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 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The problem I am having, when I use traffic-aware cruise control, is "phantom braking" This has occurred multiple times on two-lane highways when a large truck is passing in the opposite lane, and sometimes on a freeway when I pass a large truck that is in the right lane. The car suddenly slows or stops and the forward collision warning alarms sound. My vehicle is available for inspection upon request. This upsets everyone in the vehicle because it is so sudden that they are startled and frightened when the alarm sounds and the car abruptly brakes. My wife has asked me to not use the traffic-aware cruise control at all because of this problem. I have owned the car almost 9 months and my wife has not and will not drive it because of the this problem. It is also quite dangerous because a vehicle behind me would not be expecting me to slow down or stop when there is no apparent reason to do so and may crash into my car. I have not contacted Tesla because I have thought the problem would be fixed by now with a software update, but after a number of updates the problem persists. I know other Tesla owners are having the same problem. I will contact Tesla today. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | During a 144 mile trip, my late 2021 Model 3 "phantom-braked" 4 separate times in just one day. Meaning the car saw some imaginary object in front of it and proceeded to slam on the brakes with traffic behind me. The first two occurrences this day were due to what I'm assuming is the shadow of two Semis. The third occurrence was after driving past a van on the shoulder with the autopilot system off. The last occurrence, before I seriously began to feel unsafe in this car, occurred when about to cross below an overpass with nonexistent traffic in front of me. Up until this specific day, I've experienced 4 phantom braking events spread across 4 months and 4500 miles. After today, and an additional 4 occurrences of phantom braking added within a few miles, my model 3 feels unsafe to me | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The vehicle, while operating in autopilot mode, will automatically brake aggressively for no apparent reason. No physical object including shadows or potholes are in the way for this to occur. I have experienced this phantom braking on multiple occasions while using the driver assist mode on (autopilot). Being the attentive driver that I am, I quickly disengage the autopilot and manually take over to avoid a rear end collision. I have not had the vehicle inspected by Tesla or my insurance company as this is apparently a common theme with this car. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When using Autopilot and/or cruise control, the vehicle will brake hard for absolutely no reason. For example, when driving at highway speeds, the vehicle will drop from 70 mph to 45 mph in an instant. In my experience, it tends to happen when there are sudden changes in ambient light. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | POWER TRAIN,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving the vehicle using autopilot or adaptive cruise control, the vehicle "phantom brakes" - meaning the vehicle abruptly applies the brakes to slow down even though there are no obstacles in the road. This happens almost every time either one of these systems is used. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On a recent road trip from CA to UT while driving on four lane roads whenever I had Traffic-Aware Cruise Control enabled and approached a large vehicle from the passing lane the vehicle would suddenly slam on the brakes, dropping 15-25 mph in seconds, it would also do this for zero apparent reason when there was no other vehicles or objects within sight. Several times it almost caused a collision when a vehicle was following to closely behind us. I had to disable and stop using the feature to avoid a possible rear end collision! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The car was running 2021.40.6 at the time of latest incident, but have noticed it with previous verisons as well. Car abruptly brakes HARD on the freeway when autopilot is being used. I have the non-FSD beta version, with just basic autopilot. I had to immediately intervene to prevent a car behind me from colliding. The driver assumed i was brake checking them. I've seen reports of this incident repeat with other Teslas owned by friends - have not gone to the service center as they aren't very helpful with software issues. The car has not been inspected I don't recall receiving any warning from the car - the car suddenly started braking hard on the freeway, so i had to disengage autopilot and accelerate immediately | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Emergency braking is applied while using adaptive cruise or autopilot. This happens on two lane undivided roads with larger vehicles approaching on the opposite side. It does not happen with cars or pick ups. For no reason the forward collision warning will sound and emergency braking is applied. If a vehicle is behind my car I would have been rear ended. I have sent error reports over the air to Tesla at the moment. I also brought my car into service and documented this issue. They did recalibrate the forward cameras but no difference was seen. Just out of the blue the car will.reduce speed by 20 mph. In my video the speed went from 46 to 29. The funny thing is it did not slow fir the oversized truck. I have videos if the incidents but I cannot upload them on here. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Since purchasing my Tesla new in 6/21, I've been experiencing random and dangerous "Phantom Braking" where the vehicle will suddenly brake hard on the highway for no reason. On a few occasions, this created a hazard for motorists behind me. This has been occurring in rural and urban settings with the vehicle's cruise control or AutoPilot set. It doesn't matter which system I use, phantom braking is persistent in both. I contacted Tesla service twice on this issue and each time I was informed "no malfunction found with sensors or vehicle operation." I was hopeful that Tesla would release a software update to mitigate this issue (other Tesla owners have voiced this issue on social media and forums), however nothing has been resolved in the 7 months I've owned this vehicle. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | STEERING,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Hello, Driving on a snowy road around 20 MPH. Attempted to slow down in a straight line, used the brakes to try and slow vehicle to go into a driveway. Vehicle would not respond to any inputs. The brake pedal seemed frozen, coming off and back on the brake pedal did not change anything. There sounded like an ABS pulsing but it was not working. Post accident pictures showed it looked like the car was dragging one axle like it was locked in the snow. Car ending up grazing a mailbox post and afterword said 'take control'. I believe the car tried to do an automated braking maneuver which did not work. The road was covered in 1-2" of snow and the mailbox would have been a reference point in the distance. When turning the steering wheel away from the object that was hit, the car continued to go straight like the wheels were not attached. The car never veered left or right during this whole event even though i tried to turn. | Crash: Yes Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | While driving in cruise control at set at 75mph, the car suddenly started to slow down. (Note, the nearest car ahead of me was at least 15 car lengths away and was not braking, so it should not have affected my speed) When I tried to accelerate, the car continued to de-accelerate. I looked at the screen and it indicated that cruise control was set at 50. When the car reached 50 mph, it stopped de-accelerating and I was able to increase my speed. I tapped the brake to get out of cruise control and continued my trip. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Purchased my Model 3 in August 2021. Autopilot and cruise control features worked flawlessly for the first few months of ownership. In September of 2021 after a software update, the vehicle started to perform unsafe reactions while on autopilot or cruise control. If any large vehicle like a semi-truck or vans were traveling in the opposite direction of travel on any two lane road, cruise control or autopilot will slam on the breaks and activate the forward collision warning tones. Reactions like this from driver assist technology could easily result in a multi-car accident. While commuting on a busy road (10 miles) on cruise control/autopilot, this issue could occur over 10 times on one drive. While making contact with Tesla service in September, a representative said that Tesla's autopilot software team was aware of the issue affecting Model 3's similar to my VIN. The representative ensured that the team was working on a software update to fix this issue. This problem continued until January 13th when I had a service appointment where I stated the same issue. The technician wanted a ride to experience the issue the car had. After getting the issue to reoccur, the technician stated that "he had never seen this problem before." After he fixed an unrelated issue with the car, he reassured me that the issue is know by Tesla and they were working on a software update to resolve the issue. After over three months with this major safety defect, I am reporting this issue to NHTSA. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Dangerously brakes for no apparent reason while using adaptive cruise control. Especially common on two-lane roads. Occurs approximately once every 20 miles of driving. Has caused near accidents on three occasions. Tesla does not take any action. Car has the most recent software update. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,VISIBILITY/WIPER | My vehicle has a VCFRONT_A447 error code and will not heat up. With temperatures as low as -20 and highs of 25 not only is just the temperature potentially deadly but im unable to defog my windshield without freezing. I feel my car is entirely unsafe to drive. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | On a recent road trip (8-9 hours) my car had a number of software tics that had been noticed (music skipping, screen responding slowly, etc.). After 7 hours on the road, while the Autopilot system was engaged my main screen froze on the car. Out of caution, I moved to exit the highway. While exiting, the entire screen in my car turned off, but all car functions were operable (turn signals, braking, accelerating, etc.). Once safely in a parking lot, I tried to do a soft reset with no success. After contacting service they told me the log indicated an issue that required a tow. In the interim I was able to do a power cycle which resolved the issue (but was difficult to perform since the screen was flashing on/off). The service rep recommended driving home but scheduling a follow up service. Subsequently the follow up team has informed me this is a "known software issue which is currently under investigation". Given the impact this software bug has on the primary information screen it seems to be a valid safety concern and should be issued as a recall. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On *multiple occasions* when driving on a highway and using cruise control, the car has suddenly and severly decelerated. Tesla advises that for my vehicle the safety system to detect possible collisions is still in the "BETA phase" and has initially been programmed to be over-sensitive. Tesla claims that as software updates are made, this issue will improve. [See uploaded screenshot of text chat I had with Tesla service on 1/19/21.] I have an appointmnet to take the vehicle in, but Tesla says I must be able to give then exact dates and times of occurrences or otherwise there is too much code on the vehicle's computer log for their systemt to be able to analyze. (I am able to give them some dates but not exact times.) My fear and concern in the meantime is that such unpredictable deceleration events when traveling at highway speeds could result in a rear-end collision with a vehicle behind me. When I expressed this to Tesla, their reply was: "It is the driver's responsibility to stay alert, drive safely, and be in control of the vehicle at all times." I pointed out to them the obvious fact that none of those things can prevent this issue from happening, and received no further reply. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | The windshield wipers are controlled by a sensor and the computer. Unfortunately, they come on too slowly. Several times I have been driving in the rain, waiting for the windshield wipers to start clearing the windshield. Each time, the rain on the windshield has gotten so bad that I was unable to see anything out my windshield. If the car in front had braked quickly, or if some pedestrian was trying to cross the street, I would not have known. I tried to tell this to a Tesla service rep, but was told the wipers are controlled by the computer and there is nothing they can do. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES | I was driving north on Wisconsin route 14 at about 60 mph in my Tesla model 3 using the cruise control.. When a large transportation truck came from the opposite direction, my Tesla suddenly braked sharply. A Ford model F150 truck was following behind me and almost crashed into the back of my car. Fortunately the driver was alert and by sharply apply his brakes on driving into the ditch he avoided colliding with me. This could have been (and nearly was) a lethal accident. I would urge that you put a recall on a Tesla vehicles until this problem is corrected. I have contacted other Tesla owners and they have experienced similar problems. I contacted my local Tesla service station and they seemed unconcerned about the problem. I urge you to issue a recall before someone is seriously hurt or killed. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Multiple phantom braking incidents on regular cruise control (not autopilot). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | Vehicle displayed "no capable drive units" error at 106 miles on 10/08/2021. System shut down and stranded me in downtown Tampa traffic less than a mile from my home and fewer than five minutes after I started the car. All propulsion was lost and I did not have sufficient warning or time to process the situation and safely handle the vehicle. Tesla Tampa Service Center diagnosed a failed drive unit and took approximately 27 days to repair the vehicle. The service center invoice described the drive unit replacement as a goodwill repair and not a warranty failure. This seemed odd to me as goodwill repairs are generally special accommodations to satisfy customers. I was told there were parts delays. Tesla seems to be managing its supply chain to get these cars turned around to avoid lemon law exposure (my wait was just under one month) and to suppress the number of warranty failures by calling them goodwill repairs. All at the expense of customers. The service center was generally arrogant and noncommunicative in resolving the issue. Happy to gather records and discuss further. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The automatic rear trunk closure button gets water inside wetting the electrical wiring. It has caused my trunk to randomly open at times and more importantly, can cause an electrical fire. This has put my safety, as well as any passengers at risk for injury and or death. I have not reproduced the issue because it has not rained, nor have I had the car washed. I have notified Tesla of this approximately a month ago and they continue to cancel & reschedule my appointment. There seems to be no urgency to investigate or fix the issue. The vehicle has not been inspected by anyone to date. There was no warning lamps or messages prior to the issue. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Driving on the beltway around Washington DC the weather conditions were variable and the revised user interface in version 11 of the Model 3 software made changing the defroster settings dangerous while in traffic. Previously, it was a single icon on the control screen. Now it requires a push of an icon and a search for the correct controls and adjustments. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES | While driving in cruise control the car will break suddenly for no reason. I had a close call to where I was worried that the car behind me would hit me. The sudden breaking has happened many times. It's terrifying. I had to quit using auto pilot and cruise control when someone is following me for that reason. When I contacted Tesla about the concern they replied saying that they completed a hardware diagnostic on the vehicle and determined that there is no hardware failure. I provided them with the timestamps for the dashcam for several incidents. This is a HUGE safety concern. The cruise control system is dangerous. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Tesla removed the ability to hang up a phone call via the steering wheel buttons which poses a massive safety issue. Currently the only ways to end a phone call are: 1- Having the person on the other end of the call end the call 2- Press the "end" button on the touchscreen (more details below) 3- Press the "end" button on the phone itself (note: physically interacting with a phone while driving is illegal in Georgia so this is not a viable option) The touchscreen generally has the phone call status on the bottom-left of the screen when a call is active. However there are times when this goes away which causes the driver to be required to navigate through a non-intuitive menu to get the phone call to reappear on the screen. Those times are: 1- a text message comes in while a call is in progress. That text message covers the phone call status 2- the windshield wipers are manually activated while a call is in progress. The windshield wiper status covers the phone call status 3- software bugs often cause the phone call status to disappear entirely, requiring a driver to swipe through the screen until the phone call status reappears Ending a phone call with a physical button was previously an option on the Model 3, as well as other Tesla models. Removing that option is a danger to drivers, passengers, and pedestrians as distracted driving is a huge factor in automobile accidents. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The car repeatedly applies the brakes when the cruise control is engaged when there is no imminent safety issue. It will do this on the highway when vehicles are following putting me at risk for a rear end collision. When I use the cruise on secondary roads (to stay under the speed limit) the behavior is similar. The car will apply brakes for passing shadows, again putting me at risk for a rear end collision. I no longer use the cruise function because the braking operation is unpredictable and it is, in my opinion, generally hazardous. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |