2021 Tesla Model Y Complaint Log

I was driving on Auto pilot and with no obstacle in sight or the need to do so, the car AEB system get activated ( PHANTOM BRAKING) another complaint that I got is went the traffic lights changes to green and I'm on Auto Pilot and the car slower down on the middle of crossing that intersection that can create an accident because the car from behind do not expect you slower down, the AEB system get activated went it's nothing in front of you.

The Back windows go up and down when trying to roll them up.

Phantom braking. Had car on cruise control and FSD and car would brake excessively for no reason.

The brakes engage during lane assist mode as if to avoid something in the road although there is nothing there. This happens many times on a road trip from Phoenix to Los Angeles on I 10. It also happened multiple times on the freeway in town in Phoenix. It is very jarring

2021 Tesla's rear-view camera and collision warning systems did not activate when backing out of a parking spot. Tesla screen showed the navigation map instead of the rear-view camera while I was backing out at low speed ~2 mph. A 2003 Honda Pilot directly behind me was also backing up at the same time resulting in a collision. After the crash, I confirmed that all safety features were enabled and I have always installed all regularly scheduled updates. After searching online forums, I found many customers reporting problems with their on-screen camera not activating. I have noticed that the camera did not consistently activate in the past. Sometimes it would, other times I would have to manually press the Camera button on-screen in order to view behind me. There were no on-screen notifications of problems before the event. However, there was one notable change I made to re-enable Sentry Mode (security) after being disabled for some time. Prior to the event, I was notified that two Sentry Camera events were available to watch but they would not load when I touched on screen. After the crash, I discovered after the crash that both Sentry and Dash Cam were not working so there was no footage at all of the crash! Nor were these Sentry events visible. This leads me to believe there is a bug with the camera system.

Tesla Phantom breaking issues on my Model Y. Clear roads and then sudden deceleration in perfect weather conditions with no nearby cars

On June 2 around 3:40pm CDT while driving in cruise control on I-43 in Wisconsin around 70mph my car suddenly went into corrective lane assist with warning alerts and steering wheel action. There was no reason this should have happened.

Driving on I-43 in Wisconsin on June 2 around 2pm CDT while in cruise control the car suddenly went into emergency braking and slowed down dramatically requiring me to override the system. There was very little traffic and a semi-truck about 200-300 yards ahead of me.

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!

Phantom braking on highway when using ACC and FSD. When going 80 mph car will suddenly brake for no apparent reason. This happened over 12 times in one day on a recent trip. I sent video clips to Tesla for every event. This is the second report of this defect. I have ever had and ACC act this way. I am afraid I will get rear ended.

Recently, I had a long distance trip and and Tesla Model Y braked the vehicle at highway speed when it was on Advanced cruise control 3 or 4 times with obvious reasons. I had to push the acceralator pedal to speed up in order to avoid rear ended collision in a bumper to bumper traffic.

While driving using cruise control or auto drive the car randomly brakes while at highway speeds. There are often no cars or objects in front of the car. I have almost been rear ended, because the car hit the brakes to almost stop. This happens every time the vehicle is placed in regular cruise control or auto drive.

Rear undertray composite cover partially peeled off and began dragging on the road creating a driving hazard. This problem has been reported in online forums on many occasions.

Car consistently slows down to 25 MPH in 60MPH zone on i4 with Auto-Pilot enabled.

Unexpected and rapid slowing/braking of vehicle since new in November of 2021. Occurs when on cruise control usually at highway speed, more often on open highways and have possibly (though not always) related it to cresting a hill, distant reflective “water mirage” on our western roads, passing large trucks, two lane highway having large oncoming trucks +/- on curves. On one occasion while passing a semi truck with car on my tail came within a foot or so of being rear ended. Many other occasions where got to point I do not feel safe using the cruise control. We have driven it from Denver to Tucson in November and back in May, both times was worse on wide open western roads, sometimes tho not always with bright sun, pretty unpredictable and random but often to point of not using any of our autopilot or cruise control functions with confidence of safety. No warnings, lights or prehappening signs. Reported and examined in Tucson on arrival there in Nov/21. Told would “get better with time” and further hardware updates. Hasn’t happened with city driving (tho rarely use cruise control. Happened a couple times on highway drives in Arizona while on cruise and thought maybe better until recent trip to Denver when it was as severe as November. Again contacted Tesla and told would lengineers are aware of problem and would be fixed with hardware app fix at end of June. Recontact them in July if still an issue. When serviced in November for this issue tech said he could see in computer log what was happening. When I set up appointment this time basically said live (or die) with it until June and nothing they could do til “hardware fix”. In blanks below I entered last episodes date. It has been ongoing from 11/2021 to present at speeds from 50 to 80 mph. Started with first trip when less than 300 miles til present 5436 miles on it. Could almost guarantee it would happen on highway trip with cruise control if you would like to risk your life on a test drive.

My Tesla Model Y has phantom braking issue. When on autopilot (not full self-driving) traveling io the freeway, it just suddenly slows down to 45MPH for no obvious reason. This problem happens every time on the southbound direction of Interstate 5 when the car passes under the overpass bridge at Valley View Blvd in Santa Fe Springs, CA. The slow down also happens without fail in the same general area on the northbound direction of the same freeway. This incident last happened on May 27, 2022 but has happened numerous other times. It has also happened randomly on other freeways.

My Tesla model Y will experience phantom braking while in Auto pilot / adaptive cruise. It happens randomly but does occur every time at one point in Tacoma on I-5 head south on a bridge just before the Tacoma dome.

My Model Y Tesla, while driving on the freeway using full self driving, would abruptly slow down from 70mph to 40 mph in matter of seconds without warning and luckily there was nobody around me. I did a bug report on it many times but Tesla discounted that. Also my front windshield wipers would come on for no reason even on a sunny day. Sometime on a raining day when going into a tunnel the windshield wipers would stop and would not come back on when I get out of the tunnel and that is really scarily as I was unable to see during heavy rain. I had to manually turn it on and that took a few seconds and in the meantime I could not see anything due to heavy rain. I brought this to Tesla and they told me that the windshield wiper control and the headlight use the same sensor and there is nothing I can do except to place the windshield wiper on manual mode. The rain detection wipers are on many different model cars without issues. I am not sure why Tesla could not add an additional sensor just for the windshield wipers.

With AP and AS activated the vehicle will have multiple episodes of phantom braking. With no vehicle in front, next to, or behind for 100’s of feet or even visible to the naked eye on a divided highway. No flashing lights, no moon visible, no signs just a straight stretch of flat highway 70-50 hard stop before deactivated. Nothing on the driving display to indicate a need to brake.

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while driving 70 MPH with the adaptive cruise control activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact depressed the brake pedal to disengage cruise control. The contact then depressed the accelerator pedal and was able to continue driving. The contact stated that there were no other vehicles around the vehicle at the time of the failure. The contact stated that the failure reoccurred three more times while driving. The manufacturer was notified of the failure through email. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 4,300.

On multiple occasions the rear hatch has opened while the vehicle was in drive stopped at traffic lights. During each event the only two users were present and neither were interacting with the phone app or the vehicle touch screen. The rear hatch should not open when the vehicle is in drive or reverse under any circumstance and it does. To close it in this situation you must place the car in park and wait for the screen that allows you to close it while sitting at a red light.

Going on highway at 70mph at around 440pm on I76 on 5/23/22 with autopilot with no cars in front. Clear weather and suddenly car brakes on the highway to almost 30mph. Thankfully there was no car behind me. It could have been a grave mishap. Have reported about this earlier also and has happened multiple times.

My son was driving my Model Y Performance Trim Tesla Model Y on May 23,, 2022 and thank god he was in a relatively safe parking lot; the vehicle had a loud thud noise coming from the rear and then it spontaneously died due to allegedly a rear motor failure (it's a dual motor Model Y). The Tesla then turned off essentially and locked itself in "Park" -- the vehicle could not be taken out of Park. Had to get it on a flatbed -- it now sits at the San Antonio, Texas Service Center off interstate 10 where allegedly it will be undergoing a diagnosis. But this rear motor failure (according to some of the indicator lights) is unbelievably dangerous inasmuch as the failure occurred without warning and without an opportunity to apply reasonable contingency protocols -- had this happened on a highway or street lane -- the complete unexpected stopping of the vehicle would assuredly be cause for grave damage and serious bodily injury or death.

Driving south on Interstate 89 in Vermont, approaching exit 2. Auto-pilot and auto-steer engaged. (Note: this vehicle does not have the optional "full self-driving beta" mode.) In the right lane, road curving to the left. The right-hand exit ramp appeared almost directly ahead. Auto-steer tried to continue straight ahead into the (low-speed) exit ramp at full highway speed. I had to physically wrestle the auto-steer for a short period, which forces it to disengage, to keep in my lane on the highway. Daylight, clear weather. Had I not had my hands on the wheel and had I not paid attention, the car would have taken the sharply curving exit ramp and I would have run off the road into trees. This is a failure of the auto-steer software. I have also had issues with auto-steer when driving past on-ramps and off-ramps that do not have dashed lines that continue the right-hand edge of the driving lane. In these cases, the auto-steer attempts to abruptly correct into the middle of the suddenly wider "lane" as indicated by the edges of the ramps and the left side dashed line. It should maintain its standard distance from the left lane markings instead of trying to center itself in the suddenly wider perceived lane. I have the auto-steer lane correction enabled and set to "early" mode (which is the most aggressive setting). This is a software bug, not a component failure.

Unspecific event. I hope this report, without my having an incident myself is looked into enough to apply a standard across all manufacturers to make sure the public aren’t so unknowingly put at risk. All because of an ill thought through design. My vehicle has no easy access to exit rear seats if there is any kind of electrical failure. My rear passengers will not be able to exit the vehicle. Manual override of electronic door controls are hidden beneath door panels and trims. With no mechanical connection on the outer handle, even if the driver uses the front manual release, they cannot rescue rear passengers. The outside door handles are electronic ONLY. Imagine a fire like Vancouver happening, when a child is in a car seat or has less mobile passengers like seniors. Neither can be expected to climb to the front or out a side window to reach safety. No means to unlock doors or open doors makes this vehicle unsafe to carry passengers in the back, nevermind versions of my vehicle that have 7 seats and a third row, which will most certainly be carrying kids due to the available room. . This design flaw exists in Tesla Model 3’s also. I’m not sure of other vehicles or brands. Older vehicles with mechanical door controls still allow a door to be opened from outside if on fire or suffering an electrical problem. These back seats aren’t safe and for Model Y as an suv marketed to families, it’s only a matter of time til tragedy occurs.

Car was on autopilot full self driving. Truck hit car and vehicle was severely side scrapped. Over 35k in damages. Autopilot did not stop or drive to the side to avoid collision. Autopilot failed Videos can be provided.

We are experiencing two issues with our Tesla Y, one of which I have come to learn is common. That issue is the cruise control will suddenly "disengage" forcing the brakes on, either actively or just through the regenerative components. This has happened in several conditions from high speeds on interstates (>55 MPH) and on smaller state highways (<55MPH). The primary concern is being rear ended by cars following; effectively the Tesla is "brake checking". I am not aware of Tesla pushing updates or addressing this issue in any typeof inspection. There are no warnings, and I have noticed no pattern as to why it happens (and it happens frequently). I have notified Tesla of the issue. The second issue is that the control/infotainment screen has frozen and gone blank on at least four occasions. This as well has happened in various conditions, most recently on both legs of a long roadtrip on the highway. It effectively leaves all control of the car other than steering and velocity out of our control. It is scary. There are no warnings and I am not aware of Tesla doing anything to address the issue though I am aware that it is happening to other vehicles.

On or about 4:30 pm Monday, May 16th there were two instances of unintended braking. Then at approximately 10:30am on 19 May another 6 instances of unintentional braking occurred. I believe this is a serious safety risk and Tesla should be required to correct.

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while driving 75 MPH, the vehicle inadvertently stopped without warning. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 1,600.

When engaged, Autopilot often causes vehicle to suddenly brake for no apparent reason. Online this phenomenon is often referred to as “phantom braking”.

Repeated random automatic braking while using cruise control at highway speeds. Near miss of rear end collision. Tesla service representative just said to live with it and be careful.

The roof glass cracked with no impact and no accident. No chip or missing pieces of glass. Everything is in tack but has cracked

My 2021 Tesla Model Y, when using adaptive cruise control engages in phantom braking on a perfect clear road with no obstacles. On a recent road trip the vehicle braked suddenly at least 10 times while driving at highway speeds on both divided and single lane roads. This is cleariy unsafe especially if there is a car following. Tesla is aware of this problem and has done nothing to resolve it.

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while driving 60 MPH with the cruise control activated, the radar detected a hazard ahead on the roadway and deactivated the cruise control, causing the vehicle to experience 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 approximately 3,000.

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that her husband was attempting to drive from a stationary position and depressing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle stalled. The contact stated that no warning light was illuminated. The contact experienced the failure three times. The contact took the vehicle to the local dealer; however, the mechanic was unable to duplicate the failure. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.

Currently and noticing other reporting the inaccurate location of the GPS in the car. At times the car gpe will drift into areas not associated with the cars correct location. If the car is in adaptive cruse or teslas autopilot the car will maintain the posted speed limit for that GPS location or a delta of the users defined (+ - 10 or 15 mph). This cause a car to abruptly reduce the speed if not within the posted speed limit for that area. For example a car in autopilot or adaptive cruse going 70mph on the highway, the gps will start drifting into areas outside of you location and abruptly reduce the speed to assumed location. This is even more troublesome if autopilot is engaged where the car will try to change lanes as directed by the gps.

For the last several software versions, the car experienced “phantom breaking” when on a high speed roadway with no apparent obstacles in the road.

While the car is in “autopilot” (we did not pay for full self driving package), the car will apply braking often while at posted speeds on interstates and highways in Montana, Idaho, Nevada, California, and Utah. Our observations notice it happens when the road color transitions between older and newer road surfaces and in curved sections of roadway (especially curves to the left). We are looking for a replacement electric vehicle now due to this problem.

Due to the NHTSA demanding the removal of the boombox feature while driving I have had SEVERAL issues which were previously avoidable. The vehicle does not make a sound when driving and often times pedestrians cannot hear the vehicle. The horn without custom sounds is aggressive and could incite road rage from pedestrians or other vehicles when previously being able to play music via the outside speakers via boombox alerted pedestrians and in extreme cases a funny sound accompanied with the horn would cause the pedestrian or other vehicles to notice but not incite road rage. I am imploring NHTSA to allow Tesla to bring back the boombox while driving and the custom horn sounds before more people get hurt! This is an NHTSA demand issue and not a Tesla issue. This is a daily issue when driving in parking lots or through neighborhoods!! NHTSA's original demand being that the PWS was not able to be audibly heard while boombox was engaged is garbage, boombox enabled an audible warning to pedestrians in conjunction with the PWS. Now with the lack of boombox while in drive or custom horn sounds there are many instances personally witnessed, told to me, and experienced where road rage has occurred and pedestrians are in the roadway unaware of a vehicle approaching. I propose the solution of returning to allow custom horn sounds and boombox while driving but when in reverse to mute the boombox and allow the PWS to be heard loudly. This will appease all sides and allow pedestrians a warning signal that the vehicle is in reverse while also not inciting road rage from a gentle or funny custom horn and alerting pedestrians and other vehicles a moving vehicle is nearby when in drive. Again, I implore you to make the right decision and allow Tesla to enable custom horns and boombox while driving to save lives!!

The car had a phantom braking incident where I was on the freeway with the autopilot set and the car slammed the brakes on because it thought it saw a person in the freeway. This is what it showed on the screen. The car decreased the speed from 70 mph to 40mph. There was no notification of this decrease. This has happened before in the car, but not as drastically and it doesn’t happen very often.

Traveling at highway speeds (70mph) while adaptive cruise control was active, the car applied the brakes suddenly with no apparent reason. No obstructions were present and no traffic was in the area.

Recently while pulling into my children's school, my car has started deciding that the entrance to the parking garage is a large truck stopped diagonally in front of me and slams on the brakes scaring me and causing everything in the car to go flying. Luckily no one has been behind me while this has happened. I am always entering very slowly, maybe 5 mph at the very fastest.

I was about to park the car in my garage and stopped midway down my driveway to take a phone call. After the phone call, I changed it from park to to drive by stepping on the brake and lightly stepped on the accelerator to ease it into the garage. It quickly accelerated. I stepped on the brake to stop it but it failed to stop. It crashed into my refrigerator in the garage. A video is available for you to view

While in cruise control, our 2021 Tesla Model Y (WE DO NOT HAVE AUTO PILOT!) applied the brakes HARD dropping between 10-40 mph with no warning. Cruise control stays active. There were no cars anywhere near us, either in front or in the rear. Over thirty (30) Tesla bug reports were recorded on April 25 and April 26, 2022. While we were not SERIOUSLY hurt, had a vehicle actually been behind us, we would have ended up with a vehicle in our back seat and certainly serious injuries. This same thing happened six months ago on our last road trip. Tesla has blown us off saying that this simply cannot occur. Their response is that the computer cannot slow the car without seeing something. Therefore it must have seen something. This is circular reasoning and is meant to blow off the consumer. This is a serious safety issue. The braking on occasion has been violent. This is similar to the reports in other models. Tesla has twice now, within six months, addressed this issue simply by saying "it cannot occur." Seriously?!

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

During cruise control the vehicle automatically slows down periodically.

When my Tesla Y is in cruise control, there have been intermittent unexpected slow downs causing the car to abruptly slow down on the highway. On my last road trip it happened about 5 times.

While driving in the adaptive cruise control the vehicle will suddenly go into a hard brake while at highway speeds. This has happened multiple times during both day and night, on roads varying from two lane highways to larger multi lane interstate freeways, and during weather conditions have always been clear. This feature has been typically only been used when traffic is light, as this problem has been documented by countless Tesla Y owners. This issue has been documented and reported to Tesla via the in vehicle reporting feature. When this happens it is a sudden and unexpected action that may cause another vehicle to rear end me, and or possibly loose control during the hard and sudden braking.

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.

During our trip from San Jose, CA to Park City, Utah, we experienced number time phantom break while the car was in autopilote mode. All of the incidences were on the highway and there were no traffic. The car came to a sudden slow down.