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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Sudden and dramatic application of emergency collision braking for no apparent reason. No objects in the road in the driving path of the vehicle, but the emergency braking system engages. Available for inspection upon request. Having this occur during traffic can result in being rear ended as the braking can be so severely applied. Bodily injury in the form of whiplash is also foreseeable. The problem has not been reproduced by the dealer or service center. The vehicle has not been inspected for these problems. There is a warning chime prior to almost every event. Sometimes it just slows without warning. They first occurred on our first long road trip beyond twenty miles. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving at various highway speeds with either the cruise control or self-driving feature activated, the vehicle would independently brake without warning. The contact spoke with the service center about the failure and was informed that they were aware of the failure. The manufacturer had yet to be notified of the failure. The vehicle had yet to be repaired. The failure mileage was unknown. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE | This vehicle when on ADAS (aka autopilot) and adaptive cruise control I experience constant "phantom" braking where car will slow down or slam on brakes for seemingly no reason. Most noticeable on a non separated highway phantom braking occurs constantly and is very predictable when large truck is near on the oncoming lane; happens probably 80% of the time. Slamming on the brakes for no reason is alarming and dangerous in my estimation. This system is completely unusable and very unnerving. Ironically I had a 2019 Model 3 with the same features and did this very rarely so this feature is much worse than it was on older vehicles with radar. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | This is the second Tesla I have owned and the previous model did not have this problem at all. This vehicle has phantom emergency braking occurrences during use with the cruise control and also with the auto drive feature. It will randomly brake hard when there is nothing around the vehicle, either in front, back or sides. I have contacted Tesla 3 times, the first two they said nothing was wrong and the 3rd time is scheduled for February 28 here in Houston. The first two times Tesla told me to record the time and place of the occurrence so that they could look at the data that was being input to the vehicle. I did this but it did not work. When the vehicle has an emergency braking occurrence all of the occupants of the vehicle are violently slammed forward until the driver can push down on the accelerator or disable the cruise or auto drive. This has caused us to almost lose control multiple times. As of right now no one can use the cruise or the auto drive feature at all, it is just too scary when the vehicle decides to have a phantom brake event with no problems around the vehicle. THIS HAS OCCURED DOZENS OF TIMES OVER THE LAST FEW MONTHS. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was on a road trip and no less than 20 times over 10 hours, my car when standard cruise control was set, the car applied the brakes HARD for me without any warning. It went from scary to nearly resulting in a rear-end collision. The cause ranged from absolutely no reason except for maybe a slight dip in the highway(? weird) to oncoming traffic - standard, nothing close to an emergency situation. I had ALL auto features disabled and was just using the set speed feature. I've submitted a service request but the next appointment is in two weeks and in the meantime, I'm frankly scared to drive the car. It happened at 70 miles per hour and immediately dropped me down to 40 on the highway and I just about had to take a break from driving I was so shaken. It also happens on local backroads when I have the feature set to just 35 miles per hour. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom braking on a two lane highway. The vehicle would suddenly go into emergency braking when a truck was coming in the opposite direction. We were making a 200 mile round trip and it happened approximately 6 times. Called Tesla who advised to disable automatic braking on two lane highway until bug was fixed, | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was driving on a 2 lane highway at about 60 mph in the middle of my lane. The adaptive cruise control was used to manage my speed. Another vehicle was travelling in the opposite direction going toward me, and in the middle of their lane. The other vehicle was an 18 wheel truck. Suddenly, with no warning, the braking system slowed my vehicle. Both myself and my wife felt our seat belts tighten quickly. There was a vehicle behind us, that nearly hit us when the brakes were applied so quickly, for no apparent reason. I had to quickly put my foot on the accelerator pedal to stop the braking, and get back to the correct speed. This has happened several times, usually when driving on a road that gently curves to the right. The sudden braking also occurred when there was no other traffic, just a new section of pavement on the road ahead of us. The loud collision warning sounds came on each time, which startled us. There was no reason for the warning. This caused me to react very quickly, which could have resulted in overcorrection, possibly leading to an accident. After learning about bug reports, I sent in a bug report to Tesla immediately after every incidents I called Tesla to report the problem. They eventually replied that there were no issues with my vehicle, that it was working properly. I set up a service appointment to have the problem diagnosed. I wanted them to diagnose the "phantom breaking". Their diagnosis - "Verified Proper Operation". They noted that it was a "Known Characteristic, future firmware solution". The correction was "Remote education" - they tried to inform me how to correctly drive with adaptive cruise control, then told us to stop using cruise control. My wife and I are scared of using cruise control, as we are sure it will happen again, and someone could crash into us from the rear if it happens again. The way Tesla responded made us feel as if they didn't care about our concerns. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Autopilot or Cruise Control Performance - Several times over the last couple weeks, when I disengage TACC/AP by pushing the stalk up during driving, the car shifts into Neutral instead of staying in Drive and engaging the regenerative braking. I cannot reproduce it on demand, it is intermittent. This causes a collision hazard as o am expecting braking to occur but it does not. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Daily phantom breaking, puts me at risk of being rear-ended. There is one specific stretch of road where this always happens - wide 4 lane road free of any possible complications for the vision system. Happens regularly and without warning in other circumstances as well. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Vehicle engaged full automatic braking inappropriately while driving around 55 miles per hour on a two-lane Oregon highway. No traffic in front of me or any debris in road. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Frequent phantom braking events occur without warning in cruise control and range from light braking to very hard braking. This especially occurs on two lane roads and occasionally on four lane roads and rarely on freeways, but it does occur. For example, we recorded approximately 14 phantom braking events within 20 minutes on US 191 North in Utah (2/12/22), and 28 phantom braking events on US 6 in Utah (2:46 pm to 4:37 pm on 2/17/22). The "hard" braking occurs without warning and rapidly reduces speed by about 20 mph, which is extremely dangerous especially with traffic from behind when traveling the posted speed limit of 65 mph. The majority of observed phantom braking events will reduce speed from 5 to 20 mph. Phantom braking has occurred the entire time we have owned the vehicle (8/21) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | At 12:21pm on February 20, 2022, while driving on a divided highway (US-36), the Tesla Model Y braked hard with no cars nearby. The braking occurred as the car encountered a shadow on the roadway from an overpass. The sun was very bright, so the shadow had very high contrast. We suspect this is a case of "phantom braking", as has been reported with many Tesla Model Y and 3. The problem is not easily re-producible, but we also do not feel safe using the cruise control feature any longer, so it's unlikely to be reproduced soon. The vehicle has not been inspected by Tesla, nor confirmed by the dealer. There were no warning lamps or chimes - just a sudden, hard braking for approximately 1 second, losing approximately 20mph, immediately. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds with the cruise control activated, the braking system erroneously activated, causing the vehicle to abruptly slow down and reduce speed. The contact indicated that the failure had occurred on multiple occasions. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer and manufacturer were not yet notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 500. | Crash: No Fire: No | 500 |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | 44E east of Joplin car braked hard while on autopilot. Pressing the accelerator would override but as soon as you let up it would hard brake again even though the car was below the cruise control speed | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was driving south on Highway 101 on 2/8/22. I was using the self driving feature. The car abruptly slowed down and was appearing to stop even though there was no collision imminent. Traffic was moderate. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Sometimes randomly but often in the spot, when in autopilot, the car will randomly brake hard when there is no car or obsticle in front of me. This has occured when I'm on the highway and I've noticed a pattern that it happens when I go under and overpass. Its usually very sunny and there is a strong shadow in front of the car. I think with the camera vision autopilot it thinks the shadow is an obstacle in the road but I'm not sure. This happens very suddenly and luckily has not happened when a car is following close behind me. But if it did this could definitely cause a rear collision at high speeds. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When using cruise control, the vehicle unexpectedly brakes on multiple occasions. This occurs when there are no other vehicles in the vicinity. It has also occurred when passing tractor trailers. I understand there have been hundreds of similar reports. No warning provided prior to the failure. This is a safety hazard that must be addressed. Tesla service will be notified. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC | The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle suddenly experienced “Phantom Braking”. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact would depress the accelerator excessively to avoid a crash whenever the failure occurred. The contact had informed the manufacturer of the failure, however the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 1,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 1,000 |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | WHILE DRIVING IN AUTO PILOT ON HIGHWAYS, NOT FREEWAYS, THE CAR WILL SUDDENLY BRAKE WHEN IT SEES A CAR ON THE SIDE ROAD THAT IS NOT COMING INTO TRAFFIC. THE BRAKING IS VERY SUDDEN AND HARSH. THROWING DRIVER AND PASSENGERS FORWARD. I WILL NOT USE THIS FEATURE BECAUSE I FEEL IT IS UNSAFE TO USE. PLEASE MAKE TESLA MAKE CHANGES. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Multiple occurrences of unanticipated hard breaking. Adaptive Cruise Control will slam on the breaks when car is adjacent a pedestrian or bicyclist. The car car doesn't slow down as it approaches a pedestrian walking on the side of the road but slams the breaks on when the car is next to the pedestrian or cyclist. This unanticipated event causes the car to immediately drop in speed between 5 to 30 mph. Any motorists following will not be prepared for this illogical behavior and significantly increases the probability of a rear end collision. This behavior of the Adaptive Cruise Control has also occurred when the car approaches oncoming highway traffic regardless of whether the highway is divided or not. In this event, if the driver of the Tesla model Y does not instantly take over complete control of the vehicle a severe rear end collision can occur. I have not addressed this with Tesla nor have I taken my car in for inspection. I have been told by an owner of a Model 3 and an owner of a Model S that they have also experienced similar situations caused by the poorly calibrated performance of the Tesla Adaptive Cruise Control system. I have been forced to stop using the Adaptive Cruise Control and Auto-steer on my Model Y as this problem is on going. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The main instrument cluster / screen turns off without notice while the car is in motion. This results in the loss of all displays and controls, such as 1. Speedometer 2. Defrost control 3. Turn signal noise 4. Windshield wiper setting 5. Battery capacity gauge and many more. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom braking when adaptive cruise control engaged. More extreme braking occurs when oncoming traffic approaches from uphill or oncoming vehicle is large (e.g. box truck or semi tractor). Also occurs when large objects appear well off the right side of the road. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While adaptive cruise control is enabled, the car will hard brake at random. The screen doesn't indicate why the car is randomly braking, not are there any other indicators as why or when this will happen. This occurs most often while going around corners, up hills, or when traffic is oncoming in the other lane. This happens on standard roads and highways - although highways are a little better as long as the opposite bound lane is separated by a wide median. Contacted Tesla support December 16, 2021 in which their reply was that "the car is learning... apply constant pressure to pedal in order to override braking system". I did try that for a couple of months, and instead of hard braking, it is a little gentler, but then I run the risk of going over the speed limit as constant pressure has to be applied ontop of whatever the cruise control is set to. Not too mention this defeats the purpose of having cruise control. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The adaptive cruise control feature frequently hits the brakes despite no obstacles in the road. Major triggers seem to be: Oncoming cars on an undivided highway at night. Oncoming 18-wheelers on an undivided highway at any time in day. Going over the top of a hill. Small bumps in the road at night. A large vehicle with blinking red hazard lights in view. (This will slam on the brakes and set the speed limit to 50 as it seems to think it's an emergency vehicle) Blinking red traffic lights. Sometimes HOV lane entrances will use a blinking red light to show that the lane is closed, and the car will slam on the brakes thinking it's an emergency vehicle. There's a risk of rear-end collisions caused by the sudden decelerations. Most of these events happened on highways with low traffic. No warning lights or messages were displayed before the events. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My Tesla Model Y has terrible Phantom Braking problems. The AutoPilot features on the Tesla is extremely dangerous. Phantom Braking can happened anytime whenever AutoPilot feature is used, it just suddenly slow the vehicle without warning, there’s no other vehicle in front of me. The problem occurred more on a less busy freeway/ highway, sometimes it’s totally useless because the the feature is too dangerous. On a two lane highway, when more car detect a larger vehicle on the opposite lane, it started slowing down, sometimes that’s very dangerous because cars behind me almost hit my car. Tesla’s AutoPilot is extremely dangerous, they should recall the car and fix the problem. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |