Tesla Model Y Complaints
4,325 consumer complaints on file.
- #11471698June 30, 2022SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
With car in cruise control on freeway, sudden and hard application of brakes by vehicle, no human input.
- Crash:
- No
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11471873June 30, 2022FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
While driving on the highway with no other cars around while using cruise control, the car would slam on the brakes on its own slowing down by 20mph or more. At times there were other cars around and if there had been a car behind us we would have been rear-ended. Reading it appears this has been reported 1000's of times to nhtsa, but also on numerous forums. The Tesla dealership said " Our diagnostics are not showing any hardware faults, and there would be no further action that can be taken by Tesla Service at an in-person appt. At this time these behaviors are a limitation of software in the system." No warnings, msgs or other symptoms prior to the sudden breaking
- Crash:
- No
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11471846June 30, 2022VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
When using cruise control (with or without auto steering to stay within a lane), the car randomly breaks. This does not appear to be associate with signage along the road. It appears to happen more frequently in the right most lane. There are certain locations where this problem always occurs, but we cannot determine what is different about that particular exit than others. The most dangerous situations have been when the breaking occurs with a car closely following while driving on an interstate in the mountains (I-70). A relative driving my car was almost rear ended at those speeds while driving on I-70. The breaking is random and unexpected, which makes it more dangerous because as driver you are not prepared for this to occur. At a speed limit of 65mph, when you are driving in a curve and suddenly the car brakes, especially when using regenerative breaking, it is the same as slamming on the brakes. This could cause you to loose control over your car. The issue has been known to Tesla but has not been fixed and new cars are advertised and sold with adaptive cruise control when in fact they are faulty, rendering the feature useless at best, dangerous in most cases.
- Crash:
- No
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11471829June 30, 2022LANE DEPARTURE: BLIND SPOT DETECTION, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Several times, after over the air software updates, several components of the electrical systems would stop working, including GPS & cameras, resulting in no cruise control, no back up camera, no navigation, no blind spot warning/heads up collision warning/lane departure warning. Essentially, all safety features, cruise control and navigation fail when GPS and cameras fail. In all cases, the reset options provided such as powering off the carf, powering off the screen etc did not help and instead the 12 V battery had to be disconnected, sometimes more than once, before car would reset to a safe state. this requires removal of a panel, removal of cabin filter, removal of cable to battery. This is a time consuming process and could theoretically void warranties. We are waiting for the next software update to see if replacement of a control board by Tesla this week fixed the issue.
- Crash:
- No
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11471828June 30, 2022SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
I was traveling on the highway in Indiana between Bloomington and Indianapolis. I started to experience the car braking for no apparent reason. As I continued on my trip and reached a top speed of 75 mph, the car suddenly and without warning slammed on the brakes! It took me a minute to react and regain control of the car. I absolutely would have been rear-ended if anyone had been nearby or possibly caused a chain reaction accident. I am extremely lucky and now very remiss about purchasing this car. I luckily had a passenger who looked up what was happening. We turned off the emergency braking for the remainder of the trip but it is not something you can turn off permanently. You have to turn it off every single time you start a new trip. I wanted this incident reported so Tesla is forced to deal with this issue immediately.
- Crash:
- No
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11471539June 29, 2022FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
On Saturday, 25 June, while driving our 2022 Tesla Model Y north on highway 395 between Lone Pine and Bishop, California, and while cruise control (but not lane assist) was active, I experienced three instances of so-called phantom braking. More precisely, on three occasions within a 10 to 20 minute window, the car automatically braked sharply despite there being no vehicle or other obstacle ahead of me. Each time, the braking was sudden, forceful, and without justification. Had a car been following closely behind me, I could well have been involved in a collision. I stress that my foot was not on the brake pedal when the phantom braking took place. After the 3rd episode, I turned cruise control off and drove another couple of hours (to Mammoth Lakes) without incident. The following day, my wife and I drove the Tesla to our home in the Bay Area. We did not activate cruise control at any point during this approximately 6 hour drive, and experienced no additional incidents. Understandably, we are reluctant to re-attempt the use of cruise control any time soon. I have owned this Tesla Model Y since January of 2022, and these were the first instances of phantom braking.
- Crash:
- No
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11471308June 28, 2022VISIBILITY/WIPER
Windshield cracked from midway of windshield to the bottom. I have heard of/seen a significant number of similar cracks on Tesla Model Y.
- Crash:
- No
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11471459June 28, 2022POWER TRAIN, STEERING, SERVICE BRAKES
Steering wheel locked up and would not let driver navigate off-ramp from freeway. Car attempted to force driver to merge into a stopped lane. Auto-pilot features engaged in screen but they were not manually activated. Car attempted to cause an accident.
- Crash:
- No
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11471422June 28, 2022FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
I own a 2021Tesla Model Y. I took possession of it on August 7, 2021, in Santa Barbara, Ca. Ever since, I have had thousands of instances of automatic emergency braking (phantom braking) episodes while using cruise control or autopilot. On January 26, 2022, I had 47 episodes, in just a couple of hours. This is typical. My latest incident of phantom braking occurred on June 27, 2022. In August 2021, I was promised by Tesla that a software update would be issued soon to remedy the problem. It still hasn't. I'm very exasperated. I understand Tesla was supposed to give you information about this issue on June 20, 2022. I am anxious to hear about Tesla's response. Furthermore, I sincerely hope the Tesla has told you they are fixing the problem. Has it? Please let me know of updates and proposed fixes to Tesla's phantom braking.
- Crash:
- No
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11471304June 28, 2022EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Turn signal does not always activate. If I hit the turn signal stalk so it goes past the first detent (for three blinks) but not hard enough to get to the second detent (on until cancelled or turn completed), it does not come on at all, either the three blinks or constant blinking. This is dangerous because the turn signal does not activate predictably, especially when changing lanes on the highway. I should be able to tap the turn signal to get the 3 blinks to come on and then switch lanes, but when used this way it does not always come on. I had this inspected by a Tesla Mobile Service technician and he reproduced what I reported but said this is working as intended because it is detecting an "accidental bump" and not activating. My vehicle is available for inspection upon request. There are no warning lights or messages.
- Crash:
- No
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11471276June 28, 2022SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
The car was delivered to me today. It has 15 miles on the odometer. The brakes do not work. I almost crashed into a home. Extreme safety concern. The next device appointment is July 20th. I will wait for them to diagnose the issue. Very concern this auto manufacturer is delivering faulty brand new products to consumers.
- Crash:
- No
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11471069June 26, 2022FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Vehicle routinely forcefully applies the brakes for no apparent or warranted reason causing vehicles behind to take evasive maneuvers to avoid striking our vehicle. The vehicle on several occasions has also unexpectedly veered out of our lane into another lane, into oncoming traffic or off the road.
- Crash:
- Yes
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11471066June 26, 2022VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Was at a drive through and took foot off the brake and barely put any pressure on accelerator the car went out of control — sudden acceleration.. First time this has happened with this car. Was definitely not working properly. Less than a second was at full Speed. Had to swerve to try and avoid the car ahead of me. Entire left side of car is crushed and torn apart.
- Crash:
- Yes
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11471044June 26, 2022AIR BAGS, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
While driving at a normal speed and turning around at an intersection in our neighborhood, the car suddenly went out of control, causing the car to hit a fire hydrant in front of a home, smashed a tree before crashing into the siding of the home. Insurance deemed the car as "totaled". We were reimbursed by insurance so this is not about monetary losses, but a report to protect other drivers and their families. The Tesla database records mentioned user acceleration and error, but this doesn't sound like a reasonable cause. The airbags didn't open and neither did the automatic emergency braking or forward collision warning work. I was unable to brake and control the car to stop. This accident is captured in the security system video of the impacted home.
- Crash:
- Yes
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11470946June 25, 2022FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
The adaptive cruise control (or emergency braking system) repeatedly braked for no reason. There were not other vehicles in the immediate area. I was driving on Interstate 90 at 70 MPH and the vehicle emergency braked down to about 50 MPH before recovering. This is a recurring problem and has happened at least a dozen times since I've owned the vehicle. I no longer trust the feature and hesitate activating it. The danger is risk of a rear end collision if another vehicle is close behind when the problem occurs. I have read that this "phantom braking" issue has been reported 700+ times. The manufacture (Tesla) has not inspected my vehicle. I believe a warning message was displayed but I am not sure. I was too busy reacting to the issue to notice any displayed messages.
- Crash:
- No
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11470936June 25, 2022FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Driving on major interstates across Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah, there were several instances of so-called “phantom braking” — while using Adaptive Cruise Control, with no other cars or obstacles in front, the brakes were rapidly applied, decelerating the car from roughly 75 MPH down to around 60 before I could manually press the accelerator pedal to override the behavior. Not only is this dangerous for myself, but could easily cause an accident if people are following closely at highway speeds. If Tesla’s camera-only system (as opposed to radar) can’t do the job, they should at least provide an option for a non-adaptive cruise toggle that would hopefully work around the issue.
- Crash:
- No
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11470660June 23, 2022ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Every two weeks or so, the screen goes blank. When parked, you can do a vehicle reset and after 2 or 3 tries the screen with turn back on and the car is able to be driven. Sometimes, the screen will go blank while driving. This will require the driver to pull aside, power down the vehicle, and try to reset it. This is a huge safety issue when the screen goes blank when driving. Tesla says there's nothing wrong, or try a reset, or the next update will solve it. When there is a bug like this on an EV it is a huge safety issue.
- Crash:
- No
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11470570June 23, 2022FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Traveling approximately 900 miles from fairfield, ca to moab, utah on 15th of June 2022 and approx 900 miles back to fairfield on the 20th of June 2022. Several dozens of phantom braking in the absence of any vehicles or shadows along its path. Brakings were hard and dangerous.
- Crash:
- No
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11470177June 21, 2022WHEELS
My Tesla Y lost one of the rear tires pressure suddenly, without any warning. Tire was totally flat. There is no spare tire and I had to get it towed to workshop around 100 miles away Tesla Road side assistance did not help at all.
- Crash:
- No
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0
- #11470326June 21, 2022VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
We just completed a 6500 mile round trip road trip from So Cal to Toronto Canada and back. 5/24/22-6/12/22 During the trip we used the "Auto Pilot" with and with out "Auto Steering" Not Full Self Driving. I lost count of how many times we encountered "Phantom Braking" with the car at highway speeds. My guess would be at least 50 times. It got to the point where I would not use Auto Pilot especially when there was heavy traffic at full highway speeds. My deduction on why this is happening is that the Tesla cameras are "Infrared" sensitive and it seemed that the car was applying the brakes when it would see the heat waves off the hot road surface. Also in early morning one day the sun was directly behind us and the cars shadow was directly in front of us on the road surface and it kept applying the brakes thinking it was another car. In slow moving bumper to bumper traffic going 30MPH or less does not seem to initiate the "Phantom Braking". But at highway speeds it is super scary and dangerous when this happens. ;(
- Crash:
- No
- Fire:
- No
- Injuries:
- 0
- Deaths:
- 0