2021 TESLA MODEL Y Complaints
View complaints related to 2021 TESLA MODEL Y. The complaints found here are submitted by actual consumers with first hand experience. There are more than 1,040 complaints submitted for the 2021 TESLA MODEL Y. You can submit your own complaint to the NHTSA or call the Hotline, Monday-Friday 8am to 8pm at (888) 327-4236, TTY: (800) 424-9153.
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2021 TESLA MODEL Y- Yelm, WA
Tesla refuses to clear this recall, despite the software having been rolled out via over-the-air updates years ago. I now have to sell my vehicle because I'm unable to import it to Canada.
Source: NHTSA WEB SITE -
2021 TESLA MODEL Y- Belmont, CA
- Computer appears to stop working in colder temperatures (or random). - ALL cameras, including rear view camera (needed for backing up) and side cameras stop working. Error message shown on touch screen saying cameras are not available. - All road sensing information including other cars, lanes markers (everything) disappears from touch screen dashboard and no longer works. There are no longer any warnings for anything. - GPS tracking stops and no longer tracks along with the car. Car becomes a safety hazard due to poor visibility. Especially evident during reverse.
Source: NHTSA WEB SITE -
2021 TESLA MODEL Y- Cathedral City, CA
While reversing in this 2021 Tesla Model Y (software v12, 2025.14.1, Full Self-Driving Supervised), the vehicle’s ultrasonic sensors showed a wall directly behind on the display. However, the Tesla Vision camera system did not visually render the wall, and neither Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) nor Obstacle-Aware Acceleration activated. The car reversed under driver input directly into the wall, causing a collision with property damage. The safety defect appears to be that the ultrasonic sensors, although still present and visually displayed, are no longer integrated into the collision avoidance systems after Tesla’s software updates activating Tesla Vision. As a result, the AEB and OAA systems seem to rely only on camera data, ignoring ultrasonic sensor input — leaving a dangerous blind spot in reverse. This problem affects safety because the driver receives no warning that AEB or OAA will not engage based on ultrasonic detection alone. Tesla’s updated owner manuals (2023.12) state that AEB is now designed to work in reverse, but in this case, the system failed. The issue has not yet been inspected by Tesla or a dealer but appears reproducible on vehicles with ultrasonic sensors running Tesla Vision software. This is likely a widespread defect affecting 2020–2022 Tesla Model 3, Y, S, and X vehicles equipped with ultrasonic sensors but updated via software. There were no warning lights or system alerts before the failure. I request NHTSA investigate whether Tesla’s software has disabled or failed to integrate ultrasonic sensor data into rear collision avoidance, creating an undisclosed safety risk for owners.
Source: NHTSA WEB SITE -
2021 TESLA MODEL Y- ORANGE, CA
The Adaptive cruse control would stop working off an on. also it would give false land departure warnings causing driver to swerve thinking they were going to run into another care
Source: NHTSA WEB SITE -
2021 TESLA MODEL Y- Mountain House, CA
The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while attempting to start the vehicle, the message "Front Passenger Safety Restraint System Fault" was displayed on the instrument panel. The local dealer was contacted; however, the vehicle was not diagnosed. The contact was informed that the VIN was not under recall. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 68,400.
Source: HOTLINE VEHICLE OWNERS QUESTIONNAIRE -
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2021 TESLA MODEL Y- Ellicott City, MD
The front collision warning is too sensitive and reacts unnecessarily to many events that are not a risk for collision. In addition, the sound of the warning is too loud causing the driver to become unnecessarily startled and may cause possible loss of control of the vehicle.
Source: NHTSA WEB SITE -
2021 TESLA MODEL Y- Sunnyvale, CA
Per the Tesla service team, there is a defect in the car computer which causes intermittent signal of the backup camera, failure of automatic emergency braking, and also Autopilot unavailability in a 2021 Tesla Model Y with less than 40k miles on it. This issue only occurred after a software update and affects key safety features such as blind spot warning proximity warnings. The Tesla service team said the only way to solve it was to replace the entire car computer and charged us $2,583 for their own product defect. The car did issue alerts to us saying that Autopilot and automatic emergency braking were unavailable, but did not detect issues with intermittent camera signal.
Source: NHTSA WEB SITE -
2021 TESLA MODEL Y- El Cajon, CA
In 2024 Tesla sent an over-the-air software update to my 2021 Model Y that gave us a month of free "full self driving." We did not ask for this. At the end of the 30 days, our cameras and GPS system failed. The Service Center said they had never seen this before despite many reports online posted by other Teslas owners. Tesla service said it was not fixable and recommended replacing computer at a cost to me of $2500. Now Tesla has posted a safety recall for this exact problem. They admit it was their fault and the recall states Tesla will replace the computer at no cost to the customer. However, they are only willing to fix the 2023-2025 models (those years are still under warranty). I feel that Tesla should fix all the model years that were affected. Tesla has again declined to fix my car. This is the recall website: [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Source: NHTSA WEB SITE -
2021 TESLA MODEL Y- Seattle, WA
The windshield will fog up often due to moisture, which is made worse by activating the mechanism the Tesla model Y has for defogging, and rolling the windows down does little. This put my safety at risk when my visibility was compromised by this while driving on the highway, when I had to navigate and pull into the breakdown lane using teslas cameras. There were no warning lights, and this vehicle part has not yet been inspected. Since this issue has happened on residential streets to me before, I was able to avoid a crash, but I had little to no visibility, and it’s only a matter of time until this does result in a crash.
Source: NHTSA WEB SITE -
2021 TESLA MODEL Y- GLEN HEAD, NY
Continued failure of the OCS system after repair by tesla. This is the system responsible for determining if a passenger is in the passenger seat and without this is a safety issue. As it could affect airbag deployment.
Source: NHTSA WEB SITE