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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 2022 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | Without any warning, the display on my car froze up when my car came to a stop, and I could not accelerate. It seemed to say I was going 15 mph, when in fact I was stopped, and the display was completely unresponsive. Stepping on the accelerator did nothing. I could not use my turn signals, activate my 4-way flashers. No one was injured, since this happened on a quiet residential street, and I was able to wave to other motorists to go around me. After about 3 minutes, my car seemed to have reset, and I was able to drive it normally. I would gladly make my vehicle available for inspection upon request. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom Braking constantly. Forward collision whole on Autopilot. Tried recalibrating the camera and the problems persist. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | It's called phantom braking and it's absolutely dangerous. It happens when on auto pilot. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Whenever I have my car on cruise control on the highway it will randomly brake hard almost causing an accident behind me. I’ve noticed it does it more in express lanes with thin cone dividers / traffic on the other side. I worry it’ll cause someone to slam into me one day. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2020 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed with the cruise control set at a designated speed, the cruise control feature would malfunction and reset the speed to 20 MPH slower than desired. The contact stated that no warning lights were illuminated whenever the vehicle would suddenly decelerate. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. Neither the dealer nor the manufacturer had been notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 20,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 20,000 |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While using the autopilot the car will suddenly slow itself even though there is nothing in front of the car. It happens most often when approaching a large vehicle or truck that is in the lane next to the car. It seems as though the autopilot system is spooked by the truck even though it is staying in its lane. Similarly, there are 2 spots on I-25 in Colorado where the sudden braking happens regardless of what is around the car. It may to do with recent construction because in both places the car slows suddenly at the same point nearly every time I pass through. It was happening at one of these spots after the construction had moved the lanes. The lanes were marked very well and the car had no problem before or after this point. But when passing through the car suddenly slows. The danger is that a car driving behind me would not expect the car to slow down for no reason. A potential rear-end collision danger. Happy to give more detail to add context. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | After driving the vehicle in cold temperatures (below 28 degrees) the HVAC stops heating the car and a warning appears on the center screen that heating/cooling is limited or unavailable. Only cold air flows through the vents providing no heat. the heat does not come back after turing the car off or coming back a few days later, it has to get serviced. This issue has reoccurred twice and has been serviced both times, but now the heating system make extremely loud noise and shakes the car each time it is started which causes the alarm to go off. I have another service set up for investigation into that problem. The heating the car after the first visit worked for a few weeks and then stopped working, which I believe is going to happen again is few weeks after this second time fixing the heating. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,BACK OVER PREVENTION,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | 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. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | AIR BAGS | 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. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 1 Towed Medical attention | 14,608 |
| Jan 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,LANE DEPARTURE | Side cameras have terrible glare which make them useless | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | STEERING,SUSPENSION,WHEELS | 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. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,VISIBILITY/WIPER | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | STRUCTURE,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 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. | Crash: Yes Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,VISIBILITY/WIPER | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING,VISIBILITY/WIPER,LANE DEPARTURE | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | While driving on a surface street, the vehicle stalled with very little time of warning for me to pull to the side of the road. The car came to a complete stop before I had a chance to completely pull over, leaving me in a vulnerable position. If this would have happened on the freeway I would have been definitely stranded in a potentially deadly situation. After calling Tesla Roadside Assistance a tow truck pulled the car to a Tesla service station. Tesla allegedly fixed the issue by replacing the Drive Inverter unit: ASY, DRIVE INV, 3DU, 810A, SIC, REAR(1079924-15-H), see document attached. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,BACK OVER PREVENTION | Backup camera intermittently fails to activate/engage when the vehicle is in reverse. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE | On open freeway, I 76 between 7 am and 8 am Tuesday November 16, between Ogdallala NE and Brush CO. Using adaptive cruise control with autopilot steering (as well as without autosteer), multiple episodes of severe "phantom breaking" where the car slams on the breaks for no apparent reason. No other cars around. Flat, clear open freeway. Reported the issue to Tesla service. Even though there were multiple (>10 episodes in one hour) they have demanded to know the exact time stamp. I was able to give time within 1 hour period, vehicle location. Service says if there is a hardware issue they will look at it. If it is "firmware" it will need to wait for a firm ware update. This is dangerous. What if the car slams on the breaks at 80mph, with someone following close behind? You might be rearended. Really serious safety issue. My car has latest FSD beta 10.4. This is much worse than before this "upgrade" | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2021 | LANE DEPARTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I installed the Full Self-Driving Beta on my Tesla Model Y the morning of 10/24/2021. Immediately after the update installed I began experiencing issues with the Autopilot and TACC systems, as well as spurious forward collision warnings. These warnings involved the standard warning beeps and red indicators on the driving display, and at one point included an unnecessary emergency braking incident when no obstacle was in front of me. As such, I had reverted to driving the car in manual mode, not on autopilot, but left the option to use the autopilot systems and associated safety features enabled. I was driving in full manual mode on an interstate in the left lane approaching a tunnel, with no vehicles or obstacles in front of me. The car indicated a forward collision warning with the loud beeps, and the car applied brakes and started to swerve into the lane immediately to my right, in which another vehicle was driving and had to swerve as well. The car detected the event and saved the camera footage to my installed SSD. I have reported the incident to Tesla, including providing the video of the incident. I am awaiting response from Tesla. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2021 | BACK OVER PREVENTION | I put the car into the Parking mode to back into a stall between two cars. The car backed into a shopping cart at the rear of the car to my left. There was a woman putting groceries into her trunk standing next to the shopping cart. I was able to stop the car before any damage to the cart or my car. The woman was never in danger of being hit. I asked the TESLA service department to check out the sensors but the said that there was nothing wrong with the car and refused to check out the sensors unless I paid to have the check them out. They also refused to make a report of the issue. They said that the sensors "probably" saw through the cart and that it was my responsibility to make sure that the auto-park worked properly. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2021 | AIR BAGS,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The car suddenly picked up the speed in the parking lot, went over the car stopper, curb and hit the Tree. The airbags never got activated, OR the sensors were nonfunctional. I received a call in less than 1 minute from Tesla Roadside if I was safe. Paramedics took me to the ER by 911. I had some injuries because of a malfunction of airbags, brakes, and warning systems. The car is towed to the nearby Tesla-approved repair place. I am somewhat concerned about the cause, and I believe Tesla knew what had malfunctioned in their car. I have been a safe driver without traffic tickets and accidents ever in the last 45 years. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 1 Towed Medical attention | Unknown |
| Jul 2021 | VISIBILITY/WIPER,LANE DEPARTURE | Backup camera appeared in on screen window as usual when I put the car in reverse to back into my parking spot. The camera looked clear and trajectory lines moved appropriately when I turned the steering wheel. However, main backup view in center of screen did not update as I moved the vehicle backward, it remained on a static, still frame of video. I reversed into a low fence post that I knew was behind me somewhere but could not be seen when looking out the rear window or using any of the mirrors. I usually look to the backup camera to show me where this post is and help back up close to it. There is a large blind spot behind this model of car that is well covered by the camera, but now that is has happened to me I have found many reports of the issue happening to others. Video of issue: https://youtu.be/CC_0JKObpIk | Crash: Yes Fire: No | Unknown |