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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving with cruise control set to 90 mph, my vehicle rapidly decelerated to 70 mph — with no other vehicles around. The vehicle suddenly braked for no reason at all, multiple times. Autopilot was not engaged and I was steering the vehicle myself. This while driving West on HWY 76 in Colorado a clear sunny day around mile marker 141, near Proctor, CO. The middle of nowhere. I have a 50 second video I would be happy to share but no video upload option. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | No one around me on the interstate with my cruise control on. With no cars near me or any recognizable object to detect, the car phantom broke for me without warning. Nearly caused an accident for the car behind me. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | While I generally love the car during the 6 weeks i’ve owned it, I am concerned about the fact that occasionally, while traveling at freeway speeds with cruise control engaged, the car will slow dramatically as if I had jammed on the brakes. The rapid deceleration has occurred at least once a week during my time with the car. This week, while traveling from North Carolina to New Jersey, the car “braked” from 70mph to about 40mph four times. This happens suddenly, no warning. As frustrating and annoying as this is, it is also dangerous given the high number of brain-dead tailgaters that populate the highways. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Using the Autopilot system on a recent road trip, I experienced numerous incidents of “phantom braking”. I previously owned a 2018 Tesla Model 3 with witch I made the same 500 mile RT journey several times without ever experiencing this phenomenon. There were vehicles following mine in a few of these of these incidents which created a serious concern about a rear-end collision. I immediately reported the issue to Tesla service who confirmed the problem via remote diagnostics but did not offer any solution other than to wait for future software updates. The incidents occurred without prior warning in the form of messages or alerts of any kind. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Tesla "Phantom Breaking" - Traveling at freeway speeds using cruise control, the car applied panic breaking without warning. There were no obstacles anywhere near the car. If I had not applied 100% throttle immediately I would have been rear-ended at high speed. The problem occurred with no obvious input and without warning. I am not able to reproduce it. I have not reported it to Tesla because the problem is well known yet Tesla has not publicly acknowledged it. There was a audible alert that sounded at the moment the breaking occurred, not before. The on-board camera system did not record the event. The car is new, Nov. 2021 delivery, I have driven it less than 1000 miles and this was the 4th, and most violent, "Phantom Breaking" event. I now consider the cruise control too dangerous to use. Because all of the other driver assist features depend on adaptive cruise control, they are now also useless. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | With cruise control on the vehicle abruptly applied breaking system without driving involvement and quickly reduced speed from 85 to 60 before driver could engage accelerator to prevent chance of being rear ended. I have a video file if needed. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving with cruise control on the vehicle will automatically brake for no reason. I was just on a road trip and had this happen multiple times while going 80mph. If someone was behind me it could have caused a accident and someone could get seriously hurt or possibly die. I scheduled service at the dealership and it sounds like this is a well known problem that does not have a fix. I could see this issue causing some bad crashes. I put 3/5 as the incident date, but this happens almost on a daily basis. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | We just purchased this vehicle new one week ago. Several times while using cruise control on Highway 101 in Mason County, WA we have experienced severe "phantom breaking". There is no reason for the sudden breaking and seems to be quite random and dangerous. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When driving with Traffic Aware Cruise Control or Autopilot enabled, dangerous automatic braking occurs when the car senses conditions that do not warrant automatic braking. This unnecessary automatic braking occurs randomly when encountering overhead roadway signs, parked vehicles safely on the shoulder, oncoming vehicles fully in their lane on 2 lane highways, cross traffic that is far enough ahead of the vehicle that it is not a threat, and for no obvious reason at all. These automatic braking events are violent and slam on the brakes when they occur and create a danger from rear end collisions from other drivers since they are unexpected and occur for no obvious reason. Tesla service states that the Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Autopilot systems are Beta systems and thus require driver monitoring to maintain control of the car when using the systems and nothing can be done until improved software is developed and implemented. Driver intervention for unexpected violent braking is difficult because the events are unexpected and create driver shock which slows a reaction to slam on the accelerator pedal to stop the inadvertent automatic panic braking. In my vehicle, I find that the Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Autopilot systems are essentially unusable as they pose too great a risk of a rear end collision. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When Adaptive Cruise Control or Autopilot is active the vehicle will brake suddenly, often with no apparent reason. On flat roads, highways, clear weather and even no traffic from time to time it will randomly regen brake for no reason. The only time this occurs and is duplicated regularly is when driving on a single lane highway. Whenever a 18 wheeler is passing on the opposite lane the vehicle always regen brake suddenly, regardless of the position of the passing 18 wheeler even when it's apparent that the passing 18 wheeler is staying in its lane. Sometimes if the 18 wheeler has a wide load the regen braking is much more aggressive and the forward collision will give a warning. These instances can be overridden by pressing down on the accelerator and that will override the automatic regen braking. The problem with that temporary fix is that when I know it's going to happen I'm prepared but when the times it happens randomly I might as well just never use adaptive cruise control or autopilot. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I have a 1 month old Tesla Model 3 that when i use the cruise control every time i go past a truck on a 2 lane highway, my car will initiate emergency breaking. This has caused cars to almost rear end me. I took the car to Tesla to be serviced, and the issue didn't get any better. I have videos of this happening if you need them | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 70 MPH with the Cruise Control activated, the phantom braking system engaged inadvertently, and the vehicle almost came to a complete stop. There were no warning lights illuminated. The contact depressed the accelerator pedal and was able to continue to drive the vehicle. The contact stated that the failure had been reoccurring daily while driving. The manufacturer was notified of the failure an informed the contact that they were working on the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 150. The VIN was not available. | Crash: No Fire: No | 150 |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Vehicle's adaptive cruise control is ON. Auto-steer is OFF. Vehicle rapidly phantom breaks under these observed conditions: 1. As the vehicle is passing a semi-truck with the semi in the lane immediately to the right. The camera shows the semi clearly in the lane to the right. The semi is not veering over into my lane. The cruise control seems to think (incorrectly) that the semi is in danger of coming into my lane. The vehicle rapidly slows by +/- 5 mph, which made a couple of folks following me irritated as my car is slowing and brake lights are coming on for no reason. I can decrease this reaction by the vehicle by steering the vehicle to far left side of my lane when passing the semi, but even then, it would still sometimes phantom brake. This happened about 15-20 times during a 2000 mile trip. This reaction by the vehicle, is decreasing safety, not increasing it. 2. Same condition with the adaptive cruise control on (auto steering off), passing a semi that is in the lane immediately to the right, but this time the car rapidly slows itself when I am about 5 car lengths back of the truck. This is an unsafe problem and needs to be fixed asap. If fixing it is going to take time, then Tesla should be required to turn off the adaptive function with cruise control so only speed control is functioning. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Multiples times while the car was using cruise control we have had it unexpectedly and aggressively brake. This seems to happen when a car is coming towards us in the opposite lane. We have only had the car for 4 days. It is to the point we do not use the cruise control. If someone would have been behind us we would have gotten in an accident. We have also had the forward collision warning go off while not in cruise control. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Using auto pilot on highway car would apply hard breaking for no apparent reason. Several times this nearly caused crash as cars that were behind me has to swerve to miss hitting us. This happed at least half a dozen times. Most of the breaking was quick and abrupt, but at least twice they were abrupt but took the car from 75 to 20 on the interstate. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was using "Autopilot" on a 4 lane divided highway. There were no other vehicles on my side of the road, nor on the other side. There were no close objects, vegetation or buildings. I was going 65mph (the limit for the road) when the car suddenly, without any warning braked very hard and the speed fell to 47mph in a a second or two. I quickly cancelled Autopilot and regained control. This has happened more than 20 times during in 3 weeks of driving this Model 3 Long Range AWD. It has occurred with the speed set at 45, 55, 60 and 65. In the media, this is referred to as "phantom braking" | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Driving on a 4-lane limited access road while using adaptive cruise control (Tesla calls it "Autopilot", my car suddenly reduced speed dramatically. There were no other cars nearby, nor was there any kind of obvious obstruction. I was able to turn off Autopilot and resume speed, but I worry what might have happened if there had been another vehicle behind me. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The adaptive cruise control system (Autopilot) brakes even when there's no obstacle on the road, or if there's a truck on the opposite lane. This also triggered the forward collision warning system. If there was a vehicle behind me, this would've caused a crash | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving 75 MPH, the braking system erroneously activated causing the vehicle to abruptly stop. The contact indicated that prior to the braking system activating, an audible beeping noise was heard inside the cabin. Additionally, there was no vehicle or object nearby to cause the Forward Collision Avoidance system to be activated. The cause of the failure was not determined. The local service center was notified of the failure. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 1,800. | Crash: No Fire: No | 1,800 |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When driving in cruise control on a 4 lane highway (2 in each direction) the car automatically went into a hard brake, slowing down approximately 20 mph. The car returned to cruise control and 5-10 seconds later did the same thing again. There were no cars within roughly 1/4-1/2 mile in front of the vehicle, but there were cars heading in the other direction in the lanes traveling the opposite direction. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While using adaptive cruise control, the car suddenly braked on Interstate at 65 mph when no obvious obstruction was seen. There was one truck over 100 yards ahead in the slow lane. The braking occurred after I changed lanes to pass. There were no vehicles ahead in the passing lane. Despite a light rain, visibility was not overly affected. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | - Cruise control and Autopilot are causing rapid and unneeded emergency braking. This issue essentially renders the car unable to reliably use basic cruise control capabilities - Unneeded braking can cause an unintended rear collision by someone following behind the vehicle, also raises blood pressure of drivers and passengers in the car when braking happens violently and unnecessarily. - Issue hasn't been reproduced. But others I've spoke with are experiencing this on the Tesla Model 3 - The vehicle hasn't been inspected by anyone. - There is no warning audibly or visibly in the car. However the problem seems to occur when the car can't determine if an oncoming car or other obstacle is in the actual lane of the direction of travel or not. My guess is that this has to do with the vision system that's tied into autosteer and cruise control | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at 70 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 approximately 6,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 6,000 |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Just purchased a new Tesla Model 3 (long range) yesterday. On the drive home, I engaged the cruise control after the car reached its required calibration distance of 50 miles. Occasionally, but without warning, the car would automatically apply the brakes with no car or other visible obstruction ahead of me on a long straight road. The brakes were applied so firmly that the car would have come to a complete stop within 200-300 feet if I had not engaged the gas pedal to stop the braking action. The suddenness of the braking forced the car behind be (my wife, who was following at a safe distance) to aggressively brake in order not to rear-end me. This happened 3-4 more times during the 120-mile drive home, so I finally disengaged the cruise control and "manually" controlled the accelerator by foot for the last 20 miles of driving, without further incident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Potential computer system/programming issue. TACC autopilot issue. Highly numerous amount of 'phantom braking' events, potentially could cause loss of vehicle control and/or rear end collision. Also, auto-dimming headlights issue, in that oncoming drivers could experience blinding high-beam lights due to the fact that the lights do not dim automatically until the oncoming vehicle is very close. This is potentially a high risk for auto accidents. Again, high amount of phantom braking!!! These issues are ongoing issues, and started upon delivery of my vehicle, new, in December 2021. Tesla service will not address these issues. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |