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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom breaking while on autopilot. The car slows down abruptly with no vehicles or obstacles ahead. This is a new issue that started after a recent update. Also since latest update Autopilot has became more sensitive(in a good way) to situations that do require speed reductions. But, the phantom breaking is scary and frustrating. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Two times in one week with two different drivers driving the same vehicle the vehicle experienced sudden unintended acceleration while parking. In the first incident this resulted in damage to the bumper into a wired fence which the vehicle did not alert but rather accelerated instead of applied regenerative breaking. Four days later the same incident happened with sudden unintended acceleration occurring while parking the car. When sending the car to Tesla for service due to the safety concern and damage this resulted in they said this was a user error which can’t be the case as this incident happened with two different drivers driving the same vehicle. When reading about this there have been numerous complaints which have shown that there is an electrical “ They show that the sudden unintended acceleration of Tesla cars may have been caused by negative voltage spikes that are logged as a fully depressed pedal, fooling both Tesla and the NHTSA investigators that there has been no hardware or software defect.” | Crash: Yes Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | BACK OVER PREVENTION | The contact owns a 2023 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while attempting to reverse the vehicle, the screen failed to display a rearview image, compromising the back over prevention system. After restarting the vehicle, the vehicle returned to normal functionality. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer or an independent mechanic. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 7,500. The VIN was not available. | Crash: No Fire: No | 7,500 |
| Oct 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I received this new car 11 days ago - it has none of its safety assist driving features and Tesla is not responding to my requests for assistance. I can't get a response to my requests for help. The clearly is absent of multiple points of functionality. Thank you | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | The horn is not working properly. When pressing the left side horn button the horn does not activate. The right side horn button does work properly. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Windshield cracked while driving on the highway The vehicle is not available for inspection as we have taken it to Tesla Service center to replace the windshield The cracked appeared in the top center. if it had happened on the driver side it could have resulted in an accident. The manufacturer is denying faulty product. The warning signs were there all along. About a few weeks back we could hear the cracking sound from the windshield. Since we could not pin-point the location we didn't think it was a faulty windshield. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Driving on Highway 46 in California at a speeds ranging from 65 to 75 mph in both adaptive cruise control and autopilot when the car suddenly braked abruptly for no reason. There wasno traffic or obstruction. This occurred several different times on this highway in both directions and on different days during daylight hours with both light and moderate traffic. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | STEERING | Power steering randomly goes out while driving. Most often happens after reversing, but also happens consistently while in drive. I was essentially unable to turn the car, so I was stuck in one spot and had to get out of the car so that the car could reset. This happened in several low traffic areas but also happened while I was at a red light at an intersection. The system did say “steering assist degraded” and that the cameras were blocked, but not sure if that has to do with the same issue. Never has been inspected, but I did see reports that this has happened to other 2023 Model Y and 3 owners. We have a service appointment with Tesla coming up to address it. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On August 12, 2023, I went to the Plano TX Tesla Delivery Center to pick up my new TeslaY model as scheduled at about 11 am. CST . The vehicle had 3 miles on it. After taking a couple of rounds around the delivery center and becoming comfortable with the default settings, I started driving back home which was 9 miles away. While on the drive, I noticed that the screen was showing “calibration in progress”. When I reached home at around 11:40 am. CST, Tesla showed a total of 12 miles on it, and as the garage door opened, the screen showed STOP as it said the calibration finished. As instructed, I stopped moving the vehicle on seeing HOLD/STOP while entering the garage from the driveway. Suddenly, the car jerked forward forcefully, as if a magnet had attracted it inside with the pedal going down. The car went into the garage and hit the garage wall, damaging the common garage wall and the other side being the master bathroom (by damaging the cabinets, big wall mirror(s), counter top etc), and also damaged the front bumper of the car. I was shocked and terrified for a while. So immediately rushed to the center again and reported the incident at Plano Service Center, who created a ticket on the same day. They said that this case would be sent to the engineering team for review. on Sep 10th, I got a reply from Service saying they have reviewed the Engineering study for the vehicle and the results displayed show that the vehicle operated as intended due to the use of the accelerator pedal at the time of the incident. Also reported to Auto insurance who came and assessed the damage to the bumper which also rattles or squeaks. The service for collision is scheduled for Dec 7th 2023 by Tesla Collision Dallas center. What if the same happened on the main road or in the streets where I live where there are a lot of kids playing on the streets? When I think of it, I get scared and panicked and Thank God that it occurred at my residence without any outside incident | Crash: Yes Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | STEERING | Upon starting the vehicle, the center console displayed a fault code "UI_a020" and a message that steering assistance was disabled. There had been no earlier indication of faults or degraded operation - only minutes earlier, the car was driving fine. The vehicle was now very difficult to maneuver. Rebooting the car did not clear the fault code. I was able to navigate the short distance back home, though it was not a pleasant experience. Upon returning home, I scheduled an appointment for a repair with the local service center. Later, I checked my vehicle again, and found the fault code had cleared and it was operating normally. I still kept the service appointment, and the tech I spoke with mentioned they have had recent reports of faulty steering racks. They replaced the entire steering rack. (I do not have the faulty unit available for inspection.) This vehicle was only a few weeks old at the time of the incident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | STEERING | While driving, the car suddenly lost power steering. We had to struggle to get the car to the side of the road. Had to do a reboot to get the power steering back. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was traveling on VA 286N/Fairfax County Pkwy, prepared to take a left turn to Franklin Farm Road at 7:54am on October 5, 2023. 1. Left arrow were green for a while 2. When it turned to orange and red, the car infront of me slowed down and stopped 3. This is when I had the false and faulty forward collision warning 4. I stopped without any problem | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | False and faulty forward warning collision incident took place on July 5, 2023 at Alder Woods Drive. This happened for a legally parked card on the street, the system labeled the car moving car infront as opposed to a parked and stopped car on the side of the street near the curbside. As a result it issued a false and faulty warning. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING | Right headlight and turn signal stopped working within approximately 110 miles on the odometer. Tesla did not make it a priority to fix the light and turn signal which poses a safety hazard to the driver and other vehicles on the road. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I had three false forward collision warnings on October 3, 2023 - all the false and faulty warning incidents took place on slowed down traffic for the car travelling infront of me: 1. US Route 50, From Fairfax to Arlington direction, at 8:21 AM 2. US Interstate 66, From Fairfax to Arlington direction, at 8:25 AM 3. US Route 50, From Arlington to Fairfax direction, at 2:25 PM Tesla doesn't any resolution for the problems that I shared above, I reported them in the form of an email, as bug reports and as a service request | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | This faulty and false forward collision warning incident took place on US Route 50 from Arlington to Fairfax direction, in slowed down traffic for a vehicle that is in front of me having plenty safe distance on September 27, 2023 at 2:27 PM. Notice that there is no hard breaking recorded by the car right after this incident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | 4 times on our 300-mile trip on I-90, where it is a 4-lane divided highway, our Tesla braked unexpectantly (phantom braking) at highway speeds in excess of 65 mph. There were no warning bells or chimes - just violent unexpected braking for no apparent reason. There were no obstructions in the lanes ahead of us and no apparent reason for the sudden braking. Fortunately, there were no cars immediately behind us. But it was extremely unsettling to have the car unexpectedly brake. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom Braking occurs regularly when operating on Adaptive Cruise Control/Auto Steer (Beta). The car slows down to a crawl or comes to a complete stop unexpectedly at high speed on a freeway. Lucking there was no vehicle in the vicinity. There is no warning or notification on the car screen about this. Simply slows down for no reason. I have heard of several class action law suits concerning this as well as numerous users posting similar concerns online. I have not contacted the manufacturer in this regard since they are very difficult to reach. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On Friday, 9/29/23 at 2:24 pm, I was driving on the toll road (freeway) through the Chicago area. I was using my car’s adaptive cruise control. There was no car or other obstacle in front of me, and weather was clear. Abruptly, my car slammed on the brakes, causing an immediate deceleration. If a car had been behind me, I would have been rear-ended at freeway speed. This abrupt deceleration caused my head to snap back, leading to muscle soreness for the past couple days. I called Tesla shortly after, and the guy said he was able to determine there was something wrong with cruise control. He said if I chose to continue using cruise control for the remainder of my trip (Chicago to Minneapolis), I should be extremely careful. I scheduled a service appointment with Tesla, which they just cancelled because they said their remote diagnostics showed no problem with my car. They said the cruise control system is in Beta and therefore it can cause unexpected and unnecessary braking. This is a known issue for Tesla, many owners have complained both to Tesla and to NHTSA. I could have been seriously injured or killed if I had been rear ended at Chicago freeway speeds (i.e., fast). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving on the highway, I had set the cruise control to max 65 mph. After some time it suddenly set the cruise control to max 35 mph and suddenly reduces the speed even though all front vehicles were running around 65 mph. It was incredibly dangerous and the vehicle behind me was about to hit. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | STEERING | I was driving my car, and the steering wheel locked while driving and pushed me into the oncoming lane. We were lucky there were no other cars coming the other direction. I had to reboot the car to get it to drive again. The steering locked up again while getting the car home and also in the driveway. Tesla towed the car and replaced the entire steering rack of the car. I then saw an article about this exact issue and wanted to add my car to the other complaints. My car is only six months old. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES | I was driving at a very slow speed of 1 mile per hr as I entered into the Kohls complex in Pleasanton ca. Then as I was pulling the car to a parking spot, all of a sudden I felt the car accelerated on me. My foot was always on the break and I pressed the break but the car still accelerated at a speed I had no control and it went over the parking bump and hit 2 cars that was parked opposite. I felt out of control and scary because the car was not doing as intended, to stop when pressed the break. I then pressed the park button. Then I also reversed because the car was not stopping. There was totally 4 cars damaged including my car. 2 opposite and 1 parked side of me. I could feel the sudden acceleration in the car and out of control feeling. Luckily there were no people in other car so no one was hurt. I was also not hurt. - Not sure what malfunction happened , but the break in that instant of time was not acting as it should for few seconds. Yes, the car is available for inspection - My safety was at risk as the car was no behaving the way it should and I got scared as to what would happened next. Since there were no people in the other car, there was no risk. but if there were they probably would have got hurt. - I reported the issue to Tesla center. They said they will look but never heard back anything from them . - None of them has inspected the vehicle yet. - No warning signs were there. after it hit i could hear the beep | Crash: Yes Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2023 | STEERING,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Steering felt odd and was pulling to the extreme right, which caused contact with a curb. After driving about a mile after contact, car lost steering and both front wheels were turned inward. Tesla claimed contact with curb caused the steering gear and rack to break-they did not take into consideration that car steering was not workin correctly before impact. Component is not available for inspection. Safety was a factor since I couldn't steer. Has not been reproduced or confirmed by an independent service center. Component not inspected by anyone other than Tesla service center in San Francisco, Ca. No warnings re:steering or any other issues. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My wife pulled into our driveway at 5 mph. Suddenly our Tesla Y. Auto accelerated,before my wife could realize it ramped into our garage through the door and collided on the wall of our Laundry room and kitchen damaging Foundation of the laundry room.My wife was also injured badly. This incident has shaken my wife. We complained to Tesla and filed the complaint but they are not even following up. Please investigate this issue | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 1 Towed | Unknown |
| Sep 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 3 day old Tesla y coolant warning light came on, went to the service center and car has been there for 24 hours no update and now they extended to another 24 hours no reason given. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |