Tesla Model Y Complaints (2021)

1,096 consumer complaints on file.

#11473647July 13, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
While adaptive cruise control was engaged on highway, it would disengage and harshly break even though there was nothing ahead as an obstacle. If there was a vehicle behind, it would have created a significant change of collision. During a 5+ hour drive, this occurred 20+ times. It seemed to occur when cresting small hills where visibility was somewhat limited ahead and when there were few cars ahead. In a few occurrences, there was a warning chime, but in other cases, it disengaged and braked silently. This just happened yesterday, so it has not been inspected by Tesla.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11473104July 9, 2022
STEERING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Going 40 MPH on CA 210W in left lane. Full Self Driving available on vehicle but no autopilot/lane assist activated at time of incident. Steering wheel locked up completely; I was unable to turn the wheel at all so I ended up drifting across 4 lanes of highway (miraculously didn’t hit anyone) and ended up under a semi. Car airbags did not deploy and system did not detect a collision. Contacted Tesla to ask about the cause of the accident multiple times; never got an answer. They had us pull the USB in glovebox and see if anything is on there but there wasn’t even though dash cam was activated. They “escalated” the ticket to a supervisor and have been ghosted ever since asking for an answer. We scheduled a service appointment to have them check out the vehicle and they canceled it. It is a miracle that I did not die; I have severe PTSD from the incident which has affected my career negatively. I would like Tesla to take accountability for things like this; it’s scary that they don’t and threaten legal action instead.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
1
Deaths:
0
#11472260July 4, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Phantom braking during normal highway travel at high speed, multi accuracies in one trip. The braking made vehicle travel speed dropped from 70MPH to 50MPH suddenly and pose great danger.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11472138July 2, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
I was driving on I5 north with autopilot enabled at 75 mph and the car decelerated rapidly to 45 mph. There could have been an accident if someone were behind me.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11471962July 1, 2022
UNKNOWN OR OTHER, STEERING
The car suddenly stops responding with the entire system seems to be shut down. I cannot access any controls including lights, brakes and any other safety features. I reached out to tesla regarding this and even sent them a video showing the same. They are not responsive at all and seem to not care about this. The car had sidetracked due to no visibility (Wouldn't consider a crash but almost one)This happened multiple times and is really a big safety concern. We were in the middle of woods when this happened and my wife was alone the other time. I would really appreciate if you expedite this issue and get us a solution. The image below is taken when the lights were on but eventually they were gone.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11471459June 28, 2022
POWER 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, 2022
FORWARD 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
#11471066June 26, 2022
VEHICLE 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
#11470936June 25, 2022
FORWARD 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, 2022
ELECTRICAL 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
#11470326June 21, 2022
VEHICLE 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
#11469962June 19, 2022
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM, ENGINE, STEERING
On June 28th 11:50pm with 174 mile range, my Tesla Model Y LR died while driving on fwy 5 with my 10 year old. I barely had time to exit, it gave me warning “PULL OVER SAFELY” “VEHICLE SHUTTING DOWN”. I barely made it to off-ramp, my car completely shutdown at the end of off ramp. Could not put it to neutral, me and my 10 years old had to exit the car immediately, called tow truck via tesla app. Tow truck showed up in 20 mins, can was not drivable. This could have been much worst, if I was not able to exit and my car stuck on middle of the freeway at night. This is a huge safety concern.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11469960June 19, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
The vehicle randomly applies hard brakes. This makes cruise unusable and presents a safety issue for cars behind. I was almost hit from behind when my Tesla applied brakes on interstate going from 65 to 35MPH.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11469898June 18, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES
My vehicle brakes suddenly for no apparent reason. Happens usually on highway, usually when on self driving or auto navigation mode but also in cruise control rarely. It will go from 65 or 70 mph to 35-40 mph all of a sudden without warning without any vehicle close by. I notified Tesla multiple times. They said “it happens”. They asked me for exact date time location, I gave it, it still happens so I gave up and don’t use self driving much I cannot now tell you exact date time but if it happens next time I can keep records
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11469656June 16, 2022
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
I had the Tesla on autopilot on interstate I-80, it was raining. The car was in the middle lane. It suddenly started to slide to the right and hit a truck in the right lane. I tried to regain control of the vehicle and hit the brake hard, but it did not seem to work. Tesla clipped the truck and continued to slide off into the guard rail.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11469439June 15, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
-Auto pilot (adaptive cruise control). Yes it is available for inspection. -Vehicle unexpectedly slowes down on highways (when using cruise control) at an unsafe rate when there is nothing in the path of the vehicle. This has cause multiple instances of vehicles almost rear-ending me due to the rapid deceleration. -I have asked a Tesla Service Center representative about the phantom breaking and they stated it was a known issue and that was being worked on. -No, the vehicle was not inspected by the manufacturer since we were advised it was a known issue. -There is no warning lights or sounds before the vehicle suddenly brakes. I suspect that hills, shadows, on coming traffic on two lane highways are some of the causes for the phantom braking.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11469197June 14, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
There are 4 issues to report for our Tesla Model Y: 1) On the highway, our Tesla often presses on the brakes and slows down by itself when it should not be doing so. This occurs when we have adaptive cruise control on. We’ve noticed that at the time of the slowdown, the Tesla misreads the highway speed limit. For example, the Tesla will read the speed limit as 70 mph, then all of sudden without warning, the Tesla will suddenly read the speed limit at 40 mph, which then causes the Tesla to break and slow down by itself, when the speed limit is actually still 70 mph. This can happen several times on a single highway trip. Aside from the shock we receive as a driver as our vehicle slows unexpectedly, this could cause a rear end collision if a car is following us too closely from behind. 2) When we use adaptive cruise control and the steering assist feature, the car does not recognize to slow down on highway off ramp curves. I monitor the speed around curves, though if a driver is not aware of the issue and expects for the Tesla to take the curve slowly, this could cause an issue. In particular, if there is a big curve, I’d be concerned of the Tesla losing control and going off the road, due to speed. 3) The car will often provide a frontal collision warning, even if there is no car or object in front of the car, while it's in motion. This can lead to confusion for the driver or possibly hard breaking, which could cause a rear-end collision, if a car is following too close behind the Tesla. Also, the Tesla driver may swerve unnecessarily to avoid an object that isn’t there, which could cause a collision. 4) The Tesla is advertised as being able to travel over 300 miles on a single charge, however, the conditions for this to happen seem incredibly difficult to meet, as mileage is usually far less than this. This can cause drivers to overestimate how far they can drive, which could lead to cars urgently pulling of the road to prevent stalling where traffic is.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11469078June 13, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
This is my sixth complaint to you. I own a 2021Tesla Model Y. I took possession of it on August 7, 2021, in Santa Barbara, Ca. Ever since, I have had several thousand instances of automatic emergency braking (phantom braking) episodes while using cruise control or autopilot. On January 26, 2022, I had 47 episodes, in two hours. This is typical. I was told immediately following my purchase last August that there would soon be a software update to remedy the problem. There hasn't! I have had five appointments with the Tesla service center, and they continually say "we can't fix it, only the software engineers can". The braking episodes are dangerous! I implore you to hold Tesla accountable and demand they fix the problem immediately. PLEASE!
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11468873June 12, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, LANE DEPARTURE: WARNING
Several instances of emergency braking applied without warning or obvious need during multiple driving sessions. This results in an unexpected rapid vehicle deceleration. Fortunately no other vehicle was following close enough to represent an imminent safety hazard though it is easily plausible this could happen. Typically the issue occurs when traveling uphill or around a bend and encountering traffic in an oncoming lane, structures (bridges) or dark shadows. The unexpected emergency braking has also happened when adaptive cruise control or autopilot is engaged while overtaking large vehicles on the left (tractor trailers in the right lane). I have also noticed several erroneous lane departure warnings despite turning off these notifications on the dashboard. They are more a nuisance than safety hazard so far but would like to completely silence them entirely. These issues have yet to be reproduced or inspected by the dealer, police, insurance or other investigator. No warning lamps or indicators were active at the time the braking or lane departure warnings were observed.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11468854June 12, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS, LANE DEPARTURE: ASSIST, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
I was traveling early morning before sunrise over the tehachapi pass towards Mojave in California. Someone had lost a camper shell from the top of a pickup truck in the lane. It was still dark outside. I saw the obstruction in the road but the car cameras did not pick it up. I pulled into the left lane to try to get around the camper shell. The lane assist pulled me right back into the camper shell which tore down the side of the car doing 10k in damage. The car never recognized impact or an accident. I have the videos from the cameras of the car. The lane assist, as far as I know, only doesn’t activate when the turn signal is used, which I did not have time for, as I had less than 200 feet between me and the camper shell.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0

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