There are 50 owner-reported driver assist & adas complaints for the 2019 Tesla Model 3in NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
I was involved in a collision while driving my 2019 Tesla Model 3. The incident occurred on April 2nd 2026 in [XXX] Prior to the collision, the vehicle was operating normally The crash resulted in damage to the front driver-side of the vehicle, including a destroyed headlight and body panel damage. At the time of the incident, weather and traffic was light and normal. The vehicle was set and supposed to head straight when suddenly at the intersection it jerked right and headed straight into another vehicle. I attempted to take control but was unable to due to resistance on the wheel and how quickly the incident occurred. There was no warning or emergency braking which should've also been expected from my tesla. I am submitting this report to document a potential safety concern and request review. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked, the rearview camera became inoperable while opening the trunk. The message “Camera Not Available” was displayed. The contact stated that the rearview camera functionality returned after opening and closing the trunk several times. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was determined that the rearview camera wiring harness had failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact informed the dealer that the vehicle had previously been associated with a recall related to the failure; however, the dealer did not repair the vehicle under the recall. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 81,952.
Vehicle: 2019 Tesla Model 3 Dual Motor VIN: [XXX] Mileage: ~84,041 Software: v12 (2025.32.6 e575ed98d527), FSD Supervised v12.6.4 Date/Time: [XXX], ~[XXX] Location: [XXX] Incident Description: While operating Autopilot, I was stopped at a stop sign preparing to turn right. I lightly pressed the accelerator to prompt the turn. At that moment, the vehicle would not respond to steering or braking input. Despite applying full force on the steering wheel and brake pedal, the car continued straight ahead and struck a street sign. This represents a loss of manual override — I was completely locked out of steering and braking. Prior Behavior at Same Location: On prior occasions using Autopilot at this same intersection, the vehicle would attempt to make the turn but then immediately steer itself into the breakdown lane. I had learned to expect this and was prepared to take over. However, in this most recent incident, the vehicle did not allow me to take over at all, which created a far more serious hazard. Result: •Vehicle damage (front bumper, sensors) •Significant safety risk if pedestrians or cross traffic had been present •Demonstrates that Autopilot can both mis-execute turns and, critically, fail to relinquish control when the driver intervenes Action Taken: •Scheduled Tesla Service (Cherry Hill, NJ – Oct 7, 2025) •Requested Tesla to preserve all telemetry, camera footage, and Autopilot logs •Reported to my insurance carrier as a suspected manufacturer defect Request: I am reporting this as a serious safety defect. A system that prevents manual override of steering and braking is unsafe and could cause severe injury or death. Please investigate Tesla Autopilot’s behavior at this location and in similar right-turn scenarios. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Vehicle in front stopped suddenly. The car gave NO alert AND did NOT stop whatsoever. The tesla collided with the vehicle in front. **I have dashcam footage of the incident
My vehicle was working fine when Tesla issued an over-the-air software update recently. The next day, my backup camera was not working. The back up camera is required for this vehicle under FMVSS 111 and is otherwise essential for this vehicle due to limited rear vision through the rear window. In addition, GPS/navigation stopped working, the windshield wipers did not function on certain settings and the display was at times not legible, presumably because it believed it was a different time of day and was in the wrong mode. There are likely additional issues that have not revealed themselves yet. I took the vehicle to the local Tesla Service Center on July 25, 2025. They confirmed the reported issues and said it was a problem with the software update, which they would perform onsite while I waited. The service center personnel also stated this was not a firmware issue or anything to do with my car and that it was just the software update. After a few hours, the personnel reported they could not get the update to install and asked that I bring the vehicle back the following week for further diagnostics. Before I brought the vehicle back, I was sent an invoice for approximately $2,300 for replacement of on vehicle's computer. I brought the vehicle back today, July 29, 2025, and asked them to perform the onsite diagnostics they wanted me to bring the vehicle back in for and did not agree to pay for the computer replacement. I also informed the Tesla personnel that, at a minimum, the the back up camera failure is a safety related issued covered for this vehicle under FMVSS 111 and that they were not permitted to charge me for fixing it. The vehicle warranty period recently expired but it is well within the 10-year date of manufacture. Other issues with the vehicle may also qualify as safety related, but the back up camera is clearly one - Tesla recently issued a recall for this very same problem impacting the Model 3, but the recall did not include my model year.
* The AEB engaged when it shouldn't have. Yes. * Yes * No. * Yes, Tesla remotely told me that the error codes in my service menu had nothing to do with the AEB engaging when it wasn't supposed to. The problem has been reported to Tesla. * None. On [XXX] a car stopped suddenly in front of me and my AEB engaged when it shouldn't have. My car is a Model 3 Performance and it can stop much faster than most cars. The car behind me came inches from hitting me and my dog and myself were thrown violently forward. This is a *MAJOR* safety hazard and could have caused an accident and has caused accidents in other cases. [XXX] This thread has videos of the incident. There was around 20 feet between my car and the car in front of me when the AEB stopped my car. My foot was already on the brake and I was in the process of stopping at a reasonable rate when the AEB suddenly engaged. I could feel the ABS engaging. This happened another time about a month ago. A white box van two cars in front of me slowed down and turned right and the AEB engaged even though there was no need for it. Tesla has the ability to turn off the AEB but you have to do it each time you drive. Please require Tesla to make the AEB on/off choice sticky so you don't have to turn it off each time you drive. Also please make Tesla fix their software or disable AEB on their cars. Recent accident where AEB caused an accident. [XXX] Other incidents where AEB engaged almost causing an accident or caused an accident: [XXX] [XXX] Please do Google searches to find the rest. Thanks! INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
For the last few weeks while driving, my car will automatically put itself into FSD with out me authorization. Mean I will we driving and the car will just put itself into FSD. This has happened about 15-20 times over the last 2-3 weeks. Tesla wants to clean the front camera? Which makes no sense and charge me for it. If the front camera was obstructed, like in the case of fog. The car would alert me that it could not due to being obstructed, which isnt the case.
Hello. A recall was issued in 2022 on my vehicle. There was an issue with the wiring harness that would sometimes cause the rear camera feed to be dropped when opening and closing the trunk. According to Tesla, this issue was fixed in 2022 is therefore no longer subject to being fixed again. This issue is occurring again and Tesla is refusing to fix the issue without me paying for it. As this was a recall item, that is reoccurring. I feel that as a safety component that can drop out the rear camera/cross traffic detection system. This is a serious safety concern. NHTSA campaign number: 21VO0DO00. Tesla's own number for this recall is SB-21-17-008.
Driving on Hwy 8 (Houston Beltway), going west, dog came out from left side, Tesla auto pilot was engaged and did not detect collision with the dog. Car did not stop, did not alarm, dog was hit, my front bumper was damaged, and car kept on going.
Tesla Model 3 with FSD (Full Self Driving) package. Engaged FSD to drive home today but vehicle failed to recognize ALL traffic control signals (stop signs, red & green stoplights. The first time this occurred, I had to brake emergently to avoid collision with cross traffic that had a ‘green’ light. Subsequently reactivated FSD to check the issue and vehicle attempted to run several more red lights and stop signs.It did, however recognize and stop for stopped traffic ahead and performed fairly well with autosteer. This is the first time we have had this potentially-fatal issue. We have, for several months had an issue where some or all of the Tesla cameras fail intermittently. This usually happens at the beginning of a drive and the vehicle alerts us ‘Automatic braking temporarily unavailable.’ Sometimes it recovers on a subsequent drive the same day and rarely recovers on same drive. When cameras are out, ALL the ADAS features are inoperative as they require camera input. Also, the standard feature of ‘speed control’ does not function because Tesla has only adaptive cruise control. Today’s drive was the first time cameras seemed functional on drive home & vehicle allowed me to engage FSD when there was apparently a major safety issue.
I see in today's news that the NHTSA is investigating Tesla's FSD due to accidents in poor visibility, but the articles I've read are not discussing another visibility issue that may actually be more widespread. I already reported concerns with Telsa's FSD in incident 11618812, but I forgot to mention another issue I believe is crucial to the success or failure of Tesla's FSD, and I am surprised to find that nobody is talking about this serious flaw. Because Tesla's FSD relies on camera video only, the vehicle is blind in the dark. I live in a rural area, and on some roads without streetlights or other vehicles nearby illuminating the areas around the vehicle, Tesla's FSD falsely assumes that the side and rear facing cameras are obstructed because they cannot see in the dark. This was also an issue when my son and I drove home through the night from South Carolina. When we hit North Carolina on [XXX] in the middle of the night between cities and no streetlights, traffic was sparse so there was nobody behind or to the sides of the vehicle. Every few minutes, FSD falsely warned us that the cameras were obstructed, and alerted us that FSD's capabilities were limited. One point of view is that there was nobody there so my car was clear, and FSD could assume that everything is okay and suppress the warning, but what if the driver of the other vehicle at night failed to have their lights on? And how will FSD ever know that the camera is obstructed, or is in pitch dark? Take an average of the low light across multiple cameras? Is that risky? In my opinion, Tesla's FSD cannot rely on video alone and either needs to use LIDAR, night vision, or 3D radar to see more accurately around the vehicle in poor visibility conditions. The answer to low light, bright low sun, fog, or dust is probably the same solution. But we were all promised FSD, so will Musk upgrade the hardware in our cars at Tesla's expense, or expect all of us to pay for the upgrade to get what we were all promised? INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Nothing happened my cameras just stop working I was told it was a defective sensor.
With the latest update of V12.3 FSD, the full self driving cannot predict the obstacles clearly, resulting in am incorrect left turn manuever, running over a central divider curb, and damaging tires. Not sure, what could have happened, if a human was standing there instead!
FORCED DISCONNET: Autopilot and Full Self Driving suddenly decelerated to 15 mph with no sign or road work signs. The curve onto Old Madison Pike means following traffic can not see the car suddenly creeping in the turn lane. The problem is reproducible. The problem has been reported to Tesla using their voice reporting system. There were no warnings. It has been going on since August 2022.
Ever since Tesla updated my vehicle to 2023.44.30.8, the autopilot has become effectively unusable. It now nags and beeps at me whenever I am not looking straight ahead. It is ridiculous that Tesla has ruined one of the best aspects of my car due to (ostensibly?) NHTSA pressure. Please allow their previous driver attentiveness system with the steering wheel to be reinstated. It is so miserable to have my car nanny camera flip out on me every time I look anywhere other than straight ahead. At the very least, every other manufacturer should be forced to have just as annoying a system if my Tesla had to be ruined. Its wrong to punish every Tesla owner because some people misused autopilot.
Since nhtsa recommended changes, the assist driver require more input to confirm I am paying attention and is distracting me from paying attention to surroundings. For example proir to the vehicle being "safer" I was able to focus my attention on immediate risk but possible risk that were greater than 12 seconds ahead of me. The vehicle was safer prior to the recall.
The contact owns a 2019 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that the back over prevention camera frequently failed to operate as designed with a blank screen being displayed. There were no warning lights illuminated. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 88,000.
Vehicle experienced phantom breaking previously documented for Teslas. The vehicle suddenly decelerated by 22mph from 75 to 58 mph in approximately 2 to 4 seconds while cresting a hill on an interstate and navigating on autopilot. There were no vehicles or objects ahead of the vehicle. There was one vehicle behind at an indeterminate distance at the start of the phantom breaking event. The driver had their hand on the wheel before the initiation of the phantom breaking and the autopilot system alarmed and prompted the driver to take control at the onset of the phantom breaking.
Manufacturer refuses to address outstanding FSD recall from February 2023 despite multiple service appointments and available remedies. This impedes ability to import vehicle to Canada.
Traveling west in I8 between Gila Bend and San Diego I experienced over 20 automatic hard braking events while using TACC. The road was clear, there were no vehicles in front of me within 400 yards. It appeared to be correlated with heat mirages on the road surface ahead though some may have been caused by differences in asphalt color in sections. The hard braking occurred at highway speeds of 70-75mph and dropped my speed rapidly, if a car or truck had been following me closely it could have result in an accident. The remedy is to press the accelerator to resume speed. Training drivers to hit the accelerator in response to phantom braking events is also dangerous as the automatic braking might be overridden automatically by a driver when there really is an event that calls for emergency braking. When the false positives out number to true positives by 100's to 1 it trains drivers to automatically respond to hard emergency braking by mashing the accelerator.
Showing 1–20 of 50 complaints
Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA. A high complaint count may reflect vehicle popularity, not defect severity. Data sourced from NHTSA public records.
Data synced from NHTSA on May 4, 2026