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 | When driving my husband's new Tesla on the highway for the first time, with adaptive cruise control on, there were two frightening incidents: 1) I was traveling in the left-most lane of a 3 lane highway (3 lanes in one direction) moderate traffic. I signaled my intention to change lanes, and started to migrate into the middle lane. There was an 18-wheeler in the right-most lane slightly ahead of me. The Tesla suddenly braked hard without warning. Either I or the Tesla also swerved back towards the leftmost lane (it happened very fast and I was panicked, so I'm not sure which of us initiated the swerve). The Tesla then seemed to recover from being "spooked", and accelerated back up to the set speed. 2) Later that day, I was traveling on a highway again, this time just two lanes in one direction. Traffic was light. The Tesla again braked suddenly, though there were no cars nearby, and then resumed speed. Additionally, when driving in moderate traffic in town, the Tesla let out loud alarms twice to alert me about cars it deemed I had not paid sufficient attention to as traffic slowed approaching a light. Cruise control was not on, and it did not brake, but it was startling. I usually drive a 2017 Volvo V60 with adaptive cruise and collision-avoidance technology, and it is MUCH less sensitive than the Tesla is. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving with the adaptive cruise control enabled or the autopilot enabled, the car will do a hard braking episode which may reduce the speed from 60mph to 40 mph about a fast as is possible without locking up the tires. This happens on four lane divided interstate driving as well as two lane undivided driving. In either type of driving, there may not be any traffic anywhere in site. The most common condition for the occurrence of the braking is while using the adaptive cruise control on a two lane highway and a large truck or farm vehicle approaches from the other direction while driving in the center of their lane. The car acts like it has detected a possible collision, annunciates the collision warning, and brakes hard. I am reporting this because it is obvious to me that this is a safety defect. If someone were following behind me, even at a range considered safe, the deceleration is fast enough to cause the car behind me to collide with me. These hard braking episodes will happen as many as 4 or 5 times in a full day of highway driving. Many smaller episodes of less dangerous braking occur throughout a full day of driving and I consider them annoyances. I received my new car in January of 2022 and have driven it 4300 miles. The car has exhibited this condition since the fist time I tried to use these features starting February 3, 2022. I will not use the cruise control or autopilot when passengers are in the car because it is very alarming to them when it happens. I now rarely use autopilot when I am alone because of the constant state of fear that an uncontrolled braking will happen which would cause an accident. I would be happy to share further information with you. I am aware of the investigation that you began last week looking into the phantom braking phenomenon for Tesla owners. From reading the Washington Post article on the subject and then various posts on Tesla forums, my experiences match the phantom braking descriptions. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Drive Unit inverter failed. Yes my safety and the safety of my passenger and drivers behind me was at risk Problem was confirmed by Tesla repair center. They diagnosed this as the problem. No accident happened so no police, insurance reps, etc. Warning lamps came up after the car stalled. Or at least that's when I noticed them. while I was driving the car started jerking and came to a complete stop in traffic. No warning, just stopped. It wouldn't start or roll or anything and I was blocking traffic until I could get Tesla Roadside service to tell me on the phone how to put it into Transport Mode to push it to the side. This took 2 hours. My safety was DEFINITELY at risk. If I had been travelling at a high speed, it could have been fatal. The dealer/service center said it's the failure of the rear drive unit inverter and it was a US made part by Tesla. Warnings showed up on the screen but after the call stalled. It is currently at the dealership being replaced but now I am afraid to drive it as I have lost confidence in the company. I really hope you put pressure on Tesla to correct this problem. It is terrifying. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Can’t believe there are a few hundred reports of phantom braking. This is essentially a standard feature of the car. Nearly every other highway drive using autopilot the car will hard brake for nothing. Most recently was Tuesday around 11pm on highway 91 between hartford and new haven, CT. In the right lane of the highway traveling at about 67 mph the car abruptly hit the brakes. I am accustomed to hovering my foot over the accelerator so was able to reengage and regain cruising speed. Luckily no car was behind me or anywher near me. There was no overpass, exit ramp, flashing lights or anything else obvious that might have caused the hard brake. I’ll not while I’m here that the auto brights feature is bizarre and potentially dangerous. Autopilot turns on the brights when there are no cars immeadiately in front and this can only be disabled per incident. When is it ever a good idea to have the brights on on a 3 lane highway during normal traffic hours? Annoying, sure, but could actually cause problems distracting or blinding other drivers | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | In a 90 minute stretch of 2 lane highway on the way home from vehicle delivery, the car “phantom braked” for every semi-truck and most taller pickups which were approaching in the oncoming lane. At least 100 times on this maiden voyage. This unwarranted hard braking is unacceptable and unsafe. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I had multiple episodes of phantom braking while at highway speeds on cruise control. Most were small taps on the brakes that I could feel. There was one instance of a sudden 20mph drop from 67mph to mid forties and a second similar one they also resulted in the alarm within the vehicle going off. There were no vehicles, pedestrians, or other objects in the road in front of me and no reason for the car to brake. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Good evening, we took delivery of our Model 3 just over a week ago and have a big concern with Autopilot. Over a dozen times thus far, the car disengages Autopilot and begins to brake. This is MUCH worse at night when approaching hills or other cars and is very unsafe, especially for the people behind us. Is there a feature I can turn out to improve this? Perhaps add STD Cruise w/no emergency braking? Help!!! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On multiple occasions in different environments the autopilot system has randomly braked/slowed to a dangerous level. This has occurred during city and freeway driving. It has not yet caused an accident, but I am now hesitant to use the feature in most situations. There is little consistency or understanding as to when or why this occurs. Please analyze the situation and require Tesla to remedy this problem. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle would independently downshift while in cruise control while passing semi-trucks driving in the opposite direction of traffic. The contact stated that while driving to work on one occasion, the failure occurred fourteen times. The contact stated that there was a beeping sound coming from the vehicle during the failure. The contact had called a service center where he was informed that the failure was normal vehicle operation. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was 0. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving down the freeway in auto-pilot this morning, I was in the middle lane and somebody in the right most lane put on their turn signal to indicate that they were planning on moving into my lane after I passed, but my car suddenly panic-stopped from 65 to almost zero all at once, and I almost got rear-ended. It completely scared me, and I disabled auto-pilot for the rest of my drive to work! My car’s only 5 days old, and I now have anxiety about its auto-pilot capabilities! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving on the highway my car suddenly decelerated almost to a complete stop while going 60+ mph. It happened when I went under an overpass and there was a dark shadow on the road due to the overpass. It also happened when I was driving in the direction of the sunset which caused a big glare on the road. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom braking when using either cruise control or auto pilot. This happens during the day and night. If there is a car on the other side of road, it will brake very hard. This happens on one lane highways or large freeways. It is extremely dangerous especially if you have another car behind you. It will go from 80 mph to 50 mph in one second. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Just bought the car a few weeks ago. Have had several instances of phantom breaking. Can't drive down a residential street at 25mph as the cars parked along the side of the road cause the alarms to go off and the breaks apply themselves. Also happens when driving on 3 lane roads with a middle suicide lane and there is a truck parked in the middle lane suicide lane. The car will apply emergency braking just driving past the truck. Or past a school bus that is off the side of the road. Very irritating. My subaru has never done this. Multiple dates this has happened | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom braking occurs when 'autopilot - cruise control' is engaged, while traveling at highway speeds. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | STEERING,POWER TRAIN,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | this vehicle has regenerative braking. It used to have an option to reduce the regenerative braking but software updates removed it. During recent snow and ice, when letting off the accelerator pedal the regenerative braking kicks in and causes the vehicle to become unstable. If regenerative braking had a low setting this could prevent the vehicle from becoming unstable on snow and ice every time the accelerator pedal is let go. It is very un-nerving driving like this | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My vehicle is experiencing a significant number of phantom braking events. The issue seems to be primarily contained to two way roads, more often when traffic is coming from the opposite direction, more often at night, going through intersections, at the crest of hills, and when there's no lead car in front of me in my lane. Without a lead car in my lane on 2 way country roads, it's not uncommon for the vehicle to rapidly decelerate, somewhere between 10-30 mph for around 3-10 seconds per instance, at least once per mile or so driven. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I have reported to Tesla that my brand new 2022 Model 3 is braking and indicating far ward Colli on warnings when there are no issues present on the roadway. I have submitted well over 50 bug reports within the past month detailing these incidents when they happen. Each of these incidents are a safety hazard. Unexpected braking not only is scary, but also causes problems for vehicles following behind me. I’ve had other vehicles nearly collude with my vehicle from behind (due to my car quickly decelerating for no reason). I’ve also been on the receiving end of some road rage incidents because my car is slowing down for no reason, people think I’m brake checking them or trying to intentionally cause a rear end collision. I have sent my concerns to Tesla on three occasions. They have not investigated my specific claims and only respond to say that the behavior is “normal” for the software and hardware configurations within the vehicle. I’m not sure how a system that can be this unsafe can be considered “normal” | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom Braking | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | We took our first out of town day trip of about 400 miles round trip, mostly freeway driving, last week 2/19/22. I tried using Tesla Traffic Aware Cruise Control several times during the trip, and we experienced at least 3 episodes of the "phantom braking" that I have read about. On those occasions, the system abruptly sounded alerts and braked automatically while cruising at about 80 mph (speed limit 75). There did not seem to be any obvious reason for this braking on the freeway on two occasions. There was one episode on a two lane section of straight highway, cruising at about 70 mph, when a large semi truck/trailer passed us in the opposite direction, both of us staying in our lanes, when the TACC sounded alert and applied brakes abruptly. I am very reluctant to use this function now until Tesla resolves the issues involved. It is very disconcerting and potentially dangerous when these events happen. I did send a "bug report" to Tesla from the vehicle the day after this happened. No response as yet. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | 2022 Tesla Model 3 Long Range. As already known the Tesla Model 3 has the issue of "Phantom Braking". Now that I have a $65,000 for 3 days I am very angry and concerned about the phantom braking. Here are some details. Within 10 minutes of initiating Autopilot or Cruise Control the vehicle brakes without any reason when driving highway or freeway speeds (I did not try it on city roads). For the most part the vehicle unexpectedly decelerates 2-5 mph. Although, it is just a little bit it makes for a very unpleasant ride. However, it happens repeatedly. And this happens all the time when Autopilot or cruise control is activated. I counted 5 occasions of phantom braking within less than 3 minutes. The last of those 5 was an unexpected and heart stopping deceleration from 84mph down to 52 mph in less than 2 seconds. This can really give you a heart attack because it is very unexpected. You cannot even drive 10 miles without this happening. There wasn't even a car in front of me for at least 1 mile. So no reason whatsoever for this braking "maneuver". Since I have read about this issue I only (if even) try cruise control or autopilot when there is no vehicle behind me within 1 mile to avoid someone rear ending me. But still.....it is a serious safety issue. One, because of following traffic rear ending the vehicle and second it is really HEART STOPPING when for no reason, out of the blue your vehicle decelerates very HARD. Thank you. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Car will brake for no reason at all. Hazardous for any cars behind the vehicle when it randomly brakes. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Brand new Tesla Model 3, driving 60 mph on 2 lane highway. The shadow of an oncoming 18 wheel truck was cast into my lane, as it was oncoming, probably 60 mph as well. I believe the shadow triggered the "Automatic Emergency Braking", and my car violently slammed on the brakes, and released them about 30 mph. If there was a vehicle behind me, there almost certainly would have been a collision. Thankfully, no one was behind me, and my car never left the proper travel lane. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING | My car is less than two months NEW. The headlight assembly, which includes blinker and running light, has been defective and not working for over a month. NO blinker, no headlight, no running light. This is a safety issue and can be issued a traffic citation, yet Tesla has NOT repaired/replaced this part. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom braking keeps occurring when my cruise control is set. If there is oncoming traffic with their headlights on in the opposite lane, my car will begin to brake. It also occurs sometimes when there are no other cars nearby. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | PHANTOM braking constantly with NOTHING around, in the road, no oncoming traffic, at hill tops, in curves, VERY, VERY DANGEROUS!!! My Tesla is only 72 hours old and has less than 200 miles. Cruise at 60 mph and slams the brakes to as slow as 28 mph ...throws everything in the car to the floor. This is on State Highways with no traffic no oncoming cars, nothing in road, Tesla needs to be sued!!!! Please issue Federal Recall BEFORE someone is rear ended and dies. I've read Tesla has Known this problem exists since early 2021. Stop Tesla from making this deadly functionality. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |