What 1,087 owners told NHTSA about the 2023 Tesla Model Y

I was driving eastbound on interstate 8 with adaptive cruise control engaged and my Tesla suddenly stoppeg in the freeway. No one was behind me but it was frightening. 0930 hours

NHTSA ODI 11559373

During our road trip from northern Virginia to Norman, Oklahoma, between 18-29 November 2023, the issue called "Phantom braking" -- in which the Tesla Model Y suddenly and inexplicably engages the brake during a highway driving -- occurred to us four times.

NHTSA ODI 11558692

Vehicle reversing malfunctioned , may be a software defect. Vehicle while reversing without pressing the accelerator went berserk and hit another vehicle in the driveway. Vehicle data was provided by Tesla but there is no evidence of collision nor any video recording of the incident. No issues were seen nor any warnings displayed prior to the vehicle reversing itself. However insurance deemed it as driver fault without any confirmation by the manufacturer (Tesla).

NHTSA ODI 11558823

Traveling on an interstate highway when the car suddenly decelerated. Cruise control was on at the time. sudden deceleration with cars following made it quite dangerous. We could have been struck from behind. this happened two times on the same trip.

NHTSA ODI 11558471

I have had multiple phantom breaking on the highway in when use Autopilot in my 2023 Telsa model Y. I scared of using the Autopilot now cause of an accident on the highway.

NHTSA ODI 11558676

Phantom braking occurred while traveling eastbound from Austin to Houston on US 290. Vehicle was traveling 76mph and slowed to quickly to 55 mph for no reason. There was a highway overpass about 75 yards away which may have triggered it, but no vehicles around us. Scared my wife and kids!!!

NHTSA ODI 11556556

The contact owns a 2023 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while his grand-son was driving 40 MPH with his friend in the front passenger's seat, he depressed the brake pedal as he was approaching a stopped-occupied vehicle. A light indicating that the brakes were engaged illuminated, but the vehicle failed to respond. Additionally, the automatic emergency braking system failed to engage, and the vehicle crashed into the rear of the vehicle in front of him. The air bags deployed. The contact's grandson and his friend were able to exit the vehicle. The vehicle then turned off and locked, which rendered the vehicle unnoticeable by oncoming drivers. Another driver who noticed the incident parked behind the vehicle and activated the hazard lights to prevent other drivers from crashing into the vehicle. The contact's grand-son sustained a burn on the right hand from the driver's side airbag deployment. The friend and the other driver did not sustain any injuries. A police report was filed. The contact's grand-son received first aid assistance from the ambulance. The vehicle was towed to a Tesla collision center, which denied assistance. The vehicle was then towed to a Collision center that was certified to work on Tesla vehicles. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 8,000.

NHTSA ODI 11556484

On October 24, between 8:45 and 9:05 am, I was traveling on the highway with cruise control on and the car suddenly braked going from 75 to 30 rapidly. It was only me pressing the accelerator that kept it from coming to a complete stop. Fortunately, there was no one close behind. There wasn’t any traffic around me. I was passing an exit. I reported this to Tesla and they remotely investigated but said that the related cruise software and hardware was operating normally. This is extremely dangerous! I’ve checked Tesla forums and this is a known problem that they don’t seem willing to address.

NHTSA ODI 11555673

The process of the car losing control around 10:50am to 11:55am: We were driving on Woodgate Road and were making a U-turn. The car lost control just after the U-turn. The steering wheel spun and failed. The car sped up and the brakes did not work. The car hit the curb and the left tire burst. It went straight over. It was about 3 meters from the sidewalk to the hillside covered with weeds, and it was impossible to stop because the hillside was too steep.

NHTSA ODI 11555138

Tesla Model Y delivered six weeks ago, I engaged the "Auto Pilot" for the first time on my morning commute and it worked well for a few moments. Suddenly and without warning the vehicle applied full braking force from highway speed, so hard that it glazed the rotors. This happened on EB I-10 JWO I-15, an extremely busy interchange. With possibly divine intervention I was able to retake control of the vehicle, shut down the Auto Pilot and I swiftly returned the vehicle to speed, needing only a restroom on an emergency basis. Relevant factors could include low incident angle of the sun at dawn and being in a construction zone with lane markers not thoroughly scrubbed off.

NHTSA ODI 11554929

I bought Tesla and tesla insurance which monitors driving of driver to provide safety score to driver. The safety score enables monthly premiums of tesla insurance. My complaint is related to safety score which provides financial incentives to drivers to not apply break. As part of safety score provided to drivers in tesla app(screen shot attached), one of the factors used is hard breaking to penalize drivers when break is applied, forcing the driver to use regenerative breaking instead of applying break. I have observed, even when I mildly apply break the safety score is impacted. The second factor in safety score that seems unreasonable is driving after 10pm. My daughter worked late shift and would return home after 10pm. Why is this even allowed as most of the emergency workers and many others work late hours. I have also observed safety score change from 99 to 98 when the car is parked overnight, even when I am not driving.

NHTSA ODI 11554678

I was driving on the freeway at approximately 67 MPH using the advanced cruise control. There was no car immediately in front of me or directly beside me. All of a sudden, the car decelerated quickly, as if it slammed on the brakes. I was able to react quickly and override the deceleration, but had there been a car directly behind me, I very likely would have been rear-ended. It all happened so fast that I didn't stop to get all of the detail, but I'm guessing I dropped down to about 50 mph before being able to respond and override the breaking. It was terrifying, as I didn't know if I could override it at first. I later read other complaints about "phantom breaking" and realized there is a pervasive problem with the Tesla.

NHTSA ODI 11553790

I was driving my 2023 Tesla Model Y northbound on Interstate 69 in Indiana near the 219 mile marker. The time was around 9:30 P.M. My speed was approximately 70 MPH. I was using what Tesla calls "Traffic-Aware Cruise Control". All of a sudden and with warning, my vehicle braked extremely hard, slowing me down very fast. Luckily no one was behind me. I had no idea what was happening and looked all around for danger. After a few seconds, I accelerated and continued on. This phantom braking is very concerning to me. Had someone been behind me a horrible crash would have occurred.

NHTSA ODI 11553363

On August 28, 2023, driving back from golf at Tijeras Creek, the vehicle noted several faults: cruise control disabled, autopilot disabled, parking brake disabled, and others. We parked in Newport Beach and the vehicle failed to move—appears the parking brake locked up. The vehicle was taken to Tesla for repair; the vehicle had 4,423 miles on the odometer when it was taken to Tesla for repair. The technician states that they identified the brake fault, removed and replaced the right brake caliper.its disabled the vehicle from safe operation. September 21, 2023, the vehicle was driven locally 23 miles and the condition returned. This time the vehicle was in a shopping mall and the parking brake would not release, disabling the vehicle. Screen shots of the fault codes were taken to preserve the evidence. Eventually, the operator was able to shimmy the vehicle forward and return to the house. On October 4, 2023, only 90 miles after repair by Tesla, the exact same condition—parking brake function degraded. The vehicle, again, refused to disengage the parking brake. The vehicle suffered again the problem that rendered the vehicle inoperable. The vehicle was again towed. On October 13, 2023, the vehicle was picked up from Tesla service for repair of the THIRD DEFECTIVE AND DANGEROUS CONDITION; the vehicle was driven locally and, on the freeway, to determine if Tesla had actually corrected the dangerous and defective condition. After about two hours in varying conditions and 90 miles, the vehicle was parked in the garage overnight. In the morning, the vehicle was loaded for an outing, and again the DANGEROUS AND DEFECTIVE CONDITION occurred. This time, the vehicle could not be backed out of the garage; The tow truck was called

NHTSA ODI 11551990

I was driving from Austin to Houston on 5-Sep-2023 when the car stop from 70MPH to zero w/no reason and nothing in front of us; this phantom stop event is real - my daughter and wife were very scared and made me not use the adaptative cruise control for the rest of the trip. I don't have paid for FSD, I was very upset because was the start of the trip and I did not use the car for 2+ hours trip since

NHTSA ODI 11551891

Phantom braking happening regularly when auto driving cruise enabled on highways w no oncoming traffic.

NHTSA ODI 11551324

When on autopilot mode with traffic aware cruise control (TACC), the Tesla model Y car gets unexpected unpredictable random sudden slowing down with braking causing panic, inability to react, unsafe for the following car the rear. Appears to have unexpected unnecessary phantom braking unsafe for driver, passengers and the rear following car.

NHTSA ODI 11550382

Component/System Failure: Brakes spuriously slam on when traveling at freeway speeds. Safety concerns: People behind me possibly slamming into me, in addition, my terrified reactions to an unexpected/unseen concern. Vehicle has not been confirmed by dealer or independent service Vehicle has not been inspected my manufacture, police, or insurance representative there is no warning as to when they may happen. first appeared in March 2023 and has happened about five times throughout the various months since then,

NHTSA ODI 11550065

Two times in one week with two different drivers driving the same vehicle the vehicle experienced sudden unintended acceleration while parking. In the first incident this resulted in damage to the bumper into a wired fence which the vehicle did not alert but rather accelerated instead of applied regenerative breaking. Four days later the same incident happened with sudden unintended acceleration occurring while parking the car. When sending the car to Tesla for service due to the safety concern and damage this resulted in they said this was a user error which can’t be the case as this incident happened with two different drivers driving the same vehicle. When reading about this there have been numerous complaints which have shown that there is an electrical “ They show that the sudden unintended acceleration of Tesla cars may have been caused by negative voltage spikes that are logged as a fully depressed pedal, fooling both Tesla and the NHTSA investigators that there has been no hardware or software defect.”

NHTSA ODI 11549924

On August 12, 2023, I went to the Plano TX Tesla Delivery Center to pick up my new TeslaY model as scheduled at about 11 am. CST . The vehicle had 3 miles on it. After taking a couple of rounds around the delivery center and becoming comfortable with the default settings, I started driving back home which was 9 miles away. While on the drive, I noticed that the screen was showing “calibration in progress”. When I reached home at around 11:40 am. CST, Tesla showed a total of 12 miles on it, and as the garage door opened, the screen showed STOP as it said the calibration finished. As instructed, I stopped moving the vehicle on seeing HOLD/STOP while entering the garage from the driveway. Suddenly, the car jerked forward forcefully, as if a magnet had attracted it inside with the pedal going down. The car went into the garage and hit the garage wall, damaging the common garage wall and the other side being the master bathroom (by damaging the cabinets, big wall mirror(s), counter top etc), and also damaged the front bumper of the car. I was shocked and terrified for a while. So immediately rushed to the center again and reported the incident at Plano Service Center, who created a ticket on the same day. They said that this case would be sent to the engineering team for review. on Sep 10th, I got a reply from Service saying they have reviewed the Engineering study for the vehicle and the results displayed show that the vehicle operated as intended due to the use of the accelerator pedal at the time of the incident. Also reported to Auto insurance who came and assessed the damage to the bumper which also rattles or squeaks. The service for collision is scheduled for Dec 7th 2023 by Tesla Collision Dallas center. What if the same happened on the main road or in the streets where I live where there are a lot of kids playing on the streets? When I think of it, I get scared and panicked and Thank God that it occurred at my residence without any outside incident

NHTSA ODI 11548768

While driving on the highway, I had set the cruise control to max 65 mph. After some time it suddenly set the cruise control to max 35 mph and suddenly reduces the speed even though all front vehicles were running around 65 mph. It was incredibly dangerous and the vehicle behind me was about to hit.

NHTSA ODI 11547551

I was driving at a very slow speed of 1 mile per hr as I entered into the Kohls complex in Pleasanton ca. Then as I was pulling the car to a parking spot, all of a sudden I felt the car accelerated on me. My foot was always on the break and I pressed the break but the car still accelerated at a speed I had no control and it went over the parking bump and hit 2 cars that was parked opposite. I felt out of control and scary because the car was not doing as intended, to stop when pressed the break. I then pressed the park button. Then I also reversed because the car was not stopping. There was totally 4 cars damaged including my car. 2 opposite and 1 parked side of me. I could feel the sudden acceleration in the car and out of control feeling. Luckily there were no people in other car so no one was hurt. I was also not hurt. - Not sure what malfunction happened , but the break in that instant of time was not acting as it should for few seconds. Yes, the car is available for inspection - My safety was at risk as the car was no behaving the way it should and I got scared as to what would happened next. Since there were no people in the other car, there was no risk. but if there were they probably would have got hurt. - I reported the issue to Tesla center. They said they will look but never heard back anything from them . - None of them has inspected the vehicle yet. - No warning signs were there. after it hit i could hear the beep

NHTSA ODI 11547546

My wife pulled into our driveway at 5 mph. Suddenly our Tesla Y. Auto accelerated,before my wife could realize it ramped into our garage through the door and collided on the wall of our Laundry room and kitchen damaging Foundation of the laundry room.My wife was also injured badly. This incident has shaken my wife. We complained to Tesla and filed the complaint but they are not even following up. Please investigate this issue

NHTSA ODI 11547226

The Tesla Model Y autoaccelerated even with me pressing the brakes. The car was on regenerative breaking and instead of stopping it accelerated lunging into the walkway and almost killing a person. The car hit another car, 2 bike racks and a tree as well as concrete slabs beofr coming to a stop. There have been reports of unintended auto acceleration from Tesla cars. The car components has not been inspected by police, manufacturer or insurance representatives. There were warninngs, especially with the car reporting that sensors were not properly calibrated. I reported this to Tesla agents and they told me not to worry about it. I am injured with a left wrist sprain as well as Neck and back injuries. I need Tesla to take ownership and pay dearly!

NHTSA ODI 11546858

While driving with autopilot/cruise control, the car started braking heavily with no obvious obstruction on the road. This happened 5 times over 2 days of long distance driving.

NHTSA ODI 11546198