Complaint volume
1069 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
1069 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2023 Tesla Model Y, grouped by component category.
1069 Total complaints
138 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 138 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?
138 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
1,069 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 2023 | STEERING | While driving my 2023 Model Y, the electronic power steering suddenly stopped working. Luckily there wasn’t a vehicle behind me, which avoided any accident. I had to use immense manual power on the steering to make the vehicle move to the side. Upon resetting, the steering was back to normal again. However, this seems to be a serious safety hazard and I cannot fathom the fact if it had happened on a busy freeway. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | while using cruise control there are sudden and unexpected violent decelerations even though there are no cars other obstructions. also the visialization sofware cuts out or does not come one leading to no blind spot warning, forward collision warning, or may safety features requiring the software. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom braking occurs in cruise control for no reason and with no warning. The car is available for inspection. Many other Tesla drivers have described the same situation. On a recent cross country trip phantom braking happened frequently. We made sure there was no one behind us when we engaged cruise to avoid being rear ended. We were in NV when it happened again- this time a big rig had safe distance behind us when the brakes engaged ( we were driving 75). The rig driver swerved into another lane to avoid us. We have not taken car to service center yet. Social media is full of these accounts. This is still happening. There is no warning whatsoever. It’s hard to describe how terrifying this is. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | POWER TRAIN,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | I was about to park in car space in a parking lot. Instead of stopping in the car space, it has accelerated suddenly into the lawn in front of the car space. Tried to stop and it accelerated again and then hit the tree. The left front part of the model Y is damaged and is still in the body shop even after more than a month. I thought the only explanation is I have pressed accelerator instead of break. But as I think about it, I don't think I pressed the accelerator. It did sudden intended acceleration twice during that incidence. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While traveling on I70 from Columbia, Missouri to Grand Junction, Colorado and back, we experienced at least 30 incidents of sudden braking while in adaptive cruise control. Some of the incidents were rapid, causing the car to lose 20 to 30 mph within a second. For the most part these occurrences of sudden braking happened on open highway with no other vehicle within 1/2 mile in front of us. We discussed this issue extensively with Telsa and no resolution was provided by Tesla. In fact, one service agent stated that we should just be happy that we were driving a Tesla and that eventually Tesla may solve the problem. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The adaptive cruise control malfunctioned while engaged on the highway/interstate. On a recent trip of approx. 1,000 miles, the vehicle experienced "phantom braking" (aggressive emergency braking for no reason) on three occasions while the adaptive cruise control was engaged on the highway/interstate at approx. 65-75 mph, with no obstruction/vehicle in front and the weather was clear sunny skies. No warnings or messages were prompt by the vehicle. This abrupt phantom breaking could have caused serious injury from a rear-end collision or cause vehicles behind to take unnecessary unsafe emergency maneuvers/braking. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | BACK OVER PREVENTION | The contact owns a 2023 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while reversing out of a parking space, the audible alarm and collision avoidance system did not activate as the vehicle drove closer to a nearby pole. The vehicle struck the pole causing minor damages to the rear pumper. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The manufacturer and local dealer were notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 4,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 4,000 |
| Jul 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Cruise control settings are such that the driver engages and sets the cruise control speed based on the current speed of the vehicle. That speed setting should then never change unless the driver changes it. The vehicle unexpectedly and spontaneously resets the speed setting on its own when passing by certain specific landmarks e.g. specific exit ramps on the interstate and where an intersecting road crosses over the interstate on a bridge. The change in the speed setting can be quite large based on the speed limit of the interstate which then causes the vehicle to dramatically slow to meet the new speed setting. For example the speed setting was set at 70 MPH. The vehicle passed by a specific exit ramp on an interstate and the speed setting unexpectedly and spontaneously reset to 55 MPH. The vehicle then goes into a dramatic deceleration to slow down to the new speed setting creating a high risk for a rear collision from a following car. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Unintended Acceleration. I was driving back from a place in brand new Tesla, drove around 11-12 miles and was fine. We went to ice cream place and I stopped my vehicle in parking spot. Car was completely stopped at that time. To fix parking I put steering in reverse (don’t remember putting my foot on acceleration at all) and car went back at fast speed. I was completely taken aback and before I could realize and put brake, it hit red pole. Thankfully all family members were safe and no car or any one was hit while car was reversing. All happened within just few secs. Car was towed away to home and then to body shop, police did come to check on scene but there was no police report as it didn’t involve any other Car/person and no damage was caused to property. Car is damaged in rear but motor and battery is all fine. It’s in body shop but maybe totaled based on claim. I still don’t remember putting foot on accelerator while reversing but was blaming myself, then this morning I came across article so wanted to share the incident with you. https://www.autoevolution.com/news/breaking-nhtsa-petition-shows-tesla-s-sudden-unintended-acceleration-is-real-and-curable-217525.html | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Have experienced 2 major “phantom braking” incidents almost causing 2 accidents. There has also been several other incidents but not as severe as the 2 almost causing accident. Called Tesla and they said it is a known problem, service person said he has had his car for 5 years and still having issues. Evidently he said it was software related. He reported there is nothing they can do as solution has not been found. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The contact owns a 2023 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while driving approximately 65-75 MPH with the Autonomous Self Driving feature and the Forward Collision Avoidance: Adaptive Cruise Control activated, the vehicle jerked and drifted into another lane. The contact stated that the message to manually drive the vehicle was displayed. The contact turned off the Autonomous Self Driving and Forward Collision Avoidance: Adaptive Cruise Control however, the vehicle experienced phantom braking 30 minutes later while driving. The contact continued driving to her destination. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. A dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was 398. | Crash: No Fire: No | 398 |
| Jul 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Hard braking on its own while using cruise control. Nearly rear-ended multiple times. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Drove thru multiple states in spring and Tesla autopilot would come to abrupt sudden slow down without warning. Bad enough that I would disable the system and drive manually. This problem occurs regardless of one lane or two lane roads. With or without cars in front or behind me. Sunny or cloudy skies. Hot or cold. Straight or windy roads. With autopilot or even adaptive cruise control. I have no faith in the system. At one point it even changed lanes without warning almost hitting another car. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving in cruise control, the car suddenly decelerates periodically from 75 mph to 50 mph. No immediate safety issue but if a car had been following, we may have had a collision. We logged this with Tesla using “bug report”. No warnings. No inspections yet. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I am filing a complaint about 2 separate issues. The first issue is water leaking inside of the center console. I drove my vehicle through the car wash for the first time this morning. Apparently the process of receiving an undercarriage wash left soapy water inside my center console. I have taken a photo. The second issue is that I can't operate cruise control (which is branded as Traffic Aware Cruise Control) without worrying about the vehicle brakes being aggressively applied in situations where they shouldn't be. I was almost rear ended on the highway last week when I had TACC set to 70mph and the vehicle decided to slam on the brakes for no reason. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My Tesla has experienced several phantom breaking occurrences while on the highway where autopilot engages break aggressively when there is no collision possibility and almost caused rear end collisions into my car. Very terrifying and this needs to be addressed. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I had a very dangerous phantom breaking event while driving on the interstate. The car slammed on the brakes for no reason and I nearly had a rear end collision. There was nobody in front of me, sun was not a factor, road was flat and straight, weather was clear. Car was on cruise control only. I was driving Interstate speed, about 70 mph, and without warning the Tesla Model Y slammed on the brakes and the only reason we didn’t get rear ended was because I quickly hit the accelerator to get out of the braking action. My dogs also went flying forward in the back seat and my passenger was wretched forward and scared b/c it came out of nowhere. There was no indication from the car before, during our after that there was a problem. I have notified Tesla of the incident, but don’t expect they will do anything. This happened Thursday June 29, 2023 at 4pm CT. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | STRUCTURE,LANE DEPARTURE,BACK OVER PREVENTION | Backing up in a parking lot with direct sun behind the car, lost sight via the mirrors, dashboard camera and parking assist and collided with parking bollard approximately 3' high causing extensive damage to the left, rear quarter panel and wheel well. Parking assist didn't beep, blare or other as it does and has for our yard waste bins and garden cart at the edges of our driveway (backing up in the dark). I believe the fact that cameras only and sun exposure is a bad mix and was sure glad we weren't in FSD and going forward. I think that removing the radar function via software and or removing the connector plug (at a service visit) is both unsafe and a fraud against the purchaser of such a vehicle and radar systems should be reinstated for the consideration of safety whether going backwards or forwards. Wanted to make the complaint first as we also can't get a service appointment for this incident until the end of July. Happy with the overall vehicle but this safety function is fallible and unsafe. | Crash: Yes Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom braking issue- Brakes were automatically applied while driving on open highway with no other vehicles around. Autopilot was in use, speed set to limit of 75 mph. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Vehicle experienced phantom braking while on the highway. Vehicle was travelling at 85mph while Autopilot was engaged - hands were on steering wheel and no warnings were flashing. Vehicle experienced rapid braking/deceleration with no objects in front of vehicle - road was empty and no other vehicles were around. Incident occurred on 07/04/2023 @ 0544hrs MST. Vehicle displayed no warning signs during incident. This has occurred multiple times in the past while Autopilot was engaged. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | The auto wiper system of the Tesla Y failed miserably in a torrential downpour while traveling on a major highway on the east coast. The wipers were working fine but after the downpour they simply stopped working. Fortunately, we were able to pull to the side of the road, get on the touchscreen and manually turn them on. We did not use the “auto” mode of the wipers again on our trip. There is a serious defect on the auto mode on our Y! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE | While driving on the freeway at a speed of 72 MPH thr speed limit was 75 MPH used cruse control no vehicles are onfront of me and it did a sudden brake and went to 0 luckily escaped from life threat behind me other vehicle was their that driver handled well if not it would have effected worse. Happend couple of time since I was new Tesla I thought I was not handling properly serious life threat issue scared to drive | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I live in Fremont, CA. A few hours ago, I was driving from Mountain View to my home. When I was in the left most lane of CA-237 driving at like 70 mph on adaptive cruise control, the car started to brake really hard all of a sudden. There was nothing ahead of me as far as I could see at that point, there was no car close to me in the right lane either, and there wasn’t any kind of sharp turn or something. The braking was so sudden, forceful, and above all unexpected that we were really shocked and scared (and of course experienced a horrifying jerk). The same kind of thing has happened once before with the same car when the car began to brake suddenly and forcefully even though there was no one in sight on the highway. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Tesla's Autopilot feature regularly experiences "phantom braking". A typical scenario is while traveling on an interstate highway in Idaho, Oregon or Washington state at the speed limit (70 to 80 MPH), the car will suddenly and violently decelerate. The severity can vary between annoying to so extreme that the passenger is thrown forward hard enough to engage the retention mechanism in the seat belt. This happens under seemingly perfect conditions-- mid-day, clear skies, clear lane markings, smooth pavement in good condition, straight section of road. The deceleration can be overridden by pressing the accelerator or disengaging autopilot but by that time the risk of being rear-ended by anyone traveling close behind is very high. For this reason I've been using the feature less and less which leaves me without any form of basic cruise control. In two different trips of around 500 miles, phantom braking has occurred between 10 and 20 times each. In two different service requests, Tesla has confirmed that my car, including the vision system, is operating within normal specifications. Beyond that they're unwilling to engage in any form of diagnosis or investigation. There are two fundamental problems here: 1) Tesla's Autopilot feature in unreliable and dangerous 2) The car I purchased was advertised to have Cruise Control, implemented by Tesla with their Autopilot feature. Because of 1), it effectively has no Cruise Control. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving highway speeds in autopilot (cruise control) I experience sudden heavy breading for no reason. No cars around on a flat road. Once while in front of another car which scared me enough not to use it anymore. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |