Complaint volume
650 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
2021 Tesla Model 3 Complaints
650 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2021 Tesla Model 3, grouped by component category.
650 Total complaints
45 Crash reports
5 Fire reports
16 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, service brakes,forward collision avoidance, vehicle speed control,forward collision avoidance. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 45 crash reports, 5 fire reports, 16 injury reports, and 5 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 42 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 18,076 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to forward collision avoidance, service brakes,forward collision avoidance, vehicle speed control,forward collision avoidance?
- 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 2021 Tesla Model 3?
Used-car checklist
Use these complaints before the test drive.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
2021 Tesla Model 3
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2021 Tesla Model 3 complaints?
45 Crash
5 Fire
16 Injury
5 Fatality
38 Towed
18 Medical attention
What are the most common 2021 Tesla Model 3 complaint categories?
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 199
SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 57
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 53
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 41
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 33
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 21
VISIBILITY/WIPER 12
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL 11
SERVICE BRAKES 10
UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 10
650 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I've owned this vehicle since October of 2021, and wish to provide examples of my own issues concerning phantom braking while using the Autopilot/Traffic Aware Cruise Control Feature on my Model 3 Standard Range Plus. Having now put roughly 6,000 miles on the vehicle in the conditions found in western Maryland/south-central Pennsylvania, I've been able to find these consistencies concerning phantom braking: On an undivided 2-lane highway: 1. When it's a dashed line that allows for passing on long straight stretches, more phantom braking incidents occur than when the center line is double-solid. Those are usually 5-15mph braking events until the opposing vehicle has passed without incident. 2. When going down/up a gently sloping hill and the car is unable to see the lines far enough ahead because of a turn. If a vehicle is coming the opposite direction, the car appears to believe that the opposing vehicle is in your lane and coming right at your vehicle. These are usually the hardest phantom braking events. 3. When vehicles are parked parallel along the side of an undivided road, and especially at night, the car appears to think these are threats to its/my safety. I say that they appear worse at night, as when my headlights cause the rear taillights/reflectors to visually brighten, the incidents are more frequent. These vary wildly, from having no braking events to hard braking events. On a divided highway: The most consistent issues in my case happen when going up/down mountains. A highway turns into 3 lanes, with the rightmost lane for large, heavy trucks that are going slower than the rest of traffic. If you are in the middle lane, and that slow truck is using it's 4-way blinkers, Autopilot/TACC appears to see it as an emergency vehicle, and heavily brakes. I've gotten in the habit of always using the leftmost lane to avoid this issue. The trucks are clearly in another lane, well out of mine, and are moving, even if slower than the rest of traffic. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On 2/17/22 at appx. 8:08am with adaptive cruise control engaged the collision warning alarm chimed and the car beaked quickly for 50mph to 30 mph. There was an SUV in the oncoming traffic lane. This has happened several times. The system sometimes does not recognize that approaching vehicles are in a correct lane. This happens with larger approaching vehicles such as large SUVs and trucks. Additionally we have been getting many (dozens) of dashboard error warnings that one or more of the cameras are blocked or blinded. As Tesla has chosen to delete lidar and depend solely on cameras as safety system detectors this affects Adaptive Cruise Control, Automatic Emergency Braking, Blind spot warning, Forward Collision Warning, Lane Departure Warning, Lane Keeping Assistance, and cross traffic alert. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving at 55 MPH with the Forward Collision Adaptive cruise control engaged, the driver was approaching a railroad overpass and the vehicle stopped independently. The cruise control was disengaged and the vehicle operated as designed. The contact stated that the failure was intermittent. The contact stated that the Adaptive Cruise Control signal recognition was not functioning as designed. The contact reached out to the manufacturer and provided an online form describing the failure. The manufacturer confirmed that the issue was a known failure and that a fix was in the process. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 50. | Crash: No Fire: No | 50 |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On multiple occassions, while using the adaptive cruise feature, (but not the auto steer feature) the vehicle will suddenly slow down to the speed limit, without any warning or notification that anything has changed. This happens in multiple occasions on the Long Island Expressway between exits 48 adn 32. The vehicle slows by itself for no reason at all. fb | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at various highway speeds with the adaptive cruise control activated the braking system would erroneously activate causing the vehicle speed to suddenly be reduced. The contact indicated that the failure had occurred on multiple occasions and speed reduction was significant. The cause of the failure was not determined. The local dealer was notified of the failure. The manufacturer was not yet contacted. The failure mileage was 1,400. | Crash: No Fire: No | 1,400 |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Both the adaptive cruise control and the Autopilot are dangerously defective. The car will brake without any valid reason. If put into use, the phantom braking will occur several times per hour, regardless of speed. Other drivers have honked at us after nearly rear-ending at highway speeds. We have been unable to use either feature. The car has been back to the dealership in Vallejo CA. Hours of data log have been given to Tesla. We have loaded every software update including the most recent. Nothing helps. I have given Tesla a list of the situations that seem to cause the invalid braking. These include: Red & Blue markers in Nevada that mark highway cross-overs for their highway patrol. Large highway signs at the outside of a curve. K-Rail at the outside of a curve, Black tar sealant lines on the highway, Overhead Highway signs as the car is coming up a rise, and many more. We actually made a game of predicting the phantom braking and were right over 50% of the time. As it is, it is unsafe and unuseable. Pending a fix, they should at the very least give drivers the option to revert to plain, old dumb cruise control. It would be far safer. The "Autopilot" feature is even worse than the Adaptive Cruise control. It freaks out at corners with K-rail and when you do see a problem that hasn't registered with Autopilot (road hazard) the Autopilot fights you trying to take control. I almost crashed into a bumper that was on the highway. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While using adaptive cruise control on freeway my suddenly reduces speed significantly quickly as if it’s trying to stop. I always fear car behind me is going to bump into my car. Also it hurts passengers into the car when it happens. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My vehicle will be in Autopilot mode on a two lane highway, when suddenly it will brake very hard, so hard that I have to hit the gas to avoid a collision from the car behind me. It also does this on interstates when approaching and passing a tractor trailer. It seems to read the shadow on the road cast by the truck as an obstacle and brakes very suddenly. Taking me from 65mph to much slower in a second or two. It seems very dangerous. This has happened at least 100 times in the past few months. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was driving the vehicle on a highway at night and there were no other vehicles around. I engaged the adaptive cruise control to set at 75mph. Suddenly the vehicle applied the break very hard on its own and slowed down to less than 30mph. It was very scary and unsettling. This happened on at least 2 separate occasions within about a month and both times there were no other cars nearby. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While using either the Autopilot or Adaptive Cruise Control, the car will unexpectedly brake for no reason. This happens almost every single time the car is using either of the two features. Sometimes it brakes so hard it creates a safety issue for the cars traveling behind. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the vehicle would brake without warning while autopilot mode was engaged. The vehicle was not taken to a local dealer to be inspected. The manufacturer was informed of the failure and the contact was awaiting a response. The failure mileage was unavailable. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The issue is "Phantom Breaking" while using "Traffic Aware Cruise Control" and "Auto Pilot" The car suddenly breaks for no reason when using either mode listed above. It happens more frequently with sun and shadows than on overcast days. It's so upsetting that I don't try to use either with passengers onboard or when traffic is following close behind. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was driving along a 2 lane road around 1:00 PM. It is a bright sunny day. I put the car into TACC (Traffic Aware Cruise Control) and set a speed of 70MPH in a 65 zone. Once a car came a certain distance away traveling in the opposite lane towards my vehicle the car would brake slightly and drop my speed below 70. I corrected the speed drop by applying the accelerator. Again within a few minutes the same behavior occurred when a vehicle in the opposite lane came into view the car braked and dropped my speed by 5-10 miles an hour before I was able to correct and accelerate again to cruising speed. This happened continuously almost every time a car was visible in the other lane until I turned it off. I attempted to use TACC again on the way home on the same ride in the evening and the same behavior occurred where the car would brake suddenly even though nothing was passing in front of the vehicle that would require a stop. I use TACC on freeways regularly and also use Autopilot and it generally does not brake when it doesn't need to, but it still can occur on freeways. The most dangerous use is on 2-way roads. It is unusable and constantly brakes the car when another car approaches in the other lane. This braking is sudden and unexpected and could lead to a rear end collision. There is not an option to use cruise control that doesn't cause this problem. I am taking the vehicle to Tesla 2/17 and will have them inspect it. There are no warnings or messages on the vehicle saying there is a problem. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My 2021 Tesla model 3 when on auto pilot or adaptive cruise control some times on a 2 lane road and meeting a large truck in the on coming lane will suddenly apply the brakes. Another case is where there are heavy shadows across the road. Should someone be following closely there could be a rear end collision. Perhaps this problem started after Tesla stopped using radar on the 2021 Model 3 teslas Anyway, this is very concerning to me and my passengers. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When using the traffic-aware cruise system on the interstate, the car will sometimes dramatically reduce its speed (within seconds)/apply the brakes for what appears to be no reason at all (often referred to as phantom braking). The most recent incident occurred while accelerating up an interstate entrance ramp. The car had reached the target speed of 75 MPH before suddenly braking and reducing the speed down to around 65MPH before I hit the accelerator to prevent it from slowing down any further. Within a few seconds, the care went back to accelerating normally again. There were no warning indicators on the display that would explain why the vehicle slowed down. I've noticed that sometimes there are certain spots on the interstate where this behavior will happen repeatedly. I will be cruising along at a set speed and the vehicle will suddenly slow down for a few seconds then continue back at the set cruise speed. This occurs when there are no other vehicles or objects in front of the car. Available for inspection upon request: Yes Safety Risk: Rapid deceleration on the interstate at high speeds risks a rear end collision Reproducible: Yes, but it seems to occur mostly at random, has not been confirmed by the dealer Inspected By Others: No Warning Lamps/Messages: Only once has it generated a pre-collision warning, all other instances generate no warning/alert Only once have I had the system falsely generate a pre-collision warning and dramatically slow the vehicle while the vehicle had just entered the interstate from an entrance ramp (traveling at 70 MPH) and no other objects or vehicles were around me. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When driving with Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Autopilot the car will randomly apply the brakes in causing a severe drop in speed frequently from 70 MPH to less than 50 extremely quickly. This happens primarily on undivided highways with no pattern - sometimes when other vehicles are approaching, no distinction between large or small or color, but most frequently and most violently occurs when no vehicles or obstacles are present. This sudden drop and alarm notification from the car can cause me to quickly jerk the steering wheel in response and potentially losing vehicle control. In some occasions this happened at highway speeds with people behind me almost causing a rear-end collision. I put in a repair notice with Tesla and the response was that the TACC and Autopilot are beta and upon review of trip logs they noticed no faults and closed the repair request. This feature is unsafe and since a cruise control is a necessity for my frequent longer trips, having a car without a functioning cruise control is beyond inconvenient, it is a safety issue. The breaking has also occurred on divided multi-lane roads but less frequently and with less severity. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was driving 72 mph on Ca State Hwy 99 in the #2 lane. The closest car to me (front) was about 100 yards away in the fast lane #3. I had cruse control on when the vehicle applied its emergency braking bring me down to 54 mph in about a second. This caused the truck behind me to almost hit me. He then went around my vehicle and slammed on his breaks thinking I did it on purpose. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom braking with autopilot on one lane highways when larger vehicles approach the vehicle in the other lane. This is easily repeatable on any one lane road, happens literally all the time. My older Tesla that still had radar never had this problem. This is a problem with Teslas vision only approach to cruise control | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The automatic cruise control will 'phantom brake' and is unusable on the 2 lane highways near my home. Sometimes the braking is extremely abrupt and if a car was following it could create a very dangerous situation. The car brakes unexpectedly when traffic is coming the other way or of there's an undulation in the road. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While autopilot was engaged at a speed of around 75 mph, the emergency brakes automatically engaged thought there were no impediments on the roadway. The closest car to the front was too far ahead for it to register on the screen. In another instance the same action occurred but as the car was going under an overpass. It was a sunny day so I assumed the shadows created by the overpass triggered the emergency braking. My spouse also reported two instances that this occurred to her while she was driving alone. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My Tesla in auto pilot brakes randomly while on the highway or in a lanes roadway. I almost got rear ended last week. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While traveling at highway speeds, the vehicle arbitrarily applies the brakes when adaptive cruise is being used. It is scary to me and my passengers, and I am afraid to use this feature. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was driving on highway 70 in Florida which is one lane in each direction. When in cruise control the car braked on its own multiple times when car or truck approaced from opposite direction | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On several occasions since June 2021, my Tesla Model 3 has suddenly braked hard on its own while the Autopilot cruise control function was engaged (phantom braking). There has been no apparent reason for the sudden braking incidents, and they have happened at highway speeds. When I reported these incidents to my Tesla dealer, I was told that Tesla was aware of this problem with Tesla Model 3 vehicles, and that Tesla was working on finding a solution. Yet the problem has continued, and occurred again as recently as yesterday | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom braking. Tesla Service asked me to record times of incidents. I drove cross country and there was an incident almost every 10 minutes. Most commonly when going over a hill or passing by a truck, the car will stomp on the brakes for no reason, causing danger to myself and other drivers. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |