2021 TESLA MODEL S Complaints

When in autopilot, at highway speeds, the car suddenly will brake. There is nothing that instigates this and it seems to be a safety hazard.

I was unable to locate the horn capacitive button on my steering yoke to alert a biker who strayed into my lane. finding this small button has been a repeated problem when in dangerous situations

In August 2022 I was driving my Tesla S. I was traveling 25 miles an hour or less. I unfortunately lost consciousness for a very short time. My tesla then crashed into a parked car. There was snow emergency braking nor any emergency alarms. In theory describes shouldn’t of happened with an emergency braking system.

Today was at least the 3rd time "phantom braking" has occurred. While traveling on I-64 in Virginia, my speed was about 75mph with adaptive cruise control on. Suddenly, the car braked hard, slowing to about 40mph. I thought the car was going to stop. Fortunately, there were no vehicles behind me or there could have been a rear end collision. I did not use the automatic feature again for the rest of that drive.

I have had at least 2 panic situations where I needed to use the horn to warn another vehicle that didn't see me that it was going to collide with me (lane change without checking, or crossing in front of me). The horn on my vehicle is a small force-press button with no raised markings, just an icon picture, just to the right of the large center pad that is the steering wheel (actually called a steering yolk) air bag. Decades of muscle memory has me pressing/slamming the largest thing at the center of the steering wheel in a panic situation. The time it takes to look down at the wheel to find the force-press button that is the horn is a major safety issue. All Tesla Model Ss and Xs from 2021 on have a steering yolk instead of a round wheel with this particular design/implementation for the horn. I have twice asked Tesla service to make the steering center airbag pad activate the horn. The 1st request was ignored. The 2nd request (Oct 18'2022) was responded to with "We do not offer a retrofit for that at this time. I will mark this [request] as feedback and remove it from your service ticket."

In emergency situations I have trouble finding the horn button resulting in not able to warn other drivers of a dangerous situation. Other vehicles are set up so you can press the center airbag but the Tesla has a small button on the right spoke. The button is flush so you can not find it by feel but must look for it. The button is especially troublesome to find if the steering wheel/yoke is in anything other than the straight ahead position.

Car repeatedly, randomly slams in brakes while cruise control engaged for no apparent reason. Not speeding, no other cars or blockages around, open highway on a bright, clear day.

I was recently nearly involved in a traffic accident when I wasn't able to blow the horn on the Tesla steering wheel. I was backing up out of a parking stall in a parking lot and at the same time another car in the stall next to me was also backing up. I tried went to blow the horn on the steeling wheel and I was not able to find it quickly enough because it is very difficult to find the button in an emergency. Fortunately, the other driver in the car saw me just in the nick of time and was able to stop. The problem in my opinion, and many others on social media, is that Telsa chose to not put a horn in the normal place on the steering wheel where most other car manufactures place their horns. Another area of concern about this Yoke steering wheel are the turn signals. Unlike most cars, the directional signals on this model Tesla are located in a small area on the steeling wheel. These buttons are hard to find and use when attempting to turn at a street corner or to change lanes on the roadways. Consequently, sometimes it's just easier not to use the turn signal. I personally believe that this is also a safety concern for this car.

The vehicle intermittently brakes for no reason with the cruise control enabled. This is going to cause an accident.

Michelin manufactures this tire specific for the Tesla Model S plaid vehicle. This tire wears pre maturely from the 300 rating most times under 10,000 miles causing tread separation on the inner wall. This specific wear can only be seen once the tire is removed from the vehicle. This is a well know issue on tesla forum boards and Michelin is not only not assisting with the issue, they are on back order for this tire that is specific for the Tesla Model S plaid. Not only did Michelin design a tire for this vehicle that wears well short of the rating, they are also not making enough to replace the worn out\defective tires. The tread separation is on the inside of the tire not visible to the driver that could potentially lead to a catastrophic accident if the tread separates at a high speed. The tire size is 295/30/21.