Dateline, Düsseldorf! In a move that’s sure to ruffle some feathers at Tesla HQ, a German court has officially ruled that Tesla’s Autopilot system is “unsuitable for use” due to a long-standing issue: phantom braking. You know, that fun little quirk where your car slams the brakes for no reason.
While looking for my latest car, I tested a Kia Ceed. In the 10 minute test drive, it phantom braked 3 times. All the dealer about it and he said “better safe than sorry”. Ended up with a Skoda that once in a while slows down on adaptive cruise control when the car in front of me taking the off-ramp, while the motorway is turning left. Emergency braking seems to only do its think when there’s a reason - so far the car and I have slammed the break at the same time, every time there’s been a reason.
My Škoda Fabia has - in less than a year - hit the brakes twice in situations where it shouldn’t. Granted, both times someone in front slowed down to leave the lane, so it’s not “phantom” breaking, but the situation was completely safe for me, not though, for the people driving behind me. Cruise control is slowly regaining my trust, but those incidents left me alert. Normal reduction of speed is working fine though.