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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 2021 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Every time I drive on a two lane undivided highway with traffic aware cruise control or AutoPilot engaged, the car will slam on its brakes when a large vehicle is passing in the oncoming lane, even if the passing vehicle is safely passing. Phantom braking with vision only. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While using autopilot (adaptive cruise control) and driving on two lane highways the car will suddenly apply braking. The braking is abrupt and aggressive. The concern is being rear ended even for vehicles following at a safe distance. The abrupt braking happens randomly and more consistently when there is an oncoming car, especially around turns or hills. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Adaptive Cruise Control breaks hard for no apparent reason. If there had been any cars trailing close behind I could easily be rear-ended. Happens at least once every time I turn on cruise control. On a recent longer highway trip of about 90 miles it happened three times. One time on that trip it happened while passing under a bridge, did it pick up the lower speed from the bridge above? The other times it seemed to happen for no reason. All these times our hearts dropped (2 passengers in car). Note that I do not have full self driving, so I’m talking about adaptive cruise control being the problem. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The autopilot randomly applies the brakes. Sometimes it applies the brakes on a 2 lane highway when a truck or large vehicle approaches in the oncoming lane. Other times nothing is in the lane and it slams on the brakes. Other times the forward collision warning starts making noises and nothing is in front of me. I took the vehicle in for service, but of course the Tesla tech could not duplicate. Although the invoice says "autopilot will improve as firmware is released." | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving on a two lane highway at 70mph with adaptive cruise control on, every time a semi would approach the car, the car would brake really hard with no notice. Not one car caused this issue. It was only large semis trucks or trailers. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Car is frequently emergency braking when autopilot is enaged and large trucks or semi tractor trailers merge from the right. Car will also unnecessarily and prematurely emergency brake when cars are climbing a hill. The unexpected braking has nearly caused several accidents and we have discontinued use. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When driving with Cruise Control engaged, the car repeatedly brakes VERY HARD. Sometimes the braking is when there is a car in the opposing lane and is approaching but not over the line. Sometimes the sudden hard braking occurs for no apparent reason. But on a two lane highway this occurs VERY regularly. It occurs several times an hour. This is a serious problem because if there is a car behind me the sudden hard braking may cause that car to crash into me from behind. You can submit a bug report to Tesla by pushing the right hand steering wheel button, saying "Bug Report" and then describing the report verbally while driving. This will include all sorts of driving data being sent to Tesla. I have done this dozens and dozens of times. Each time I get a message on the screen thanking me for sending in the bug report. Never once have I ever heard back from Tesla other than the instantaneous message on the screen saying that the bug report has been submitted. I believe that Tesla has had a recall for a very similar problem with the Model S and Model X with Full Self Driving. This recall was fixed almost immediately with an over-the-air software update. However my problem does not relate to Full Self Driving (which my car does not have). This relates only to cruise control. I have spoken to several other Model 3 and Model Y owners who ALL report the exact same problem. A quick search online will reveal hundreds of other similar reports for Model 3 and Model Y owners who do NOT have Full Self Driving. I believe this is a very serious safety problem and needs to be addressed immediately. Regards, Ken Maples | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When placed in cruise control (which is called TACC: traffic aware cruise control), and driving on 2 lanes road, the car frequently (more than 10 times over 20 miles) slams on the brakes when incoming large vehicles on the other lane. This is generating dangerous situation with following cars being surprised for sudden (and unwarranted) braking occurs. I have a dash cam video of one such incidents | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Vehicle will brake hard when approaching oncoming large trucks. This may result in a rear end collision of the following vehicle and possible chain reaction incident. The vehicle has not been inspected and is two months old. This is an ongoing issue and common with this make and model. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Driving I5N near Delmar with auto pilot in daylight, car suddenly braked while there was no obstacle, or any other car in front of it. Luckily no one rear-ended me. Max cruise speed was set to 75 MPH, and speed suddenly dropped below 45 MPH. The maximum cruise speed I set to also automatically changed to 45 MPH as well. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When on Cruise Control or using Autopilot mode, there are frequent phantom breaking issues. On a long trip, we experienced phantom breaking consistently on the Highway both at night and during the day. These phantom breaking issues would sometime be significant and immediately drop speeds 10 miles an hour creating a danger of surprising people behind us. On a 2 lane country road, the issues are GREATLY compounded. The breaking would constantly trigger with oncoming traffic in the other lane and break VERY hard with the auto break alarm sounding. At night on a country road, it occurs with almost EVERY oncoming car. It is amazing to me that this made it through quality control because it is easily reproducible. The auto braking feature should just be turned off for country roads if this can't be fixed. At one point, I was right next to an older Model 3 on a mountain passing lane when an oncoming car was coming. The Model 3 was in the left lane closer to the 'danger' and my car phantom braked with the auto breaking alarm coming on and the model 3 just continued on, no issue. No idea if they were on cruise or auto pilot etc. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On September 26, on our first long distance trip with our just delivered (9/17/2021) Tesla Model Y, during daylight nice weather driving with Adaptive Cruise Control switched “On”, on at least 6 occasions (strait roads, freeway and non-freeway driving), the car suddenly, without any reason, violently slammed on the brakes. These events are hair raising for me and passengers, let alone for a driver behind me. If he/she does not pay attention at that very moment, the result could even be disastrous. I would never have expected such a serious safety issue with a Tesla. Suffice to say that this is absolutely unacceptable to me. When checking out the web, many people reported similar issues with their Model Y vehicle. I had the car checked-out at the Tesla Lynnwood, WA, Service Center on September 30, 2021, and when picking-up the car I was informed that no anomalies had been found. At later dates, similar emergency braking occurred without any reason, while driving with Adaptive Cruise Control. Obviously, I do not trust this Cruise Control system one bit anymore, and no longer use it. I have written a letter to Tesla (11/12/2021) requesting a time frame when a solution can be expected, but so far, I have not received any word from them. I sincerely feel that Tesla should temporarily disable this Adaptive Cruise Control feature on ALL Model Y vehicles currently on the road and those still to be delivered (to unaware new owners), until this serious safety issue has been resolved. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When driving on cruise control the car will suddenly and randomly decelerate and/or break for no reason. I have had this happen on empty two lane highways and on 4 lane highways with cars around me. It's incredibly stress full and if cars are following too close very dangerous. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Repeated automatic breaking in the assisted driving mode when the road is clear and there are no other drivers or obstacles. The other day my speed was dropped from 55 to 45 mph. It was fortunate no one was behind me. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I have been having inconsistent behavior from the autopilot system. The vehicle has hit the breaks hard when no obstacle was present. I have not had this problem verified by a dealer/service center. It happens seemingly randomly. There was no warning before the breaking started. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Driving across the country in Model Y. Passed semi in left lane, and when merging back into right hand lane vehicle applied full brakes dropping the vehicle speed from 80mph to 60mph, right in front of semi. I was forced to take over and accelerate to avoid serious rear end collision. It wasn’t just the one time, vehicle continued to perform aggressive braking actions many times. Autopilot was unusable for majority of trip. Tesla needs to make autopilot able to be disabled, and standard cruise control possible. Tesla vision is not safe, and is a major liability. It’s very clear Tesla vision is an attempt to remove radar to get around supply chain issues, at the cost of consumer safety. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The latest version of Autopilot has very serious phantom braking issues. It will brake hard frequently for no apparent reason. Other times it will slow down, but not braking hard, also for no apparent reason. It will also beep at me frequently when cars are approaching in the opposite lane, again for no apparent reason. In short, the latest version of AP is all but unusable and more importantly is not safe for us b/c of the phantom braking issue. Luckily no car has been close behind me when the hard braking has occurred but it certainly could be and could cause a serious accident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I have 13987 miles on the car. 2 times in 1 month on a 2 way highway that has lane markers on the left side of the road. While using cruise control once and the second time was in auto drive mode going about 60. Hard braking with no notice, good thing no one was right behind me. I took control with no issue but this is really a safety issue. I see others reporting it maybe cars coming toward you. But in one case I was alone no on coming cars. Like I said the road has safety markers that are about 3 ft high. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Using basic Autopilot (adaptive cruise control without auto-steer), the car randomly slams on the brakes putting me at risk of being rear-ended by any vehicles following me. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | A recent vehicle software update now has a speed limit alert stuck right in the middle of the touch screen display. It's unnecessary, annoying and intrusive. Tesla service said to get rid of the alert I need to TURN OFF the speed limit setting!!! Discouraging us from using the safety features is not an improvement. I recommend the NHTSA reqiure Tesla to locate the alert in another area of the display that will be visable but not distracting and annoying. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Vehicle braked suddenly on the exit lane of a highway around noon time, when there was no car ahead of me. There was a large truck passing on the adjacent lane. My car gave a red color warning of imminent collision and braked hard. Fortunately, I avoided having an accident with cars following me by pressing on the gas peddle and moving ahead. Tesla service remotely reviewed and determined that at that time emergency brakes were applied because the car detected an object. Tesla said it could have been a reflection, the sun, or any number of things that could have triggered the false detection causing the vehicle to brake. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES | The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the vehicle would brake independently without warning. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to a local dealer to be inspected. The manufacturer was not informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 970. | Crash: No Fire: No | 970 |
| Nov 2021 | AIR BAGS,LANE DEPARTURE | The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving at 60 MPH, the lane assist feature operated independently as he attempted to merge into the right lane. Due to the failure, the vehicle pulled back into the left lane which caused the vehicle to spin in a circle and crash into a median. The air bags did not deploy upon impact. The contact was not injured as a result of the accident. A police report was not filed. The vehicle was initially towed to the dealer where he was informed that the vehicle would be towed to an independent body shop for repair. The vehicle had yet to be repaired. The failure mileage was 24,300. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | 24,300 |
| Nov 2021 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Very often when "autopilot" or "traffic aware cruise control" are activated on two lane roads (county or state highways) and there is oncoming traffic the system will alarm and brake hard as though the car is about to have a head on collision. This is a safety hazard because if anyone is following me when this happens it would be very easy to get rear-ended. This problem has been happening since I purchased the car and has been reported to Tesla 4 times along with videos of the incidents and they refuse to fix it. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | This is our second Tesla, so I am familiar with the function of adaptive cruise control and autopilot. Vehicle frequently initiates hard braking events without warning or cause on the highway. I have contacted Tesla service, and they are stating that the car functions normally, and that this is normal behavior. If this is normal behavior, it is definitely unsafe. I have almost been rear ended several times. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |