Complaint volume
1068 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 Y Complaints
1068 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2023 Tesla Model Y, grouped by component category.
1068 Total complaints
137 Crash reports
3 Fire reports
45 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, vehicle speed control,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 137 crash reports, 3 fire reports, 45 injury reports, and 1 fatality report. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 74 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 13,628 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, vehicle speed control,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 2023 Tesla Model Y?
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 Y
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2023 Tesla Model Y complaints?
137 Crash
3 Fire
45 Injury
1 Fatality
92 Towed
34 Medical attention
What are the most common 2023 Tesla Model Y complaint categories?
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 184
STEERING 97
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 65
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 60
SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 54
SUSPENSION 53
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 36
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 34
VISIBILITY/WIPER 32
SEAT BELTS 26
1,068 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was driving on the freeway on cruise control. As I was manuvering a slight curve in the road, there was a car in the lane to my right. All of a sudden my Tesla just started stopping almost violently. Luckily no one was behind me. It was the third time this has happened. Scary. No warning or anything. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2023 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING | The contact owns a 2023 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed at night, the headlights inadvertently turned off. No warning light was illuminated. The contact parked the vehicle, and the headlights inadvertently turned on. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 16,370. | Crash: No Fire: No | 16,730 |
| Dec 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Since we’ve purchased this vehicle we have had several phantom braking incidents while using cruise control (NOT full self driving). There is NO way to report this to Tesla that we have found. So we have decided to report this directly to the NHTSA. We would be happy to provide additional details. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Intermittent sudden braking for no reason when driving with the cruise on during highway driving. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2023 | WHEELS | rims cacked . same issues with some tesla cars that posted on media. same identical cracked image, air leaking slowly at the crack. found no signs of rim damage to cause rims crack. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,SERVICE BRAKES | Vehicle reversing malfunctioned , may be a software defect. Vehicle while reversing without pressing the accelerator went berserk and hit another vehicle in the driveway. Vehicle data was provided by Tesla but there is no evidence of collision nor any video recording of the incident. No issues were seen nor any warnings displayed prior to the vehicle reversing itself. However insurance deemed it as driver fault without any confirmation by the manufacturer (Tesla). | Crash: Yes Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | During our road trip from northern Virginia to Norman, Oklahoma, between 18-29 November 2023, the issue called "Phantom braking" -- in which the Tesla Model Y suddenly and inexplicably engages the brake during a highway driving -- occurred to us four times. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I have had multiple phantom breaking on the highway in when use Autopilot in my 2023 Telsa model Y. I scared of using the Autopilot now cause of an accident on the highway. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Traveling on an interstate highway when the car suddenly decelerated. Cruise control was on at the time. sudden deceleration with cars following made it quite dangerous. We could have been struck from behind. this happened two times on the same trip. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Was passing a 18 wheeler truck that was on my right and behind a second 18 wheeler truck. Light rain but a lot of water spraying up from the road. Probably 1/8 inches of water streaming on front windshield. Wiper speed was set to III, but the wipers would not turn on. Finally issued a voice command and the wipers finally started. TACC, autosteer and fsd we’re not on. Autosteer was the mode that was enabled. A week prior I parked the vehicle in the shade headed in to a stucco building and the wipers would not turn off. No rain whatsoever. The camera system thought the bumbs on the wall were rain drops. But a window so full of water you can’t see is not water to be removed. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Since purchasing my 2023 Tesla model Y in May, I have intermittently experienced highway phantom braking when either in self-driving mode or just using the cruise control. I would estimate it happens once a month. Just recently it happened 2 days in a row, at night and during the day. The experience is very scary because when the brakes slam on at 70 mph, I'm afraid I will get rear-ended. I have a dashcam video of one of the occurrences this week, it's an MP4 video file. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER,LANE DEPARTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | These are observations over the past couple of months that I have owned the car. They have been consistently observed and have occurred at speed between 35-70 mph. There are four main issues I’m having with my tesla. 1) I cannot use cruise control because it requires automatic windshield wipers. The automatic windshield wipers cannot sense when it’s raining and just turns on randomly when it’s not raining. 2). The car breaks on its own randomly on both the highway and city streets. I have almost been rear ended several times because of this. 3) the car thought another car was coming in my lane on interstate 95 and violently switched lanes without warning causing me to oversteer and almost wreck. I had my family in the car with me and it was terrifying. 4). The two times I used full self driving the car actually accelerated to make it through a yellow light. I know these are all beta features of the car but in my opinion they are all dangerous to use on the roads and should be disabled until they are ready for prime time | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | STEERING | Steering system malfunction and failure: I have a brand new Tesla Model Y for less than 3 months. Two months after I have the vehicle, the steering rack had an internal fault. The steering rack was replaced at the Tesla authorized repair shop. Eighteen days after that repair. I was involved in a car accident. The reason was because my car had veered to the right on its own while driving on a city street. I then turned the steering wheel to the left, but the car did not turn to the left. My car then hit another vehicle that was parked on the right side of the street. The front of my vehicle was totally damaged on the right side. The entire left side of the other parked vehicle was also totally damaged. I was NOT on cruise control. I was NOT on self- driving mode. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 2 Towed Medical attention | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Auto-wiper settings does not work. They are required to be turned on, while on Autopilot/cruise control, but they actively wipe the windshield, even when no rain (clear blue skies). When there is rain - they do not turn on frequently enough. It's a danger in the first scenario, because it's a huge distraction to the driver (wipers intermittently turning on when not raining). In the second scenario, it's very unsafe to not turn on when it's raining. Fussing with them in both scenarios is a huge distraction and very frustrating. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | False and phantom forward collision warning took place on Nov 25 2023, at 5:42 pm on Alder Woods Dr. The road conditions are clear visibility with no fog, rain, or snow/ice. Legally parked car on the side of the road is mistaken by a moving car in the middle of the road. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My car randomly brakes while using autopilot/cruise control on the highway. It will brake and move the car toward one side of the line. This happens sometimes every 20 minutes on a roadtrip. On one occasion, it threw the car to the far left side of the line and then reacted to the on the left. It threw the car back to the right side of the lane, near the car on the right side. There were cars on either side of me and neither were coming into my lane. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Following false and phantom forward collision warning took place on Nov 15, 2023 twice on I-66W at Fairfax, VA during the afternoon with clear road conditions without any rain, or snow on slowed down traffic: 1. 2:38 pm on I-66W 2. 2:42 pm on I-66W (same trip as above) I filed bug reports with the car, and rescheduled a service appointment with Tesla's Service Center, with no resolution from the car manufacturer. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was driving north on I-5 in Northern California when the car braked twice for no apparent reason. I was using the traffic aware cruise control. The first time the car was on a slight curve to the left and there was traffic in the right lane. About two hours later I was on a straightaway with no nearby traffic. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | I experienced a sudden unintended acceleration while parking the car in my home garage, something I have done thousands of times with no difficulty. I had this brand new car for a 12 days before it smashed through my garage wall. My garage is a fairly tight fit, so as I always do, I partially entered the garage and stopped to make sure that the side mirrors were going to clear the garage entrance. Then, I lifted my foot off the brake in order to start moving forwards again, at which time the car suddenly accelerated like crazy through the remaining 12 ft of space, smashing the cabinetry through the rear wall of the garage. The car, my garage, and laundry room were severely damaged. I complained to Tesla about this vehicle problem, but they just say there are no problems with the car, and it must be the driver’s fault. They are implying that I floored the accelerator, which is nonsense. I have been driving for more than 40 years, and I do not floor the accelerator while parking in my home garage. This type of sudden unintended acceleration is a danger to public safety, and this matter has to be thoroughly investigated, and a solution has to be found to fix the problem. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom braking occurred while traveling eastbound from Austin to Houston on US 290. Vehicle was traveling 76mph and slowed to quickly to 55 mph for no reason. There was a highway overpass about 75 yards away which may have triggered it, but no vehicles around us. Scared my wife and kids!!! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2023 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while his grand-son was driving 40 MPH with his friend in the front passenger's seat, he depressed the brake pedal as he was approaching a stopped-occupied vehicle. A light indicating that the brakes were engaged illuminated, but the vehicle failed to respond. Additionally, the automatic emergency braking system failed to engage, and the vehicle crashed into the rear of the vehicle in front of him. The air bags deployed. The contact's grandson and his friend were able to exit the vehicle. The vehicle then turned off and locked, which rendered the vehicle unnoticeable by oncoming drivers. Another driver who noticed the incident parked behind the vehicle and activated the hazard lights to prevent other drivers from crashing into the vehicle. The contact's grand-son sustained a burn on the right hand from the driver's side airbag deployment. The friend and the other driver did not sustain any injuries. A police report was filed. The contact's grand-son received first aid assistance from the ambulance. The vehicle was towed to a Tesla collision center, which denied assistance. The vehicle was then towed to a Collision center that was certified to work on Tesla vehicles. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 8,000. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 1 Towed | 8,000 |
| Nov 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | Respected Authorities, We bought Tesla Model Y in May of 2023 with our hard earned money, and next day or so we noticed a big paint mark on this brand new car.. Upon following up few times, Tesla agreed to repair this but they damaged further and after repeated visits, they agreed to replace the seat cover.. However, while replacing the cover, they damaged the side door coverings. Again after lot of follow up they agreed to replace that part as well. So, we thought we are happy but later we had to face very scary situations with this faulty car. The steering car completed locked while driving and had to face very dangerous situation. We are fortunate that the traffic was low in the street road, and if it was in highways, then it could have been fatal. Earlier, when we are reversing the vehicle in the garage the vehicle didn't turn well enough and the driver side mirror was hit the garage siding, and earlier to that when we are turning the car to the neighborhood the tire got touched to side walkway and threading was damaged. We strongly believe these could be the result of the steering wheel on and off locking in second which we are not sure at that time. As model y is new to us, we are not sure how that drives but now understand the issues clearly. We humbly reported all the above to Tesla Service, and they wanted to do steering wheel issue only and charge the other two... The important thing here is we were saved earlier due to the steering wheel issue but not sure if I we feel safe driving this car again. Kindly help us get some justice, and it would be appreciated if they take their car back and return our money in full. Thanks [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | I purchased the car and took delivery on 12/29/2022 where immediately I noticed while driving the car home that there was a high pitch creaking sound from what I think is the front drive unit of the car. I have brought back the car to the service dealer over 8 times to rectify the concern of the noise. There were many service technicians that heard the sound while I test drove before the car went into service and they all acknowledged the sound and said it was not normal. However, the service techs had picked and choose which item they thought on the car that created this sound and this is documented on the service receipts/invoices. They kept taking my car apart and replacing parts on the car and when I would pick up my car the sound was still present int he car. Now I have had the car for 11 months and now the sound is STILL present and Tesla has no fix for this. The last service I brought the car in for for this high pitch sound and they replaced the front drive unit and still the noise is present. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was driving in my Tesla Model Y to my sister's house. I went to park, stopping with the car facing the garage. Then, it suddenly accelerated and sped through the closed garage door. It slammed through the door, hit the walls, damaged the house and staircase and then finally stopped. It was so fast that I felt like it happened in a fraction of a second. like sitting in race car or ride I reported the incident to tesla on November 8th, the day this happened, and was asked to send pictures. I was told someone would contact me within a week, but I still haven't heard back from anyone. Currently, the vehicle is at a Tesla authorized collision center, and no one has looked at the reported issue. Collision center sent estimates for the repair | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | Unknown |
| Nov 2023 | STEERING | Steering assist reduced. The steering wheel completely stopped working in the middle of a drive. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |