What 434 owners told NHTSA about the 2020 Tesla Model 3 Bev

I was T boned at an intersection by a red light runner. My car got hit on the driver side and front to back where the initial impact occurred by the left front wheel. None of the airbags deployed. My speed was probably around 30 miles and the other cars speed I don’t know. The other car was a 2021 Toyota suv. I don’t recall what model but all of the airbags deployed in the Toyota. I got thrown against the driver door and sustained an injury to my left rib cage.

NHTSA ODI 11518514

The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at 35 MPH, she encroached into the right light and was T-boned by a bus. The air bags did not deploy upon impact. The contact did not sustain any injuries and a police report was not filed. The contact managed to drive the vehicle away from the accident despite damage to both the front and rear passenger side doors. The manufacturer had yet to be notified of the failure. The contact stated that the lane assist feature failed to operate as needed. The vehicle had yet to be repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 22,000.

NHTSA ODI 11509884

I was on the exit lane coming from Costco on 12/31/2022 at around 12:20 PM with a speed of about 40 miles . My exit is about 100 yards away. Tesla model 3 that I’m driving suddenly accelerated at high speed and pulled towards right and hit the wall next to freeway exit lane. Then it hit the wall on rear tailgate and rolled to middle of freeway within a fraction of seconds. Two vehicles coming on the freeway hit my car and after second hit my car completely stopped in the middle of freeway. I was able to come out safely and later CHP officers came and towed the vehicle

NHTSA ODI 11499653

Was driving Tela on 237 Clavaras Blvd heading towads 880 South just before Abott ave in Mlipitas town California Tesla Model 3 acelrated suddenly hitting the car in fronts, emegency automatic braking did not kick n. Earlier it had autopilot set not sure if it tured off. We were surirsed, my wife was driving and I was i passenger seat none of the safety measure worked in the Tesla. My car is totaled.

NHTSA ODI 11498596

The other driver hit the rear of my tesla model 3 which cause the car accelerate fast about 40-50 miles, the brake is not working either. I can not brake or slow down the car.

NHTSA ODI 11485478

The contact's husband owned a 2020 Tesla Model 3. According to a police report, while traveling at 70 MPH, the vehicle veered across three lanes of traffic and hit a light pole. The contact was wearing a seatbelt and the air bags deployed upon impact. The paramedics arrived at the scene; her husband was intubated and taken to the hospital. Her husband was pronounced brain dead due to injuries suffered in the accident and passed away two weeks later. According to the police report, witnesses stated that no effort was made by her husband to avoid or slow down prior to the collision. The contact disputes this claim and stated that her husband was not a reckless driver and would not have intentionally hit a light pole. The contact believed that the cause of the accident may have been related to a mechanical failure and would like an additional investigation conducted about the accident. The vehicle was towed to an independent tow yard and destroyed. The manufacturer had yet to be notified of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.

NHTSA ODI 11473666

The Tesla lane assist and adaptive cruise control failed while I was driving on the highway (I-295 in DC). I have not paid for the full self driving, so I was using the autopilot every Model 3 uses by default. The car skidded into the barrier on the side of the highway and tore up the back left tire and scraped the car. Autopilot was engaged but the car didn’t slow into the turn. I started to slow it down manually by down clicking the knob on the steering wheel, but it lost control even though autopilot was on the entire time. I’ve driven on autopilot on that highway hundreds of times. Autopilot always slows down on its own going into a turn. I was paying attention and am a very attentive driver. But autopilot normally would never have a problem with a turn like that, so I didn’t want to hit the brakes or do anything to disengage autopilot at the last second. I thought that would make things worse. I took over manually once it hit the barrier, obviously. At that point, I kept it from veering back into the other lane so that it would not hit the car next to me. Normally, there is more traffic ahead of me when I drive in that lane at that point on 295, so autopilot slows down because there are cars directly ahead of me. In this case, there were no cars ahead, so the autopilot didn’t reduce speed until later than normal. But I have been using Tesla autopilot for almost 3 years. It normally works quite well. The issue here seems to be that the autopilot does not see far enough ahead. Even though a sharp turn was coming up, it did not slow down at all until it was very close to the turn in the highway. The reason I am reporting this now is that Tesla ignored me when I reported it. I brought it in for service, and it cost me $1500 for Tesla to repair the wheel after the crash. But Tesla didn’t investigate the failure by the autopilot, or pay for it. And I saw on the news that you are investigating autopilot failures, so I thought you should know about this one too

NHTSA ODI 11470987

In moderate city traffic, the emergency braking system sounded and engaged prematurely and harshly. I was not using any automatic driving features and was driving “manually.” A vehicle in front of me stopped, and I intended to slow then stop in a reasonable fashion. I have 25 years’ driving experience, and am well-experienced to do this safely. The emergency braking system suddenly engaged at about 25 mph, grinding my car to a halt. The driver behind me was not expecting such a short stop, and rear-ended my vehicle. No one was injured in this crash. My seatbelt trigger deployed, which tripped the pyro fuse, rendering my car undriveable. I could not move my car off the roadway and caused traffic clogs. The repair bill was roughly $9000 for my vehicle. The weather was clear, the street was dry and the sun was near high noon.

NHTSA ODI 11467312

We were pulling our car from 5th floor of a parking garage and as the car was coming down the ramp into the 4th floor, it accelerated itself to a high speed, hit another parked car, and came to a stop hitting concrete pillar in the garage. Our car was damaged severely and all the airbags got deployed, smoke came out it. We are still in shock from the incident and it was a traumatic experience for all 4 members of our family including two of our children. It would have been catastrophic had there been another person around or if something more had happened. Our car unexpectedly accelerated and none of the warnings worked. Tesla car usually gives us warning (a shrilling beeping noise) when an unexpected obstacle, be it another car or a trash can or a human, is within a short distance of the vehicle. This warning sound comes up even when no automatic driving feature is used. But on that day, the warning sound did not come and we think the vehicle may have malfunctioned. When we searched in the internet, we found many incidents of unexpected acceleration with Tesla Model 3.When we brought our concern to the insurance, we were asked to report to NHTSA. The car is now with insurance and the manufacturer has not looked into it as we haven’t informed them yet. The car was in excellent condition and there were no warning or failure lamps on before the incident. This warrants your attention and hence we are writing this to you. Please advise us the next steps and if we need to preserve the car to retrieve any data recorded in the vehicle. For the safety of other drivers and pedestrians, this needs to be thoroughly investigated. Kindly do the needful.

NHTSA ODI 11464982

The contact's granddaughter owns a 2020 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while her granddaughter was reversing, the rearview camera failed to turn on, causing the rear end of the vehicle to crash into a cement post. The contact was unsure whether there was a warning light illuminated. There were no injuries sustained. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to a Tesla-certified autobody mechanic but was not diagnosed or repaired. The vehicle was then towed to the contact's residence. The contact later received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V00D000 (Electrical System, Visibility, Back Over Prevention) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure but did not provide any assistance. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 400. VIN tool confirms parts not available.

NHTSA ODI 11462762

Vehicle was at a stop with brake engaged and then it proceeded to go full speed into a vehicle two meters away without acceleration pedal engaged. Emergency brake did not activate during or slightly before the collision. The brakes had to be engaged manually, but vehicle was already past a certain velocity on its own accord to be able to stop properly without damaging property or harming pedestrians.

NHTSA ODI 11457778

The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving on the right side of the road at 35-45 MPH, on autopilot mode with a passenger in the front passenger seat, the vehicle drove off the road independently and crashed into a tree. The air bags failed to deploy. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact's face hit the steering wheel. The contact sustained a black eye with laceration, bruised ribs, head, neck and back pain, sprained left ankle, bruises on her thigh, may have sustained nerve damage on the right side of the face that hit the steering wheel and sciatic nerve damage on the right side of her body. The occupant of the front passenger seat sustained neck, back and clavicle injuries. The contact sought medical assistance the next day. The vehicle was towed to a tow lot, then it was towed to a Tesla certified specialist body shop. A police report was filed. The contact has not been able to get a hold of the manufacturer. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was 55,000.

NHTSA ODI 11449119

I was trying to avoid a car parked on the side of highway on my right going between 45 to 55 miles an hour and slightly steered the car to the left, and the car swerved back and forth at the slightest steering wheel movement as if skidding in the snow. The road was dry (no rain) but the steering was not stable and the car ended up hitting a truck on the left. It caused a very serious accident and we are lucky that there was just a major car damage and no one was hurt. The steering seems to be uncontrollable and loose, and causes major swerving if one has to steer away at a high speed.

NHTSA ODI 11444088

Driving on Autopilot on a city street at 35 MPH speed limit, while passing next to a UPS truck parked on the right side of the street at the curb, but slightly protruding outside the parking lane, due to its size, my car sideswiped the parked UPS truck, causing scratches on my car and totally obliterating my passenger side mirror. My vehicle did not stop or try to veer away from the parked UPS truck, causing at a minimum $700 damage to my vehicle.

NHTSA ODI 11441144

The contact owned a 2020 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while his wife was driving at 60 MPH on autopilot, she lost control of the vehicle due to an unknown reason. Once his wife lost control of the vehicle, she had run the vehicle into a fence. The airbags deployed upon impact. The contact's wife did not suffer any injuries and did not seek any medical attention. A police report was filed. Due to the failure, the vehicle was towed to an independent tow yard where the vehicle was deemed a total loss. The contact filled out a form online to recover the data from the vehicle but was later informed that only California residence could have access to that information. The vehicle had been destroyed. The failure mileage was approximately 14,000.

NHTSA ODI 11439769

While turning into a parking spot in a covered parking garage the car seemed to speed up and lurch. It hit the cement wall and pushed the car back with such force the air bags deployed. Thank God it was just a wall. The car is now at the repair garage and have not heard back regarding how much damage and if the car is going to be "totaled". When I mentioned this at a party we were at, a friend of mine said she had the same problem. There were no collision warnings. It happened in a split second. The parking garage was at my Doctors office so I was able to have my wrist x-ryed right then. No serious injury. Just a little leary of driving this model car if not any electric vehicle.

NHTSA ODI 11438921

The contact stated that while idling and waiting to pick up the elementary school kids in their vehicle, a 2020 Tesla Model 3 suddenly experienced unintended acceleration causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle and crash into the rear of the contact's vehicle and trailer. During the incident, the contact sustained a lower back injury and the driver of the Tesla Model 3 suffered a chest injury. A police report was taken at the scene. No further information was available. The failure mileage was unknown.

NHTSA ODI 11430258

The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving in the rain with the autopilot engaged the vehicle accelerated without warning and was incontrollable, flipped two times, and hit the curb. The contact sustained neck injuries and medical attention was provided at the hospital. All the air bags deployed. There was no reported fire. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to an independent body shop. The local dealer was contacted who referred the contact to the body shop. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 29,000.

NHTSA ODI 11429423

On July 19th, 2021 at around 2:38PM I was using Tesla's Smart Summon feature to summon my car to me. The car was unoccupied at the time of the incident. The car was in a covered parking space approximately 40 feet South of my location. The app said the car would "Come To Me" and displayed a blue line which was the path the car should take to get to me. The blue line showed that the car would turn right (North) and come to me. I then pressed the "Come To Me" button to begin the summon. This is when the car immediately turned left (South), which is the opposite direction of me, and ran into a pole. The user does not have the ability to steer the car and the car acts erratic when using Smart summon. It's path is unpredictable and unsafe.

NHTSA ODI 11426126

Driving home at 60mph when the right front wheel fell off the vehicle causing damages to the whole right side on the car.

NHTSA ODI 11419387

THE CONTACT OWNED A 2020 TESLA MODEL 3. THE CONTACT STATED WHILE DRIVING 25 MPH, THE VEHICLE ACCELERATED INDEPENDENTLY AND JUMPED FORWARD AND HIT ANOTHER DRIVER THAT WAS STANDING OUTSIDE IN BETWEEN THE DRIVER'S SIDE FRONT AND REAR DOOR. THE HOOD OPENED AND OBSTRUCTED HIS VIEW WHICH CAUSED HIM TO CRASH INTO ANOTHER VEHICLE. THERE WAS NO INJURIES SUSTAINED BY THE CONTACT. THE TWO OTHER DRIVERS SUSTAINED UNKNOWN INJURIES. ONE DRIVER RECEIVED MEDICAL ATTENTION AND WAS TRANSPORTED BY AMBULANCE. A POLICE REPORT WAS FILED. THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO A BODY SHOP AND DEEMED TO BE A TOTAL LOSS. THE VEHICLE WAS CURRENTLY AT THE CONTACT'S PLACE OF BUSINESS. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOT MADE AWARE OF THE FAILURE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 2,500.

NHTSA ODI 11416475

I WAS PARKING AT A TRADER JOE'S WHEN THE CAR SUDDENLY ACCELERATED BY ITSELF WITHOUT GIVING ME ANY CHANCE TO BREAK TO AVOID COLLIDING WITH THE CURB. MY CAR GOT SCRATCHED UNDERNEATH.

NHTSA ODI 11416389

WE ARE AN CAR MEDIA IN CHINA. WE LEASED A 2020 TESLA MODEL 3 STANDARD RANGE PLUS ON MARCH 15, 2021, FOR PROGRAM SHOOTING. ON MARCH 18, WHEN A TEAM MEMBER TRYING TO CLOSE THE STORAGE COMPARTMENT COVER IN FRONT OF THE CENTRAL ARMREST BOX WHILE OPERATING, THE COVER DID NOT CLOSE SUCCESSFULLY AND POPPED UP UNINTENTIONALLY. A CORNER OF THE COVER SCRATCHED THE OUTER SIDE OF HIS RIGHT THUMB. FOLLOWING IS HIS NARRATIVE IN REGARD OF THIS INCIDENT: WHEN I WAS DRIVING THE TESLA MODEL 3 ON MARCH 18, 2021, AND PULLED OVER THE VEHICLE, I OPENED THE INTERIOR COVER TO STORE ITEMS. AFTER DRIVING FORWARD FOR A SHORT DISTANCE, I ATTEMPTED TO CLOSE THE COVER WITH MY RIGHT HAND. I TRIED TO PUSH THE COVER DOWN AND CLOSED, AND THEN MADE A U TURN. HOWEVER, THE COVER DID NOT CLOSE SUCCESSFULLY, AND INSTEAD IT ACTUALLY RAISED AGAIN. AT THIS TIME, BECAUSE THE RIGHT HAND DID NOT MOVE OUT OF THE PATH OF MOTION OF THE COVER, THE RIGHT CORNER OF THE COVER SCRATCHED MY RIGHT HAND. THE SHARP CORNERS CAUSED A WOUND OF ABOUT 9MM*3MM AND KEPT BLEEDING FOR ABOUT 30 MINUTES. AFTER REFERRING TO THE 2019 IMPORTED VERSION OF THE TESLA MODEL 3, WHICH IS PRODUCED IN THE CALIFORNIA FACTORY, THE INTERIOR COVER DESIGN AND WORKMANSHIP ARE THE SAME AS THOSE OF THE 2020 MODEL 3 PRODUCED IN THE SHANGHAI FACTORY. THEREFORE, WE BELIEVE THAT IN THE U.S. MARKET BEFORE THE 2020 MODEL MODEL 3 ALSO HAS THE POSSIBILITY THAT THE EDGE OF THE INTERIOR COVER IS TOO SHARP AND MAY SCRATCH THE USERS. THEREFORE, WE HAVE DECIDED TO REPORT THIS SITUATION TO NHTSA TO INFORM MORE CONSUMERS THIS POTENTIAL DANGER.

NHTSA ODI 11406059

HERE IS A TERDSLA IN THE JUNKYARD. HTTPS://WWW.IAAI.COM/VEHICLEDETAILS/38998703?ROWNUMBER=0 THE FRONT WHEEL AND SUSPENSION HAVE SNAPPED OFF. BOTH LOWER BALL JOINTS AND THE UPPER STEERING KNUCKLE BALL JOINT HAVE SIMPLY POPPED APART. IT IS COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE FOR THIS TO BE THE RESULT OF CRASH DAMAGE.. THE WHEEL AND TIRE ARE UNDAMAGED. TESLA BALL JOINTS ARE A LOAD OF OLD BALLS. GOOD HEAVENS TO BETSY WHY WON'T YOU DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS? YOURS IN DISGUST. KEEF

NHTSA ODI 11395456

AT A DRIVE THRU FAST FOOD TAPPED THE PEDDLE AND THE CAR LAUNCHED AND HIT A TRUCK IN FRONT OF ME

NHTSA ODI 11387215