What 136 owners told NHTSA about the 2022 Tesla Model S 75d

Left side trim to the left of the glass roof I have protruding dents popping outward in metal. I had 3 dents and 1 of 3 was pushed down flush but the other two are still present. I have worked with Tesla service center and they have ignored my issue by not addressing the two additional protruding dents. Normal dents are known to go inward and these are going upward or outward. Tesla service drove to meet me with a same year model S as mine and both the left and right sides were observed to have many protruding dents potentially from the underlying frame. Several visits were made to service center as they continued to ignore my issue but after walking the parking lot they were surprised that other model S long range and plaids have dents protruding out of the metal which is not normal. As I have been told my issue isn't covered under warranty, not sure why. But my perspective something underneath the metal is causing it push upward or outward that should be addressed. I opened a BBB case 18002067 and the Tesla service center never addressed the concern to completion.

NHTSA ODI 11488440

My new Tesla Model S, delivered 10/1/22 has frequent emergency breaking events every trip to town, approximately 25 miles on a 2 lane State highway. These breaking events involve severe emergency breaking and happen in cruse control or auto steering, (this car does not have auto driving feature). My concern is that these breaking events could cause an accident if a vehicle following me should rear-end my car because my vehicle breaks hard for no reason, without warning. I requested a service appointment from Tesla but my scheduled appointment was soon canceled by Tesla and instead, I was referred to a long written company explanation on why the breaking might be happening but nothing about when the issue might be corrected. I have a copy available if requested, and the vehicle is available for inspection upon request. Basically, the Tesla shop won’t look at the vehicle. To my knowledge, there is no authority, insurance representative, or independent service in New Mexico that would be interested in inspecting the vehicle, but I would make the vehicle available for such inspection within 100 miles of my residence. The emergency breaking event happened the first time I put the car in auto steering and again in cruse control, every time I drive the vehicle. There are no warnings lights or messages before, during, or after these events. A trip of 25 miles will have about 10 or more of these events. If cruse control or automatic steering is off and the driver has control, these events do not happen.

NHTSA ODI 11487924

Factory oem tire separated on the driver side rear. This could have ended badly had i not noticed the difference in handling of the vehicle. It appears the rear camber of the vehicle causes strain on the inner side of the tire and there is zero calibration that can be made to help fix this. Tesla told me it’s a Michelin issue and Michelin says it’s a Tesla suspension issue.

NHTSA ODI 11486822

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed with the ADAS Adaptive Cruise Control activated, the vehicle experienced Phantom Braking with an unknown warning light intermittently illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. Neither the dealer nor the manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 2,236.

NHTSA ODI 11486756

I was driving my Model S from Oregon to Texas, 14-16 Sep. The car was new, picked up on 31 Aug. I had the car in Autopilot when I was on the highway on the drive to Texas. In the first two days I had four incidents of "phantom braking" at highway speeds, as high as 80 mph. There was not a lot of traffic those first two days and the conditions were dry so there was little risk to others and the car stayed straight during the braking. However it's not hard to imagine scenarios where unexpected braking at high speeds could be a problem, such as during wet or dusty road conditions, driving into a high speed turn with other vehicles nearby, etc. The vehicle has not been inspected but the incident has been reported to the dealer and I am awaiting guidance.

NHTSA ODI 11485633

PHANTOM BRAKING: I was driving northbound on the I-5 highway south of Sacramento, California using cruise control and traveling at the 70 MPH speed limit on September 14, 2022. At approximately 2:50 p.m., I moved from the right lane into the left lane by using the turn signal to execute the lane change. Once in the left lane, the car immediately began violently applying the brakes. There was a car behind me that appeared as if it was going to rear end me. I pressed on the accelerator pedal which allowed me to regain control over the vehicle and avoid being hit by the vehicle behind me. The weather was clear and visibility was excellent. There was no apparent reason for the emergency braking system to become operative.

NHTSA ODI 11485612

The horn "button" on the 2022 Model S steering "yoke" is impossible to engage consistently when the wheel is in any orientation other than straight. I have been in 5 near accidents that have required lane departures and roadway departures to avoid collisions with other vehicles because it has been impossible to find and engage the horn button without removing attention from the road and impending accident. This design essentially leaves the Model S with no operative horn in an emergency situation. There are no tactile keys to find the button in the dark, it is not illuminated, and there is no way to find it when the wheel is in a non-centered orientation. In many cases, I have inadvertently engaged wipers/washer fluid in the midst of an accident scenario, further obstructing my view and causing additional distractions from safely operating the vehicle. Please make them fix this!!!

NHTSA ODI 11484000

Having the horn on the right side is a huge safety issue. When I need to push it while turning, it turns out to be impossible to locate in emergencies. I had multiple issues with this. It needs to be in the center of the steering wheel

NHTSA ODI 11483784

A driver moving at highway speeds began to change lanes while I was next to him. I tried to honk the horn (which, on my yoke, is a small, haptic feedback touch screen of sorts) to warn him. The horn did not sound, either because it did not respond or because I missed the tiny, physically undistinguished area of yoke that serves as the horn activator.

NHTSA ODI 11482822

I have quite a few incidents with fantom breaks on my Tesla. Two night ago I almost caused accident as my Tesla breaked for no reason. Many incidents happened before in the month.

NHTSA ODI 11482104

While driving with Traffic Aware Cruise Control engaged and set at 55 MPH the car did a hard break to an almost complete stop in the middle of the lane for no apparent reason. This occurred at least two times and both times there was no traffic in front of me. The road was a two lane highway. There was oncoming traffic and cars behind me but no cars in front of me. The breaking was so hard on both occasions and it startled me and caused me to veer off the road in the first instance . The car behind me had to break suddenly as well. After the second occurrence I disengaged the TACC as it seemed to be sensing the oncoming traffic

NHTSA ODI 11481684

I parked the car, My wife stayed inside. She opened the passenger door got out and opened the trunk to get her phone. She got back into the car and placed a call. after about 5 minutes of her being on the call, the doors locked and the horn started blaring so loud that she was in visible pain and crying. I came back to the car and was able to shut it off by unlocking it. My wife has ear pain and is having a hard time hearing as well as ringing in her ears. I have no idea why the car would lock and not allow her to get out to escape the ear-splitting noise. I really hope her hearing comes back.

NHTSA ODI 11480461

I was driving to the airport at 4:00 am in the morning. I was on C470 going past SantaFa exist and had the cruise control set to 70mph. As I was just passing the exit the cruise control setting dropped to 45mph and the car broke hard for no reason. The cruise control setting was NOT set to the actual speed. This has happened on 4 other occasions while driving on the highway. This is very scary and very dangerous to any car that might be following me. I told the Tesla service person and they said, that it is called phantom breaking and they are aware of it, and if it happens again to just control the speed with the pedal. Doesn't seem like a good solution.

NHTSA ODI 11480463

Tesla provides a back-up input form to its touch screen -- namely voice commands. Voice commands operate, among other things, map positioning, HVAC, lighting. Unfortunately, as quiet as the car is, the voice commands are a roulette wheel of results. 80% accuracy in detecting the specific command is the best Tesla manages. This would be a problem, by itself. However, even when the voice commands are accurately 'read back', and even when the voice command is one that Tesla explicitly has among the commands that Tesla reports (in its manual, etc.) to be an active function that produces an active result to the car's operation -- even then -- the commands/car still are unable to perform the documented function. 1) I commanded the car to 'turn on dome light'; 2) the car recognized 'turn on dome light'; 3) the car acknowledged 'dome lights on'; 4) but the car did not turn on the dome lights. The entire user interface operates in a random way at random times in random traffic. This is a recipe for distraction. Tesla needs to encourage eyes-up, on the road. Instead the multiple stages of failure, result in many unnecessary risks. The car was/is made available to Tesla's service center, and they are aware of the contents of this report. I expect zero result from their 'diagnosis'. SW release is 2022.20.8.

NHTSA ODI 11479846

The Tesla center console screen fails to reliably respond to user-touches for simple inputs concerning the HVAC system. This system failure is highly repeatable in my car, and was first noticed driving on a normal Houston street at posted limits. A typical failure pattern, is the car is being driven on normal roads with their occasional imperfections. This can lead to finger-tips touching the display screen accurately, but only very briefly, to trigger an intended input. https://youtu.be/IcQ-mAuQ4cY The screen provides active areas for input in the form of buttons, and slider user-interface elements. In the video, I tap the slider that controls fan speed. Some 7 of 12 touches to the screen simply do not produce a corresponding effect: a) changing the slider positions; nor b) changing the rate of the HVAC fan. This is a safety risk, since a second attempt to touch the screen is required, demanding additional driver focus on the display, and away from watching for traffic and correct driving. This Tesla failure is a pattern observed across several user interfaces, including the voice command system, which is highly unreliable, even in quiet settings with normal N. American speech patterns, for which the car was presumably designed. Faulty car responsiveness across multiple systems is not a coincidence. It is a sign of cultural failure at the highest levels of Tesla to make their cars safe. No warnings, in the displays, or in the Tesla manuals, suggest that this would be a problem under any condition. No inspection has been made by Tesla of this car. Apple does not have this problem, even with their earliest phones. It is unknown what positive purpose there can be to have the display software reject taps, even brief ones. Or for that matter, why Tesla would fail to indicate that user-contact is insufficient and treated as error.

NHTSA ODI 11477687

This is regarding the turn signal controls on the 2022 Tesla Model S requiring users to take their focus off the road at best and being difficult/impossible to use in many situations at worst. In order to turn on a blinker, instead of physically actuating a stalk like on virtually all other cars, the user has to find and press at a certain place on the steering wheel. There is no physical button to feel for, so one has to look down at the steering wheel to find the button. If one tries to feel around for it, they risk the chance of initiating the wrong signal, since they're flat, capacitance buttons. I've had several incidents where I was unable to turn on my blinkers because the wheel had been rotated and the arrows were not only way out of their normal location, but they were also confusingly reversed in direction. Instead of focusing on looking for pedestrians, watching other traffic, and properly starting the turn and/or exiting the roundabout, I have to focus on finding the turn buttons and figure out which one I need to use (since they're both facing the opposite direction in that wheel orientation). Other incidents include turning on the wrong indicator when the wheel is rotation half way around, and not being able to find the indicators quickly enough to activate them in emergency situations (like when an ambulance appears and I need to quickly turn them on to pull to the side of the road). Finally, unlike physical stalks, they give no physical indication of when they turn off, so they are often left on when the computer isn't smart enough to turn them off automatically, or when I don't think they're turning off properly, I press the button again to toggle it off only to have it turn off an instant earlier, causing me to turn on the signal again and possibly confusing other drivers. I've never had any of these issues with regular turn signal stalks in other cars, and this new design does not offer any visible benefits.

NHTSA ODI 11476672

We experienced between 10 and 15 Phantom braking events on Highway 395 between Carson City and Apple Valley California. We also experienced Phantom breaking a few times during the trip back along Highway 101 in California. The events occurred only when the car was in adaptive cruise control and in basic self driving. Braking was alarmingly strong in two or three cases, and could have resulted in an accident if someone had been following behind us . Other Phantom breaking was moderate to barely noticeable. These events occurred when there were no other vehicles in the immediate vicinity of the car. Some occurred with no vehicles anywhere in sight. Conditions were 100%, in daylight, no fog or dust obstruction, a brand new clean car, and no other known impacts. The car was simply being driven on a Highway with two lanes going in each Direction. In most cases the opposing lanes were separated by large medians between 50 and hundreds of feet apart. When self- driving and adaptive speed control were off there were no incidents of this phantom braking. As I mentioned before this is a brand new Tesla S. This car was received on June 30th. It was on its first road trip when these events occurred.

NHTSA ODI 11475433

While on A/P cruising on the free way the car slow down and start braking on its own !!

NHTSA ODI 11474849

This message appeared this morning on my brand 18 day old new 2022 Tesla S I was driving from my home in Santa Monica to LAX, drove about 3 blocks when this message appeared. "VEHICLE SHUTTING DOWN - pull over safely" I turned around and did not quite make it home in my residential area. I did find a parking space and took an UBER to the airport. The car turned itself off. I feel fortunate this did not happen on a freeway for the obvious safety reasons.

NHTSA ODI 11474642

I just completed a round trip from Minneapolis to Oregon. During cruise control, the vehicle frequently suddenly braked at highway speeds for no apparent reason. This was extremely dangerous a few times. I have put in a service request with Tesla.

NHTSA ODI 11474114

I was unable to quickly find and utilize the vehicle's horn because of non-standard and intangible horn button. As a driver was illegally turning left into me and other oncoming traffic without looking, I instinctively tried to warn him by honking the horn, specifically by pressing on the center of the vehicle's steering wheel/yoke. However, unlike other vehicles, that doesn't activate the horn, so I couldn't warn the driver that we were coming. I had to divert my eyes down to find the horn button. The horn button is also a capacitance button, which means it can't be found by touch, either, meaning that attention must always be diverted from the car's surroundings to find and use it--including during any emergency avoidance maneuvers. It shares the same area of the yoke with windshield wipers and cruise control controls, which I also accidentally activated when trying to honk the horn. I was aware of the non-standard horn placement before this incident and assumed that I could remember the location and quickly find it in the case of an emergency, but when the emergency came, the instinct still was to press the center of the wheel/yoke. I've found many other drivers of this model (on forums, etc.) who have experienced the same issue, and many have encountered multiple emergency occurrences and still have not been able to adapt to this non-standard horn implementation.

NHTSA ODI 11473476

The battery range is no where close to what is being presented. The long range model S does not give any where close to 400/miles per charg.

NHTSA ODI 11473077

During our first road trip with this auto, we traveled along I-76 and I-80 on clear days; after setting the "traffic-aware cruise control" (aka adaptive cruise control), the car would brake randomly and for no apparent reason (such as approaching a car ahead of us). This happened so frequently as to make the feature useless during much of the drive. At other times during our trip, the cruise control would seem to work for a while, then start with random braking. On two-lane highways, though it didn't seem to regard oncoming cars in the opposite lane as a hazard (that's good), it still engaged in random braking when no cars were anywhere in sight. Once again, we'd just turn off the feature, as it became more of a safety hazard than having any benefit. Certainly, any cars that might have been behind us would have been endangered by unexpected braking, and had road conditions been at all slippery, such as on ice, it could have been downright dangerous. I'd rather that Tesla reverted to a "traditional" cruise control, where we can set the speed and then be responsible for managing braking situations.

NHTSA ODI 11467564

There is a concern that the rear door handles are opened by motorized mechanism. In a case of power failure, the only way to open the door is to pull a string on the floor of the back seat. From the outside, there is no way to open the door. My concern is when a child is strapped in car seat in the back and power is out due to electric problem and the car is on fire, there is no quick way to get to the child and remove the child safely. This is a safety hazard that need to be addressed right away. I emphasis this has not happened, thank goodness but is a potential of a disaster.

NHTSA ODI 11465819

Steering Yoke Safety Issue: Tesla Model S Plaid cars come with a steering yoke instead of steering wheel. The steering yoke’s horn, turn signal, high beam, voice assistant, windshield wiper, and cruise control LED indicators that identify these buttons become invisible due to sun glare when the sun is behind or to the left of the driver. The glossy surface of the yoke combined with the weak LED lights of the indicators make the yoke unusable for honking the horn, make it impossible to find the horn, turn signal, windshield wiper, and other buttons, effectively making these features unusable. At a minimum, these critical safety buttons being invisible and having no tactile way to finding them during sunny days causes a significant distraction away from looking at the road. In the attached photo, you will see the effect of sun glare on the yoke while driving. This design flaw in the steering yoke/wheel puts my safety and the safety of others at risk because of inability to use the horn, windshield wipers, voice assistant, high beams, and turn signals when the sun or any other bright light causes yoke glare. Furthermore, the lack of tactile indication of where the buttons are, because they are only indicated/separated by lighting (LEDs) causes the driver to have to divert attention away from the road and onto the steering yoke to find the controls, or push parts of the yoke randomly until the correct function button is found. This is a serious safety issue which can be resolved by using a different material for the steering yoke indicator buttons, by having tactile separators/notches where the yoke buttons are so the user can find where to press during sunny days.

NHTSA ODI 11465531