2020 TESLA MODEL Y Complaints

The car was almost parked and the parking button was about to pressed when the car suddenly accelerated hitting a light pole in front on the passenger side and the car ended up on a lane in a four lane local road perpendicular to traffic flow. The accelerator was definitely not pressed. I have been driving the car for last year and three months and have 26000 miles on it. There was no warning of nearby obstacles or any beeps.

The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving at 40 MPH in the right-hand lane, another vehicle was swerving towards her vehicle, and she instinctively veered to the side of the road. The contact hit a fire hydrant, drove on a sidewalk, and crashed into a building. The air bags failed to deploy. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact sustained severe whiplash injuries that included torn ligaments in the neck, a large abrasion and bruises on the shoulder, bruised abdomen from the seatbelt. The contact was transported to the hospital by emergency services. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to a tow lot. The dealer and the manufacturer were not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 14,608.

Cabin climate control and preconditioning for the battery have failed. Message: "cabin climate control needs service". First noticed around 1/5/22 and report to Tesla Service. Car interior will not heat up at all, causing the car to be unusable due to: no heat, unable to defrost windows. This is a definite safety issue that Tesla has yet to address. We live in upstate NY, and outdoor temps have been very cold. But we did not have any issue in the winter of 2020-2021. We first complained to Tesla on 1/5/22. Tesla scheduled an app't to fix it on 1/18/22 (about 2 weeks later). They then cancelled it, saying "parts are unavailable." We have not been able to use the Tesla since 1/5/22. We have not been able to get any answers from Tesla Service about what parts need to be replaced, or how this can be fixed if it's a software issue. We are leaving for FL tomorrow, and even asked Tesla if they can find a service center between upstate NY and FL that will have the part (or whatever is needed) to fix this. They have been unable or unwilling to give us an answer. In fact, they have not been responding to text messages with the service. They are unwilling to give me a date when this might be fixed. It would be extremely dangerous for us to start the trip in the Tesla Y without any cabin heat/defrosting ability. And normal day-to-day use of the Tesla Y is impossible unless you dress for extreme cold temps -- even that doesn't solve the safety issue of keeping the windows defrosted. Very unhappy with Tesla Service and their lack of ability to help with this SAFETY ISSUE.

The Traffic Aware Cruise Control will suddenly and inexplicably agressively slow down or even slam on the brakes for no reason. If someone were following me close on the freeway, I would be rear ended. This behavior has been happening to me for almost 3 years now and has not improved, even though it is controlled and upgradeable via software. This is a known and far reaching problem that lots of Tesla drivers have experienced and have named "Phantom Braking". I have video of some of my incidents as well as Canbus data, showing how aggressive it can be in slowing a car down, for no reason. Unfortunately, many Tesla owners now refuse to use TACC or AutoPilot since we feel it is too dangerous to use when other vehicles are nearby. I've opened support tickets with Tesla in the past for this, but they claim that there is no problem, and others have heard the same thing as well. Please look into this major safety issue with Tesla's so that we can feel safe fully using our vehicles again. Tesla likes to say that their AutoPilot feature is safer than a human, but clearly this is not the case when it has such a major software fixable bug as this. Thanks for listening and I hope that you can both see what a safety issue this is and help persuade Tesla to fix it, for the safety of us and every other driver around us.

My wife made a left turn onto Agana Drive from Patterson Avenue in Santa Barbara, California a few blocks our home. After coming to a complete stop before making the turn, she drove about 150 feet when the car swerved to the right and the right rear passenger side of our Tesla Model Y hit left rear driver’s side of another car (BMW). I drove over to assist her and it appears from the AAA tow truck driver that a part of the axle on the right passenger side rear wheel broke later confirmed by my insurance agent and my auto mechanic. It was surprising since she was had completed the turn, was driving slowly straight on Agana Drive at approximately 25mph when this part broke. Apparently, nobody was seriously injured, the parked car had nobody in it and no real estate property damage appears to have occurred. was knocked up and over the curb due to the force of the impact braking the other car's rear axle and bending the frame. Our car is still being repaired a month later. Tesla appears to know about the problem since, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there is a recall scheduled for 2020-2021 Tesla Model Y cars with a recall date of 2021-11-20, recall no. 21V912000, recall notification stating Tesla, Inc (Tesla) is recalling certain 2020-2022 Model Y vehicles. The front and rear suspension knuckles may fracture, causing the suspension links to separate, recall consequence stating Suspension links that separate can reduce vehicle stability and control, increasing the risk of a crash and a recall action stating Tesla Service will inspect and replace the knuckles as necessary, free of charge. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed 18 January 2022. Owners may contact Tesla customer service at 1-877-798-3752. Tesla’s number for this recall is SB-21-31-004. Contact for more details and information.

Tesla recently release their version 11 user interface. This update took a lot of safety features and put them behind menus. Windshield wipers, defrosters, seat warmers were all easily accessible in the previous version. Now they are wall hidden behind menus. If you need one of these features while driving, you get distracted while trying to find it which is dangerous. But these features are necessary to use while driving.

I think regenerative braking makes the Tesla Y fishtail and swerve when driving in snow, ice or slippery surfaces when you decelerate or go downhill. The regenerative brakes cause the car to suddenly brake in snow or ice. If you brake suddenly in snow in a normal car, you may swerve, and this swerving is worse if the car is turned slightly. A friend swerved suddenly going downhill in WA in a snow storm. He recovered by lightly touching the accelerator. My Tesla Y spun 90 degrees when I took foot off accelerator in snowstorm in RI and I was able to recover. Minutes later on expressway at 25 mph, I took foot off accelerator and the car spun 180 degrees and hit a guard rail. In the Chevy Bolt owners manual, under winter driving, the first bullet point they make is to put the car in D--which turns off regenerative braking. You can reduce the amount of regenerative braking on a Tesla, but you can not turn it off. Under driving in winter on the Tesla on the website, there is no mention of reducing the regenerative braking in snow or ice. I think any EV with regenerative braking is at risk of spinning out in snow, ice or on slick surfaces.

In a recent software update, my Model Y’s backup camera has essentially become inoperable. Sometimes the backup camera does not display, or if it does the video feed lags significantly from real time making it unreliable and dangerous.

Heating / defrosting unit failed. While driving to work in 1 degree freezing weather my heating / defrosting unit would not provide a clear fog free windshield so i could safely see outside. Dealer has me scheduled for a date for repair but this is the second time this has happened. First time 9/2021 and now 1/2022. No inspection has happened yet. Warning message displayed saying that the climate control has failed.

Turn signal causes excessive glare effect on the side repeater cameras during nighttime use. Driver is unable to view blind spot camera feed properly when engaging in a lane change.