Tesla Model 3 Complaints

2,178 consumer complaints on file.

#11560010December 13, 2023
UNKNOWN OR OTHER, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
This happens at 2 particular exits on a 65mph highway. One time the car slows down by 10mph and the other spot it will swerve over almost to the lane next to me and slow down. Just dangerous when someone is tailgating me (thats reality of driving these days) as they will not have time to react and more than likely hit me. It happened once and someone behind me started honking and flashing their lights at me. I have done a bug report for the times it "phantom braked"
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11559994December 13, 2023
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Autosteer was engaged while approaching Weatherford, OK on I40 - Sporadically, the vehicle slammed on the brakes, even though nothing was in front of me, and nothing was behind. The vehicle dropped in speed by almost 20 mph.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11559885December 13, 2023
POWER TRAIN, ELECTRICAL SYSTEM, FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM
My 2021 Tesla Model 3 shuts/powers down WITHOUT warning while driving with a battery charge >0%. This unsafe event has occurred twice now! While the battery gauge displayed 10%, I was driving about 60mph when all of these warning messages appeared prompting me to pull over. As soon as these messages displayed, my car lost all propulsion and I was left stranded in the middle of the road. Both times I narrowly avoided being hit by other vehicles traveling at high speeds since my car died in the roadway. The car was towed to Tesla on both occasions, and they weren't concerned about my safety issue in the slightest. Instead, they said the battery just ran out; however my car displayed that I had about 6-10% charge remaining. So, if the battery were completely depleted (like Tesla says), then the meter should have displayed a 0% reading at the time of the breakdowns or, there is something defective with the battery/computer. Tesla service has refused to investigate the cause of the safety issue and, thus, refused to replace the EV battery (even though my car is still under the manufacturer's warranty). Electric vehicles should not die/run out of battery at 10% charge. However, my EV has done so TWICE! Tesla says that I just ran the car out of battery but has no response when I show them the pictures and video proving that the car died when there was, in fact, a decent amount of charge remaining on the vehicle (PLEASE SEE ATTACHED VIDEO AND PICTURES). If your phone died at 10%, then you would take it back to the manufacturer and demand that they fix the defective product. However, Tesla refuses to help fix my defective vehicle and just tells me that it is "operating as intended". EVs should not just lose all propulsion mid-drive. This creates an unsafe vehicle for me to drive, for my two young daughters in their car seats, and for other drivers who might hit me. I can provide other Tesla owners who have had a similar experience. Please force Tesla to take action!
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11559871December 13, 2023
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Ever since I purchased my 2023 Tesla model 3 I have periodically experienced a phenomenon widely referred to on the web as "phantom braking". Google it (though you probably already know about it). When it makes the biggest impression on me is when I am driving at over 50 MPH on an open highway and the car suddenly slows down, to the extent that it feels like someone is applying the brakes. Every time it happened in recent memory there were no cars in front of me for hundreds if not thousands of feet, which is why it's surprising because there has never been an apparent reason for the sudden deceleration. Instinctively, I look in the rear view mirror to see if anyone is behind me because if someone were relatively close behind me such a sudden slow down could, IMO, cause an accident - or at least alarm the other driver enough to slam on their brakes. Having read about phantom braking I believe that Tesla removed the traditional LIDAR (or equivalent) technology used by other car makers for adaptive speed control or a similar feature, and instead relies solely on cameras to make judgements. This decision, IMO, has led to a dangerous weakness in the reliability of Tesla's cruise control.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11559623December 11, 2023
WHEELS
Found wheel with 8000 miles with no damage form potholes or anything of the shorts to have a crack.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11559566December 11, 2023
STEERING, LANE DEPARTURE: ASSIST, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Summary: FSD malfunctioned, failed to disengage, causing loss of steering control, thus causing car to steer into wrong lane and resulting in an accident. Tesla Service Center refused to inspect unless car is fixed. Car was sent to Crash Champions ( autobody shop) and was quoted $35k to fix. Car was deemed as totaled by Tesla insurance. No response from [email protected] I suspect that the latest FSD software update has caused my car to lose control. Time of incident: 19:28 pm Location : [XXX] , [XXX] Entering from [XXX] . Weather condition: Clear night, well lit. Low traffic. What happened:  My car has been driving in FSD on Lawrence Expressway and it was doing everything correctly. Approaching that upcoming tight bend, the FSD slowed down the car, and I took over by steering the steering wheel to the right to deactivate FSD and taking the tight turn, right before the white rows of triangles on the street. At this moment, the steering wheel forcibly turned to the opposite direction (i.e. left). I tried to correct the steering wheel by turning right even more, but the steering wheel wasn’t responding to my input for a split second. At this moment, my car is now on the wrong lane of Wildwood Ave and my car finally responded to my steering input. I had to swerve in the opposite direction to avoid the incoming traffic and ended up brushing against an SUV, followed by an impact on the curb, before finally slowing down. Seeing that there was incoming traffic from the back, I drove down to a residential street to park my car for safety reason. The SUV driver called the police to handle the situation, we had our information and testimonies recorded down. I have already followed the safe practices of driving with FSD according to the manual, but in this situation, I am not certain which technology is responsible for causing my car to override my manual steering input. This led to me to question the driver safety systems in this car. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11559426December 11, 2023
