Complaint volume
1019 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 Y Complaints
1019 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2021 Tesla Model Y, grouped by component category.
1019 Total complaints
85 Crash reports
6 Fire reports
22 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, vehicle speed control,forward collision avoidance, service brakes,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 85 crash reports, 6 fire reports, 22 injury reports, and 4 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 98 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 16,683 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to forward collision avoidance, vehicle speed control,forward collision avoidance, service brakes,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 Y?
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 Y
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2021 Tesla Model Y complaints?
85 Crash
6 Fire
22 Injury
4 Fatality
63 Towed
14 Medical attention
What are the most common 2021 Tesla Model Y complaint categories?
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 280
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 72
SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 70
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 64
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 44
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 34
SUSPENSION 30
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE 29
STEERING 26
VISIBILITY/WIPER 19
1,019 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Without warning and with the lowest setting for front impact prevention my cruise control randomly slams on the brakes. This happens basically anytime I use the cruise control, so I just don’t anymore to prevent possible collision. It happens when no cars are around, when cars are in the oncoming lane but not crossing the line. It happens in any situation and it is very frustrating. I put in a service ticket with Tesla, to my understanding there is not currently a fix. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While using the ADAS the Tesla had several incidents of phantom braking. We would be going 80 and it would slam the brakes on and take us to 50. It did it several times on a drive from Dixon,CA to Flagstaff, AZ. There were no cars near or anything remotely concerning on the road at the time the incidents took place. We called Tesla and reported and they could find no codes or system issues. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | STEERING | i DID NOT HAVE AN ACEDENT, BUT I have a bad control arms on my Tesla Y. I brought my Tesla to Tesla service for repair because I heard creaking noise coming when I turn my steering wheel left and right and Tesla team says that I need replacement for my left and right upper arm controls. But Telsa claim they do not have all parts for repair and they changed only my right upper control arm and order the left one. Also Tesla service claim is safe to drive with bad arm controls, which for me is not acceptable. I did not feel safe and Tesla claim is wrong for me. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Since receiving Tesla Model Y 2021.44.x software update, I've experienced phantom braking on the highway at least once every time I drive it using autopilot. This continues through the software currently installed 2022.4.x. The most common scenario is I'm in the second lane from the right, a car is entering the highway to enter the first lane from the right. Each car is in its own lane. My car sometimes brakes for no reason. On many occasions there are no cars anywhere near me, but the car breaks suddenly. Not a danger for others, but dangerous for the driver and upsetting for passengers. I now only engage autopilot when there are no cars close behind me and no one else is riding with me. I don't want to cause and be responsible for someone hitting me because my car braked for no good reason. I'd prefer regular old cruise control to this behavior. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Hello, We have had our car for almost a year now. Ever since we purchased the car we have been having an issue with the "Phantom Braking". On writing about it to Tesla within a few months after the car purchase, they sent a representative to our house with whom we went for a test drive. On the test drive, while on the highway with the vehicle on Auto-Pilot the car suddenly slowed down fast, similar to "slamming the brake", for no reason. There was absolutely no obstruction in front of us. The representative mentioned that he had heard of this phantom braking but this was the first time he really saw it and he would pass the info to Tesla. We later got a reply from the company which explained that "as more info is gathered by Tesla from your experience as wells from other owners, the system will improve and issues such as yours should decrease." We still consistently get this problem on ALMOST every trip on the highway and if the auto-pilot is engaged. In fact it does happen multiple times on each trip! We sincerely feel that it is very unsafe esp. for a software which is supposed to make driving safer. Kind regards, [XXX] INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | We have noticed an increase in phantom Braking while using cruise control and/or auto pilot. Prior to November it would happen randomly and only on single lane highways. Now it happens every time we try to use cruise control. It is very dangerous as we may be rear ended it stops so fast with nothing in front of us. We have reached out to Tesla more than one time and they just suggest we disengage use if cruise control if we experience this random phantom braking. We have reported this is not rare or random it’s constant and every time we attempt to use this product we paid $10,000.00 for. We are not safe with this braking and Tesla basically says they are working on it. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Using the Autopilot feature, I experienced the unexpected and phantom breaking several times while driving at highway speeds of usually 70 MPH or greater. This occurred well over 5 times in a single 300 mile trip and each time I disengaged the autopilot to recover from the sudden breaking. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom breaking at high speeds for no reason | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving from Tucson to Denver the vehicle suddenly decelerated and/or braked no less than hundreds of times with varying rates--sometimes just a couple miles per hour and other times more than 30 miles per hour. These "phantom braking" events were generally on a divided interstate highway with clear visibility, flat, straight roads without rain/snow & oftentimes without another vehicle within 1/2 mile+. These events even happened 3 times within 3-4 minutes while I was speaking to Tesla roadside service trying to disable all sensors/interventions. More than once a vehicle behind me (at highway speeds) thought I was "brake-checking" them and would cause them to honk and deservedly give me a few finger symbols (road rage). There was no reason for the car to suddenly brake; no cars merging or in front of me other than light vehicle traffic in the opposite direction of the DIVIDED interstate. I asked TESLA several times if there is a way to turn off all the "assistance" and just have it function as a "normal" cruise control without "traffic aware" and other automatic braking features--but the answer was no. I am not exaggerating when I say this happened hundreds of time during my 2 trips. I always turned off the speed control when the roads were curving because I knew it would suddenly brake during a mountain pass curve & upset the vehicle--make it difficult to control, and potentially cause an accident at high speed for NO reason. My risk tolerance is fairly high, I have been driving cars with "Eyesight" and radar speed control and advanced safety features for over 10 years and have never felt less trusting or less safe than I do in my Tesla Model Y. I think Tesla should disable the "safety" feature until they can resolve the issue (perhaps a stop sale order)--I believe it will cause accidents even when someone is fully aware of its sudden, random braking issues. I have many video clips/pics of when the events ocurred as Tesla asked me to record. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving from Tucson to Denver the vehicle suddenly decelerated and/or braked no less than hundreds of times with varying rates--sometimes just a couple miles per hour and other times more than 30 miles per hour. These events were generally on a divided interstate highway with clear visibility, flat, straight roads without precipitation and oftentimes without another vehicle within 1/2 mile or more. These events even happened 3 times within 3-4 minutes while I was speaking to Tesla roadside service trying to disable all sensors/interventions. More than once there was a vehicle behind me at highway speeds that thought I was "brake-checking" them and would anger them and cause them to honk and give me a few finger symbols (road rage)... there was no reason for the car to suddenly brake; no cars merging or in front of me other than light vehicle traffic in the opposite direction of the DIVIDED interstate. I asked several times if there is a way to turn off all the "assistance" (unsafe interference) and just have it function as a normal cruise control without "traffic aware" and other automatic braking features--but the answer was no. I am not exaggerating when I say this happened hundreds of time during my trips. I always turned off the speed control when the roads were curving because I knew that it would suddenly brake during a mountain pass curve and upset the vehicle--make it difficult to control, and potentially cause an accident at high speed for NO reason. My risk tolerance is fairly high, I have been driving cars with "Eyesight" and radar speed control and advanced safety features for over 10 years and have never felt less trusting or less safe than I do now in my Tesla Model Y. I think Tesla should disable the "safety" feature until they can resolve the issue--I believe it will cause accidents even when someone is fully aware of its sudden, random braking issues. I have many video clips/pics of when the events occurre as Tesla asked me to record. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While traveling on US 93 southbound, the vehicle raandomly saw oncoming traffic as a threat and applied braking. This was most pronounced seemingly with large trucks, usually white in color, and occasionally apparently with flashing lighted signs. This phonenomen has occured at other times. Often in city traffic on city streets, it is overly sensitive and applies braking when cross-traffic occurs but is not yet a threat. I have not yet been rear-ended but have decided to only use this feature when I can be reasonably sure no one will be close behind me. Tesla's response is that this is a Beta feature. Your safety rating included this "feature" as one of the positive factors. Maybe that was a mistake? | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving 50-55 mph down a two lane highway, with adaptive cruise control in place, the vehicle suddenly slowed and signaled a front collision by beeping. It was terrifying as there was nothing in front of us. It was a clear day and we were lucky that there was no car behind us, as it could have easily caused an accident. We are now not wanting to use our cruise control or the autopilot that we purchased for this vehicle, until more is understood about the cause. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | This complaint is specific to the automatic control of the Model Y related to "PHANTOM BRAKING". This is an ongoing problem with the "AUTOPILOT" and "FULL SELF DRIVING" functions on my car, it has always had. Most of the miles on my car are freeway and highway miles. Regardless of which of the automatic functions selected on my car, "phantom braking" occurs repeatedly in a startling fashion that doesn't seem to be related to the environment the car is being driven in. The problem is consistent enough that I will not use any of the auto driving functions when I have passengers in the car with me. The problem requires constant intervention by the driver. There are 2 versions of this type of un-commanded breaking: 1. Unexpected braking with no computer warnings or alerts. It can be hard braking or, light to medium breaking, for no apparent or justifiable reason. This type of breaking can happen sporadically or, at times it can happen in a chain fashion that can be so continuous that it becomes necessary to disengage the automatic functions completely. Although, it happens at varying times of day and different kinds of traffic, making it nearly impossible to relate the event to any specific cause, I have noticed it happens almost 100% of the time when a large vehicle is approaching from the opposite direction on a two lane road. That will usually be version 2 type of full emergency braking. 2. Full emergency braking with computer visual warning and loud computer audio alert. This type of braking is EXTREMELY dangerous because, just like with version 1 braking, it happens un-expectantly and for no apparent or justifiable reason. If this type of braking happens in freeway traffic, as I have experienced, it can cause a rear end collision or worse, a chain of collisions. Tesla is aware of this problem and I have reported it multiple times. I have received no response from Tesla related to these problems. I have experienced this problem since the car was new. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | SEATS | The rear passenger seat reclines randomly when vehicle is in motion with passengers in seat. The seat can randomly fall flat or decline at various angles. I have a video if needed. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | the emergency braking failed, by activating when it should not have activated. Caused hard braking which the rear car almost ran into me. Vehicle has not been taken into dealer to be reproduced or confirmed by dealer. Vehicle has not be taken into dealer to be inspected. On vehicle display, there was a pedestrian image causing hard braking, but no actual pedestrian was there. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,STRUCTURE | The incident occurred after a rainstorm and there was some debris laid out across the road. We were travelling in the morning before sunrise at 20 mph and we felt a small branch or object hit the underside of our car. We took it out to drive again at noon time and it warned us that the coolant was low and that car may not start up once shut down. We towed it to tesla service center in Paramus NJ and they informed us of the condition. They informed us that the coolant pipe was punctured and the coolant spread onto the battery. They explained to us that the branch hit an area and caused the coolant to leak inside the battery and there is no plate to protect it at the underside of the car. They also informed us that there could have been a fire accident if we put it on charge after the underside collision. They also informed us that the coolant pipe was plastic. Despite this flaw in their design, they insist that they will not cover it since it was an external issue and have asked us to pay close to $16,000. Please help | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | This report is not about a single incident, but rather a REPEATED problem over several years with the adaptive cruise control on 3 different Tesla cars I have owned. These cars are a 2017 Tesla S, and 2 different 2021 Tesla Y models. in each case, whenever these cars are driven on a highway with the adaptive cruise control engaged, several times during each hour of driving, the cars will rapidly brake/decelerate with no action taken to cause the situation by the driver, nor any external situations with the traffic that would justify them. With the Tesla regenerative braking, these deceleration events are so extreme that it would be easy to imagine an accident with a car following closely behind. Indeed, with these situations occurring with no warning and extreme braking they are quite frightening to the passengers traveling in the car. During the most recent occurrence, I noted the exact day and minute of it's occurrence, and filed a service request with the local Tesla office. Even with the exact time of this event, the service center was unable to find anything wrong with the car. The Tesla service center attributed this issue to problems with the Autopilot and Full Self Driving software, but none of my cars have had this optional software-only the software which came standard on each of these cars. While otherwise appreciating the good characteristics of these cars, this unexplainable deceleration problem is what caused me to sell the prior 2 models before purchasing this latest model Y, hoping that this problem would not recur. It is worth noting that I have owned several other make and model cars with comparable adaptive cruise control, yet this situation never occurred even once on any of these other makes of car. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Second report on same issue with DIFFERENT car. This report is not about a single incident, but rather a REPEATED problem over several years with the adaptive cruise control on 3 different Tesla cars I have owned. These cars are a 2017 Tesla S, and 2 different 2021 Tesla Y models. in each case, whenever these cars are driven on a highway with the adaptive cruise control engaged, several times during each hour of driving, the cars will rapidly brake/decelerate with no action taken to cause the situation by the driver, nor any external situations with the traffic that would justify them. With the Tesla regenerative braking, these deceleration events are so extreme that it would be easy to imagine an accident with a car following closely behind. Indeed, with these situations occurring with no warning and extreme braking they are quite frightening to the passengers traveling in the car. During the most recent occurrence, I noted the exact day and minute of it's occurrence, and filed a service request with the local Tesla office. Even with the exact time of this event, the service center was unable to find anything wrong with the car. The Tesla service center attributed this issue to problems with the Autopilot and Full Self Driving software, but none of my cars have had this optional software-only the software which came standard on each of these cars. While otherwise appreciating the good characteristics of these cars, this unexplainable deceleration problem is what caused me to sell the prior 2 models before purchasing this latest model Y, hoping that this problem would not recur. It is worth noting that I have owned several other make and model cars with comparable adaptive cruise control, yet this situation never occurred even once on any of these other makes of cars. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While using Autopilot, the vehicle brakes when coming over the crest of any hill on the highway. It's not even occasionally, it's every single time I have Autopilot/CruiseControl enabled, it phantom brakes. To be clear, this is with just Autopilot, not FSD. My guess is the car can not see the road on the other side of the hill, so it freaks out. Also, this is a case of the car braking, it does not disengage Autopilot. After this happened about 20 times on a road trip I have just stopped using it. It's terrible. Also, another detail is this happens whether it's just on cruise control or autopilot. Even if I am in full control of the steering of the vehicle it still happens. Tesla doesn't have an option to just maintain speed with the cruise control where I control braking, it's the adaptive cruise control or Autopilot. Very frustrating to not be able to use something as basic as cruise control when driving across the vast expanse of West Texas without having my kids jostled awake at the crest of every hill (big or small). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On Friday February 25, 2021, while driving on Florida’s Tamiami Trail (41), my Tesla repeatedly experienced extreme phantom braking, even though there were no vehicles in front of us or behind us either in our lane or the oncoming lane. It was a sunny bright morning between 9:30 and 10:00 AM. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When driving cross country from Illinois to Texas, the adaptive cruise control did the phantom braking 3 separate times. The first time scared me and I was not prepared for the car to act that way. Well, wasn’t prepared for the others either. I was going 75 and to have the phantom braking kick in is a safety hazard. The car behind hit the horn. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Multiple hard phantom braking events using adaptive cruise control on interstate with no obstacles. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | LANE DEPARTURE | The blind spot warning creates a visual indication on the media control unit display in the center of the dashboard, but no aural warning or indication when looking at the side mirror. In effect, this requires the driver to look forward and towards the center of the vehicle to gain any value of warning, directly opposite the threat of a vehicle in the left side blind spot. This issue manifested itself while I was driving my vehicle on a 6-lane divided arterial road and was attempting to change lanes towards a left turn lane. I observed a vehicle approaching on my left while I had my turn signal activated (and saw the vehicle indicated on the MCU), and once the vehicle had passed I began to move towards the left lane to find a second vehicle rapidly approaching and pass that I had not previously seen. An aural indication that the vehicle detected another passing vehicle would have alerted me before I began changing lanes and had to perform an abrupt evasive maneuver to avoid a collision. This issue has been raised with Tesla numerous times based on comments in various online forums but has not yet been addressed by the company. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES | Phantom breaking occurring. Started Immediately after taking delivery of the Tesla. Usually occurs with auto steer activated. Has become progressively worse and now occurs while only using cruise control. I have had close calls on dozens of occasions, mainly with people almost rear ending me due to the sudden severe breaking. Occurs with no other vehicles on the road. Is worse when on 2 lane roads with or without approaching vehicles, on shaded roads and occasionally when raining. Has been occurring Since delivery on 5/28/21. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Car will suddenly brake hard when a pickup truck or semi truck is in the oncoming lane at highway speeds when adaptive cruise is engaged. This happens nearly every time a larger vehicle is in the oncoming lane, mostly only on two lane highways. Will also [XXX] occasionally brake for apparently no reason with adaptive cruise on. Tesla service knows of this problem and claims there is no fix. The hard braking happens every drive multiple times and nearly causes us to get rear ended by following cars. INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |