Thoughts from the Driver’s Seat with Mike Nelson
Whooooo Hit the Brakes?
The term “phantom braking” may conjure up images of ghosts and goblins, but it is hardly a seasonal phenomenon. It a technical sense, according to CMU Professor Phil Koopman as quoted by The Washington Post, phantom braking occurs when “the developers do not set the decision threshold properly for deciding when something is there versus a false alarm.” In a more basic sense, phantom braking is what happens when a car’s automated driving system suddenly and unexpectedly slams on the brakes because it incorrectly senses a collision hazard.
The term is almost exclusively used in relation to Tesla vehicles, with hundreds of Tesla drivers having reported phantom braking incidents. In February 2022, NHTSA opened an investigation into the problem, citing “354 complaints alleging unexpected brake activation in 2021-2022 Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.” That investigation is ongoing.
The high incidence of phantom braking also has prompted at least two class action lawsuits against Tesla—the first, filed in California federal court last year, was voluntarily dismissed for unknown reasons; the second, filed in January, remains pending in North Carolina federal court. In the North Carolina case, Costello v. Tesla, plaintiffs allege:
The problem at hand is that Tesla is rushing these features to market when the technology is not yet ready and not yet safe. This rush and thus omission of safety is the crux of this case. Tesla’s Autopilot and AEB Systems have a defect that causes the Class Vehicles’ brakes to falsely engage randomly, unexpectedly, and often with great severity (the “Phantom Braking Defect”, “Sudden Unintended Braking Defect” or the “Defect”). The Sudden Unintended Braking Defect causes the Class Vehicles to detect non-existent obstacles, thereby automatically engaging the Class Vehicle's brakes and causing the Class Vehicles to abruptly slow down or come to a complete stop, sometimes in the middle of traffic. Essentially, Tesla vehicles are now slamming on brakes in the middle of traffic due to Autopilot. Simply put, as a result of the Defect, the Autopilot and AEB systems at issue here are now a safety hazard rather than a beneficial safety feature.
Plaintiffs seek compensatory and punitive damages as well as injunctive relief to require Tesla to recall affected vehicles, replace defective transmissions, and reform its warranty to remove misleading information.
Watch the video to hear Partner Mike Nelson’s thoughts from the driver’s seat about this scary phenomenon—from his own (thankfully) mundane experiences to some more significant events on Florida and California highways.
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