Actor Kevin Dillon is the latest victim of the infamous abrupt stops reported in Tesla cars. The Entourage star was in the middle of a drive-thru car wash when his vehicle locked up, and the line of cars behind him began to run into each other. According to a report by TMZ, the damage was minimal given the circumstances.
Dillon was at a car wash in L.A. where drivers are asked to put their vehicles in neutral so they can roll through and be guided on the tracks. Sources close to him said that he accidentally shifted in his seat, which the Tesla computer system registered as him rising out of the driver’s position. This automatically triggered the brakes, which was bad news for everyone in line. Three cars behind Dillon were all involved in the fender bender, and one person said they might have been injured, prompting a call to the police.
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This is a problem that Tesla has been criticized for before – particularly in car washes. The location Dillon was at reportedly has a sign that warns Tesla drivers not to move around in their seats during the process. The police officer who showed up to write an incident report concluded that Dillon was the cause of the issue, not the car wash itself.
So far Dillon, the car wash, and Tesla have not responded publicly to this story. However, Tesla has been dealing with reports of these abrupt stops for years now. Some drivers and commenters online call it “phantom braking,” though that description can range from a gradual slowing to an abrupt halt. Some of Tesla’s software updates and recalls have been made in part to address this issue.
Numerous reports on phantom braking have compiled the scariest incidents on record. In February of 2022, a Tesla driver was killed in Independence, Missouri when his Tesla Model 3 abruptly dropped from 61 to 12 miles per hour on a busy interstate. According to a report by Oregon’s NBC News affiliate KGW8, formal complaints of phantom braking began to increase after that. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigated the phenomenon, calling it “Unexpected Brake Activation.”
The NHTSA investigation concluded that Tesla’s “Autopilot” features were insufficient, and demanded more data from the company. Tesla was ordered to provide more information by Monday, July 1 or face fines up to $135.8 million. It’s unclear if the company made this deadline.
