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

Vehicle Information: 2020 Tesla Model 3 AWD (Leased) Full Self-Driving (FSD) enabled Summary of Safety Issue: While Full Self-Driving (FSD) was engaged, the vehicle failed to detect roadside infrastructure and collided with multiple fixed objects, including a route sign board, a walkway sign board, and an underground electrical cable. The system did not provide adequate warnings or corrective action before impact. System jerk the steering confirmed system is engaged but did not break and drive to non-drivable area and not given any disengagement warning and totaled the car. Incident Details: • Date of incident: [XXX] • Location: On [XXX] {XXX] Piscataway, NJ 08854 • Road type: [XXX] • Weather/visibility: Clear • Speed at time of incident: <40 MPH (under the speed limit) Description: As soon as i trigger the FSD it immediately tried to navigated left or right and failed and unexpectedly veered into roadside infrastructure. The system did not slow down, steer away, or alert the driver in time to prevent the collision. The impact caused significant damage to public property and the vehicle is totaled. No injuries occurred. Evidence Available: • Photos of the scene and damage • Police report (number: [XXX] • Tow documentation • Tesla collision center estimate Reason for Reporting: This incident suggests a potential safety defect in Tesla’s FSD system related to object detection, path planning, and collision avoidance. The failure occurred without driver input and raises concerns about the system’s reliability in detecting fixed roadside objects. I request that NHTSA review this incident as part of ongoing evaluations of Tesla’s driver-assistance systems. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ODI 11709397

In a private parking lot, within line of sight and ample time to respond to problem I used Tesla Smart Summon. Instead of taking an obvious route through the parking lot, it narrowly hit a parked car, then proceeded to drive over a parking barrier and into a wooded field towards me and a crowded food truck area. I was unable to cancel the feature in time to stop the car from the collision as it accelerated too fast and without any initial signs of an issue. Even after canceling through the app, the car tried to continue for a brief period. If anyone was in the area or we were closer we could have been hit. Tesla replaced the cameras but claimed no responsibility for damages, citing I was "in control". There were no warning lamps or indicators of any defects before the incident. I also have the original dashcam footage portraying the incident, which clearly shows numerous safety hazards to the smart summon feature.

NHTSA ODI 11634598

I was driving on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey in the right hand lane. I was using basic auto pilot and needed to pass a pick up truck in front of me. I disabled auto pilot and went into the left lane. I re-engaged auto pilot and the vehicle took a hard right and hit the truck. I heard the audible chime once it made contact with the truck indicating that auto pilot disengaged. My car went back into the left lane and I took control. We moved to the shoulder and waited for state police to arrive. Luckily no one was injured. A police report was filed.

NHTSA ODI 11547462

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 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

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

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

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

NHTSA ODI 11387215

I BOUGHT A TESLA MODEL 3 ON 9/19/20. ON 9/23/20 I WAS WAITING IN MY CAR IN A LINE OF CARS AT A FAST FOOD DELIVERY WINDOW, STOPPED 8-10 FT BEHIND A LARGE VEHICLE WITH MY FOOT ON THE BRAKE AS WELL AS IN THE PARK MODE BECAUSE OF THE SLOW SERVICE AHEAD. AFTER A WHILE I REALIZED THAT MY TESLA HAD STARTED MOVING SLOWLY TOWARDS THE VEHICLE IN FRONT. PUMPING THE BRAKE, TRYING TO CHANGE THE GEAR TO REVERSE DID NOT STOP THE CAR. THE SCREEN DATA DISAPPEARED AND A MESSAGE FLASHED SAYING THAT ALL SAFETY FEATURES WERE OFF. I OPENED THE DOOR WHICH IS SUPPOSED TO STOP THE CAR. IT DID NOT EVEN AFTER I GOT OUT OF IT. IT CONTINUED TO MOVE EVEN AFTER CONTACT WAS MADE WITH THE CAR IN FRONT. THE TESLA WAS COMPLETELY CRUSHED. IT WAS A TOTAL LOSS ACCORDING TO A REPAIR SHOP WHERE IT WAS TOWED ON TESLA'S RECOMMENDATION. WHEN I CONTACTED TESLA THEY INFORMED ME THAT MY ACCELERATOR WAS FULLY DEPLOYED. NOT TRUE. I BOUGHT THE TESLA BECAUSE OF ALL THE SAFETY FEATURES, NONE OF WHICH SEEMED TO WORK INCLUDING FAILURE TO NOTICE A LARGE VEHICLE IN FRONT, NOT STOPPING WHEN THE DOOR WAS OPENED, STARTING BY ITSELF IN THE PARK MODE, AND THE DATA SCREEN GOING BLANK EXCEPT FOR THE MESSAGE ABOUT SAFETY SYSTEMS BEING OFF.

NHTSA ODI 11373812