Tesla Model S Complaints

470 consumer complaints on file.

#11487924October 4, 2022
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM, UNKNOWN OR OTHER, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
My new Tesla Model S, delivered 10/1/22 has frequent emergency breaking events every trip to town, approximately 25 miles on a 2 lane State highway. These breaking events involve severe emergency breaking and happen in cruse control or auto steering, (this car does not have auto driving feature). My concern is that these breaking events could cause an accident if a vehicle following me should rear-end my car because my vehicle breaks hard for no reason, without warning. I requested a service appointment from Tesla but my scheduled appointment was soon canceled by Tesla and instead, I was referred to a long written company explanation on why the breaking might be happening but nothing about when the issue might be corrected. I have a copy available if requested, and the vehicle is available for inspection upon request. Basically, the Tesla shop won’t look at the vehicle. To my knowledge, there is no authority, insurance representative, or independent service in New Mexico that would be interested in inspecting the vehicle, but I would make the vehicle available for such inspection within 100 miles of my residence. The emergency breaking event happened the first time I put the car in auto steering and again in cruse control, every time I drive the vehicle. There are no warnings lights or messages before, during, or after these events. A trip of 25 miles will have about 10 or more of these events. If cruse control or automatic steering is off and the driver has control, these events do not happen.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11487383October 1, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
The vehicle intermittently brakes for no reason with the cruise control enabled. This is going to cause an accident.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11486856September 28, 2022
TIRES
Michelin manufactures this tire specific for the Tesla Model S plaid vehicle. This tire wears pre maturely from the 300 rating most times under 10,000 miles causing tread separation on the inner wall. This specific wear can only be seen once the tire is removed from the vehicle. This is a well know issue on tesla forum boards and Michelin is not only not assisting with the issue, they are on back order for this tire that is specific for the Tesla Model S plaid. Not only did Michelin design a tire for this vehicle that wears well short of the rating, they are also not making enough to replace the worn out\defective tires. The tread separation is on the inside of the tire not visible to the driver that could potentially lead to a catastrophic accident if the tread separates at a high speed. The tire size is 295/30/21.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11486822September 28, 2022
SUSPENSION: ADJUSTMENT:MANUAL
Factory oem tire separated on the driver side rear. This could have ended badly had i not noticed the difference in handling of the vehicle. It appears the rear camber of the vehicle causes strain on the inner side of the tire and there is zero calibration that can be made to help fix this. Tesla told me it’s a Michelin issue and Michelin says it’s a Tesla suspension issue.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11486756September 27, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed with the ADAS Adaptive Cruise Control activated, the vehicle experienced Phantom Braking with an unknown warning light intermittently illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. Neither the dealer nor the manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 2,236.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11486650September 27, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
I have had multiple phantom forward collision warnings while driving and phantom braking while in autopilot. It happened twice today on a short 10 mile drive.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11486503September 26, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:ADAS:AUTONOMOUS/SELF DRIVING
The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while driving 70-75 MPH with the Autonomous Self-Driving feature activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking on numerous occasions. The dealer was made aware of the failure and informed the contact that the vehicle performed as designed. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The contact related the failure to the Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta 10.69.2.2 software update. The failure mileage was 17,102.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11486229September 24, 2022
UNKNOWN OR OTHER, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, LANE DEPARTURE: WARNING
On at least nine occasions the car has very suddenly and with no input from driver braked hard during passing another vehicle, when assuming the original lane after passing a vehicle, and, on one occasion when no other vehicle was close by. I have brought all incidents to Tesla's attention. They tell me the problem resides in the software of the car and that they "are working on it". This is a very serious problem, which has been going on for over a year in my case. A totally unacceptable and extremely dangerous situation! Occurred in December 21, 2020; Several times during the summer of 2021, other sporadic times, and most recently on September 6 and 8, 2022
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11485963September 23, 2022
ENGINE
left rear motor malfunctioned yes available for inspection The computer said that the motor had malfunctioned but is safe to drive but dont exceed 65 mph. I drove some 2 miles and the car stopped and the motor caught fire. The vehicle has not been inspected.
Crash:
No
Fire:
Yes
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11485633September 21, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
I was driving my Model S from Oregon to Texas, 14-16 Sep. The car was new, picked up on 31 Aug. I had the car in Autopilot when I was on the highway on the drive to Texas. In the first two days I had four incidents of "phantom braking" at highway speeds, as high as 80 mph. There was not a lot of traffic those first two days and the conditions were dry so there was little risk to others and the car stayed straight during the braking. However it's not hard to imagine scenarios where unexpected braking at high speeds could be a problem, such as during wet or dusty road conditions, driving into a high speed turn with other vehicles nearby, etc. The vehicle has not been inspected but the incident has been reported to the dealer and I am awaiting guidance.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11485612September 21, 2022
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
PHANTOM BRAKING: I was driving northbound on the I-5 highway south of Sacramento, California using cruise control and traveling at the 70 MPH speed limit on September 14, 2022. At approximately 2:50 p.m., I moved from the right lane into the left lane by using the turn signal to execute the lane change. Once in the left lane, the car immediately began violently applying the brakes. There was a car behind me that appeared as if it was going to rear end me. I pressed on the accelerator pedal which allowed me to regain control over the vehicle and avoid being hit by the vehicle behind me. The weather was clear and visibility was excellent. There was no apparent reason for the emergency braking system to become operative.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11484698September 15, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:ADAS:AUTONOMOUS/SELF DRIVING
The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while driving 72 MPH with the autonomous self-driving feature activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 56,292.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11484540September 14, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING, LANE DEPARTURE: WARNING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
While using wildly falsely marketed $10k "full self driving" add-on across multiple software revisions and after reporting each and every bug to company I have experienced potentially fatal phantom breaking while at highway speeds and could have been killed by rear ending on at least 4 occasions. Have experienced 20+ erroneous forward collision errors with automatic breaking or lane assist corrections for obstacles such as hills, mailboxes, trees, absolutely nothing at all, etc. When driving around mildly banking left turn corners with 45mph speed limits whenever approaching a left turn lane within median the car will violently lurch into the turn lane causing panic for passengers and nearly causing a collision within resuming concrete median. While using autopilot the car failed to stop, correct or warn when a vehicle entered my lane and caused an accident with several thousand in damages. Car does not properly break for turns on highways requesting driver take over for what should be an easily navigable turn. Doesn't take apex or break early and will drift lanes making other surrounding drivers nervous. Moving the horn from muscle memory location to awkwardly placed touch button has prevented timely use of horn on multiple occasions which could easily result in fatal accidents. Overall this car is a literal death trap not at all even remotely ready for production use on public roads and neither I nor any of my passengers feel safe using the feature that was over priced, over promised and under-delivered. Tesla service center employees too worried about retaliation from management to inquirer about problems because of previous reparations from corporate offices. List of problems is shockingly egregious and should not be legally permitted on roads.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11484000September 12, 2022
STEERING, UNKNOWN OR OTHER
The horn "button" on the 2022 Model S steering "yoke" is impossible to engage consistently when the wheel is in any orientation other than straight. I have been in 5 near accidents that have required lane departures and roadway departures to avoid collisions with other vehicles because it has been impossible to find and engage the horn button without removing attention from the road and impending accident. This design essentially leaves the Model S with no operative horn in an emergency situation. There are no tactile keys to find the button in the dark, it is not illuminated, and there is no way to find it when the wheel is in a non-centered orientation. In many cases, I have inadvertently engaged wipers/washer fluid in the midst of an accident scenario, further obstructing my view and causing additional distractions from safely operating the vehicle. Please make them fix this!!!
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11483784September 10, 2022
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Having the horn on the right side is a huge safety issue. When I need to push it while turning, it turns out to be impossible to locate in emergencies. I had multiple issues with this. It needs to be in the center of the steering wheel
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11483706September 9, 2022
SUSPENSION
Severe wear on rear tires, as the camber is off. Tire failure exposing cords. Potential to be a catastrophic failure. Many with this car experiencing same issue with 21” tire option. Car has poor suspension stance and or tires are incorrect for the load being carried
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11483181September 6, 2022
STRUCTURE:BODY, UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Spontaneous explosion of front passenger door window while driving
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11482822September 4, 2022
STEERING
A driver moving at highway speeds began to change lanes while I was next to him. I tried to honk the horn (which, on my yoke, is a small, haptic feedback touch screen of sorts) to warn him. The horn did not sound, either because it did not respond or because I missed the tiny, physically undistinguished area of yoke that serves as the horn activator.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11482104August 30, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
I have quite a few incidents with fantom breaks on my Tesla. Two night ago I almost caused accident as my Tesla breaked for no reason. Many incidents happened before in the month.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11481684August 29, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES, VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
While driving with Traffic Aware Cruise Control engaged and set at 55 MPH the car did a hard break to an almost complete stop in the middle of the lane for no apparent reason. This occurred at least two times and both times there was no traffic in front of me. The road was a two lane highway. There was oncoming traffic and cars behind me but no cars in front of me. The breaking was so hard on both occasions and it startled me and caused me to veer off the road in the first instance . The car behind me had to break suddenly as well. After the second occurrence I disengaged the TACC as it seemed to be sensing the oncoming traffic
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0

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