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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | We upgraded our auto pilot to the advanced auto pilot system and when driving from Denver to Santa Fe the Tesla would brake abruptly without notice or reason. The braking reduced speed by at least 30-40 mph in a matter of a second or two. This occurred 6 times during this drive. The concern is if this happens when other cars are driving behind our car, it will cause a collision. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | This has been a consistent on-going issue with my brand new 2023 Tesla Model Y. While using Autopilots Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and the Autosteer feature the car will without warning begin braking. Each time is different in regards to severity of the breaking but it is typically like letting off the accelerator pedal which in a Tesla is comparable to significant breaking. Have taken two highway road trips and on both trips, the phantom breaking has occurred multiple times. Some of the incidents the car would go from 75MPH to 45MPH in a matter of seconds. From research done, this "Phantom Breaking" is a serious issue that Tesla says is due to software issues and not hardware issues. Our safety was put at risk because the person behind us might not be paying attention when cruising on open road, during daylight, etc and could rear-end our car. There have been no predictors or weather conditions that cause the braking. Usually, for us, has happened on sunny days on multi-lane highways with not a lot of traffic. Have taken car to dealer and they state it is a software issue. No warning signs that the breaking would happen and no objects or cars show up on the screen when it happens. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | STEERING | Over the past few weeks, I have been experiencing significant problems with the steering wheel of my car. Upon starting the vehicle, the steering wheel frequently locks or becomes exceedingly stiff, requiring significant physical effort to turn. Rebooting the system, exist then re-entering the car can sometimes fix the issue temporarily to make it drivable for the current trip. This issue not only causes inconvenience but also poses a serious threat to safety as it sometimes persists even while driving. Yesterday it happened again when I drove the car to the dealer for diagnosis and repair. Luckily, it didn't happen when I was on highway, it happened when I existed the highway and stopped at the first traffic light when the steering wheel became extremely difficult to turn again. The car is in the service center since 6/3/23. Operating a vehicle under such conditions is challenging and risky, creating potential hazards for both myself and other road users. This defect could lead to an inability to navigate or respond effectively to traffic situations, thereby greatly increasing the risk of an accident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I bought the Model Y in Feb 2023, after 2 months of driving, 3 weeks back on 5/14/2023, all of sudden the car lit up Yellow Brake indicator on dashboard while I was driving downhill. I didn't understand what this indicator meant but when I needed to brake - I could not brake at all, so I let regenerative braking slow the car down which it did. I was horrified as I was on the road at that time, so I tried to find parking to park the car and then read online what this indicator meant, but felt very unsafe to drive the car home. Since then Brakes doesnt work and ABS seems to push back my foot hard and Adaptive cruise controld doesnt work at all. I have service appointment on 6/6 which is the first appointment I could find close to my home. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES, ELECTRIC | 2023 TESLA Y -Consumer is writing about concerns with the speed assistance, auto-pilot (quick stopping action). Consumer was unaware of the dangers and that there was no cruise or lane control. Consumer submitted service request. Consumer has listed summary of observations & incidents. Consumer listed several questions: Are all Tesla Y prone to phantom breaking? Did we get a lemon? Can we get it fixed? Can Tesla replace the computer? Can we get a replacement car? Can we make the sales go back and instead buy a safe car? Do you have to be in an accident, having someone injured or having someone killed for Tesla to provide a warning to customers of Tesla Y? As a new Tesla owner what I the next step? Can we trust our Tesla Y not to cause an accident? Should we garage the car until Tesla has made its needed software updates? Can we return the car to Tesla? Get it replaced? | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Drove my Tesla on a road trip for the first time and while driving the vehicle would slam on the brakes with no vehicle object or person in front of the vehicle. Very dangerous due to driving 70mph and vehicle tried to come to stop with vehicles behind me. This happened at least 3 times while in adaptive cruise control. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | TIRES | The contact owns a 2023 Tesla Model Y equipped with Continental Tires, Tire Line: ContiSport Contact 5 ContiSilent, Tire Size: 255/45/R19, DOT Number: 1AF0FBJJL4321. The contact stated while parking the vehicle, the front and rear passenger’s side tires struck the curb. The contact inspected the tires and became aware of tearing of the tires. Upon investigation, the contact discovered that the failure was referred to as chunking. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who declined to replace the tires and advised the contact to contact the tire manufacturer. The manufacturer informed the contact that due to curb impacts; the warranty was voided and that the contact would incur the cost of replacing the tires. The tires were the original equipment. The tires were not replaced. The failure mileage was 4,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 4,000 |
| Jun 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My car's forward collision warning system, gave another false warning: 1. May 31, 2023 at 9:04am 2. While driving on Rte. 50 at Fairfax, VA 3. I had more then enough safe distance between my car and the car in front of me The forward collision system provided sound, and visual alarms for the unwarranted situation that I described above. This cause a great deal of confusion, shock and distracted me from the road. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | The driver floor mat that goes up on the foot rest keeps coming off and I fear it will start interfering with the brake pedal. I have contacted Tesla and they refuse to fix the issue as they say there is no way to repair it. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Experienced dangerous situation while using Speed Control, aka: Cruise Control, with NO vehicles ahead of mine, a totally empty road in New Mexico on I-25, the Tesla Model Y with 2,000 miles on it suddenly braked, dropping the speed over 15mph, then suddenly accelerated, I read this is a known problem and is known as Phantom Braking. It happened several times during the trip, once with a vehicle behind me creating a VERY dangerous situation. I have stopped using this feature until Tesla offers a proven fix for the issue. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The car drops the speed suddenly when the car is in autopilot mode .I have noticed this issues on interstate so far . I-68,I-90,I-76,I-80. It happened 6-8 times so far since i bought the car (3/7/2023 ). This is a dangerous situation and high risk of collision from the rear . I have informed Tela service team and i have been acknowledged that there is no solution at this point but they were working on the software updates . I kindly request NHTSA to ask Tesla to recall the car until the issue gets fixed . I'm really worried . | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Driving directly north on SR281, about an hour before sunset. Perfectly clear dry sunny day. No traffic for at least 500ft in front of me. A car immediately behind me (about 2 car lengths).. The sun was at the roughly 10 o-clock position (Horizontal plane, 12 o'clock being directly forward/North), and at about 10 o'clock vertically (12 o'clock being directly up, West at 9 o'clock, East at 3 o'clock, centered on my position). Full Self Driving beta visualization was enabled. The vehicle was not in AutoSteer or Full Self Driving mode - but it was in Traffic-Aware Cruise Control mode. My car braked hard and suddenly, causing the car behind me to brake. On the FSD display, a red vehicle was rendered on top of my location (driver position of this "ghost" vehicle would have been ~2 feet in front of where I was sitting). This phantom car appears to have been caused by lens flare from the sun. This sequence of events repeated itself four or five times over the next few minutes, with the ghost car appearing, the car trying to brake, and then disappearing. My safety was put at risk due to hard and unexpected braking under conditions where there was no reasonable expectation that I would need to perform an emergency stop. The risk was from the vehicle behind me having to unexpectedly stop; without an attentive drive this would have caused a collision. The vehicle has not been examined by any dealer or service center, and appears to be a software problem that occurs under specific lighting conditions. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | SEAT BELTS | One of the seat-belt in the rear seat stopped clicking into the buckle and as a result the seat belt was unusable. The seat-belt latch plate would slide into the buckle, but wouldn't click and stay in there. Since this happened on a long road trip, it put one of the passenger at risk all through the road trip as they could not use the seat belt during the trip back home. Tesla technician is expected to come in next few days to inspect it and fix the seat buckle. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Approximately 5 times while using Adaptive Cruise Control my 2023 Tesla Y will abruptly brake and slow down approximately 10-15 mph even through there are not roadway dangers. It is a startling event every time. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,VISIBILITY/WIPER | Repetitive phantom braking. Happens quite often. Three time today on the intestate. I had cruise control set at 71mph and without any vehicle or obstacles in the area the car hard breaked from 71 down to 40. I have it on video. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | I have owned my new Tesla for about a month and it has had a recent software update. Today, I had the cruise control set to 75mph on the freeway and the car very suddenly reset the speed to 50 mph for no apparent reason, making the car rapidly and suddenly slow down. I figured this was just a fluke and later tried to use the cruise control again. This time the cruise control was set to 75 mph on the freeway and the car very suddenly reset the speed to 30 mph for no apparent reason, the car very suddenly hard braked on the freeway. I had to swerve in the other lane so the car behind me did not rear end me. Luckily I did not get into an accident but it was close. This is very dangerous and unacceptable to car safety. I have never experienced anything like this in my life. I have scheduled an appointment to have my new Tesla looked at but I want to notify the government about a serious safety issue with the Model Y 2023 Tesla. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | We have had our car for under 3 months and have had repeated episodes (easily 2 to 3 dozen) of extremely rapid braking when the car is in cruise control on the open interstate road when there are no cars ahead of us or any other obstacles that might have triggered the camera sensor. Tried turning off the forward collision avoidance option and the events still happen. Have kept the windshield over the front camera areas clean. It has happened typically during sunny days as we have not usually used the cruise control in the rain. When these events happen there is typical rapid slowing of the vehicle by 20-30 mph within a few seconds. If a car was following close behind us, there would be a high chance of collision. There have been no warning messages or any signs that the vehicle is otherwise malfunctioning. When we contacted Tesla technical assistance, they emailed us a copy of the part of the car manual that says the feature might not function in bad weather, if the camera is not clean, in construction zones, etc. none of which describe the circumstances of when this malfunction happens in the car in broad daylight. They also said whenever it happens to send a bug report which the technicians will look at. They also said it might be fixed with the next update, which of course, it wasn't. Finally, in the same batch of emails, they sent email that said we could report our issue to NHTSA which without any other resolution method to the problem, is why I am reporting it here. It seems as if there are many Tesla owners who are reporting this problem online. It may have been less of a problem before Tesla removed the radar feature in the last year and depended solely on their front cameras to make automatic braking decisions for the car. Whatever is happening, it isn't working and makes driving with cruise control scary and dangerous. Thank you for listening. Please help. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I have my car serviced 4(four) times, most recently on May 26, 2023 at Tesla Sterling, VA Service Center. While traveling with family on May 27, 2023, we had three false warning incidents, each caused serious confusion and distress: 1. On May 27, at 12:47pm on Alder Woods Dr. at Fairfax VA - my car issued a false warning for a legally parked car on the street. 2. On May 27, at 6:51pm on I-495South - my car issued another false alarm for a slow downed traffic, for the car travelling in front of me - going well below the speed limit, with a lot of space between two cars. 3. On May 27, at 6:53pm on I-495South - my car issued a third false alarm for the same slow downed traffic, and for the same car as I described above - going well below speed limit, with a lot of space between two cars. Tesla's Forward Collision System warnings can't be turned off, the false alarms as I described above cause a lot of confusion. I need to look at the screen to study what was going on, the false warnings system distracts me, which may cause other serious injuries or problems. Also, the forward collision system is connected to Tesla insurance, I am paying 2 times more than what I started to pay, due to false warnings, when I purchased the car 6 months ago, for no good reason. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving on a relatively straight, 2-lane highway with cruise control set and no autopilot, the car started to brake suddenly and aggressively. This caused the car behind me to almost rear end my car. Luckily I was quick enough to press the accelerator to avoid the accident. This same sudden braking happened a total of 4 times within a 200 mile trip, one of which almost caused an accident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | This incident took place on May 26, 2023 at 3:43pm on Rt 608 (West Ox Rd) at Fairfax, VA. I had another false alarm warning for a car traveling in front of me with below the speed limit and having more than plenty space between us. My car put a false warning with extreme sounds and visuals, as a result I had to take off my eyes from the road and look at the screen to see what may be going on. I was distracted due to this warning, and I had to 'hard brake' as a result. Tesla's false forward collision warning almost caused an accident as a result. Both false warning and the follow up is captured in the screenshot that I share. I had my car at Tesla Service Center at 9am same day on the same day (May 26, 2023) for fixing Forward Collision System malfunctions. The service told me that there is no fix, they are aware of the problems, but there is no fix. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Leased a brand new Tesla Model Y @ 01 Apr 2023. I put @ 2100 miles on the car. On @ 01 May 2023 I get a fault stating vehicle could not be charged. Took the vehicle to Tesla for repair on 04 May 2023, and was told that it needed a new HV battery. Original completion date was to be 20 May 2023. This was pushed back to 26 May 2023 and has now been pushed back to 31 May 2023. This is a vehicle that was a month old. Asked about a loaner, and was told that there were none available. I will have been without my car that I am paying a lease payment, insurance payment and self drive subscription payment for almost a months worth of time. Was told by a Tesla rep that no compensation is available. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES | Error message “power braking assist reduced” displayed on the vehicle and the vehicles brake gave out. Meaning I was unable to utilize the brakes for slowing down the vehicle. The message disappeared after parking (and powering down) the vehicle for a bit. Had the same issue in a few days. Tesla is now replacing the entire brake pad assembly due to a brake sensor failure. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Power conversion unit failed with 400 miles on the car. It is being repaired now. The first replacement also failed and they are in the process of trying a second replacement. Car has now been out of service for more than a week. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | False forward collision took place on May 24, 2023 at 6:18pm on Rt. 50 Arlington, VA in the following form: I was driving on my way home, while driving around 35mph (limit is 45mph), a car in front of was taking the left lane dedicated to turn left, which slowed down. I was going slow (35mph) and there was more than enough space between me and the car in front of me. At this point Tesla's forward collision gave me another false warning. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| May 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Car was in autopilot multiple times and sharply applied brakes with nothing in front or obstacles. This is dangerous and almost caused an accident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |