2021 TESLA MODEL 3 Lane Departure Problems
33 complaints about Lane Departure
High Severity Issue
This component has been associated with crashes, fires, or deaths.
This Problem Across All Years
All Lane Departure Complaints (33)
The car, with no known or evident driver, stopped the lane awareness, cruise control, etc. All of those just stopped working and per Tesla that's expected which is surprising since it's all part of the safety systems. The car's visual cues stopped identifying lanes and as a byproduct of that, none of the dependent features work.
Tesla full self driving software malfunctioned and turned into oncoming traffic lanes instead of crossing over to the correct opposite side of the roadway. This occurred after getting off a on ramp in Ukiah, California around 2am Nov 15, 2025. This could have put others in serious danger if there were cars coming in the oncoming lanes heading in the different direction. The problem has not been reproduced by a dealer or other entity. Yet This has happened to other tesla drivers as well using FSD as you are probably already aware. No inspection and it was sudden and unexpected.
Steering rack failure. Steering assist, auto pilot and lane departure prevention failed and would not work properly so this is a safety issue. Manual steering worked fine but the safety and auto pilot functions would no longer function. Paid for Tesla service over $3,000 to replace steering rack and now is working properly. Reporting this as this may happen to others and probably should be a proactive recall on the steering racks so others don't lose these safety features. Maybe related to computer as it failed, worked again and then failed again and was then repaired by Tesla service center.
Steering rack failure. Steering assist, auto pilot and lane departure prevention failed and would not work properly so this is a safety issue. Manual steering worked fine but the safety and auto pilot functions would no longer function. Paid for Tesla service over $3,000 to replace steering rack and now is working properly. Reporting this as this may happen to others and probably should be a proactive recall on the steering racks so others don't lose these safety features. Maybe related to computer as it failed, worked again and then failed again and was then repaired by Tesla service center.
Component/System involved: Advanced Driver Assistance Systems — FSD (Supervised)/Autosteer (Lane Keeping Assistance) and Adaptive Cruise Control. Possible failure to warn/stop (FCW/AEB). Vehicle and data are available for inspection upon request. I preserved dashcam files and requested Tesla to preserve engineering logs and EDR. What happened & safety risk: On [XXX] at ~[XXX] PDT on [XXX] near East Palo Alto, CA, with FSD (Supervised) engaged, the system appeared to misinterpret an exit ramp/gore area as a continuing lane at a highway fork and maintained ~60 mph (posted ~70). As soon as I saw the trajectory was unsafe, I braked and began manual steering takeover, but the vehicle contacted a roadside sign near the gore/shoulder before I could complete the maneuver. I then stopped safely. No other vehicles were struck. Airbags did not deploy. This posed a serious collision risk to me, my passenger, and nearby traffic. Reproduction/confirmation: NOT REPRODUCED. I have not attempted to reproduce the event. UNKNOWN whether the issue has been reproduced by Tesla or a service center yet. Inspection to date: Police responded (report pending). My insurer has opened a claim. I opened a Tesla Service request asking to PRESERVE Autopilot/FSD engineering logs for the incident window and to coordinate EDR extraction; engineering review pending. Vehicle remains drivable. Warnings or symptoms before failure: No audible/visual forward-collision warning was perceived by me and I did not observe automatic emergency braking. No prior warning lamps/messages were noticed before the departure toward the gore. UNKNOWN whether any internal/partial interventions were recorded in logs. Evidence available: Four-camera Tesla dashcam footage saved and backed up (see [XXX] ); precise time window ~[XXX] PDT on [XXX]. I can provide files and cooperate with data retrieval/inspection upon request. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
My Tesla was operating in Full-Self-Driving Beta when it experienced a sudden uncontrolled accelration event. I was driving on [XXX] at approximatley [XXX] this morning. The road speed limit was 40 mph. The car display was correctly showing that the road speed limit was 40mph. The speed offset in the cars setting was limited to 5 mph max above the speed limit. While the car was driving it suddenly accelerated very hard from approximately 40 mph to over 60mph before I was able to stab the brake pedal and kick the car out of full self driving mode. There were no errors, warnings, or signs that anything was wrong with the car. I have also notified Tesla via the service request function in the Tesla App under the section for "software performance". INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
1. Autosteer/Lane assist failure, yes its available for inspection upon request with Tesla 2. Due to above failure met with a crash which led to severe medical issues 3. The car has been totalled and the car is not functional, waiting on Tesla to inspect and confirm 4. Police has filed a crash report but manufacturer, insurance yet to inspect the vehicle or component 5. Absolutely NO WARNING lamps/messages prior to the failure.
1. Autosteer/Lane assist failure, yes its available for inspection upon request with Tesla 2. Due to above failure met with a crash which led to severe medical issues 3. The car has been totalled and the car is not functional, waiting on Tesla to inspect and confirm 4. Police has filed a crash report but manufacturer, insurance yet to inspect the vehicle or component 5. Absolutely NO WARNING lamps/messages prior to the failure.
lost power steering suddenly on the road.
Autonomous Driving Problem [XXX] Driving from Cornelia, GA to Commerce, GA on [XXX] at 60 mph driving on the right lane with very lite traffic. 6 different times the FSD (Full Self Driving) (Supervised) 2021 Tesla Model 3 starts signaling left and changes lanes with no traffic or vehicles in front. The 5th time FSD (Supervised) changed lane to the left was a near car accident because a car was speeding at 70-80 mph from the rear and the vehicle changed lanes in front of the speeding car nearly causing an accident. The autonomous cabin driver detection sensor does continuously give false positive warning messages to the driver to "Pay attention to the road" when I am wearing my glasses, so I have to drive without my glasses. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Autonomous Driving Problem [XXX] Driving from Cornelia, GA to Commerce, GA on [XXX] at 60 mph driving on the right lane with very lite traffic. 6 different times the FSD (Full Self Driving) (Supervised) 2021 Tesla Model 3 starts signaling left and changes lanes with no traffic or vehicles in front. The 5th time FSD (Supervised) changed lane to the left was a near car accident because a car was speeding at 70-80 mph from the rear and the vehicle changed lanes in front of the speeding car nearly causing an accident. The autonomous cabin driver detection sensor does continuously give false positive warning messages to the driver to "Pay attention to the road" when I am wearing my glasses, so I have to drive without my glasses. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
My 2021 Tesla Model 3 has various issues with the auto pilot feature. When engaged the car makes sudden and abrupt stops while driving. This has happened various times while driving on the freeway when there were no obstructions present. The autopilot feature also prompts to change to the right lane, when dismissed the prompt appears again repeatedly. This is repeated throughout the drive and poses a major distraction. There was supposed to be an “over-the-air” correction but my vehicle has never received the software update.
Autopilot feature is now unstable as I get constant nags if I look away for a few seconds to check my surroundings or check my navigation.i have been locked out of the feature multiple times over the past week forcing me to make navigation changes while manually driving.
Ul_a022_ApeFusesEtc Audience [service-fix, factory) Description Driver Assistance ECU (APE) is not fused or not locked or missing credentials Set Condition Driver Assistance ECU is not fused or not locked or missing credentials Clear Condition Driver Assistance ECU is fused, locked and has proper credentials Potential Impact Driver Assistance ECU is in an unsecured state (unfused)
Electrical system rebooted in the middle of driving: screen went off couldn't signal i swayed to the side and waited till the screen came back on after 3 minutes.
I believe that Tesla's autosteer and Full self driving features are improperly designed. I will speak to them as if they were one and the same. I noticed that you have a check box for Lane Keeping Assistance above, but there is no checkbox for coercive auto steering, which is Tesla's product. The only ability it offers as far as steering the car is to forcibly disengage the autosteering feature. This is not assistance and this is the problem. A properly designed Lane Keeping Assistance feature continuously monitors driver steering action, lane position, and traffic conditions. If the Lane Keeping Assistance system finds itself 'alone' with little or no measurable input from the driver, action is called for. With the Tesla, the feature has an embarrassingly stupid 'driver attention check' which, until recently, could be easily defeated by the simple addition of a weight to one side of the steering wheel or the other. In a misguided attempt to correct this ridiculously poor design, they have recently made matters much worse. Now they distract the driver's attention from driving by forcing the playing of some sort of 'patty cake' type game, which does prove alertness of the driver, but detracts from the real and necessary work of circumventing the actual threats encountered in everyday driving. In short, a proper Lane Keeping Assistance feature should not be totally ignorant of the driver's subtle driving moves (it's an excellent feature as long as autosteering isn't engaged) and should honor requests to move into different parts of the lane long before disengaging, and no attention measuring system should come at the expense of driver awareness of actual issues. I have tried through email and phone to convince Tesla that something needs to be done, but have received no response from them.
In vehicle speaker system occasionally resets, keeping speakers from making noise during a 5-10 second window. This keeps in-vehicle chimes and collision warnings from sounding at appropriate volumes.
Tesla allows owners to enroll as FSD beta testers however, the owner cannot unenroll when they request. The FSD beta is extremely dangerous and makes the use of even ACC impossible to use. I have requested to leave the beta via emailing [email protected], which an automatic response is received stating to unenroll respond to that email with your VIN and they will process the request. However, they do not process the request; I have sent dozens of email requests with no response and am still stuck in the beta software queue. I have attempted to submit service requests but the app recognizes the verbiage and blocks the submissions, stating to send the email instead. There is no other method to contact Tesla.
Pillar cameras constantly complain blocked or blinded. Services refused to even look into the issue blaming glare from the sun, even when happening to both on opposite sides of the car at the same time. Report it even happens at night I am told it might be too dark for the camera. Did not occur like this on my 2019 Tesla Model 3. This seems to be causing random unexpected lane departure alerts or failures in lane keeping on cruise control or with lane assist. Message are extremely frequent and distracting. Message placement is blocked by arm while holding the steering wheel requiring me to take my eyes off the road to read. Been complaining about this for months, one of the two cameras (drivers side) was replaced which improved the issues with that side complaining but passenger side complains extremely often. Drivers side issue not 100% resolved but improved after replacement, possible cabling or MCU/ECU issue. Instead of looking at the issue Tesla insists the cameras must be dirty, moisture, too bright, too dark, etc. And fails to even examine components. Recent appointment canceled by Tesla after the scheduled date and time without notice. Camera doesn't appear to detect or recognize people or objects in that cameras visions creating what appears to be a blind spot when viewing in vehicle display. Have repeatedly seen person walking around my car will disappear from the screen around the passenger front quarter but reappear when in front of the vehicle or by the rear quarter.
Pillar cameras constantly complain blocked or blinded. Services refused to even look into the issue blaming glare from the sun, even when happening to both on opposite sides of the car at the same time. Report it even happens at night I am told it might be too dark for the camera. Did not occur like this on my 2019 Tesla Model 3. This seems to be causing random unexpected lane departure alerts or failures in lane keeping on cruise control or with lane assist. Message are extremely frequent and distracting. Message placement is blocked by arm while holding the steering wheel requiring me to take my eyes off the road to read. Been complaining about this for months, one of the two cameras (drivers side) was replaced which improved the issues with that side complaining but passenger side complains extremely often. Drivers side issue not 100% resolved but improved after replacement, possible cabling or MCU/ECU issue. Instead of looking at the issue Tesla insists the cameras must be dirty, moisture, too bright, too dark, etc. And fails to even examine components. Recent appointment canceled by Tesla after the scheduled date and time without notice. Camera doesn't appear to detect or recognize people or objects in that cameras visions creating what appears to be a blind spot when viewing in vehicle display. Have repeatedly seen person walking around my car will disappear from the screen around the passenger front quarter but reappear when in front of the vehicle or by the rear quarter.
Side camera glare at night when signaling
Tesla offers a blind spot camera, standard on the vehicle, which activates automatically when the turn-signal is active on the appropriate side. The blind-spot camera feed appears on the center screen. The feed comes from each of the side cameras mounted to the external portion of the car. Since the side turn-signal is mounted right above the same blind-spot cameras, the light from the turn-signal often 'bleeds' into the camera feed used by the driver to determine if the appropriate lane is clear. At night, this causes the blind-spot camera video difficult to view since the video feed alternates between 'normal' video and a bright, flushed out video, matching the turn-signal timer. The end result is often times I, the driver having difficulty observing cars on the side of my vehicle at night. More specifically, several times I have missed the headlights of cars in the lane next to me because the turn signal light, bleeding into the camera feed, obscure or hides the car and/or headlights (since they driver's eyes have to chateaubriand adjust between a bright andrark video feed flashing). This causes me to start merging into a lane which I believe is clear, only to have to quickly swerve back into my original lane when I realize the lane is not clear. Both the driver in the new lane and myself are put at risk, unnecessarily when this occurs. I have reached out to the manufacturer for this complaint. In writing, they have admitted this is a problem and even though my car is only 10 months into a 4 year warranty, they will only fix this safety issue if I pay for a replacement part. This seems unacceptable to me to force customers to pay for a safety fix. The failed component is available for inspection. I have sample video available to demonstrate the problem. There are no warning lights for any components. The manufacturer does not need to inspect the component since they already know, and admit to the shortcomings, per my written conversation with them.
This defect affects the lane departure warning system of my vehicle. In certain situations, the lane departure warning system incorrectly activates when the vehicle is turning (vs. leaving a lane). On one occasion, the system activated while turning from my driveway onto the adjacent roadway. On another occasion, the system activated while leaving a parking spot. On both occasions, the vehicle was traveling less than 5 MPH and was not departing from a lane. When the lane departure warning activates, a loud noise is triggered, along with an alert on the center display. A driver's natural response in this scenario is to slow down mid-turn, potentially resulting in unsafe conditions for both driver and nearby motorists.
The car was on FSD jerked right toward a semi truck then jerked left toward the posts in the median as it was accelerating and FSD would not turn off. Was trying to control the car but it kept pushing and accelerating causing us to crash in to the median posts. Normally FSD would turn off if it was unsure but this day it would not. Plus other times it would phantom brake if we were on 2 lane road and met on oncoming large truck. We also had other times of phantom braking going over a hill. We have reported this to Tesla but no response yet. We owned this car 11 days when our wreck happened.
The Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Auto-Steer are easily confused so that the vehicle does unexpected things like suddenly slowing down, even heavy breaking, or disengage steering control while in a corner next to semi-truck. This commonly happens when driving at higher speeds, 70 MPH, on the freeway. Suddenly slowing down at such a high speed is dangerous when there are cars following me as they don’t expect a sudden slow down when they can clearly see there is no reason for our car slamming on the brakes. In my observation this problems occur most frequently at higher speeds and when approaching a semi truck or overpass. It is especially worse when going through a corner. Sometimes the center barrier seems to cause sudden slowing down. Also, driving in a corner on the freeway while driving next to a semi truck has caused the auto steer to suddenly disengage which in itself was not dangerous since I had both hands on the steering wheel, it certainly startled me which could potentially be dangerous.
System: Traffic Aware Cruise Control Safety Risk: Full regenerative breaking in the fast lane on a highway with a car following behind. Car behind had to initiate emergency braking. Reproduced by Dealer: Did not contact dealer Inspected by Manufacturer: Did not contact manufacturer Warnings: No, braking automatically initiated System: Lane Departure Warning Safety Risk: Misreading a parking garage and initiating lane departure warning chime Reproduced by Dealer: Did not contact dealer Inspected by Manufacturer: Did not contact manufacturer Warnings: Yes, warning chime initiated and warning message.
On 1/3/21, approximately 2pm. Driving south on I-77 in the city of Broadview Heights. In center lane of highway with Autopilot (speed and steering only) on. A Hummer in my left lane drifts into my lane and hits my car (I have video). No alarms or alerts went off to warn me. No automatic steering occurred. My car continued in lane and at speed (about 64mph), until my driver mirror broke off and adjusted my position to the left. Broadview Height police report # [XXX]. I have a service request into Tesla. I am awaiting the at-fault party insurance to contact me to begin repair process. To above questions: -I am suspicious about the ultrasonic sensors and/or camera and it failure to warn me I was about to be hit. -I was hit on my driver's side by a car that was not detected by my Tesla -I have a service request made to Tesla, awaiting response -No inspections or diagnostics have been performed yet by Tesla -No warning occurred. I am very familiar with the warning my car can produce: things like drifting out of my lane; someone in front of me braking hard; or Autopilot applying brakes when it thinks a car is in front of me (when it's actually on a curved road). INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
Several times during every drive where Cruise Control/Autopilot is used, an event known as "Phantom Braking" occurs often time triggering the collision warning systems with no danger present. Phantom breaking is the automatic braking of the Cruise Control/Autopilot systems when no danger is present, causing an unexpected and dangerous automatic braking event. I wish to emphasize that this happens when either system is used under safe conditions and even within the guidelines recommended by Tesla. It is available for inspection should it be necessary. During these events, a vehicle following mine can and has been caught off-guard by the sudden braking, resulting in near-miss rear-endings. The danger of a vehicle collision is extremely high in these scenarios. The problem happens consistently on two-lane roads with no median using standard cruise control (Autopilot is only recommended on divided highways/interstates). Phantom braking still occurs at random in varied environments with both systems. My vehicle has not been taken to a dealer, but the issue has been confirmed/acknowledged by the manufacturer with no solution. This vehicle is new and delivered to me this year. The problem has been occurring since taking ownership/lease. Aside from the the emergency collision warning chime occurring sometimes at the same time as the braking event, there are no symptoms, warnings, or lamps appearing prior to the automatic braking nor afterwards. I have attempted to use the vehicle's camera recalibration and have changed available safety settings to every combination possible to attempt a consumer fix for the issue, but no combination of settings seems to keep the automatic braking events from happening
On a daily basis while using the Adaptive Cruise Control or Tesla Autopilot, I will experience multiple erroneous automatic braking events. The car generally slams the brakes on when it is cresting a hill, attempting to pass a semi truck, or when sun angles produce large shadows in the road. The automatic braking events are sometimes very aggressive and can be extremely dangerous, especially if someone is following behind you in high speed traffic. My wife has requested that I don’t use cruise control or autopilot while she’s in the car, as we experienced an unwarranted, aggressive automatic braking episode which caused great pressure against her pregnant belly on a previous road trip. Additionally, the cameras on my vehicle will often produce warning/error messages stating “X camera is blocked or blinded” for absolutely no reason other than headlights from oncoming traffic shining into my lane. I am unsure if this contributes to the automatic braking issue.
I was driving on FSD Beta but when an alien landed on the road in front of me. The FSD Beta software did not detect the alien’s vehicle and almost hit her as she was stepping out. System initiated beeps and I tried to take control but it forced control away from me and tried to steer towards the alien. I had to kick the car to get control back. Very dangerous to everyone involved.
TESLA MODEL 3, WHILE DRIVING WILL REPORT A LEFT/RIGHT COLUMN CAMERA, IS OBSTRUCTED DO TO CONDENSATION ON THE INSIDE OF THE CAMERA COVER. WHILE DRIVING ON THIS INTERRUPTS ADVANCED DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS SUCH AS AUTO LANE CHANGE, BLIND-SPOT DETECTION, AND LANE DEPARTURE WARNING. THIS HAS ME CONCERNED ABOUT THE SAFETY OF THE ADAS FEATURES AS CONDENSATION HAS IMPEDED FUNCTIONALITY MULTIPLE TIMES WHILE USING THE FEATURE DRIVING AT HIGHWAY SPEEDS.
Mileage: 1,200
TESLA MODEL 3, WHILE DRIVING WILL REPORT A LEFT/RIGHT COLUMN CAMERA, IS OBSTRUCTED DO TO CONDENSATION ON THE INSIDE OF THE CAMERA COVER. WHILE DRIVING ON THIS INTERRUPTS ADVANCED DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS SUCH AS AUTO LANE CHANGE, BLIND-SPOT DETECTION, AND LANE DEPARTURE WARNING. THIS HAS ME CONCERNED ABOUT THE SAFETY OF THE ADAS FEATURES AS CONDENSATION HAS IMPEDED FUNCTIONALITY MULTIPLE TIMES WHILE USING THE FEATURE DRIVING AT HIGHWAY SPEEDS.
Mileage: 1,200
TESLA MODEL 3, WHILE DRIVING WILL REPORT A LEFT/RIGHT COLUMN CAMERA, IS OBSTRUCTED DO TO CONDENSATION ON THE INSIDE OF THE CAMERA COVER. WHILE DRIVING ON THIS INTERRUPTS ADVANCED DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS SUCH AS AUTO LANE CHANGE, BLIND-SPOT DETECTION, AND LANE DEPARTURE WARNING. THIS HAS ME CONCERNED ABOUT THE SAFETY OF THE ADAS FEATURES AS CONDENSATION HAS IMPEDED FUNCTIONALITY MULTIPLE TIMES WHILE USING THE FEATURE DRIVING AT HIGHWAY SPEEDS.
Mileage: 1,200