Complaint volume
270 consumer-submitted complaints are matched to this model year. Treat the count as a research signal, then read the actual summaries for repeated symptoms.
Complaint records
2020 Tesla Model Y Complaints
270 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2020 Tesla Model Y, grouped by component category.
270 Total complaints
47 Crash reports
0 Fire reports
17 Injury reports
Complaint data reflects consumer-submitted reports. A complaint is not proof
of a defect, recall, or manufacturer fault. Enriched severity fields come
from official bulk records when the complaint can be matched by ODI number.
Buyer interpretation
How to use these complaints before buying
Complaint records are most useful when they turn into inspection points, seller questions, and comparison checks against nearby model years.
Pattern to inspect
The most common categories are forward collision avoidance, unknown or other, suspension. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 47 crash reports, 0 fire reports, 17 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 50 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 16,193 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to forward collision avoidance, unknown or other, suspension?
- Can I see recent maintenance and repair records?
- Has the vehicle ever been towed, involved in a crash, or repaired for the same issue twice?
- Can we also check the recall record for this 2020 Tesla Model Y?
Used-car checklist
Use these complaints before the test drive.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
2020 Tesla Model Y
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2020 Tesla Model Y complaints?
47 Crash
0 Fire
17 Injury
0 Fatality
25 Towed
13 Medical attention
What are the most common 2020 Tesla Model Y complaint categories?
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 44
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 17
SUSPENSION 15
SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 11
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 11
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 9
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE 9
SERVICE BRAKES 7
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL 7
STEERING 6
270 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 2022 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING | This occurs driving on Highway 50 between Placerville, CA and Meyers, CA a predominantly 2 lane winding mountain highway bounded by many cliffs and rocks. The only way to properly engage the high beam lights is to activate the automatic high beam system. The lights inappropriately switch to low beams leaving me on a curvy road with insufficient light to see the curves. In some cases I need to hold the high beam flash control which does not allow me to keep both hands on the steering while while navigating that road. The vehicle needs a typical manual high beam control as I think the automatic system does not work safely when the cameras receive light bouncing off the rocks and snow. Virtually all cars have a manual control for this important light. This makes for a very dangerous driving situation. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving on highway using cruise control, the vehicle (without the driver's assistance) applied brakes to quickly slow the rate of speed. This occurred three times in the span of ten minutes. The weather was sunny and no other vehicles or objects were in the vicinity of my vehicle. After the third occurrence, I stopped using cruise control for the remainder of the trip. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On a 900 mile drive, in one day, the “speed cruise control” would abruptly brake, as if it were seeing someone in front of us. It did this at a minimum 5 times. Never was there a car closer than 1/4 of a mile in front of us. Once it went from 78mph to 38mph in about 3 seconds, when there was a car about 3 car lengths behind us. On the return 900 mile drive it continued, at a lesser rate. I have reported this to Tesla, and they claim “my” car reports do not show anything out of the ordinary, and these errors are sometimes caused by…and they gave numerous reasons, such as speed limit data inaccuracies, etc. they also have determined that my car does not show any computer faults so there is nothing they can do. Unacceptable | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom Braking in Autopilot: Coming back from Mammoth Ca in November 2022 on highway 395 and 14 we experienced sudden braking in cruiscontrol/autopilot numerous times with no cars in front of us while driving. One time there was a car behind us and almost caused an accident. This is a very dangerous situation in which Tesla must fix this issue or refund us money back for the Auto pilot feature. This has happened previously on long trips. We do not use this feature in regular commuting to and from work | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2022 | STEERING,SEATS,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | 1. Forward Collision Warning false alarm is very frequent. Often triggered by pedestrian on nearby sidewalk or parked car on street side. Tesla is using Forward Collision Warning to lower my safety score and raise my insurance premium. 2. Tesla sold me "Full Self Driving" package to me for $8000+taxes for more than two years and still have not delivered the product. It's a faulty system with lots of safety hazards. 3. Window not functioning per the recall notice. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2022 | LANE DEPARTURE | In Tesla’s from model years before 2021, the side “repeater cameras” that are rear facing suffer from a light-leak of the blinker. There are three small holes in the PCB circuit board that allow light from the blinker to leak into the camera at night. Tesla subsequently fixed this problem, first by applying a sticker over the holes in the circuit board, and later by redesigning the part entirely. But this “light leak” problem exists on hundreds of thousands of cars. There are two problems with this: 1) Tesla has now changed their “Autopilot” and “Full Self Driving” software to a Tesla Vision system that ONLY uses cameras for the autopilot features, including lane keeping and lane changes. They no longer use ultrasonic sensors or forward looking radar, even though it is still installed on these cars. This reliance on vision makes it impossible for the Tesla side facing cameras to see when the blinker is turned on. This can result in unpredictable behavior when changing lanes or turning at night with autopilot engaged, including unpredictable or erratic driving where the car abandons a lane change mid course and swerves back into the lane. 2) Even when autopilot is not engaged, the blind spot monitoring in this car consists of a pop up window on the center screen showing the side view camera when the turn signal is engaged. At night, with the blinker on, the driver sees a bright light flashing intermittently in the side view camera. This is very distracting and potentially hazardous to the driver. Tesla has refused to replace the cameras on my car under warranty because they state the cameras are “neither a defect of materials nor workmanship” and are an “expected condition based on the inherent capability of the camera design”. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | The navigation system needs to be updated to enable larger font sizes! This has been a problem reported to Tesla for many years (see Tesla users forum), but they don't address the issue. THIS IS A SERIOUS SAFETY ISSUE! I cannot read the directions easily while driving. Consequently, I must move my head closer to the screen and spend more time looking at it to understand the next turn. This causes me to stop looking at the road for too long a period of time and almost causes me to have an accident! THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED NOW! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE | On 9/11/22 at approximately 1:30PM I was driving north on I65 in northern Tennessee just before the Kentucky border. Conditions were heavy rain. Traffic was moving but heavy. I had autopilot engaged. I was traveling approximately 70 mph. Three lanes of traffic. I was in the far left lane. I had my hands on the steering wheel. Without any prior notice, I lost total control of the car. Seemingly all four wheels were autoplaning due to the wet pavement. I had zero control of the car. The car seemed to slow down, drifted into the full shoulder left lane, then rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise and hit the concrete center median. The car then rotated another 90 degrees counterclockwise and came to a full stop all in the left shoulder lane. The front airbags deployed. There were three people in the car. We were not injured and left the vehicle on our own. Miraculously no other vehicles hit our vehicle | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | Unknown |
| Nov 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | During routine highway driving while using the included Autopilot (Adaptive Cruise Control) software, the vehicle will suddenly and without warning abruptly slow and apply breaks. This slowing can occur when traveling at 70mph (the posted speed limit) and attempt to slow to a speed of 45mph. This change causes a great safety hazard in the event of being closely followed or rear ended. This phenomenon is known to tesla and been colloquially termed "phantom breaking". No hazard or other external reason is present to merit a sudden breaking. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | At least 5 times in the last month, my Tesla Model Y will suddenly brake when there’s no obstacle in the way. This most often happens at highway speeds, a terrifying scenario. I believe it mostly (or exclusively happens) when I have cruise control on. I notice it happens when there’s a sudden change in the color of the road surface, like going from concrete to asphalt. It also happens when I’m cresting a hill - like it can’t see over the other side of the hill. I have not yet experienced it while having the “stay in the lane” feature, which also sets the maximum speed at 5mph over the speed limit. But it definitely happens when I have cruise control on. I have only had this problem for the past few months, so I wonder if there’s a bug in the most recent software version. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2022 | STEERING,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,SERVICE BRAKES | We were driving on a highway and suddenly we got a red steering weel image with a sharp noise and a warning message something about automatic emergency braking disable and we can't use a cruise control feature. I don't feel safe to drive. Tesla can't tell me when it will be fixed. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES | While on cruise control at @72mph the car has been “phantom” braking. The last time there were flurries, but the first several times there was nothing impeding the car nor were any vehicles within camera range. This is a very unsettling feeling. No, no and no. There have been reports to your site with this regard. tyvm | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING | This is a general complaint, not specific to this VIN Headlights on many modern cards are becoming increasingly brighter, causing major safety issues in the ability to see facing oncoming traffic. I find myself often blinded by an oncoming vehicle that does not even have its brights on. Is there anything being done to address the issue of manufacturers installing headlights that are a safety issue for oncoming traffic? | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Many times over the past long highway drives while in cruise control, the car will suddenly and violently brake with no obstacles in the way. Thankfully no car has been immediately behind me so far, but I can concerned that this may happen again and I won't be so fortunate. I have a mobile service appointment upcoming but Tesla tells me they need to know the exact date and exact time (to the second) that this occurred which I am unable to tell them. This is frustrating. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Now that Tesla had disabled the car's radar in favor or a vision-only ADAS, I started getting many forward collision warnings when using Autopilot on curvey roads, mostly when exiting the curve. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was driving on a clear day with trees shading part of the road when suddenly and unexpectedly the car decelerated abruptly. If another car had been tailgating me I fear it would have rear-ended me. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving cross-country on interstates, I've experienced multiple sudden braking incidents. Incidents occurred every day of a 3-day journey (so far). All have occurred between 12:00-14:00 local time on sunny days, dry roads, with no cars or other obstructions in front of the car--in some cases, with no cars in sight at all. Safety was not immediately threatened, but if in heavy traffic could have resulted in rear collision. I have submitted a service request to Tesla but will be traveling for the next two weeks so haven't spoken to a service rep directly--therefore no inspection, reproduction, or confirmation by deal or service center yet. No warning lamps, messages, or other symptoms. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Driving 1400 miles Santa Fe-Austin TX-Santa Fe, experienced phantom braking over 15 times. Generally happened while cruising on autopilot at 70-80 mph. Phantom braking occurred with no warning and for no apparent reason. The car suddenly jerked and lost 5-10 mph, and the autopilot went off. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I reported many instances of what is know as "phantom braking" when using Adaptive Cruise Control when we went on our first long drives in the car when we took delivery. They recalibrated the front sensing cameras and that helped. It did not eliminate all events, but ACC was then usable in certain driving situations, i.e., when not in fast congested traffic as in metropolitan traffic. We took a long trip on freeway and two lane highways a month ago, about 3,500 miles, which had a few, non serious events. about a month or so ago, Tesla had a software update that said it was going to install "Tesla Vision", a camera only senor system, elimination the radar sensing our car has. The result was having quite a few more events of PB. One particular one was on a freeway (I8) heading east at 75 mph with no traffic visible neither in front of or behind our car. It slammed on, hard, the brakes and would have brought us to a complete stop had I not applied power. I reported the high number of PB events to Tesla Service, to which they replied, in essence, that ACC is a Beta feature and you just need to pay close attention when using it and it's not perfect. Well, its not close to reliable and is capable of causing major accidents. We avoided several because I always have my foot near the accelerator in case the car decides to stop. Tesla said that they could find no hardware faults in our car, but I suspect it is software, not hardware. I will happily join a class action suit. I will put the day the last one happened below. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES | I noticed a screeching sound from the rear of the vehicle when brakes were being applied in September 2022. I took the vehicle to a local tire/ brake store where the mechanic informed me that a brake caliper nut is missing and that brake caliper is bent. He strongly advised me against driving the vehicle any further until the nut bolt is replaced. Since they did not have Tesla brand bolt they used a similar bolt from their supply and asked me to have the original bolt replaced by Tesla. I am planning to take the vehicle to the Tesla repair center to have the vehicle inspected. The component that failed is not available for inspection as it is missing from the vehicle however the brake caliper is deformed The brake caliper can apparently cut into the wheel and place the occupants at risk as per an article by CNET available on line The issue was identified by an independent service center which is a national chain The manufacturer has not inspected the vehicle yet There was no warning about the failure other than the abnormal sound on braking | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds with the cruise control activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the failure would occur before crossing a bridge, or while a dark colored vehicle passed her vehicle. The contact took the vehicle to a Service Center and was informed that there was no fix for the failure. The contact was given tips on how to prevent the failure; however, the failure persisted. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 30,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 30,000 |
| Sep 2022 | AIR BAGS,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that after an update was made to the vehicle's autopilot feature, the vehicle experienced phantom braking intermittently that activated without the brake pedal being depressed. The contact stated that while his wife was driving on autopilot at 55 MPH, the phantom brake occurred which caused the vehicle to hydroplane. The vehicle initially veered to the left and then to the right, hitting a guardrail. The air bags did not deploy upon impact. The guardrail was damaged as a result of the incident. The contact's wife did not notice any warning lights during the failure. His wife did not suffer any injuries during the crash and a police report was not filed. The contact's wife managed to drive the vehicle home after the incident. The service center nor the manufacturer had yet to be notified of the failure. The vehicle had yet to be repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 30,000. | Crash: Yes Fire: No | 30,000 |
| Sep 2022 | AIR BAGS,SEAT BELTS | The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving approximately 30 mph the driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a stationary dumpster. During the crash, the front driver-side air bag did not deploy and the front driver-side seat belt malfunctioned and failed to secure the driver in place. As a result of the failures, the contact sustained an injured nose and facial bruises after making contact with the steering wheel, a fractured rib, and a right elbow injury along with torso bruises. No police report was taken. The vehicle was towed away. Medical treatment was later provided. The cause of the failures was not determined. The manufacturer and local dealer were not notified of the incident. The failure mileage was 22,000. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 1 Towed Medical attention | 22,000 |
| Sep 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES | On 9/15/2022 around 12:15pm right before exit 180 on I40 East at Bermuda Run NC 801 in North Carolina, during moderate to heavy rain, our Tesla Model Y hydroplaned and spun twice doing two full 360 spins from the left most interstate lane and ending up in the right shoulder. Fortunately we made no contact with anyone and nothing was damaged and no one was hurt. We believe the car started to hydroplane causing me to let go the accelerator. This caused the Tesla Regenerative braking to kick in and made matters worse and caused the car to spin. Popular wisdom seems to be to tun off or reduce regenerative braking during rain or slippery conditions. We did not know this. Tesla should do this automatically or provide an option to do this. We think many people may not know this and this could get them to have a similar incident with more tragic results. We were lucky but many others may not have been. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When using the "Tesla Autopilot" feature phantom braking has been more frequent and aggressive following the recent software upgrades. Many times, phantom braking occurs when approaching an intersection or when lane lines intersect. The phantom braking concern was minimal when I first purchased the car. Strange enough it would happen going under an overpass or an elevated crosswalk. With time and software upgrades this concern was resolved but now the phantom braking events are more pronounced and sometime so quick it is difficult to implement corrective action and prevent possible rear end collisions, especially in highway traffic conditions. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |