with the toll terminal. This incident is something that needs to be looked at. It certainly looks like this is a result of the accident avoidance feature. Not sure why it activated either. But I am 99.9% sure that I did not accidentally press the gas pedal because I had to slam on the brakes to stop. Currently contacting Tesla to see if they can get the log to prove whether I accidentally press the pedal or not. In addition to this, there were reports of inverter spikes causing acceleration issues. Please look into the linkage of these incidents. As an electrical engineer myself, this is very alarming.”
Owner complaint to NHTSAFiled Aug 18, 2023Vehicle speed controlCrash reportedODI 11539342
“I have a 2019 Model 3 and yesterday, while making a left turn and applying pressure to the brake, receiving feedback from the brake, my car lurched forward for about half a second. I thought I may have been rear ended, but no one was behind me. This has happened on the freeway before as well. I'll be accelerating at a totally even place and BAM, I'll jolt forward out of nowhere. On the rare occasions that I use the car's "autopilot" feature, I will also encounter phantom braking, but that's easily avoided by not using the feature, which I haven't since first encountering the problem. I haven't suffered any damages from this, but if my car is able to do this, that's extremely alarming. What if this tripped while I was parking?”
Owner complaint to NHTSAFiled Jul 27, 2023Vehicle speed control, Service brakesODI 11534870

Showing 6 of 71 reports. Read every report on NHTSA.gov.

Data from NHTSA Complaints API (owner reports, unverified) · synced Nov 7, 2026NHTSA vehicle page

Complaints are unverified owner reports to NHTSA and are not normalized for sales volume. One complaint can cite several components.