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2018 M3L3: Autopilot Phantom Braking is real!

jcarlosfox | 2025-11-26 05:37 | 33 views

Holy crap, it scared the sh#t out of me. 70 mph on a Freeway with very light traffic. Driving 110 miles from San Diego to L.A. 10pm, night is clear, cold, and no fog. Autopilot with Lane Keep Active. Out of nowhere, the car slams on the brakes, gives a warning, and disables AP. Thankfully, no one was following too close. It did it a couple of times on the drive home. (The stress of knowing it could happens helped keep me awake. ) I'd heard about it before, but never experienced it. Don't recommend. If someone rear ends a Tesla due to phantom braking, I'm that's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Comments (10)
Sfkn123 2025-11-26 06:16

First time? I'm impressed it's only happened once considering it's a 2018.

jcarlosfox 2025-11-26 06:18

I just recently paid the $1,000 upgrade to add AP. Scary.

HBtoWorldTravels 2025-11-26 07:54

You’re lucky it only happens on AP! Mine (2022 M3) does it when I’m just driving around and the collision avoidance kicks in for no reason!

Pell331 2025-11-26 12:45

So, my 2c as someone who’s been driving a Tesla for 7 years…. The older cars that relied on sensors over vision are struggling with the new hybrid approach. There was a solid few years there where phantom braking was totally solved; now it’s back with a terrifying vengeance. I wish I never updated my car.

Kirkandree 2025-11-26 15:20

My 2018 M3 LR seemed to brake out in the middle of nowhere Nevada due to ‘heat waves’ on the road with no traffic anywhere.

Kirkandree 2025-11-26 15:45

If I started following a car for a long period of time, 25-30 miles on FSD, not a single phantom, it ‘sees’ an object and no heat waves.

bigKabs 2025-11-26 21:24

When you say "new hybrid approach" wdym? From my understanding haven't they switched to solely vision now for FSD? Or is it the case that the older cars are still running software that utilizes both the sensors and the cameras?

Dry_Helicopter327 2025-11-27 00:30

Gosh I thought this was finally figured out, haven’t had this issue on my 2018 in a few years

Bad_Advice- 2025-11-27 21:33

I’m still researching and about to pull the trigger on a used M3 (probably 2022-2023) so this might be dumb- but can you disable all anti collision settings to avoid this? Obviously in Autopilot that’s not possible. But for the instances where people say in normal driving it used to be a problem? This sounds terrifying lol and I’d much rather disable those safety settings if it avoids this possibility Tia

One-Sundae-2711 2025-11-29 02:31

most annoying thing ever. i sold both my teslas mostly cause of this and autowipe. best thing about my non tesla is i can set cruise and rest my feet on the floor and just relax.

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