An accident on the Pacific Highway in Sydney appears to have been triggered by a Tesla Model Y’s autonomous emergency braking system failure.
In a post shared on the Tesla Model 3 & Y Australia owner group on Facebook, we can see the driver’s vehicle brake sharply next to pedestrian standing on the narrow median strip to the side of the lane.
The Tesla driver claims Autopilot wasn’t engaged.
Notably, the pedestrian was standing still, and wasn’t in the path of the Tesla. On the other side of the median strip, two previous-generation BMW X1s pass by without fuss.
The previous-gen X1 was offered with autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection.
The collision in turn led to the driver behind, who appears to have been following too closely, running up the Tesla’s rear, causing a pile up.
Many owners have been reporting issues with “phantom braking” for several months, following Tesla’s move to a camera-only set-up.
The company removed radar from its vehicles and has even removed ultrasonic sensors, and has ruled out the introduction of LiDAR in its vehicles.
Other members of this particular owner group have observed their vehicles randomly braking near cyclists in bike lanes, or when overtaking or being overtaken on a highway.
While in these instances there is a vehicle or object in close if not dangerous proximity, yet more owners have commented on their cars applying the brakes when there was no other vehicle, person or obstacle at all.
