Complaint volume
402 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
2023 Tesla Model 3 Complaints
402 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2023 Tesla Model 3, grouped by component category.
402 Total complaints
66 Crash reports
0 Fire reports
33 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, steering, unknown or other. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 66 crash reports, 0 fire reports, 33 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 39 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 14,505 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to forward collision avoidance, steering, unknown or other?
- 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 2023 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.
2023 Tesla Model 3
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2023 Tesla Model 3 complaints?
66 Crash
0 Fire
33 Injury
0 Fatality
53 Towed
25 Medical attention
What are the most common 2023 Tesla Model 3 complaint categories?
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 74
STEERING 49
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 27
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 20
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 20
SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 14
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 11
STRUCTURE 9
VISIBILITY/WIPER 9
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL 8
402 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was driving on a divided highway in the right hand lane out of two lanes. To the right was a grassy berm. To the left of the road was a grassy median. I was driving with the adaptive cruise control enabled and set to about 70MPH. Full self driving was not enabled. There were no vehicles or other obstacles visible ahead or to the sides, no vehicles following. Without any reason I could perceive, the vehicle abruptly decelerated rapidly. I pressed my foot on the accelerator pedal and the car stopped decelerating and resumed normal operation at roughly 40MPH. If another vehicle had been following me, the unexpected rapid deceleration could have resulted in a collision. This vehicle is a rental car owned by Hertz, and I have not had the vehicle inspected or diagnosed by any dealer, service center, the manufacturer, police, or insurance representatives. The Alert log in the vehicle computer showed at 6:16pm, code EPBL_a180: Emergency brake applied (see attachment). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | LANE DEPARTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Tesla has serious safety issues automatic emergency, braking Blindspot warning, Lane, departure warning, and other basic safety features which are very common in the cars these days. I purchased Tesla for my teenage child. In past three months we have encountered multiple instances where Tesla was not able to perform as promised this morning I was driving tesla loaner Vehicle when I was heading to pick up my car and someone drifted into my lane without warning and Tesla did not apply emergency brakes or generated any warning signals. I have notified Tesla service about the incident and past incidents to tesla service representative. Tesla representative at Costa Mesa office opened the service request to get the software diagnosis completed so that they can get to the bottom of it, but [XXX] from Irvine office called me and he is in denial that it is a car issue and blame it on me that it is between the car and the car owners manual, I have requested an escalation from Tesla service Center. In the meantime, I am filing this complaint so that NHTSA can start their investigation before. It is too late and some life is lost because of irresponsible behavior by Tesla and send in selling the features which do not work I have Lexus RX 350, 2017 model and all these features work seamlessly in the car , I am shocked Tesla is falsifying and and selling inaccurate features to the consumers which cannot be discovered until it is too late. Please start investigation investigation ASAP. Thank you. INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Multiple times the car while on cruise control has slammed on brakes due to seemingly nothing. It's without warning our alert and it is extremely violent. It happens at least once every week. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | STEERING | I took delivery of the Tesla Performance Model 3 on June 15th, 2023. Two weeks later, the car is giving me issues. Today while driving and making a left turn, the steering wheel locked up while showing an error code UI_a020 stating steering assist is disabled. This vehicle has only been driven 575 miles. Vehicle steering gets locked, and once you get out and get back in, the car code disappears; however after driving a mile or 2 code reappears, and the steering gets very stiff, making it almost impossible to turn in either direction. Very unsafe and unreliable to drive on highways at high speeds. Please investigate this matter, as I am not the only one with this issue. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While in cruise control vehicle will brake hard as if it detects something in front but there’s really a clear road. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Tesla's traffic aware cruise control (adaptive cruise) frequently brakes hard for no reason (aka "phantom braking"). This behavior occurs multiple times per week during my daily commute on a two lane highway. It happens at different locations, different times of the day, and with or without other vehicles around. "Autopilot" is disabled so there is no auto steering or lane centering. Unnecessary hard braking will significantly increase the chances of a collision with other vehicles, especially with higher levels of traffic. This problem is a well known issue with "vision only" Teslas with no radar and has been documented by many other owners. This issue has been occuring since the vehicle was new and is a system design issue, not a specific part failure. There are no warnings or other messages. There is currently no way to disable adaptive cruise control and use basic fixed-speed cruise control. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | ENGINE | Within one day of taking ownership of a new 2023 tesla model 3, the car suddenly stopped running, slowing rapidly to a crawl on the highway, causing a potential hazardous situation. Error code DI_a137 appeared onscreen, and a message that the vehicle was not drivable. After several minutes on the shoulder, the car behaved normally. I cancelled my trip and attempted to return home. The fault recurred, forcing me to pull off the road again. After several minutes the car allowed me to return home. There was never any prior warning. Tesla roadservice picked up the car and today notified me repairs have been made. Tesla Lynwood WA confirmed the intermittent high voltage inverter problem. The rear motor inverter was replaced. I have heard of many such failures in the U.S. and a recall in China for this engine failure problem. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Vehicle automatically applies the breaks while using the cruise control. Braking occurs randomly and very suddenly at highway speeds with no warning. The car slowed rapidly to about 25 mph. This has occurred twice in the last 6 weeks in two different locations. Fortunately, there were no vehicles following at a close distance. If there had been, the sudden application of the brakes would almost certainly have resulted in a rear-end collision with the car that was following us. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | 2023 TESLA MODEL 3 -The attached letters are for a Defect Petition. January 8, 2021, NHTSA denied a defect petition alleging 232 complaints of sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) in Tesla vehicles. Petitioner has sent updates which include a detail abstract with design details, along with 3 Defect Petition to Recall docs. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The 2023 Tesla Model 3 Performance Autopilot cameras "saw" things that are not there while driving during daytime on the highway aka phantom braking. This resulted in quick automatic braking making for a very uneasy drive with fear of being rear-ended when it happens. Yes, my vehicle is available for inspection. Our safety was put at risk due to potential to be rear-ended. Also, this happened on an icy road which has potential to cause sliding. I called the Tesla sales department where I purchased the vehicle. They said there was nothing they could do and that Tesla is working on it. There are many websites discussing the problem. My vehicle has not been inspected by Tesla. They told me there is nothing we can do. I have not contacted my insurance company or police. I'm not aware of any warning signs. You are driving on a highway during the day at 80 mph, the car's cameras "see" something that is not there, and it automatically brakes hard. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was driving from Palmdale, CA up to Mojave, CA at 7:05PM on June 16. The car was close to Rosamond, CA on the highway when it engaged FULL brakes. I started in the right lane, the autopilot was ON and set to 79MPH. The only cars visible on the highway were my car and the car in front of me. There were no other cars immediately visible to me or autopilot in front of me or behind me - other than us two. My car was traveling faster than the car in front of me, so at ~3-5 car lengths I started a left turn signal to merge into the left lane, and overtake the small car (silver Toyota?) in front of me in the left lane. When I started the left turn signal the autopilot disengaged as expected. I got in the left lane then stopped the signal, and turned ON autopilot @ 79MPH. My car started overtaking the car in the right lane, the car beside me was now in my right blind spot. Then all of a sudden my car engaged FULL brakes and went from 79 MPH to maybe 30MPH? As a reminder there were no cars in front of me or behind me. The other car was to my right. I quickly assessed the situation to confirm I wasn't going to be rear ended by the car to my right and pushed the gas peddle as hard as I could to accelerate back to 70+ MPH. I checked to see the sun was behind me so the car's cameras were definitely not blinded, I sped far enough away from the car next to me to take a photo of the area I was driving in. Please see the photo attached to see the condition of the sky and to confirm the roads were completely empty when the tesla decided to brake in its full capacity for what I believe to be no reason at all. I fully believe if there was someone behind me in the left lane even at a safe distance I would have been inadvertently rear ended as there was no reason or cause for the car to be breaking that hard. I'm sure Tesla can provide telemetry data from my car to corroborate my version of the events. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 8 minutes after leaving the dealership while driving along a highway, car displayed error message, "Acceleration and Top Speed Reduced" and began automatically slowing down and came to a complete stop. Fortunately I was able to pull over to the side next to a highway barrier but it was still a dangerous situation as cars and trucks were passing by at high speed. Car would not respond and not drive, even after turning off and on car and computer system several times. Police had to be dispatched to block lane and vehicle had to be towed away from side of highway. No explanation or help provided by Tesla as to why the brand new car suddenly stopped working. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | ENGINE | The contact's son owns a 2023 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 40 MPH, the brake pedal was depressed, and the vehicle stalled. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was towed to a dealer but was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 386. | Crash: No Fire: No Towed | 386 |
| Jun 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Car unexpectedly brakes while using the cruise control. This can occur multiple times on a long drive without warning and for no apparent reason. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | soon after purchasing the vehicle (mile 43) while driving, the propulsion system failed completely and the screen instructed me to pull over but I could only drift as, again, pressing the gas pedal did nothing. This was a very dangerous incident and one that makes me fearful of putting my family back in the vehicle. I have repeatedly asked to speak with anyone at tesla about this issue but have had no email or phone calls returned or been given phone numbers that do not work. I received a message today that i am required to take back possession of the "repaired" car or be charged 100 dollar per day fee to keep their loaner. I do not wish to be behind the wheel when the other manufacturing defects are discovered but Tesla has given me no alternatives. A quick online survey of online forums indicates this is a recurring issue and one that tesla seems to treat with a "lets fix and hope it doesn't happen again" attitude. again, this is not a "failure to start" issue. this was a dangerous incident Tesla offers zero avenue to address with their corporate staff. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On several occasions ( 8 or 10 times) while driving at highway speeds, with little traffic, on an extended trip, the vehicle suddenly applied the brakes for no apparent reason. I have learned that this is called "phantom braking". On one such occasion, I narrowly avoided being struck from behind by another vehicle following me by applying the accelerator. I have not yet reported this problem to Tesla, but intend to. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Car was purchased on Tuesday June 13th, on Wednesday June 14th with 50 miles on clock travelling down the centre lane of a Texas highway the vehicle presented a warning that it was powering down and to get off the road. The car slowed down due to the regen breaks 60-0 in just a few seconds resulting in a near miss pile up. When the Tesla tow truck arrived the driver advised that this was not the first time he has seen this issue. The error codes i managed to gather from the vehicle were as follows: DIR_a126, DIR_a137, DIR_a063, BMS_a170 (coolant and rear drive unit issues) The consumer is requesting help with his vehicle. If you require further information please let me know, this nearly caused a serious incident on an extremely busy highway. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving on 15 freeway between Riverside CA to Las Vegas NV, I put the car in cruise control. While near Barstow, the car hard brakes dropping speed quickly. Luckily no other car was near. I changed lanes to pull on the side as I wasn’t sure what was happened, as it actually felt like the car had locked up. I did take the car out of cruise control and that seemed to fix the problem. I’ve used cruise control before and the adaptive braking has been manageable, this was extreme. On 4 June 2023. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When adaptive cruise control is engaged, the vehicle harshly brakes. This occurs very randomly and is abrupt. The operator needs to quickly take control and accelerate as the speed is reduced significantly. One incident, the speed was 80 mph and it reduced to less than 60. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SEAT BELTS,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Software Version: 2023.12.10 Over the past month, I have experienced a recurring problem with my vehicle's auditory notification system. The issue first began a couple of software updates ago and has persisted through the most recent update. The problem manifests sporadically, having occurred three times within the past month. When this issue arises, all system sounds, excluding radio and media, cease to function for the duration of my ride and persist across all future rides until the vehicle is hard rebooted. There are no visible warning signs or error messages on the dashboard to indicate that the system sounds are malfunctioning. Proof of issue - https://youtube.com/shorts/VbDErQVVzp4?feature=share The malfunctioning system sounds include but are not limited to: 1. Forward Collision Warning Sounds 2. Seatbelt Warning Sounds 3. Blinker Indicator Sounds 4. EV Reverse Sounds 5. System Notifications 6. All alerts and warnings Attempts to Resolve the Issue: To temporarily rectify the issue, I performed a hard reboot on the vehicle's system. This measure restored the sounds, but the problem consistently returns. **Safety Concerns:** This issue poses a significant safety concern as the lack of audible notifications increases the risk of accidents, particularly due to the absence of forward collision warning sounds, seatbelt warning sounds, and blinker indicator sounds. Additional Observations: It is important to note that this issue began a few software updates ago and has persisted despite subsequent updates. There are no error messages or warnings on the dashboard when the auditory system malfunctions, making the problem harder to detect until an auditory notification is expected but not heard. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On a clear sunny day driving on the freeway at 75mph on a 70mph speed limit, the regular cruise control(not Autopilot) was engaged. Experienced 4 separate incidents of strong emergency brakes being activated by the vehicle automatically for 2-3 secs, dropping speed by 10-15mph. As the driver I disengaged the cruise control by strongly accelerating the vehicle. Also multiple incidents of brakes engaging slightly for 1 second , always when driving on a straight freeway, with zero other vehicles present in the front or rear. The road had a slight incline then a slight decline. Just as the vehicle reaches the top of the incline the brakes activated. No warning lamps of sounds, just immediate sharp braking one all incidents. As the driver I felt very unsafe, and glad there were no vehicles close behind, which could have resulted in a rear collision. Vehicle has not been inspected by any party. As a Tesla driver I do not trust the Standard Cruise control feature any more. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While in cruise control, the car suddenly reduced its speed; there is no obstacle in the path of the cat that would warrant such an action. This deceleration is sudden and violent and when it happens is dangerous for following drivers. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | 2023 Tesla Model 3- Consumer wrote about comparison of braking mode to non-EV's, experience driving a rented EV (Electrical Vehicle) w/ braking mode and suggestions to make EV's braking mode safer. When EV's accelerator is NOT pressed the EV goes into regenerative braking mode. No brake lights are triggered because brake pedal wasn't pressed. Consumer listed two "real world dangers". Consumer recommendation- The regenerative braking of EV's should also trigger brake lights notifying vehicles behind the EV that the pace of the vehicle is slowing with the same force. as if brakes where applied. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Vehicle breaks suddenly for no reason under a variety of circumstances. there is no pattern I could identify. i went on line to see if there is an update. many others with the same problem. Very dangerous if there is a car behind. Happens every day or so at freeway speed. Tesla needs to fix this! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | When driving and using “autopilot” or just cruise control, the vehicle will randomly brake. Sometimes it brakes lightly, but sometimes it will violently slow the vehicle down, without warning. There is no obstacle in front of the vehicle. If another vehicle is behind the car when the car randomly brakes, this can potentially cause a rear-end event or potentially cause the car that is behind to swerve to avoid an accident. I submitted a service request to Tesla, but Tesla responded by stating that there was no malfunctions that needed to be addressed. They described various scenarios in which the computer would determine a need to brake. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |