Tesla Model S Complaints (2022)

136 consumer complaints on file.

#11571196February 10, 2024
WHEELS
Tire separation on the inside rear tires. I purchased my car new and had continued slight loss of air pressure at 12,000 miles. I inspected the rear tires and found one of the tires and begun to split open (at the seam where tread adheres to the tire), the other tire once sprayed with soap water had tiny pin hole leaks all the way around the same seam. I had tires replaced and filed a tire warranty claim. The original tires were Michelin Pilot Sport 4S and the tires I replaced them with were the same. Now at 30,343 miles the same problem occurred, both tires show separation around the inside seam with the tread still remaining. If left uncorrected/addressed the tires would eventually blow out driving.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11568799January 30, 2024
BACK OVER PREVENTION
The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model S. The contact stated that while reversing in her driveway, the front driver's side camera did not indicate there was a gate in the viewing area. The driver crashed into a metal gate on her property. The front bumper was damaged. There was no beeping sound while approaching the object. There were no warning lights illuminated. There were no reported injuries. The vehicle was taken to a body shop, where it was diagnosed that the bumper needed to be replaced. The rear bumper was damaged while at the body shop. The mechanic stated that the clips were missing. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The contact removed the USB and was unable to locate the incident. The manufacturer was contacted, who referred her to an approved body shop. The approximate mileage was 11,544.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11567372January 23, 2024
EXTERIOR LIGHTING
All tesla models have excessively bright headlamps, blinding oncoming traffic. There are many teslas where I live and commute. I had many instances where I could not see what was in front of me on a two lane road due to a tesla coming in the opposite direction at night. It is seriously dangerous to have these cars with such bright lights on the road. They create a hazard for every driver in the oncoming lane. I strongly believe that these bright headlamps ought to be illegal, as they jeopardize safety of drivers.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11565341January 13, 2024
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
The horn is very difficult to hit in case of emergency. You have to look down and find the horn button, which is especially problematic for example if a child runs in front of the car, you have to take your eyes off the road and find the horn button and press it. All other cars in the world use the center of the steering for a horn, this model of Tesla S does not.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11565338January 13, 2024
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
The horn button is to difficult to use during an emergency. Tesla knows this that’s why there cybertruck has the horn in the center of the wheel.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11565306January 13, 2024
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
The placement of the horn and turn signals onto the steering wheel is highly flawed. In normal driving, the turn signal buttons on the wheel are not intuitive, even after months and 10,000mi of ownership. The horn is also a button, and will never be useful in an emergency situation. These items should be required to be placed in the same spot for every street legal vehicle. Muscle memory and ease of use for safety.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11565236January 12, 2024
STEERING
The car doesn’t have a conventional horn. Instead the horn is activated via a small button on the steering wheel. I don’t mean to be a pain, but I feel as though the horn is meant for emergency situations mostly. I’ve been in multiple situations now where someone has almost hit me and I tried to swerve and find the horn but given the fact I have to keep my eyes on the person swerving into me, was unable to find it in time. One of these times, the person continued to not see me and I nearly was pinned between the car and the wall of the freeway. Due to not being able to activate the horn, I had to swerve and slam on my brakes instead almost being rear ended by the car behind me. Ideally I’d love if Tesla has to recall this steering wheel for one with a mechanical horn. They have just started making the wheels with a mechanical horn again and it would be great if they received a recall so that us without them, who are put at risk, can receive them by visiting the service center and having the wheels swapped. Thank you again for the time in reading this. I apologize for the long story. I only ask because it’s unsafe for both myself and those around me and now there’s a remedy
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11563549January 4, 2024
TIRES
In the time of 2 years of ownership of this vehicle, I have had a blown out tire happen 3 separate times with these particular tires, whether it has been the rear left side or rear right side, leaving me stranded on the street.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11561927December 26, 2023
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Car without obstacle will without warning execute a hard slowdown/stop. We have received the latest OTA update and have disabled auto steering and fsd. These unplanned stops are incredibly dangerous when driving in traffic. They charged a substantial fee to enable FSD and we are afraid to use it which sucks but the fact that basic cruise control is so dangerous is criminal.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11560301December 15, 2023
STEERING
The Tesla was driving normally as I was driving through the canyons of Utah at 65 MPH. the car gave an error about lane assist malfunction and immediately followed by steering assist malfunction. The car was very hard to turn and I nearly crashed into a concrete barrier as I forced the car to turn. I was not using auto drive
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11559457December 11, 2023
STEERING
This vehicle came with a YOKE style steering wheel, I did not order it this way, it is how the new car arrived. It is TERRIBLE and I cannot believe TESLAS is allowed to put it in their cars. (This is my second Model S, my first is a 2015 and I love it). It has none of the standard stalks on the side (Directional signal, headlight flash, etc.). I heard that removing the stalks saved the company a pile of money too. It is a very uncomfortable shape to hold and control. I find myself holding it with just my THUMBS, draped over the top corners of the wheel. All the important features: left turn signal, right turn signal, horn, headlight flash, and wiper are controlled by SMALL icons illustrated on the front of the yoke. They are NOT user friendly and you have to LOOK at the wheel every time you want to use them, which takes your eyes off the road!! I have been driving this car for over a year now and I still cannot honk the horn or flash the lights in time to warn other drivers of impending trouble. Many times I end up doing the wrong thing: like flash the lights instead of honk! The turn signals are terrible, it is very hard to determine if I have even engaged the signal I want as it is a small spot to press, and it is easy to press the wrong direction signal. When backing up and having to look over your shoulder (sometimes you can not use the back-up camera), the flat top of the yoke wheel is extremely hard to hold on to while you try to move the wheel from left to right to back up safely: a round wheel is MUCH easier to handle. Also, the layout of the wheel and the monitor screen (it's now horizontal) is such that it blocks the entire lower left corner of the screen. I would also complain about the 2 scroll wheels on the yoke, they are too sensitive and control too many functions depending on how you push them, but that is mostly TESLA "high-tech" stuff which they still can't get right. GET RID OF THE YOKE STEERING WHEEL, and the small icons: it is dangerous to use.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11557795November 30, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Tesla, in multiple cars that I own, has repeatedly changed user-preferences of user-selections, without warning, or update notes, for a variety of functions. This seems to be a consequence of sloppy software coding and seems to coincide with new software releases. In recent months, Tesla has attempted to inform people of new software update functionality with ‘release notes’. However, these notes seldom, if ever, explain that a user’s preference is getting discarded (though could be restored -- if the user were aware). One example, is the operation of ‘Traffic Aware Cruise Control’ was changed from a double click of a scroll wheel to a single click. No release nor or manual page was called out to indicate the change — at least prior to this driver’s noticing and diagnosing the problem. Nor was any pop-up message explaining the new, and surprising functionality of a ‘double-click’ — which was to momentary activate and deactivate TACC. Other functions that get changed, without notice: 1) operation of automatic windshield wipers is deactivated (and set to ‘manual) — from the user-preference of ‘auto’; 2) Auto park chimes sounds are turned off — despite a user-preference setting them to 'on'. These changes to the UI, necessitating guesswork using the large glass screen, prove to be highly distracting to a driver in the midst of driving. In addition, these undocumented and un-communicated changes lead the consumer to contact Tesla and even setup ranger service to make a repair for what ends up being a sloppy manual — to the detriment of Tesla’s effectiveness of their Service Department. If Tesla cannot make the user interface operate in a coherent manner day-to-day, there is no hope that any alleged full self driving will avoid reverting to some unknown configuration on unknown time scales. Perhaps Tesla should repurpose engineers that make video games for the car to the purpose of regression testing to avoid surprises like these.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11552774October 31, 2023
AIR BAGS, ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
Today I parked my car front of my house after couple ours I heard the voice and when I come close to my car I see the airbag is deployed I want you know the car doesn’t have any impact any accident when the airbag is deployed the car was off
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11551967October 26, 2023
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Tesla Yoke Steering, horn button is nearly impossible to find in a panic situation. By the time you find the horn button an incident that could maybe have been otherwise avoided may have already occurred. Suggest Tesla, make all horns center steering wheel, it has been proven effective since the 1900's. As the NHTSA this is a complete failure in approving such a failed placement of the horn, one of any car most valued safety devices.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11547327September 29, 2023
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
The backup camera randomly stutters and pauses. Sometimes long as 2-3 seconds. It makes as if a car or pedestrian will wait for you but in fact they just walked behind you. I agree to not rely on the camera but it’s dangerous as this potentially tricks you to go and can hit a person. Tesla has replaced all hardware however dismisses my issue. On the forums there are plenty of post about this but no fix.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11545573September 20, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS, BACK OVER PREVENTION: WARNINGS, BACK OVER PREVENTION: REARVIEW SYSTEM BRAKING
"Tesla Vision" is the ADAS sensor system in the car which relies exclusively on video cameras with no LIDAR or ultrasonic sensors to measure distance. It is highly inaccurate and prone to failure. It consistently reports false warnings and fails to identify actual threats.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11544008September 12, 2023
TIRES:SIDEWALL
Tire sidewall delaminated above the DOT markings. Vehicle purchased new, with only 8500 miles. No tires impacts and tire pressure maintained within recommended PSI (automatically remotely monitored by vehicle). Second rear tire to fail within last 500 miles of driving - failed in exact same way, and exact same place -delaminated above the DOT markings. 295/30ZR21 Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S T2 Acoustic
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11544002September 12, 2023
TIRES:SIDEWALL
Tire sidewall delaminated above the DOT markings. Vehicle purchased new, with only 8500 miles. No tires impacts and tire pressure maintained within recommended PSI (automatically remotely monitored by vehicle). Second rear tire to fail within last 500 miles of driving - failed in exact same way, and exact same place -delaminated above the DOT markings.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11543842September 11, 2023
SEAT BELTS
The drivers seatbelt unlatches by itself, without pressing the release button. Effectively, the drivers side seatbelt is unusable. Tesla has repeatedly refused to correct the problem.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11543709September 10, 2023
ENGINE
Vehicle became immovable due to sudden rear motor failure. Vehicle came to a complete stop in moving lanes of traffic with minimal warning to react.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0

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