Tesla Model 3 Complaints

2,178 consumer complaints on file.

#11503001January 22, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
I was driving eastbound on I-8 from San Diego, AZ towards Yuma, AZ and making use of my Tesla Model 3's adaptive cruise control feature when my vehicle suddenly and without warning slammed on its breaks. No warning or error messages were displayed on my screen – it's as if the vehicle thought I was on a collision course even though I was not. I was in the left-most lane and the vehicle behind me was dangerously close to colliding with me, but I was luckily able to step on the accelerator pedal and regain enough speed to avoid an accident. Though there was no accident, this incident has severely under-minded my trust in the feature.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11502899January 20, 2023
ENGINE, ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
After backing out of a parking place I could not switch into "drive". The car froze and had to be put into "tow mode" to be pushed aside and later taken to a dealer. Before being collected the car was partially blocking a car park, but there was no other safety risk. Warnings appeared when the event occurred, but not prior to. The rear drive unit was replaced under warranty.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11502891January 20, 2023
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Autopilot failed. Driver had head, neck injuries , and the passenger had head, neck, and knee injuries. CRASH REPORT: Date - 1/14/23; Time - 10:30 am. NCIC Number - 9565; Officer's Name: Garduno #22857
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
2
Deaths:
0
#11502089January 17, 2023
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM, BACK OVER PREVENTION: WARNINGS
This model has misleading user manual about park assist chime button, park assist front camera on button. Apparently they have removed the ultrasonic sensor and did not enable any user interface to do with Park assist in the control menu. This is misleading safety feature and total lie to the customer. Please flag this as a safety flag so the user will be aware of it. There is no option for the user to enable the front camera for whatever the little useful it can offer. They need to immediately send us the software update to view any camera at will.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11501970January 16, 2023
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Twice in October 2022 (18th and 20th), my vehicle decelerated suddenly during cruise control with no impediments in the road (i.e., phantom breaking). The breaking on the 20th was akin to slamming on the breaks, and both occurred at freeway speeds. I did *not purchase Tesla's self-driving feature. The vehicle also on the 18th tried to steer around an object that did not exist in the road while I turned onto a freeway on-ramp. I reported all three incidents at that time to Tesla for servicing of the vehicle. It is unknown whether any "repair" was actually done to eliminate phantom breaking (I no longer use Tesla's cruise control in similar traffic conditions which were at the time crowded outside of the carpool lane I was using).
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11501969January 16, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Phantom braking while using Autopilot caused quick and static loss of speed on the interstate, which could easily have resulted in an accident.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11501957January 16, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Phantom braking caused by Autopilot. Car slowed down quickly and could have potentially caused an accident.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11501877January 15, 2023
VISIBILITY/WIPER
I was driving in rainy weather and my windshield wipers were set to 'Auto' mode. The wipers were functioning correctly until I clicked on a menu item in the car operating system. The operating system became unresponsive to any touches and wipers stopped working at this moment which dropped my visibility to almost 0. I was fortunately not driving on highway when the incident occurred. The operating system rebooted after roughly 20 seconds and the wipers started working again after the reboot completed.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11501860January 15, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Phantom braking on the interstate. Autopilot causes the car to slows down significantly and quickly, which could potentially result in an accident.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11501837January 15, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
On 1-14-2023, while driving westbound on I-64, around sunset (5:20ish pm) in a straight portion of the highway, the vehicle suddenly braked for no reason. There was nothing in the road and no cross traffic. There was an all white semi in the right lane that I was approaching in the passing lane. I immediately disengaged the cruise and continued my trip with no further incidents.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11501767January 14, 2023
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
sudden, abrupt braking on multiple occasions when passing a specific location along NJ Garden State Parkway (near exit 89) while driving on auto pilot.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11501739January 14, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Full Self Driving does not perform as advertised. Will not take Interstate exits, nor will it safely merge into traffic. There have been numerous phantom braking occurrences. This feature has been misrepresented numerous times by Tesla.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11501665January 13, 2023
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
The only cruise control feature available on this car is the adaptive cruise control. This car continues to make sudden unsafe braking maneuvers for no reason. It seems to get confused by steep hills, bridges, shadows, and other factors. You can be on a highway going 70mph and it will slam the brakes, terrifying passengers and potentially causing you to get rear ended. This has been ongoing since the purchase of the car 1 year ago.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11501524January 12, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Trip from Piedmont, California to Salt Lake City, Utah, I experienced three (x3) phantom breaking incidents at over 80 mph on interstate 1-80. The car without warning dramatically de-accelerated from approximately 85mph to 65mph or 60mph without warning and suddenly. Dog was riding in back and thrown into front dashboard on one occasion. Visited Tesla dealership on State St in Salt Lake City Utah upon destination arrival and manager/head at front desk laughed indicents off saying, "we've heard of such incidents just wait for the software update." Horrible. Beyond dangerous. I can report that in all three incidents there were no cars in front or behind me and the phenonenon occurred totally unexpectedly. Reported it also to Tesla repair shop in Berkeley, California, and intake group had zero sympathy and said, "it's a known software glitch."
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
1
Deaths:
0
#11501406January 12, 2023
EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Vehicle's turn signal is not hardware based, but instead relies on the software registering signal use. The turn signal can be "fully" pressed, and "partially" pressed, and the behavior is supposed to be: Full press: Blinks until you manually disengage 1/2 press: Blinks 3 times, then automatically disengages. Anything "between" a full press and a half-press, ie beyond the level which is supposed to trigger a 3-time blink, but not "bottoming out" the signal, regularly fails to trigger the signal at all. This leads to scenarios in which the driver "thinks" they have signaled, and creates unsafe situations for surrounding vehicles.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11501405January 12, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
While driving on an otherwise unobstructed road, with no nearby obstacles on a Rural South Dakota Interstate, the vehicle suddenly slammed on breaks in an unsafe fashion, forcing the vehicle behind us to swerve to evade our car. We were told by Tesla service that sometimes, "road shimmering" can cause this behavior, and there is no remedy available. In response to this, I gunned the accelerator to try and remedy the issue, hitting unsafe speeds before being able to fully return control to the vehicle. This was NOT while using the vehicle's autopilot system for FSD (which was available on the car), but adaptive cruise control, though the same issue happens with FSD regularly. This is not the first instance of this happening (I have stopped using cruise control and FSD on the vehicle since), but the first time it seriously endangered myself and another driver.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11501193January 11, 2023
POWER TRAIN
The seat weight sensors are failing in my 2022 Tesla Model 3 Long Range. I have been noticing this issue for several months now. I have owned the car since new (February 15, 2022) with 7 miles on the odometer. When I open the drivers door, the car powers up, screen turns on and HVAC system activates. When I close the drivers door while sitting in the drivers seat with the car in park and seat belt unfastened, the screen switches off and the HVAC system switches off. Only if I move around in the seat or depress the brake pedal does the screen power up and the HVAC system activate. I went to the Tesla service facility and they informed me that they are “seeing more seat sensors failing on newer cars” and “not sure how many are failing”. Based on what they observed with my car and my description of the issues they said my seat weight sensor is failing. Also, if I put the car in reverse with the seatbelt unfastened to move the car back a few feet in my garage, the car will sometimes automatically shift to park and display a caution message that “shifted to park to prevent roll away”. The service center informed me that they are replacing failed sensors with the exact same part. My concern is the manufacturer remedy does not replace failed parts with improved design and that this has the potential to cause other safety issues if occupant detection compromised by faulty sensors.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11500976January 10, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
My car will randomly slam on the brakes when I’m driving on adaptive cruise control even when there is not a car/truck/anything in front of me. Seems consistent in description to what others have termed “Phantom Braking”
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11500486January 6, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
On multiple occasions, the car will suddenly decelerate while using adaptive cruise control on the highway. Malfunctioning component: adaptive cruise control. Safety: rear end collision if another vehicle was following too closely. Manufacturer is fully aware of the problem.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11500296January 5, 2023
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL:CRUISE CONTROL, STEERING
The contact owned a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving at approximately 65 MPH with the "auto-pilot" engaged, the vehicle approached another vehicle in traffic from behind and had gotten too close. The contact stated that she depressed the brake pedal to slow down when the vehicle inadvertently accelerated at high speed. The contact steered to the left to avoid rear-end crash with the vehicle directly in front. Additionally, the contact stated that the steering wheel had become hard to turn and the vehicle crashed into the highway divider. The vehicle's front end had crashed into the divider wall and the vehicle ricocheted across four lanes of traffic and ran off the roadway onto the right shoulder and was stopped by having crashed with small trees and bushes. The contact stated she did not notice any warning lights. The contact stated that she had been transported by ambulance to a trauma center. The contact stated that she had compression fractures of her spine, suffered soft tissue damage to her neck, and right wrist soft tissue damage, and rib fractures on the left side. The vehicle had been towed to an impound lot, and the police were on the scene and filed a report. The contact stated that her insurance provider had declared the vehicle a total loss. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was 4,400.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
1
Deaths:
0

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