Tesla Model Y Complaints (2021)

1,096 consumer complaints on file.

#11501787January 14, 2023
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, LANE DEPARTURE: ASSIST
Jan 13, 2023 at 7:02AM PST. While using adaptive cruise control with lanekeeping, I was driving in second lane from the right at a constant speed. There was plenty of room in front of me- no car nearby. As I was slowly passing the car to my right, another car that was behind the car to my right began a normal lane change to its left into my lane behind me. For no reason, my car began to slow down suddenly. Video footage of cameras on my car show the moment when the front of my car pitched down because it was suddenly slowing down. The rear camera view shows when my car's brake lights illuminated for no good reason. I immediately intervened and accelerated back to my highway speed so as to not contribute to the car behind me running into me or having to suddenly brake itself and leading to a problem for yet more drivers. These video files I am linking to show the incident 14 seconds into each video. https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0kGqkRUiGD9Mw9 I've experienced many examples of this phantom breaking since upgrading to 2022.44.30. I wish my car had a feature to enable simple, old fashioned, cruise control so I could use it on highways.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11501773January 14, 2023
STEERING
If you turn the steering wheel in a Tesla Model 3/Y all the way to either direction then apply light force the car will slowly start to push back with a lot of force till the wheel reaches about 45°. At that point if you try to turn the wheel in either direction you will be unable to as it completely locks up for a few seconds. This behavior will happen in any gear including park with the vehicle on. In my case I was backing up onto a busy street and was waiting for a gap in traffic with my wheel turned all the way. At this point it had begun pushing back then when I finally backed out I was unable to turn the wheel the opposite direction and ended up blocking traffic for a few seconds. This was a very terrifying situation and had the potential to go a lot worse. This is a serious safety concern that affects all Teslas and needs to be addressed.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11501660January 13, 2023
LANE DEPARTURE: ASSIST, UNKNOWN OR OTHER
I was using the new version of the full self driving on surface streets. It was my second time using the system (yesterday was the first on the freeway and it seemed odd). Today it sped up and veered towards a car parked in the middle lane. I grabbed the wheel and thought it might have been an innocent error. Then a few minutes later the car took control again and tried to turn (quickly) into the side of a FedEx truck. At that point I knew the first miss wasn’t made up in my mind. I’m so glad I was paying attention, both would have been serious car damage - though not likely to be deadly because they were at low enough speeds.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11501642January 13, 2023
SERVICE BRAKES, VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
I was driving on highway 395 in California on Jan 6th in the afternoon. It was a very clear day. I was driving north on the 2 lane portion of the road north of Adelanto and Kramer junction with cruise control on set to about 72. With no cars in sight in front of me the car hard braked with no cars in front of me. I disabled cruise control and later enabled it again. It happened again. I contacted Tesla and they determined there no hardware issue with the car. I am afraid to use cruise control now in the car.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11501504January 12, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Multiple phantom brakes in a day with nothing in front of the vehicle on an interstate. Terrified drivers behind as a result.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11501211January 11, 2023
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Car sufferers from “phantom braking” and will aggressively brake while adaptive cruise control is engaged for no apparent reason. No “regular” cruise control is available to over ride this.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11501046January 10, 2023
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
When driving with Autopilot enabled, the brakes suddenly and sharply come on when I crest a hill. It's very disorienting and could be dangerous if the road is busy. The Autopilot should not be beta tested on consumers and other drivers like this.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11500984January 10, 2023
SERVICE BRAKES
Power Braking Assist Reduced error intermittently appears followed by problems braking. I asked Tesla Service Center to repair but they have not done so, nor have they explained what is wrong or how they will fix it.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11500934January 9, 2023
STEERING
While driving, suddenly power steering failed. Impossible to steer for my wife who was driving, I am barely able to steer it. Shut off the veh and let it sit for a couple of hours and it started working. Have had it happen 3 times. Scared to drive it. Extremely hazardous situation.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11500457January 6, 2023
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
I have experienced phantom braking numerous times with this car so I plugged in an arbitrary date below. Fortunately it has generally been on rural, open roads where there was nobody close behind me, but there have been at least a couple of times where there were cars behind me and the braking came close to causing accidents. It is also terrifying when it does happen and has nearly caused me to lose control of the car more than once as I attempted to compensate for the abrupt braking. I understand that you are already investigating this issue with these cars so you know the details. Generally it happens when I am on 2-lane roads that don't have good dividers. The cruse control seems to mistake oncoming cars in the opposite lane as being cars in my lane and it will slam on the brakes. It also seems to be triggered by highway mirages and shadows. I have managed to capture the issue on video at least once.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11500365January 5, 2023
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
In a rainy day I drove Tesla Model Y (AWD) on highway 1 in the Raleigh NC area. The highway 1 is under construction. There are only two lanes open with cement barriers on both sides. While I was driving on the left lane, the car suddenly lost control and slide to the right. I tried to hit break and turn left to avoid the SUV on the right lane, but my car end up turning 180 degree and driver side rear-end hit the cement barrier. Fortunately no injury and no other vehicles involved in the collation. It was raining but not hard. I don't understand why the AWD Tesla would suddenly lost control and slide to right. I can't remember if autopilot was on or off. I tried to request data from Tesla but was denied. Their email indicates only California registrant can request data. I believe the Teals driving and EDR data can really help to confirm if it was a weather issue or not. I have dashcam video ready to upload.
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11499223December 28, 2022
VISIBILITY/WIPER, UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Regarding a Tesla Y, 2021with 10,000 miles; Durging a recent cold spell, winter driving conditions, the A/C Compressor/Heat Pump failed causing the windshield defrost to cease functioning, causing the visiblity to become poor to none at all, requiring that the vehicle not be driven on the roads until the weather cleared and even then, the driver or pasenger (if avalailbe) has to wipe down the wet windshield from inside to acceptable visibility standards. We did not get in an accident as we quickly abandoned the Tesla Model Y and obtained a ride from another vehicle that had a working windshield defroster. We understand that this has been a problem in Canada and is the subject of a Canadian recall. We contacted Tesla, sent them the computer code "VC front-a447 Cabin Climate Control Issues-requires service" and were advised that they were familiar with this problem and scheduled a repair which included the removal and replacement of the A/C Compressor/Heat Pump and the 'Supermanifold' at a cost of $1,993.55. We were advised that no 'Recall' was associated with this pariticular VIN and nor was there any warranty but this would be a 'customer pay' repair. After exhausting all efforts at writing and calling in an attempt to have a clear defect leading to a safety violation addressed voluntarily by the manufacturer we feel we are left with no alternative but to ask the Goverment to look into this issue for the safety of others who may drive a Tesla with a heat pump in cold weather and very dependant on the proper operation of a windshield defroster (which the heat pump does) for safe visiblity, crucial to proper operations of a motor vehicle, on the public highways. Thanks in advance for looking into this.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11499156December 28, 2022
VISIBILITY
The contact owns a 2021Tesla Model Y. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V702000 (Visibility) however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact was stated that the driver’s side window would independently roll down while turning the steering wheel. A technician from Tesla reset the computer however, the contact was unsure if the repair addressed the failure stated in the recall. The failure mileage was unknown. Parts distribution disconnect.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11498893December 26, 2022
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Tesla "Traffic Aware Cruise Control" occasionally unnecessarily applies brakes aggressively for no apparent reason when cruise control is in use. This presents a hazard to other driver's who may be behind the Tesla. This phenomena is well known to Tesla owners who have repeatedly posted about it in Tesla's Owners Forum. It is often referred to as "phantom braking". There is no option for the Tesla owner to disable the "Traffic Aware" aspect of Tesla's cruise control I believe Tesla could resolve this problem with a simple software update which would allow the Tesla owner to use cruise control normally without the "Traffic Aware" feature. The "Traffic Aware" feature is part of Tesla's problematic "Auto Pilot" feature. However, my Tesla is not equipped with "Auto Pilot". My Tesla is available for inspection upon request.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11498842December 26, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
Phantom braking
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11498659December 23, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES, STEERING, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
I was driving on the freeway, no one was near me (I had full control of the car, it wasn’t on autopilot) and the car’s brakes deadlocked while I was traveling high way speed and then made a sharp left turn which caused me to crash into the center divide and then hydroplane across the entire freeway uncontrollably
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
1
Deaths:
0
#11498530December 22, 2022
STEERING, SERVICE BRAKES, LANE DEPARTURE: WARNING
11/29/23: vehicle begins to flash warning alerts (e.g., traction control disabled, lane departure warning unavailable), then power steering stopped working, and brakes pulsed violently when used (almost like ABS was active). Software update was available shortly thereafter, assumed this would remedy the situation. 12/5/23: same problems recur (loss of power steering, odd braking behavior, vehicle alerts). Vehicle was towed to Tesla for service. Tesla was able to ID the alerts in the vehicle history but could not identify the root cause. Took the vehicle one extended test drives, but was unable to cause the problems to recur. Tesla is unable to identify any further actions to prevent recurrence.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11498077December 19, 2022
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL, SERVICE BRAKES, FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
I had the adaptive cruise control (Autopilot) engaged on I95 and had it set to 60 MPH. Twice between a minute, the Model Y lowered the cruise speed to either 40 MPH and 25 MPH while on the interstate. No obstacles were in front of me to affect the cruise control system.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11497935December 18, 2022
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
While in autopilot, the Tesla has been phantom braking repeaters. We noticed many time while driving at high speeds on the freeway, the Tesla model y will slam on the brakes for no apparent reason. There are no police reports
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11497881December 17, 2022
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
No clearing of recall once OTA / Software update was completed
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0

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