In this series I am giving feedback on some quirks I notice with the new Tesla Model Y (2026).
Let me start by saying that the car is a great car, despite any negative things might say below. Overall, this is a wonderful vehicle, which I would recommend more than any other EV from another brand.
Traffic Aware – But Sometimes Too Aware
I drive with cruise control all the time, even in town. With my previous cars I always used the “dumb” cruise control – the one that just keeps the speed but doesn’t care about traffic. My last car had adaptive cruise control, which I used on the interstate at times but not in town – for a good reason.
Unfortunately, Teslas do not have a “dumb” cruise control – only the traffic aware cruise control (TACC).
The good thing about TACC is that it slows down if the car in front of you slows down and accelerates back to your set speed when the car moves out of your lane or speeds up. It even comes to a stop at a traffic light and starts driving when it turns green – that is nice.
However, the biggest problem I have with TACC is the phantom breaking. Sometimes it breaks for no reason at all, because someone in another lane breaks. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen too often, but it does happen.
What is more distracting, is sudden hard breaking if a turning car crosses my lane. Even if this car crosses far enough ahead that I do not have to slow down, the Tesla breaks, often very hard and usually after the car already left my lane again. It even breaks if I am following another car (at distance via TACC) and a car crosses in front of this other car.
This is clearly a software issue. Why? Because it does not happen during Full Self Driving (FSD supervised). When in FSD, and the same situation occurs, the car keeps going and does not break unless the situation is really dangerous. So, it is programmed well in FSD but not in TACC. One would think if it works in one system, it should work in the other.
But Then We Break Late
With this in mind, it makes me wonder why the car does not break earlier when approaching cars standing at a traffic light. If I am using cruise control, say at 45mph, and approach a traffic light where there are several cars already standing in my lane, the car begins breaking really late and then has to break hard to come to a stop.
Again, while this always works and there is no safety issue, why is it so finnicky about a lane crossing but then so aggressive when approaching a traffic light? One would think that decelerating a bit earlier would be better here, after all it does it right in FSD – again.
And The Turning Lanes
Finally, when a street splits up, adding wide turning lanes, the car tends to break when moving into the turning lanes. My assumption is that it does not realize the street layout in this case. This does not happen for every turning lane, just for very wide ones or double turning lanes. It also is not the Curvature Assist. No, this is direct breaking. And once more, it does not happen in FSD in the same situation.
These behaviors of the traffic aware cruise control in the Tesla Model Y are annoying but I strongly believe they can be remedied via software update. Again, if these behaviors do not happen in FSD, then the programmers have already solved the problem – they just need to make the same solution available for TACC.
By The Way
If you want a good cover for the glass roof, I suggest the REEVA Roof Sunshade. I love this shade, in the Arizona heat it protects the interior from too much sun. The glass itself is already very good shielding from UV and heat but with this sunshade you get perfect protection.
Get the Tesla Parking Only sign here.
