What 650 owners told NHTSA about the 2021 Tesla Model 3 Bev

Component: Lane Support System — Emergency Lane Keeping (ELK) Part of standard Autopilot safety suite (not FSD) activated without valid lane detection data and pushed the vehicle into the oncoming lane of traffic on Ohio State Route [XXX]. The system then aborted mid-intervention (LSS_STATE_ABORT), leaving the driver in the oncoming lane. The resulting head-on collision killed both drivers — the [XXX] Tesla driver and the driver of the oncoming vehicle. Two people died because of this ELK malfunction. Tesla's own telematics data confirms the following sequence: 5At 23:51:17.420 UTC, the Lane Support System activated Emergency Lane Keeping (LSS_STATE_ELK). 6At 23:51:17.652 UTC (232 milliseconds after activation), the system logged ALC_UNAVAILABLE_NO_LANES — confirming it had no valid lane detection data during the intervention. 7At 23:51:17.755 UTC (335 milliseconds after activation), the system logged LSS_STATE_ABORT — the system cancelled itself mid-intervention. 8During the 335-millisecond intervention, the vehicle's steering angle reached -16.79 degrees leftward and lateral acceleration measured +1.200 m/s² leftward — both confirming the vehicle was pushed into the oncoming lane. 9The driver responded with the largest steering torque (-5.08 Nm rightward) and largest rightward steering angle (+19.50 degrees) recorded in the entire telematics file — confirming he was actively attempting to recover. 10 The head-on collision killed both him and the driver of the oncoming vehicle. We requested additional telematics data from Tesla through the Tesla app. A forensic expert has examined the vehicle's ECU motherboard— missing critical fields including continuous yaw rate, high-resolution steering data, ELK steering commands, and lane detection confidence scores. A subsequent request for additional data produced an error message and Tesla has not provided further data. This crash is the exact behavior under PE25012. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ODI 11750627

On July 1, 2026, the vehicle was serviced by the manufacturer for GPS and camera malfunctions, and the vehicle computer was replaced. On the morning of July 2, 2026, during the first use of Autopilot after that repair, the vehicle experienced repeated serious driver-assistance malfunctions over a short period while traveling on a highway. While Autopilot was engaged, the vehicle repeatedly moved/steered toward the center of the road and near the path of a truck in an adjacent lane. The truck nearly struck the vehicle. The driver had to manually intervene to maintain control and avoid a potential collision. Video of the incident is available upon request and shows the truck and manual intervention. The vehicle was returned to the manufacturer service center the same day. The service center reviewed logs, performed an inspection/test drive, and stated that no hardware faults or issues were found and that the test drive was normal. However, the incidents were intermittent, occurred during highway Autopilot use, occurred the morning after a computer replacement related to GPS/camera systems, and were captured on video.

NHTSA ODI 11748046

Component/System Failure: Total failure of the Autopilot ECU (DAS Computer) and the Front-End Module (FEM) wiring harness. Incident Description: My 2021 Tesla Model 3 (37,000 miles) experienced a catastrophic and "silent" failure of the entire vehicle vision suite and all active safety systems. A Tesla Service technician (Warrington, PA) inspected the vehicle and confirmed the root cause was a factory-defective (crimped) internal coaxial cable in the wiring harness. This manufacturing defect caused an electrical short that destroyed the primary safety-critical computer. Safety Risk: This failure resulted in a direct violation of FMVSS 111 (Rear Visibility), as the backup camera was rendered completely inoperable. Furthermore, all collision-avoidance features—including Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), Forward Collision Warning, and Blind Spot Monitoring—were disabled. Critical Safety Concern (Silent Failure): The vehicle provided zero driver-facing alerts, dashboard warnings, or lamps to indicate that these safety systems were offline. I unknowingly operated a vehicle that was non-compliant with federal safety standards and lacked all primary crash-avoidance technology. The failure codes (APP_w045 and VCFRONT_a158) were only discoverable by manually entering the vehicle's "Service Mode." Manufacturer Status: Tesla Service has confirmed the hardware failure and the wiring defect but is currently refusing to cover the $2,800 repair cost, despite the failure involving systems currently under federal recall (SB-26-00-016). I am reporting this because a factory wiring defect causing a total, silent failure of federally manda

NHTSA ODI 11737610

The car, with no known or evident driver, stopped the lane awareness, cruise control, etc. All of those just stopped working and per Tesla that's expected which is surprising since it's all part of the safety systems. The car's visual cues stopped identifying lanes and as a byproduct of that, none of the dependent features work.

NHTSA ODI 11702218

Tesla full self driving software malfunctioned and turned into oncoming traffic lanes instead of crossing over to the correct opposite side of the roadway. This occurred after getting off a on ramp in Ukiah, California around 2am Nov 15, 2025. This could have put others in serious danger if there were cars coming in the oncoming lanes heading in the different direction. The problem has not been reproduced by a dealer or other entity. Yet This has happened to other tesla drivers as well using FSD as you are probably already aware. No inspection and it was sudden and unexpected.

NHTSA ODI 11699513

Steering rack failure. Steering assist, auto pilot and lane departure prevention failed and would not work properly so this is a safety issue. Manual steering worked fine but the safety and auto pilot functions would no longer function. Paid for Tesla service over $3,000 to replace steering rack and now is working properly. Reporting this as this may happen to others and probably should be a proactive recall on the steering racks so others don't lose these safety features. Maybe related to computer as it failed, worked again and then failed again and was then repaired by Tesla service center.

NHTSA ODI 11687029

Component/System involved: Advanced Driver Assistance Systems — FSD (Supervised)/Autosteer (Lane Keeping Assistance) and Adaptive Cruise Control. Possible failure to warn/stop (FCW/AEB). Vehicle and data are available for inspection upon request. I preserved dashcam files and requested Tesla to preserve engineering logs and EDR. What happened & safety risk: On [XXX] at ~[XXX] PDT on [XXX] near East Palo Alto, CA, with FSD (Supervised) engaged, the system appeared to misinterpret an exit ramp/gore area as a continuing lane at a highway fork and maintained ~60 mph (posted ~70). As soon as I saw the trajectory was unsafe, I braked and began manual steering takeover, but the vehicle contacted a roadside sign near the gore/shoulder before I could complete the maneuver. I then stopped safely. No other vehicles were struck. Airbags did not deploy. This posed a serious collision risk to me, my passenger, and nearby traffic. Reproduction/confirmation: NOT REPRODUCED. I have not attempted to reproduce the event. UNKNOWN whether the issue has been reproduced by Tesla or a service center yet. Inspection to date: Police responded (report pending). My insurer has opened a claim. I opened a Tesla Service request asking to PRESERVE Autopilot/FSD engineering logs for the incident window and to coordinate EDR extraction; engineering review pending. Vehicle remains drivable. Warnings or symptoms before failure: No audible/visual forward-collision warning was perceived by me and I did not observe automatic emergency braking. No prior warning lamps/messages were noticed before the departure toward the gore. UNKNOWN whether any internal/partial interventions were recorded in logs. Evidence available: Four-camera Tesla dashcam footage saved and backed up (see [XXX] ); precise time window ~[XXX] PDT on [XXX]. I can provide files and cooperate with data retrieval/inspection upon request. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ODI 11681396

My Tesla was operating in Full-Self-Driving Beta when it experienced a sudden uncontrolled accelration event. I was driving on [XXX] at approximatley [XXX] this morning. The road speed limit was 40 mph. The car display was correctly showing that the road speed limit was 40mph. The speed offset in the cars setting was limited to 5 mph max above the speed limit. While the car was driving it suddenly accelerated very hard from approximately 40 mph to over 60mph before I was able to stab the brake pedal and kick the car out of full self driving mode. There were no errors, warnings, or signs that anything was wrong with the car. I have also notified Tesla via the service request function in the Tesla App under the section for "software performance". INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ODI 11621879

1. Autosteer/Lane assist failure, yes its available for inspection upon request with Tesla 2. Due to above failure met with a crash which led to severe medical issues 3. The car has been totalled and the car is not functional, waiting on Tesla to inspect and confirm 4. Police has filed a crash report but manufacturer, insurance yet to inspect the vehicle or component 5. Absolutely NO WARNING lamps/messages prior to the failure.

NHTSA ODI 11620683

lost power steering suddenly on the road.

NHTSA ODI 11612587

Autonomous Driving Problem [XXX] Driving from Cornelia, GA to Commerce, GA on [XXX] at 60 mph driving on the right lane with very lite traffic. 6 different times the FSD (Full Self Driving) (Supervised) 2021 Tesla Model 3 starts signaling left and changes lanes with no traffic or vehicles in front. The 5th time FSD (Supervised) changed lane to the left was a near car accident because a car was speeding at 70-80 mph from the rear and the vehicle changed lanes in front of the speeding car nearly causing an accident. The autonomous cabin driver detection sensor does continuously give false positive warning messages to the driver to "Pay attention to the road" when I am wearing my glasses, so I have to drive without my glasses. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ODI 11581258

My 2021 Tesla Model 3 has various issues with the auto pilot feature. When engaged the car makes sudden and abrupt stops while driving. This has happened various times while driving on the freeway when there were no obstructions present. The autopilot feature also prompts to change to the right lane, when dismissed the prompt appears again repeatedly. This is repeated throughout the drive and poses a major distraction. There was supposed to be an “over-the-air” correction but my vehicle has never received the software update.

NHTSA ODI 11571790

Autopilot feature is now unstable as I get constant nags if I look away for a few seconds to check my surroundings or check my navigation.i have been locked out of the feature multiple times over the past week forcing me to make navigation changes while manually driving.

NHTSA ODI 11563214

Ul_a022_ApeFusesEtc Audience [service-fix, factory) Description Driver Assistance ECU (APE) is not fused or not locked or missing credentials Set Condition Driver Assistance ECU is not fused or not locked or missing credentials Clear Condition Driver Assistance ECU is fused, locked and has proper credentials Potential Impact Driver Assistance ECU is in an unsecured state (unfused)

NHTSA ODI 11548797

Electrical system rebooted in the middle of driving: screen went off couldn't signal i swayed to the side and waited till the screen came back on after 3 minutes.

NHTSA ODI 11532777

I believe that Tesla's autosteer and Full self driving features are improperly designed. I will speak to them as if they were one and the same. I noticed that you have a check box for Lane Keeping Assistance above, but there is no checkbox for coercive auto steering, which is Tesla's product. The only ability it offers as far as steering the car is to forcibly disengage the autosteering feature. This is not assistance and this is the problem. A properly designed Lane Keeping Assistance feature continuously monitors driver steering action, lane position, and traffic conditions. If the Lane Keeping Assistance system finds itself 'alone' with little or no measurable input from the driver, action is called for. With the Tesla, the feature has an embarrassingly stupid 'driver attention check' which, until recently, could be easily defeated by the simple addition of a weight to one side of the steering wheel or the other. In a misguided attempt to correct this ridiculously poor design, they have recently made matters much worse. Now they distract the driver's attention from driving by forcing the playing of some sort of 'patty cake' type game, which does prove alertness of the driver, but detracts from the real and necessary work of circumventing the actual threats encountered in everyday driving. In short, a proper Lane Keeping Assistance feature should not be totally ignorant of the driver's subtle driving moves (it's an excellent feature as long as autosteering isn't engaged) and should honor requests to move into different parts of the lane long before disengaging, and no attention measuring system should come at the expense of driver awareness of actual issues. I have tried through email and phone to convince Tesla that something needs to be done, but have received no response from them.

NHTSA ODI 11496124

In vehicle speaker system occasionally resets, keeping speakers from making noise during a 5-10 second window. This keeps in-vehicle chimes and collision warnings from sounding at appropriate volumes.

NHTSA ODI 11490847

Tesla allows owners to enroll as FSD beta testers however, the owner cannot unenroll when they request. The FSD beta is extremely dangerous and makes the use of even ACC impossible to use. I have requested to leave the beta via emailing fsdbeta@tesla.com, which an automatic response is received stating to unenroll respond to that email with your VIN and they will process the request. However, they do not process the request; I have sent dozens of email requests with no response and am still stuck in the beta software queue. I have attempted to submit service requests but the app recognizes the verbiage and blocks the submissions, stating to send the email instead. There is no other method to contact Tesla.

NHTSA ODI 11485971

Pillar cameras constantly complain blocked or blinded. Services refused to even look into the issue blaming glare from the sun, even when happening to both on opposite sides of the car at the same time. Report it even happens at night I am told it might be too dark for the camera. Did not occur like this on my 2019 Tesla Model 3. This seems to be causing random unexpected lane departure alerts or failures in lane keeping on cruise control or with lane assist. Message are extremely frequent and distracting. Message placement is blocked by arm while holding the steering wheel requiring me to take my eyes off the road to read. Been complaining about this for months, one of the two cameras (drivers side) was replaced which improved the issues with that side complaining but passenger side complains extremely often. Drivers side issue not 100% resolved but improved after replacement, possible cabling or MCU/ECU issue. Instead of looking at the issue Tesla insists the cameras must be dirty, moisture, too bright, too dark, etc. And fails to even examine components. Recent appointment canceled by Tesla after the scheduled date and time without notice. Camera doesn't appear to detect or recognize people or objects in that cameras visions creating what appears to be a blind spot when viewing in vehicle display. Have repeatedly seen person walking around my car will disappear from the screen around the passenger front quarter but reappear when in front of the vehicle or by the rear quarter.

NHTSA ODI 11485250

Side camera glare at night when signaling

NHTSA ODI 11466645

Tesla offers a blind spot camera, standard on the vehicle, which activates automatically when the turn-signal is active on the appropriate side. The blind-spot camera feed appears on the center screen. The feed comes from each of the side cameras mounted to the external portion of the car. Since the side turn-signal is mounted right above the same blind-spot cameras, the light from the turn-signal often 'bleeds' into the camera feed used by the driver to determine if the appropriate lane is clear. At night, this causes the blind-spot camera video difficult to view since the video feed alternates between 'normal' video and a bright, flushed out video, matching the turn-signal timer. The end result is often times I, the driver having difficulty observing cars on the side of my vehicle at night. More specifically, several times I have missed the headlights of cars in the lane next to me because the turn signal light, bleeding into the camera feed, obscure or hides the car and/or headlights (since they driver's eyes have to chateaubriand adjust between a bright andrark video feed flashing). This causes me to start merging into a lane which I believe is clear, only to have to quickly swerve back into my original lane when I realize the lane is not clear. Both the driver in the new lane and myself are put at risk, unnecessarily when this occurs. I have reached out to the manufacturer for this complaint. In writing, they have admitted this is a problem and even though my car is only 10 months into a 4 year warranty, they will only fix this safety issue if I pay for a replacement part. This seems unacceptable to me to force customers to pay for a safety fix. The failed component is available for inspection. I have sample video available to demonstrate the problem. There are no warning lights for any components. The manufacturer does not need to inspect the component since they already know, and admit to the shortcomings, per my written conversation with them.

NHTSA ODI 11454231

This defect affects the lane departure warning system of my vehicle. In certain situations, the lane departure warning system incorrectly activates when the vehicle is turning (vs. leaving a lane). On one occasion, the system activated while turning from my driveway onto the adjacent roadway. On another occasion, the system activated while leaving a parking spot. On both occasions, the vehicle was traveling less than 5 MPH and was not departing from a lane. When the lane departure warning activates, a loud noise is triggered, along with an alert on the center display. A driver's natural response in this scenario is to slow down mid-turn, potentially resulting in unsafe conditions for both driver and nearby motorists.

NHTSA ODI 11453296

The car was on FSD jerked right toward a semi truck then jerked left toward the posts in the median as it was accelerating and FSD would not turn off. Was trying to control the car but it kept pushing and accelerating causing us to crash in to the median posts. Normally FSD would turn off if it was unsure but this day it would not. Plus other times it would phantom brake if we were on 2 lane road and met on oncoming large truck. We also had other times of phantom braking going over a hill. We have reported this to Tesla but no response yet. We owned this car 11 days when our wreck happened.

NHTSA ODI 11453025

The Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Auto-Steer are easily confused so that the vehicle does unexpected things like suddenly slowing down, even heavy breaking, or disengage steering control while in a corner next to semi-truck. This commonly happens when driving at higher speeds, 70 MPH, on the freeway. Suddenly slowing down at such a high speed is dangerous when there are cars following me as they don’t expect a sudden slow down when they can clearly see there is no reason for our car slamming on the brakes. In my observation this problems occur most frequently at higher speeds and when approaching a semi truck or overpass. It is especially worse when going through a corner. Sometimes the center barrier seems to cause sudden slowing down. Also, driving in a corner on the freeway while driving next to a semi truck has caused the auto steer to suddenly disengage which in itself was not dangerous since I had both hands on the steering wheel, it certainly startled me which could potentially be dangerous.

NHTSA ODI 11452070

System: Traffic Aware Cruise Control Safety Risk: Full regenerative breaking in the fast lane on a highway with a car following behind. Car behind had to initiate emergency braking. Reproduced by Dealer: Did not contact dealer Inspected by Manufacturer: Did not contact manufacturer Warnings: No, braking automatically initiated System: Lane Departure Warning Safety Risk: Misreading a parking garage and initiating lane departure warning chime Reproduced by Dealer: Did not contact dealer Inspected by Manufacturer: Did not contact manufacturer Warnings: Yes, warning chime initiated and warning message.

NHTSA ODI 11450238