What 748 owners told NHTSA about the 2022 Tesla Model 3

My Tesla sets off false front collision warnings multiple times a month, resulting in distraction, but more importantly, it increases my auto insurance rate through Tesla Insurance. I am not sure if Tesla is working on this "bug" or if it is intentional to keep driver safety scores below a certain threshold. I have video proof from the car itself indicating that there was no imminent collision threat.

NHTSA ODI 11587308

The accelerator pedal broke off completely while driving on the highway (this is the second time this has happened). Accelerator pedal felt as if it were stuck when going from full self driving to manual and pedal broke off when more pressure was applied. The car began coming to a rapid stop on the highway due to regenerative braking and I was forced to quickly get to emergency lane, narrowly avoiding other vehicles in the process.

NHTSA ODI 11585742

The deemed to be totaled/flooded from driving through a rainstorm on 03/09/2024. Luckily the car did not shut off until about 3 hours later of being parked where the rain completely turned off the car. The car was taken to a dealership service center but deemed unable to fix due to the liquid reaching the electrical wires. Tesla insurance has been notified of this incident and as of 2 months later, deemed to take any action besides totaling the car. There has been issues in my service records for this car where water was leaking in and the parts were replaced free of charge but not to this manner. There was no warning or lamps regarding liquid being in the car or anything. Cannot get in touch with anyone at Tesla or Tesla insurance except for Tesla emergency roadside where they were unable to assist or reach anyone from Tesla / Tesla insurance in this manner.

NHTSA ODI 11585875

At 7:50 this morning I had my first drive with Tesla FSD 12.3.4. It had been going very close to curbs on the passenger side on 12.3.3, but this is the first time it hit the curb and damages the tire rim. The current version of the software puts the car much too close to the curb, something not present in prior versions.

NHTSA ODI 11583129

Car was in the garage and showed alerts for Steering assist reduced, Traction control disabled,

NHTSA ODI 11582880

Car will randomly jam on the breaks while going down the interstate.

NHTSA ODI 11582521

The contact owned a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed and merging into the right direction of the highway, the vehicle lost control, swerved from left to right, and spun. As a result, the contact crashed into the concrete divider where the vehicle came to a stop. No warning lights were illuminated at the time of the failure. No injuries were sustained. The police were at the scene however a police report was not filed. The vehicle was totaled by the insurance company. The contact mentioned an unknown recall being related to the safety failure experienced. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.

NHTSA ODI 11582246

Driver's seat weight sensor not working properly. Causes car to slam on the brakes when seatbelt is not on (for example in a driveway or automated carwash, potentially causing a crash) and can potentially leave car running indefinitely (draining the battery). Since sometimes it gets stuck in the occupied or unoccupied state.

NHTSA ODI 11581507

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated the Self-driving feature automatically turned on without the contact's engagement. The vehicle attempted to make unexpectedly appropriate lane changes due to traffic several times before the contact noticed it was in self-driving mode. There were no warning lights illuminated. The dealer/manufacturer was made aware of the issue and stated they sent an email with instructions regarding the self-driving mode prior to the activation of the self-driving feature. However, the contact had not seen the email and was not aware the feature was activated. The contact stated a notification was not sent to the car screen allowing the contact to read the instructions and activate the feature

NHTSA ODI 11581110

Tesla updated my vehicle last night, this morning with out any clear warning my cruise control activation actually activated the "full self driving" I did NOT realize this until my car turned the blinker on and tried to change lanes!!! I had no idea what it was doing! I took back control and tried to activate cruise control again but had self driving activate instead. So I just drove to work manually. When I got to work I looked up how to activate cruise control and realized that there is a setting to change how it is activated that I could change to get it back to "normal" for me. Then I was checking my email and Tesla had "Gifted" me a trial month of full self driving, they changed how my car functions without telling me and it literally started driving itself much to my surprise all as a PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN. Frankly I am pissed, this is unacceptable! They radically changed how my car behaves, what my controls actually do, without telling me, to make more money.

NHTSA ODI 11580382

Vehicle charging level changing automatically based on the new v11.1 software. Some of us need to have our cars at 90%-100% for daily use otherwise we will not have enough charge and can be stranded. The new update keeps reducing the max charge to 80%. Had I not caught this I could have been stuck somewhere on the road possibly blocking traffic and risking being in a dangerous situation in a bricked car. (Especially with driving to remote locations). This is a dangerous automatic change that needs an off button. I’m lucky I caught this. I shouldn’t have to be resetting my charge to 90-100% every damn day just to have enough to drive and use my car as needed during my daily use.

NHTSA ODI 11579099

My wife driving our Tesla Model 3. From her report, the car was accelerating on its own and would not stop despite her pressing on the brake pedal. She was unable to stop at the traffic light and crashed into another car at an intersection.

NHTSA ODI 11576904

See attached document for complaint

NHTSA ODI 11576249

Issues became more prevalent as soon as Tesla Insurance 2.0 came out. My car has become too sensitive often giving me several false forward collision warnings per day. This includes parked cars on my street as I’m coming in around a long corner, cars in turn lanes, and cars that I’m not even close to all being registered as collision warnings. This causes my safety score to drop for no real reason causing my monthly payments to be more. I think this is entirely done on purpose and has nothing to do with actual safety. I have scheduled service appointments and talked with Tesla insurance and they give me nothing but excuses and the run around.

NHTSA ODI 11575716

Vehicle has been scheduled for service 4 times to address phantom braking while set to cruise control on highways. Tesla service center continuously resolves the problem remotely stating that there are no faults in the system and it is operating as intended. I’m an airline pilot and my vehicle poses a safety hazard to me and those around me when operating in any autonomous mode.

NHTSA ODI 11575820

On [XXX], I was driving from Victorville, CA to Las Vegas, NV on [XXX] northbound. Between [XXX] two incidents occurred. Both incidents involve phantom braking. My vehicle was in autopilot mode, which is essentially traffic aware cruise control. I was traveling at 70MPH and passed a semi-truck. I changed lanes back into the right lane after passing the truck. About 30 seconds later, the car slammed on the brakes. The semi-truck behind me took immediate evasive maneuver and swerved into the left lane to avoid hitting me. There was no obstruction in front of me. The nearest vehicles ahead of me were so far away that I could barely see their tail lights. This was a very unsafe condition. The second incident happened about 40 minutes later. No other vehicles were near me although the sudden braking gave me a scare. There were no warnings, messages, or any indication that the sudden braking was being applied. I was able to immediately depress the accelerator to increase speed and override the autopilot. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ODI 11575121

WHILE PROCEEDING TO TAKE OFF FROM TRAFFIC LIGHT GREEN SIGNAL LEFT TURN THE CAR STALLED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE INTERSECTION WITH WARNING SOUND AND SIGN ON THE DASH, THE CAR BARLY MOVED OUT OF THE WAY OF INCOMING TRAFFIC. THIS WAS THE SECOND TIME. THE FIRST TIME HAPPENED ON FEB,03,2024 WHILE I WAS DRIVING IN THE HOV LANE.

NHTSA ODI 11574571

Traveling on I35 South, approx 70 -75 MPH. Using adaptive cruise control/enhanced auto pilot. No vehicles present within a mile of my vehicle. Braking spontaneously engaged, reducing speed to 40MPH within seconds. If a vehicle were behind me they would have absolutely collided. I've not filed a report with Tesla. Vehicle did not display any warning, or any other sort of indication that a malfunction had occurred. The problem has not been reproduced by me, however an internet search returns multiple complaints of these exact symptoms.

NHTSA ODI 11573872

Have reported multiple times the safety hazard with the unnacuracy of the mileage given per charge. Vehicle will drain through battery leaving motorist standard. When using self drive option vehicle will not stay in appropriate lanes. Vehicle will overheat on battery and start making concerning sounds while driving. When reported to Tesla they acknowledged the issue but have failed to fix the issues on the vehicle.

NHTSA ODI 11573312

The contact owned a 2022 Telsa Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at 18 MPH, the vehicle veered to the right hitting an electrical pole. The contact stated neither the autopilot nor cruise control was set to on, and the vehicle failed to stop. The contact stated it happened so fast he was unable to depress the brake pedal in time. No warning lights were illuminated and the air bags in the vehicle failed to deploy. The contact sustained a knee injury and later received medical attention at an urgent care. However, the contact stated he was traumatized from the crash. The vehicle was towed and deemed destroyed. A police report was filed. The contact notified the manufacturer of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 21,372.

NHTSA ODI 11571652

Something occurred with the steering, automatic braking, or lane keeping assistance on [XXX] at approximately 6:35am while I was driving my 2022 Tesla Model 3 Long Range North in the carpool lane just south of [XXX] in Sandy Utah. The roads were a little slick so was proceeding cautiously at around 65 MPH when the car turned to the left slightly, then immediately to the right, which caused it to do a 180 degree turn in the same lane, I wasn't sure what was going on as the car felt like it was driving itself. Before I knew what was happening, the car then veered to the East across three lanes of traffic while driving backwards, it then stopped just as it was struck in front of the wheel on the front drivers side by a two trailer semi-truck which spun the car around. Luckily I was conscious so could slowly limp across the last couple lanes to the right side of the road where I called 911. I've driven all kinds of cars in all kinds of conditions and in many countries in the nearly 32 years I've been a licensed driver and have never lost control of a vehicle, I'm sure the steering or lane assist was trying to intervene so must've somehow inadvertently caused the crash! It's only through the grace of [XXX] that I'm still alive to tell about it! Also, none of the airbags went off even though the impact from the semi was very jarring! INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ODI 11570429

Car slammed on the brakes on its own while the auto steer function was being used going 80mph. If someone was behind me they would’ve rear ended me.

NHTSA ODI 11570066

Rear view camera display sometimes just a blank screen, other times delayed by 2-15 seconds. Has been in for service 3 times and Tesla Service will either say could not duplicate or acknowledge problem, but not repair. Seems like a widespread Tesla problem, but no resolution as of yet.

NHTSA ODI 11570081

I was sitting at a red light with my foot resting lightly on the accelerator. I was completely stopped waiting for the light to turn and suddenly my car began to accelerate quite fast. I had to slam on the brakes which seemed to be malfunctioning. I managed to stop before I hit the car in front of me. I took it to the Teslas service station and was told by their engineer that nothing was wrong with the car. The experience was scary. I no longer feel safe in my car.

NHTSA ODI 11570140

The vehicle was sitting in my driveway during a lower than normal temperature (18 defrees f). The car ha d ot moved at all due to snow fall around the area. The car was warmed up with the automatic function and a U shaped crack appeared in the windshield almost fully closing on itself and there was a crack along the bottom of the windshield. There were no prior chips or issues. The window was since fixed but I feel this is a warranty issue. The windshield shouldn't just crack like that in cold weather.

NHTSA ODI 11568223