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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When using the autosteer function and also the adaptive cruise control, the vehicle seems to have a phantom braking issue. The car will apply brakes in an aggressive manner when the vehicle is faced with oncoming traffic in the opposite lane headed the other direction on a 2 lane road. This seems to occur when a large truck such as UPS or semi tractor trailer is approaching in the other lane headed the other direction - the vehicle seems to recognize that as an imminent forward collision and begins to aggressively brake the vehicle, which could cause a following vehicle to rear end me. This has happened on several occasions with varying degrees or severity (how hard it applies the breaks) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On multiple occasions while driving at highways speed on freeways, vehicles adaptive cruise control activates emergency braking when there are no obstacles in front of the vehicle. Cause of braking appears to be caused by high contrast shadows from overhead signs, billboards, and other tall vehicles that are on the road. This has caused moments where an accident could occur from the vehicles emergency braking activating when there is no actual reason that the system should activate. It also creates concern for the use of the cruise control system and autopilot while driving on the freeway. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | There are two problems with our new 2022 Model 3. 1) The car randomly "phantom brakes". I counted on Monday-- 5 times in roughly 50 miles including twice from 75 MPH to under 40 MPH with maximum braking. All events were on a wide open freeway in a rural area with very light traffic and no movement or vehicles that would possibly explain it. The phantom braking is so bad that the car isn't safe to drive. 2) ABS malfunctioned resulting in a very slow speed impact. A car stopped abruptly in front of me, I hit the brakes where ABS kicked in, the car also automatically braked, but the deceleration was no more than just lifting my foot of the throttle. The ABS was chattering audibly and pulsing through the brake pedal so the ABS was definitely triggered but it appears it was falsely sensing wheel lockup when there was none. If I had been able to just lock the tires up or modulate the brakes myself to prevent lockup, the accident would not have happened. For ref, I'm 52, I've been driving since I was 15, and I have roughly 1,500,000 miles of driving experience. I ride motorcycles and am also a commercial pilot. This is the first accident involving another car I've ever had (never been hit or hit anyone). Tesla has refused to provide the crash data recorder info stating that they are not required to do so in Texas. Based on a conversation in person with a Tesla technician, it appears this is a very new policy with Tesla. At the risk of being accusatory, there are very few reasons Tesla would refuse to provide this data and most if not all of those reasons are to prevent owners from getting data that shows the car malfunctioned. I do have the camera video showing the accident and you can see at 20-25 MPH, I was in full ABS roughly 3 seconds before impact. This was on a dry, clean roadway. I'd guess I should've stopped in 1-2 seconds easily and my 8,000 truck can stop much shorter than what the Tesla stopped in. | Crash: Yes Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom braking on highways, multiple times on full self driving (auto pilot) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 60 MPH with the cruise control activated, the vehicle stopped independently and without warning. An unknown dealer was contacted and made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 1,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 1,000 |
| Feb 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Sudden unexplained braking while in cruise control on an interstate. Unexplained very, very loud warning alerts out of the blue. Usually happening when there was a an adjacent white truck in daylight conditions. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My car suddenly braked for no reason. I was at risk of a rear-end collision. I called Tesla and they instructed me to reboot my computer. They said an engineer would review the computer records and get back to me. No follow-up has happened yet. No, the vehicle has not been inspected. Before the incident, I heard a warning signal. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | We have experienced 6 or more incidents of phantom braking in the few weeks we have owned the car. This mostly seems to occur on sunny days when there are distinct shadows in the road. This mostly occurs on highways at high speed and typically slows the vehicle down well below the speed limit prior to correcting itself. It has also occurred once at lower non-highway speeds. It is concerning mostly because it could easily cause an accident whereby the person behind me is unable to stop in time. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I have approximately 3300 miles on the car since new. I cannot safely use the adaptive cruise control feature because the car randomly applies significant braking. This has happened about 10 times in a variety of conditions including completely clear with the car recently cleaned. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Have had several phantom braking espisodes when driving with cruise control on both at 45 mph. It brakes by itself and there is nothing in front of me that would of caused this | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | This issue happens only on one side of an highway (I-76E), otherwise I have not noticed it elsewhere. When using cruise control or autopilot, the vehicle changes the max speed from like 65 to 45 or 50 mph (in 65 mph highway). It happens in 4/5 places on the highway where it reduces the speed of the car abruptly. This may cause rear ending of the vehicle if there is a closely following vehicle. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | car will put on brakes when in cruise control with no warning and without a danger of collision happens fairly frequently | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving approximately 55 MPH and using the automatic cruise control, the vehicle inadvertently slowed down with a larger vehicle approaching from the opposite lane. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated however, a warning alarm bell chimed and the vehicle decelerated to 20 MPH. The contact reported that after the larger vehicle went by, the vehicle resumed the pre-set cruising speed. The vehicle was not taken to the local dealer; however, several scheduled appointments with the techs at the dealer had been canceled. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure and the contact was informed that the failure was a software issue known as Phantom Braking. The contact stated that the manufacturer recommended continued use of the cruise control in order to gather more data on the cause of the failure. The contact was concerned about the risk of a crash while using the feature. The failure mileage was approximately 200. | Crash: No Fire: No | 200 |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While using cruise control, the car will very frequently hesitate and slows down a few miles per hour, but in addition, the car will suddenly, very forcefully try to stop. This happens more often after dark and with on-coming vehicles, especially trucks. There is no warning sound or chime as will happen if there is actually an obstacle. The vehicle simply tries to stop and I feel that I would have ended up into the windshield if not restrained. The touch pad also shows no warning notice as it does if there is an obstacle such as a car in the way. This has happened with other cars behind me, but not anymore as I no longer use cruise control, especially if there is any traffic at all. The vehicle has yet to be seen in any Tesla service center due to difficulty getting an appointment. On-line searches reveal that this is a problem for others as well. The vehicle has not been inspected by anyone else. This issue appeared very shortly after picking the care up on 12/31/21. I had a 2019 Tesla Model 3 which never did this. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was traveling northbound on a two lane highway with a speed limit of 55mph. I was traveling 60mph with Tesla autopilot to include autosteer engaged, it was light outside and partly cloudy. A tractor trailer approached traveling southbound in the opposite direction, my vehicle immediately slammed on the brakes, dropped speed to under 25mph, and the forward collision warning chimes and alerts on the screen started. It should be noted I was well within my lane of travel going northbound; the tractor trailer was also well within its lane traveling southbound. At no point did my vehicle or the tractor trailer veer towards each other, and at no point was there ever a chance of our vehicles colliding. This happened a total of two times, both times the circumstances were identical involving tractor trailers. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving approximately 65 MPH, the vehicle inadvertently started braking with the cruise control was activated. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to the local dealer. The manufacturer was informed of the failure and was awaiting a response. The failure mileage was approximately 1,500. | Crash: No Fire: No | 1,500 |
| Feb 2022 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING | Less than a month after I purchased my car, the whole diver's side headlight assembly stopped functioning, no blinker, no headlight, no running light. It's been over a month and Tesla keeps moving my service appointment to a later date. Tesla states it's a part issue, yet you continue to build cars with headlights ignoring current customers. I still have no working Headlight assembly. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | STEERING,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,LANE DEPARTURE | Power steering and full power to the vehicle failed - these failures can be seen upon requested inspection. Power steering failed during operation - meaning that while i was driving the vehicle i was not able to change the direction of travel at a high rate of speed. Then the vehicle came to a sudden stop, stranding the driver/passengers in the middle of the road which has a high speed limit. Since full power failed quickly afterward, hazard lights or other warning lights (brake lights) could not be activated. Emergency manual exits had to be used to exit the vehicle This problem has been reproduced in both Model 3 and Model Y and has been confirmed by a dealer service repair center. The vehicle has been inspected by the manufacturer and the problem has been confirmed - a full steering console replacement is required due to electrical and hydraulic issues in the steering system and battery system. There was no message prior to the vehicle failure, the error is sudden and unexpected which makes it even more dangerous | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving on the interstate with the adaptive cruise control engaged I’ve now had four incidents where I’ve had to over-ride the system because the car mysteriously slammed on the brakes attempting to stop the car when no threats were apparent. These were frightening and dangerous events. I’ve had several cars with adaptive cruise and never experienced this type of un-provoked emergency braking. The for situations were as follows: 1) The road gently curving to the right while I was in the second to far left lane and there was a concrete barrier left of the far left lane divining the opposing lanes. The car apparently mistook the barrier as a threat because it slammed on the brakes without warning. I override the system to avoid a collision from behind. 2) Driving down a three lane road in the center lane when a car entered the road into the right lane and was still going much slower than the center lane. My car slammed on the brakes despite the other car never coming close to entering my path or lane. 3) two instances of the car emergency braking on a two lane road because it apparently mistook oncoming traffic in the opposing lane as a threat. Again had to override to avoid being rear ended. This adaptive cruise system is too dangerous to use as I cannot trust it to not brake hard and unexpectedly. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Car randomly auto braked at night while on cruise control (45 mph). Car turning across traffic was roughly 200 feet away and well out of potential collision range. Also, car won't auto break when there is an actual obstacle in front. Could drive the car into a wall (believe me, I've verified this). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | This is my third report for the same phantom braking issue I drove approximately 250 miles today and had three episodes one while passing a 18 wheeler he was on the right and fully in his own lane it braked forcefully. And two episodes with no objects or any explanations why it applied the brakes hard while traveling at 78 mph once with a car following witch caused me great concern. Side note I gave up using it on two lane undivided roads any oncoming large truck or RV triggers braking. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | On trip from Grand Island NE to Pueblo CO on Colorado state Hwy 76 when driving at highway speeds the auto steer function repeatedly (at least 8 occurrences) invoked emergency braking for no apparent reason. This occurred during daylight hours, in brilliant sunshine, on clear and dry road conditions with no other vehicles in the vicinity, in both the right and left lane. In some cases the car would brake upon cresting a slight rise where the horizon is not visible until the vehicle is at the top of the rise. In another case there was highly reflective silver steel guard rails on both sides of the road. Also experienced phantom braking when there was identical signage on both sides of the road at about head height of a person. We also experienced occurrences on flat sections of road with no signage. The braking is unpredictable and severe enough to cause a rear end collision If a vehicle had been behind us during any of the events we experienced. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My mother was driving my brand new 2022 M3P from Garfield, AR, to S. Coffeyville, KS, on a two lane highway when we experienced a major AEB event while in cruise control (if not w/ autosteer engaged). On the way there and back to Garfield, we must have experienced 5-10 AEB events where the traffic aware cruise control thought that the hard shadows from trucks were actually objects in our lane. This is a horrible and dangerous design flaw. Why are we not allowed to go back to dumb cruise control like we used to have where it doesn't cause an accident risk due to the possibility of a rear impact from another vehicle? In one of these events there was a truck behind us, and my 70-year-old mother had no clue how to protect us from being rear ended. We desperately need an option to disable TACC at the very least. I don't care about what laws may be in place for these systems, until it is perfect, we should be allowed to have full control over our vehicle without unpredictable events occurring. Trying to teach a 70-year-old how to drive differently isn't a proper solution when they've driven vehicles their entire lives that let them do what they want. Demand that Tesla allow permanent disablement of these systems, not just turning off AEB every time you get in the car! And I'm not convinced that AEB is even related to TACC braking. Regardless, fix it! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | A warning displayed on the screen of the car alerted me to the vehicle having low coolant, recommending that I drive the car to a service center despite being unsafe to do so as the container that recycled the closed loop coolant system was completely empty. The warning caused me to check underneath the vehicle housed in my garage, which displayed a puddle of bluish liquid with a foul smell. There was a leak that was caused by an impact unknown to me to the aero shield protecting the high voltage battery pack. The impact ruptured the coolant line and fitting that connected the battery with the line. The manufacturer's service center recommended replacing the entire battery as they do not repair this part on the car. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On my daily commute to work on the interstate while in cruise control the car will slam on the brakes fro no apparent reason. This abruptly takes my car from 70 mph to 40. Happens multiple times in cruise control every day. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |