Complaint volume
741 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
2022 Tesla Model 3 Complaints
741 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2022 Tesla Model 3, grouped by component category.
741 Total complaints
51 Crash reports
3 Fire reports
26 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 51 crash reports, 3 fire reports, 26 injury reports, and 1 fatality report. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 55 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 13,827 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 2022 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.
2022 Tesla Model 3
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2022 Tesla Model 3 complaints?
51 Crash
3 Fire
26 Injury
1 Fatality
32 Towed
21 Medical attention
What are the most common 2022 Tesla Model 3 complaint categories?
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 261
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 75
SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 72
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 48
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 34
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 14
UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 14
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL 14
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE 12
SERVICE BRAKES 11
741 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was on I-15 in Utah on 1/29/2023 appoximately 2:00. I was attempting to pass in the left lane so the cars behind were following quite closely. I entered into some Snow Flurries and the car hit the brakes. I barely avoided a 3 car pile up because of this behavior. It appears that this feature for Emergency Braking encountered a false Positive which my family and I barely survived. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Drove a 2,000 mile road trip on exclusively divided highways, I-25, I-40, and US 287. Sixteen times (average once per 125 miles) the car braked hard when the adaptive cruise control was on, twice dropping from 75 mph to 45 mph. Any of these incidents could have caused an accident if someone was following closely and was not paying close attention. My notes suggested that the vision-based system braked for a billboard well off to the side of the road on a curve, reflective road mirages twice, a bride once, and for no reason I could identify the remaining times. Tesla asserts that the adaptive cruise control is "Beta." It's not clear to me that they intend to correct this terrible behavior. Sadly, the car deleted its video files of the incidents and I was not able to recover them. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,VISIBILITY | The contact leased a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that the passenger’s and driver’s side windows failed to close completely. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds with the window rolled down and his hand outside the vehicle, the window inadvertently rolled up. There were no warning lights illuminated. The local dealer arrived at the residence, but the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was contacted but provided no additional assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 25,015. | Crash: No Fire: No | 25,015 |
| Jan 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | This vehicle along with many tesla vehicles has issues where it will randomly brake when in Autopilot mode going from sometimes high speeds such as 75mph trying to force the car down to as little as 35mph in a very fast manner, causing an increasing concern for vehicle collisions. As well as the automatic wipers not functioning properly and operating too fast when there is no precipitation as well as too slow when there is precipitation causing a potential visibility issue. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was driving eastbound on I-8 from San Diego, AZ towards Yuma, AZ and making use of my Tesla Model 3's adaptive cruise control feature when my vehicle suddenly and without warning slammed on its breaks. No warning or error messages were displayed on my screen – it's as if the vehicle thought I was on a collision course even though I was not. I was in the left-most lane and the vehicle behind me was dangerously close to colliding with me, but I was luckily able to step on the accelerator pedal and regain enough speed to avoid an accident. Though there was no accident, this incident has severely under-minded my trust in the feature. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom braking while using Autopilot caused quick and static loss of speed on the interstate, which could easily have resulted in an accident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom braking caused by Autopilot. Car slowed down quickly and could have potentially caused an accident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom braking on the interstate. Autopilot causes the car to slows down significantly and quickly, which could potentially result in an accident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Full Self Driving does not perform as advertised. Will not take Interstate exits, nor will it safely merge into traffic. There have been numerous phantom braking occurrences. This feature has been misrepresented numerous times by Tesla. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | POWER TRAIN | The seat weight sensors are failing in my 2022 Tesla Model 3 Long Range. I have been noticing this issue for several months now. I have owned the car since new (February 15, 2022) with 7 miles on the odometer. When I open the drivers door, the car powers up, screen turns on and HVAC system activates. When I close the drivers door while sitting in the drivers seat with the car in park and seat belt unfastened, the screen switches off and the HVAC system switches off. Only if I move around in the seat or depress the brake pedal does the screen power up and the HVAC system activate. I went to the Tesla service facility and they informed me that they are “seeing more seat sensors failing on newer cars” and “not sure how many are failing”. Based on what they observed with my car and my description of the issues they said my seat weight sensor is failing. Also, if I put the car in reverse with the seatbelt unfastened to move the car back a few feet in my garage, the car will sometimes automatically shift to park and display a caution message that “shifted to park to prevent roll away”. The service center informed me that they are replacing failed sensors with the exact same part. My concern is the manufacturer remedy does not replace failed parts with improved design and that this has the potential to cause other safety issues if occupant detection compromised by faulty sensors. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My car will randomly slam on the brakes when I’m driving on adaptive cruise control even when there is not a car/truck/anything in front of me. Seems consistent in description to what others have termed “Phantom Braking” | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | STEERING,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | The contact owned a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving at approximately 65 MPH with the "auto-pilot" engaged, the vehicle approached another vehicle in traffic from behind and had gotten too close. The contact stated that she depressed the brake pedal to slow down when the vehicle inadvertently accelerated at high speed. The contact steered to the left to avoid rear-end crash with the vehicle directly in front. Additionally, the contact stated that the steering wheel had become hard to turn and the vehicle crashed into the highway divider. The vehicle's front end had crashed into the divider wall and the vehicle ricocheted across four lanes of traffic and ran off the roadway onto the right shoulder and was stopped by having crashed with small trees and bushes. The contact stated she did not notice any warning lights. The contact stated that she had been transported by ambulance to a trauma center. The contact stated that she had compression fractures of her spine, suffered soft tissue damage to her neck, and right wrist soft tissue damage, and rib fractures on the left side. The vehicle had been towed to an impound lot, and the police were on the scene and filed a report. The contact stated that her insurance provider had declared the vehicle a total loss. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was 4,400. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 1 Towed Medical attention | 4,400 |
| Jan 2023 | VISIBILITY | 2022 TESLA MODEL 3. CONSUMER WRITES IN REGARD TO NHTSA SAFETY RECALL 22V-702. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | BACK OVER PREVENTION,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Ghost forward collision warnings appear from time to time even tho there is no one in front of the vehicle. Sometimes when the vehicle in front of me is turning left/right the collision warning will alarm me of possible impact even tho there was no real threat for anything to happen. Also, it happens when you want to park behind a parked vehicle (it happened to me today) and alerted me of a possible crash, while i was crawling to park. I wouldn't mind these ghost warnings, but since I am using Tesla Insurance which gives monthly insurance premiums based on the safety performance of the driver (FCW is one of those and the most important one) this is always impacting me financially at the end of the month. Tesla should be forbidden to use a technology that is not perfect in order to determine the price of the insurance. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Cabin heat and defroster not working. Blower works, but no heat, so windshield cannot defrost or defog - Car can be made available for inspection. Makes driving the car difficult and risky in cold weather. Tesla is aware of the problem. Nobody has inspected it. A warning light did come on, saying that heat was not working. Plus, Teslas service is ridiculous. This is a warranty issue, but I am going to have to get the car from about three hours away. This is not reasonable. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On a recent trip (December 22, 2022) from Twin Falls, Idaho to Boise, Idaho, my Tesla model 3 braked without warning or any other reason while driving on the Interstate. The Tesla was in adaptive cruise control at the time and appeared to brake for no apparent reason. The braking was significant enough that it would have caused someone traveling behind me to collide into my rear-end without siginficant avoidance (and attention). This occurred three seperate times until I deactivated the cruise control. I felt it was not safe to operate with moderate to heavy traffic. I love my Tesla and feel it is one of the best vehilces I have owned; however, phantom braking is a significant problem. It needs to be corrected by reintroducing radar or some other technology. I have never experienced this with my other vehilce (Toyota Tacoma). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom braking repeatedly occurring while using normal adaptive cruise control (Autopilot). This has even occurred with no near traffic and no shadows or other irregularities in the road ahead. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | AIR BAGS | Vehicle was involved in a side collision on the driver side while stationary. Was hit by a 44 seat school bus traveling at or near highway speeds. Side Curtain Airbags failed to deploy, drivers side front, passenger side front, passenger side rear, driver side rear. Vehicle could be available for inspection, is currently being held by insurance adjuster but unsure where. When collision happened it caused head trauma with the window and window frame that could have ended up in death or severe cervical spine trauma. Manufacturer does not acknowledge issue with airbag system. Have not been able to get the manufacturer to respond to requests to look at the vehicle. Insurance adjuster took photos but does not have the tools necessary to inspect the airbag system to my understanding. Police did not inspect. No warnings lights or errors. Had a Tesla service representative out days before to run diagnostics on car for a separate issue. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 3 Towed Medical attention | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | We have regular phantom braking issues. This has been happening since we got the car new. I have videos. We have nearly been rear ended twice and this has happened before n almost a daily basis. The problem has been reported to Tesla and of course they say “nothing is wrong with the hardware” and won’t fix anything. This is a well known issue. It’s gotten worse. Slamming on the brakes for what appears to be a shadow or perhaps a tar strip and sometimes nothing but concrete pavement. It’s really scary and dangerous. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Driving across Texas, cruise control with traffic assist was enabled in the 2022 Tesla model 3 long range sedan. The vehicle suddenly braked and went from 84 mph to 68 mph in a matter of seconds. There were no cars in sight, no weather conditions or obstacles around the highway. Unsure of what or why that happened the first time, cruise control was re-enabled and the same thing happened very shortly after re-engaging cruise control. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 2022 TESLA 3. CONSUMER WRITES IN REGARD TO DESIGN DEFECTS ON VEHICLE. THE CONSUMER STATED THE TESLA HAS 2 DESIGN DEFECTS WHEN THE HEADLIGHTS ARE ON AUTO MODE THEY CANT BE TURNED ON WITH VOICE COMMAND AND THE TOP LINE OF THE LED SCREEN WAS ILLEGIBLE. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | To Whom It May Concern: Been meaning to submit this complaint for a while but have not had the time until now. My issue regards ‘phantom breaking’ related to Tesla’s TACC (Traffic Aware Cruise Control). Whenever I take long road trips on the highway and attempt to use TACC, the car will invariably hard brake on its own without reason or warning, even when there are no cars, animals, or other objects nearby in either direction. When this occurs, it is incredibly scary. If there had been cars close behind me, I have no doubt they would have rear ended me. It also causes panic to my family and baby, as the breaking is sudden and hard. As a result, I do not use the system when driving which means a tired foot for long trips. I know this is an ongoing issue, and the NHTSA is aware of it. I’d like to ask that the government REQUIRE Tesla and (and perhaps other car companies with similar challenges) to offer standard ‘old fashioned’ cruise control as an option for those customers that want it. Because Tesla’s TACC doesn’t work, I personally would just prefer to be able to set the speed on highways and then be responsible for slowing down and taking it off when I deem it to be appropriate. Being forced to rely on a Tesla’s faulty system is paternalistic and removes an important choice from drivers. Ultimately it is not safe. Please help change this. Thank you, [XXX] INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact leased a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving approximately 70-80 MPH with the cruise control activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 38,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 38,000 |
| Dec 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Suffering from phantom braking even when all safety options turned off. This occurs even when just using standard cruise control. Very dangerous to the point do not feel safe using cruise control. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | ENGINE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Tesla model 3 year 2022, making too much noise while driving noise. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |