Tesla Model Y Complaints (2023)

1,136 consumer complaints on file.

#11584237April 20, 2024
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
I was driving our Tesla Model Y and, when attempting to use the windshield wiper, full self driving was enabled. The feature was never enabled my by husband or I through the touch screen on the car. We purposefully did not want to be helping to test this feature as we have a 2 year old and 2 month old that are often in the car with us (both of whom were in the car when this happened). This happened twice on my drive on the afternoon of [XXX]. I did not have a destination plugged into the map on the tesla and was navigating via google maps on my phone (which does seem to be required for this feature to be enabled according to Tesla's help video on youtube: [XXX] ). Both times, a pop up appeared on the tesla screen asking me to give feedback on the auto driving feature while I was driving. Both times, I was able to disable the feature after about 5 seconds by pressing the brake pedal. Upon returning home, my husband was able to go into the car's settings and return the car to "traffic-aware cruise control." He was able to confirm that "Full Self Driving (supervised)" had been selected despite neither of us enabling it. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11583582April 17, 2024
EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Turn signals fail to activate with short duration press of turn signal stick.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11583208April 15, 2024
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, UNKNOWN OR OTHER, VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Car was being driven into a car wash. Driver went to put car into neutral and car lurched forward and crashed into car in front of it without gas pedal being engaged. Vehicle has not been inspected by manufacturer or others. No warning lamps or other messages. May have been related to recently installed full self driving software that was automatically installed but was not requested by vehicle owner. Vehicle owner did not intend to engage any sort of self driving or automatic acceleration systems.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11582707April 12, 2024
VISIBILITY/WIPER, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Tesla recently rolled out an update that gives everyone in the US a trial of FSD. After this update I've had numerous situations where the car would panic and act like I was about to collide with a parked vehicle both while driving down a residential street in daytime and when coming around corners. This never happened in previous version. Also the auto windshield wipers no longer work when its raining but will turn on when its dry and cause dirt to smear on the window, mainly when the sun is facing the driver which makes it very dangerous. The last issue is pretty big, the car has been exhibiting severe phantom braking when on the highway using adaptive cruise control (FSD I guess now?)
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11582396April 11, 2024
AIR BAGS
Front passenger safety restraint system fault alarms comes intermittently
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11581597April 7, 2024
SUSPENSION
My model Y lower control arm bolt has become loose and disconnected. I noticed a rubbing sound on the front axle in a parking lot and fortunately discovered the source of the issue (disconnected suspension bolt) at home. I believe my vehicle should’ve been included in the recall below as the timeline lines up. My car was produced in the Austin factory and picked up in late November 2022. Can see in the attached photo the loose bolt and the suspension fork hitting the axel. [XXX] [XXX] As of today the car is sitting in the Tesla service center and they are arguing that repair is not covered because of the handwritten pen marks indicate third-party suspension work, but no suspension work has been done. The article citing the manual torque explains the factory markings. This bolt issue has resulted in fatalities at high speed. I’m lucky to have found it at home vs the highway. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11581268April 5, 2024
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, ENGINE, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
Vehicle: Tesla Model Y Blue Purchased in Oct’ 23 Tesla setting: Regenerative braking (single pedal driving) Issue: Brake Pedal/Acceleration Pedal Malfunction I was pulling my car out from the parking lot to pick up my mom, from the hospital entrance. I just turned right and had to take an immediate left to leave out of the parking lot. The Tesla was driving at approximately 5 miles an hour at that point. I lifted my foot from the gas pedal for the car to stop with its regenerative braking. However, instead of coming to a stop, the Tesla started rapidly accelerating, with my foot not even on the pedal. When I slammed the brakes, the car was unresponsive and continued accelerating. I started honking madly to warn people that I had no control over the car I was driving. The vehicle continued accelerating over 100-150 meters in 4-5 seconds and banged a parked car (Lexus SUV) at the end of the parking lot. It continued accelerating while pushing Lexus over the curb, destroying road sign poles and landscaping shrubs; crossing the street, and the middle curb. At the end of the street was a tree and a ditch. Lexus couldn’t move any further and Tesla stopped. All airbags deployed. One of the emergency response detection systems called 911 immediately. The first thing the police asked me was if I pressed the emergency brake. I said the car doesn’t have one. I can’t even turn off the vehicle while it is moving. The parking button takes care of it. I used to love my Tesla but I can’t trust it anymore. What I want from them at this time is: Investigate all the incidents thoroughly instead of blaming these as a user error. a) Think about adding the redundancy system. Something mechanical where the driver reacts within a couple of seconds. Software bugs are hard and sometimes it is impossible to find the root cause. Logs may not contain everything that you need to debug the problem. Consider it as a P0 issue. b) Compensate for the damage and property loss.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11580815April 2, 2024
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
I got a recall notice for NHTSA Recall No: 23V-035. I checked for the software update, but didn't see anything from Tesla prompting for the update.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11580692April 2, 2024
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, STEERING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
You have no doubt heard the news that Tesla has deployed Full Self Driving to all its vehicles as a "free trial." My Tesla received this update in the past few days. Last night I was driving on an expressway and engaged what has up until now been traffic-aware cruise control by pressing down one time on the right stalk. I expected regular cruise control but the car started steering for me. Tesla has changed the default behavior of the cruise control activation (one single downward press on the stalk) to instead activate Autopilot. My attempt to regain control caused me to jerk the wheel side to side in a way that could have led to an accident had I been in heavier traffic. This was unexpected behavior from the vehicle and I find it unacceptable that Tesla has changed a default function in this manner. I had to hunt around on the screen to find the setting to change the behavior back to regular Traffic Aware Cruise Control from one downward press. Furthermore, on the same 20 mile trip I had three phantom braking incidents while the car was on Traffic Aware Cruise Control mode. This is more than typical and these events can be dangerous if they happen in traffic. Tesla should not be allowed to deploy changes, especially without notice, that modify basic functionality of a car in motion from what the driver has become accustomed to.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11580239March 30, 2024
AIR BAGS, WHEELS, ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Tesla suddenly accelerated forward from a complete stop at very rapid pace and hit a wall
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11580171March 29, 2024
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Forward collision with a deer. The deer jumped out in front of the vehicle, very close to the vehicle, at night. The vehicle failed to detect large object obstacle in front of it and apply emergency braking.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11579779March 27, 2024
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
I want to report what I think is a very dangerous issue with my Tesla Model Y. We have experienced numerous times that the car brakes without warning. I have talked to Tesla about this "phantom braking", and they say it is "normal". The Traffic-Aware Cruise Control cannot be disabled to create a normal manual cruise control. I gave them a hypothetical situation where this could be life-threatening, but they dismissed it. Two weeks later, that very scenario happened, thankfully not ending in tragedy. I was driving at 65 mph on a wide, two lane paved highway (near Dove Creek, CO). A car going in the opposite direction was stopped on the shoulder on the other side of the highway. A large semi truck, also going in the opposite direction, pulled into my lane to pass the parked car on the side of the road. I saw what was happening, let off the accelerator, and steered over onto the paved shoulder (wide shoulder) to avoid the oncoming truck. My car's Traffic-Aware Cruise Control, using the car's cameras, interpreted the situation as an apparent collision danger and automatically braked hard. In this situation there was a large pickup doing what most pickup drivers do.... tailgating close behind me to get me to drive faster. Neither the driver of the pickup, nor me, were expecting my car to brake hard, as we had all assessed the situation correctly as not being dangerous. I responded as quickly as I could by pushing on the accelerator to cancel the cruise control, but the pickup almost rear ended me. At that speed, it could easily have turned into a fatal accident. Tesla says I can't disable the cameras, so I just don't use the cruise control now. I was told you can disable the "traffic-aware" part of cruise control on older model Teslas, but not 2023 and newer. Often the phantom braking occurs with no apparent reason (although the car's cameras and computer would probably disagree). Do many people have to be killed to take a safety hazard seriously?
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11579475March 26, 2024
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
I rear ended to another car when I blacked out for a few seconds in the city driving around 20 miles an hour. The AEB, based on TESLA manual and instructions should have kicked in, but it never did. After the accident, a friend of mine told me about AEB function and the fact that it works in those type of conditions, I tested the car in my driveway (I have a pretty long driveway to do this). AEB did not kick in until I turned off the function and I turned on the function again. Then, it kicked in immediately, and on the screen "A" showed, which means AEB kicked in. That was the first time AEB worked and that sign appeared on the screen. Later in the day, when I tested the car again under the exact same conditions,, AEB stopped functioning again like the way it has been since I bought the car. I read all the information/instructions regarding AEB. I understand that in certain conditions like, if the driver is accelerating or putting pressure on brake pedal or steering wheel, AEB does not kick in. I talked to another TESLA owner, he said his does not kick in either unless the car is on auto cruise or autopilot. Mine is the same. This is definitely malfunction. The issue is that the car, on the screen shows that AEB is always turned on, but it never kicks in and the car does not give any error regarding this issue. Again, I tested it after turning off and on AEB function, and I now know the difference. Under the same conditions of that testing, the AEB does not function at all. The accident I had was 100% preventable if AEB worked properly. TESLA Service Center has been dismissive. They send me snippets from the TESLA manual, which I already have and read many times. They say they cannot test it. All they can do is to check remotely to see if the function is on, but that's where the issue is. The function is always on, but it never kicks in. Again, It did work for me for a few minutes when I turned it off and on, but that was it.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11579205March 24, 2024
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
MY SIDE MIROR WILL NOT ADJUST BACK TO NORMAL LEVELS WHERE I CAN SEE VEHICLES ON THE LEFT SIDE. EVERYTIME I BACKUP AND MOVE FORWARD THE LEFT SIDE MIRROR DOES NOT ADJUST BACK TO ORIGINAL POSTION THEREFORE LEAVING ME EFFECTIVELY BLIND AND NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE ONCOMING TRAFFIC FROM THE LEFT MIRROR. I HAVE TRIED TO GET TESLA TO FIX THIS ISSUE. EVERY TIME THEY TELL ME TO TAKE IT IN AND THAT THEY WILL NOT GIVE ME A VEHICLE TO COMEPENSATE FOR MY LOST WORK TIME. THIS IN UNACCEPTABLE.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11579200March 24, 2024
VISIBILITY/WIPER
Windshield wipers fail to work properly when in auto mode. Windshield was covered in rain and visibility was reduced to zero. Windshield wipers would not activate to clear the rain. The problem has happened multiple times while raining.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11579180March 24, 2024
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
While using Traffic-Aware Cruise Control, the vehicle unexpectedly slows down due to phantom braking. During my recent 800+ mile road trip, this occurred twice without any obstruction in view, causing the car to brake abruptly.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11579142March 24, 2024
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
This car does not have Full Self Driving, and I do not use Auto Steer. I experience multiple phantom braking events every time I use the "Traffic Aware Cruise Control." Sometimes I can see that the cruise control set speed has been reduced from the speed I set, and I have to cancel and reset it to resume the original speed. Sometimes the cruise control set speed is unchanged, and pushing the accelerator will cause the car to resume the set speed. Yesterday I drove 320 miles and had about 6 of these events. I'm concerned about these events causing an accident from the sudden speed reduction, or getting into a road rage situation because the person behind me thinks I am brake-checking them. Internet research indicates that these complaints are very common during the past few years. If Tesla can't - or doesn't want to - solve the problem, they should at least allow us to choose basic cruise control to avoid this problem. Adaptive cruise control would be more reliable with radar, but Tesla is doing everything it can to make the cars cheaper, and radar was eliminated. Personally, I think trying to do everything with cameras is a fatally flawed approach - especially considering cars travel at night and in varied weather and lighting conditions.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11578735March 21, 2024
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
The contact owned a 2023 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while his wife was driving at 15 MPH and making a right turn, the Auto-Pilot had engaged independently. As a result, the vehicle steered off the road, over the sidewalk, and into a resident's lawn. The vehicle went up the property's pavement stone and crashed into a tree where it came to a stop. A police report was filed and there were no injuries reported. The vehicle was towed to a tow lot. The insurance company deemed the vehicle totaled. The local dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The VIN was included in NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V051000 (Electrical System). The failure mileage was approximately 4,400.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11578665March 21, 2024
SEATS
On two occasions, once for me, and once for my wife, when adjusting the seatback, the switch stuck and the seatback shoved me forcefully into the steer wheel. Both times while we were driving. This could have easily caused an accident, or, for a heavier person, caused significant injury.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11578600March 20, 2024
VISIBILITY/WIPER, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
The falcon braking system kicks in automatically, and the windshield wiper does not turn on automatically as it would in any basic car now a days. The available autopilot/ adaptive cruise control only gives unteliable cruise control. There were times where in the middle of a freeway the cruise control starts braking, luckily there were no vehicle behind us so there were no collisions so far. The price tag on this car and the way it keeps fluctuating is un-acceptable so i ended up paying a lot for the car than the actual value from tesla directly and the basic features like auto wiper and cruise control is a huge disappointment
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0

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