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Please help Phantom braking is getting worse
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11559344December 10, 2023
STEERING
On 12-2-23, I started to feel my steering wheel getting stiff while driving.The car started to feel unsafe to drive as it was very difficult to steer to the point that I ended up being unable to turn and hit a curb on two occasions. On 12-3-23, I started getting alerts in my vehicle about traction control being disabled, automatic emergency braking unavailable, stability control disabled and that I needed to schedule a service center appointment. I dropped my vehicle off at a Tesla service center as I felt that the car was unsafe to drive because turning was very difficult. The service center diagnosed my car and indicated that my steering rack needed replacing along with a wheel alignment. It was not covered by my warranty as the service center believed that the issue was due to impact because of the curbs that I hit. However, these issues occurred prior to the impact and the curb hits were a result of the failing steering rack. I purchased my vehicle on 6-17-23, and it was manufactured at the end of 05-23. My vehicle had 10k miles on it before the steering rack needed replacing.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11558979December 7, 2023
SEAT BELTS
The rear middle seatbelt in my Telsa Model 3 is stuck. Somehow it got stuck behind the middle seat after the seat was put down to put long items in the trunk. Tesla mobile service sent a tech to my house but he alleged intentional misuse - as if me or my family intentionally were playing with a seatbelt and wrapping it around a seat. Furthermore, even if we were to assume intentional misuse was correct I have 2 questions: 1 - why is the top of the seat belt (where the seat belt comes out of the seat) unable to be pulled to create any slack? 2 - why does Telsa need to replace a part if the seatbelt, or seatbelt mechanisms, are not defective? After searching online this seems to be a somewhat common problem with Tesla - especially the Model 3, at least as early as 2021 - both on reddit and Tesla Motor Club forum - this seems to be a recurring problem. How does one know it cannot get stuck while driving or while someone is buckled in and cannot be released or have any slack? This is a major safety issue.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11558820December 6, 2023
POWER TRAIN, STEERING, VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
This car has demonstrated repeated incidents of moving/driving backwards when it is set in Drive/Forward via the steering wheel control. This was first reported to Tesla in December of 22. Their service center responded that they could not identify a cause or propose a repair. They commented that it was an engineering and/or software problem. I provided them with multiple date/time stamps. videos of the car performing this way. In the interim the car has demonstrated ghost braking at high speed on an empty freeway. A complaint regarding this concern was provided to NTSA and I have not had a response. The car has subsequently repeatedly moved backward when in Drive. I also have videos of these occurrences. I returned the car to the service center for these behaviors and was told that there was nothing that could be done. The service center said that I "canceled" my request for servicing, and noted that in the Tesla service files. I did not cancel my appointment. They refused to examine and service the car. We recently experienced the car steering wheel locking and inableing the wheel to be turned right, during a 3 point parking exit. I took the car in and was told that the problem was a "firmware" update problem. The problem of driving in reverse when the car is placed in Drive has repeated itself in the past 3 weeks, and I again have videos of this occurrence. This in particular is a dangerous action as it can result in a collision or injury to persons. It is a servo-motor and control problem.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11558657December 5, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
When using Cruise control the car will brake suddenly even when there is no obstacle in front. This happens often. The phantom braking can be dangerous if someone is following at freeway speeds and not expecting the car ahead to brake. Also, when using cruise control the windshield wipers are automatically placed on auto. The windshield wipers will then go on and off as the sunlight changes, when no precipitation is evident. We often have to pause cruise control because the windshield wipers will not stop.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11558300December 4, 2023
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
It was a raining day. When I turned 90 degree to my right into the parking lot from local road, I hit the brake and the car slowed down for turning. FSD or autopilot were off for sure. Then I felt the car was moving down suddenly and made a big noise due to the a slightly slope down when I turned. I saw a parking slot right in front of me. I hit the accelerator a fraction of second to prevent the car to stop. In a fraction of second, the car accelerated like crazy. I immediately hit the brake very hard (95% of my force on brake). I have 30 years of driving experience. I knew that I hit the brake tightly, but the car still kept accelerate like crazy. I could forever remember the feel and moment of my foot was in the brake. Even after the accident, I went to test the Tesla car. I could feel the difference of brake and accelerator since the accelerator is much easier to push down and I needed to push much deeper in the right of my right foot for accelerator. And the brake is hard, and close to my foot. I thought the car would stop like what I had been driving this car for one year and about 20,000 miles. However, the car was stopping at all, but keeping accelerating for 2 seconds. No warning lights and AEB were on at working. The car hit the short of concrete wall and steel fence and then dropped and hit the tree in right front of me. Finally the car dropped into the short cliff. The airbags were off and warning lights were on. My son and me could use the manual door opener to go out.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11558074December 2, 2023
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
When I was trying to park my Tesla Model 3 car it suddenly accelerated and hit a parked car in front of me. I took the car to the repair shop and told them the situation. My reason for the accident didn’t make sense to them so I stated that I may have pressed accelerator instead of brakes but I know that I didn’t press the accelerator. My car has been at the repair shop since 10/14/2023. So, far no one from the Tesla Motors, Inc. came to investigate the claim. Even if they repair the car, I don’t feel comfortable driving the car due to the fact that unintended acceleration may repeat itself.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11557896December 1, 2023
SERVICE BRAKES
on Nov 26, 2023. I parked the car in driveway. After sometime started car to go someplace. The car could not move front or back and gave metal rubbing sound. Called tesla road side and arrange a tow truck. Car was towed to tesla service center in Springfield, New Jersey. On Nov 27, Tesla informed me on app to pick the car. I picked the car back on Nov 28. 2023. Tesla service informed by that they could not replicate the issue of brake jamming. They did some tests and told me that car is fine and safe to drive. At the time of pickup the technician told be that it could be software issue. (instances of brake switch mismatch) Want to inform that this is brake jamming issue and can stop the car any where. No clear or satisfactory explanation given be Tesla. I continue to drive the car.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11557318November 28, 2023
AIR BAGS, AIR BAGS:SENSOR:OCCUPANT CLASSIFICATION
I have front passenger Service Alerts for the code SRS system and it happened many times. Tesla does service center can not fix the problem and keep telling me monitor the problem if it happens again. The code is RCM2_a636_ocsFaulted. Tesla service center tested the SRS system, updated software calibration and lastly today Tesla technician send me the software update and I updated it. The code shows up right away when I drove the car to the local super market. What can I do about this problem Sir.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11557216November 28, 2023
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Vehicle will repeatedly aggressively brake while using “Enhanced Autopilot”, posing a danger to any cars behind. Complaints given to Tesla have been unresolved.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11556904November 27, 2023
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Car was charging in garage overnight when an interior dash electrical fire started. Fire burnt dash and smoke damaged the interior or car. Fire smoldered itself out, and car was considered a total loss. Collision center that picked up vehicle stated that they believed the fire started from an electrical charging fault at the harness in the dash.
Crash:
No
Fire:
Yes
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11556575November 23, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Adaptive cruise control falsely decelerated on dozens of occasions during a single 500 mile road trip. Sudden braking in the vicinity of other vehicles may cause a crash. Tesla's service technician stated "no hardware related faults were found" and "potential incorrect object detections leading to slowdowns may occur".
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11556190November 21, 2023
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, SERVICE BRAKES
The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while attempting to park at 5 MPH, the brake pedal was depressed however the vehicle accelerated independently. As a result, the contact crashed into the two parked vehicles on the side of the parking space she was attempting to park. No air bags were deployed. One parked vehicle had an occupant and the other was unoccupied. There were no injuries or medical attention required. A police report was filed. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and the vehicle was taken to an unknown dealer where it was unable to be diagnosed due to no available appointment. The dealer then suggested the vehicle be towed to the contact's residence where it currently remains in the garage. Tesla informed the contact that the brake system would not be inspected until she repaired the crash cosmetic damage to the vehicle. The approximate failure mileage was 33,000.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11555971November 20, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
The car's autopilot suddenly causes it to slow down without any apparent reason. There are no cars in front of me, and the speed limit hasn't changed. This unexpected deceleration is dangerous because the cars behind me may try to avoid me during the slowdown, which could lead to an accident.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0

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