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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My 2023 Tesla Model Y Extended Range (purchased 3/13) is experiencing phantom braking when autopilot (adaptive cruise control) is engaged. At random times and with no apparent obstacles ahead, the vehicle performs aggressive braking without warning. This has occurred at various times of day on divided freeway. This is consistent with what other Tesla drivers have described consistently for several years. I reached out to Tesla for assistance, and they advised to "when engaging Autopilot, make sure the vehicle distance is set above a 4. It can get a little breaky below that" effectively acknowledging this as a known issue. They could not provide guidance on a planned fix. This is a significant safety issue as it creates the risk of being hit from behind if another vehicle is following when the emergency braking occurs. I'm reporting since this clearly is a known safety issue that evidently has gone unresolved for quite some time, and which was not disclosed to me at time of purchase, despite a pattern of issues. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Apr 2023 | AIR BAGS | Air Bags malfunctioning, if fact, not even working on this 2023 Tesla Model Y. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | STEERING | Took delivery of new Tesla Model Y on Friday, March 24th. While driving it to my residence (205 miles away) noticed that the alignment was off and vehicle pulled to the left at highway speeds on flat, level sections of roadway. I was not informed of the 100 miles or 7 days to report issues with vehicle. I scheduled service with Tesla with odometer reading of 348. Tesla service verified the issue and corrected it but charged me $275 for an issue that was present from factory. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Driving eastbound on I-70 in Nebraska March 29 I had about 4 incidents of sudden braking with no obstacles or even any cars or trucks in front. All oncoming traffic was far across the median. In each of these incidents, there was a dark patch across the highway, probably from recently applied asphalt. One of these was severe enough that there would have been an accident if there were any closely following cars. In that particular incident there was a small concrete bridge that had an obvious dark black surface - probably from resurfacing. I purchased "full self driving" for the car a few days ago. The car was in auto-steering mode and was capable of changing lanes initiated by the turn signal, although there was no lane change at the time of these incidents. I have not reported this other than through this web site. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING | Water intrusion rear tail lights. According to Tesla service it is within Tesla specs. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Phantom/False Forward Collision Warning 1. March 28, 2023 While driving on Alder Woods Dr, Fairfax, VA at 6:21PM Forward Collision Warning activated automatically for a parked car on the street 2. March 28, 2023 While driving on Alder Woods Dr., Fairfax, VA at 6:22PM Forward Collision Warning activated automatically for another parked car on the street - same trip as above at 1., but additional incident 3. On March 25, 2023 on Alder Woods Dr., Fairfax VA Forward Collision Warned activated automatically for yet another parked car on the street. When forward collision warning activates the screen turns red, there are high sounding alarms inside the car, it distracts the passenger by creating an unsafe conditions for the wrong reasons. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | SEAT BELTS | This concerns the front seat belts in the car. I am just over five feet tall. Even with the seatbelt adjusted to the lowest position on the door post, the anchor point for the shoulder portion is six inches above my shoulder. This occurs on both sides of the vehicle, driver and passenger front seats. The seat belt runs across the left side of my neck when in the driver's seat, with the seat appropriately adjusted for my stature. If I raise the seat any higher I won't be able to reach the accelerator and brake pedals. Anyone who isn't tall would have this problem in the car. I'm concerned for my safety in a possible vehicle crash. I have recently reported this to Tesla Motors. No warning lights or messages are given in the vehicle for this problem. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I have seen this happen on several occassions during my trip from Austin,TX to Lubbock, TX. I out the car on Cruise Control and the car has applied emergency brakes suddenly several times even when there is no cars or other obstacles around. Even after I tried disabling the "Automatic Emergency Braking" feature, I am still facing this issue on several occasions. I have taken 2 trips so far in the past 2 months from Austin to Lubbock (about 360 miles one way) and I ahve decided the car is not at all reliable for me. I am even considering trading-in the car for another brand. This is real safety hazard. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The adaptive cruise control system routinely applies the brakes when there is no lead traffic on a completely open highway. I’ve had multiple instances where the car decelerated from 75 to 45 mph before I could react and press the accelerator to correct the state. During these events, the car does not indicate any type of emergency warning (no forward collision warning, no emergency braking warning). This poses enough of a safety risk to cars behind me that I will no longer use Tesla’s adaptive cruise control feature. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Auto wiper not functioning properly heavy rain with low speed wiping and full blast with light rain | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving South on I75 near Tampa Florida using Autopilot the car suddenly decelrated to 10mph. There were no cars next to me and we were passing through a 6 lane area where the road splits. No distinguishing features, no cars on either side and we were heading slightly up hill. It seems like the cameras could only see the sky. Fortunately there was no car directly behind me. Very scary. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The adaptive cruise control slammed the brake when driving over a highway overpass. Tesla slammed the brake from 75 mph to 50 mph. Luckily there was no car behind. Clear sky around noon time. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The contact owns a 2023 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving approximately 62 MPH with the autopilot mode activated, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. There were no warning lights illuminated. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 3,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 3,000 |
| Mar 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Tesla model y 2023 phantom braked on the intestate. The emergency braking system and adaptive cruise are not correct. I almost got hit because my tesla auto pilot braked on the interstate for no reason. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | This is the second instance of this issue happening, first at 1800 miles ODO, and second at 4690. Both instances, when driving, the vehicle suddenly and violently shuddered to a stop. The first instance happened as I pulled out from a stop sign to take an unprotected left onto a street. In the middle of the intersection, the car shuddered to a stop violently and a lot of warnings and alerts came up on screen. Cars moving both directions had to suddenly stop to not hit my car dead in the intersection. The gear stalk inputs to put the car in drive or reverse and allow function of the vehicle did not work. I pushed the park button on the right stalk and then moved it into drive, which it allowed. I was then able to limp the car out of the intersection (with power vastly reduced and speed reduced) and await a tow. The second instance I had pulled into a parking lot at around the same speed (~15 mph) in which the car again shuddered violently to a stop with no ability to override. Traffic behind me had to brake as to not hit my vehicle which stopped in the middle of the lot. Again the car was inoperable until this time locking and unlocking the car from outside of it and reentering to limp it to a parking spot for tow. Safety of myself and others were put severely at risk suddenly and without warning from the car stopping itself. If this were to happen in other, less fortunate scenarios, risk to human lives is great. Problem has been confirmed by Tesla service center, but not reproduced while in their possession. The vehicle was inspected by Tesla service after the first incident and was explained to have found no faults with any hardware, but found a corrupt line of code in the firmware (no update or firmware change was noted to be available). Warning messages and alerts populated at time of incident and no sooner (no warning is given prior to issue). Alerts include power reduced, rear motor disabled, vehicle shutting down, automatic emergency braking disabled and more. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Took 1st long trip with the Tesla. I had "phantom braking" happen 5 times while on the trip. Once on the way to the destination. Then, it happened 4 times on the return trip home in a span of 2 hours. This was in the first autopilot mode (Traffic-Aware Cruise Control), not the Autosteer version. Each time it happened on an open road in a rural area at a speed of around 70mph. This puts my vehicle and others at risk where someone that is close behind me would be surprised with a sudden decrease in speed and cause an incident. It also is nerve-wracking to the driver and passengers of the vehicle. This problem is known within the Tesla community and was reported to Tesla. The vehicle was "inspected" by looking at incidents in the cars software log. The Customer Service agent could not confirm any incidents and asked that I file a "bug report" through the car immediately after it happens again. There are no symptoms or warning of the problem - it happens at random. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | New car with less than 1800 miles. Multiple times where The car will frequently and unexpectedly slam on the brakes while in autopilot on the highway. Almost caused an accident twice and I was terrified. Did not know about this problem but this can cause an accident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | POWER TRAIN | Vehicle displayed alert “Powertrain requires service - vehicle speed and power may be limited” at 1664 odometer miles. Vehicle had to be towed to the service center and the cause was a faulty oil pump. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I got the delivery of the car VIN [XXX] on March 10 7 PM and got the car out and drive to home from Kennesaw tesla delivery center. On my way home the car stopped right after crossing the light signal at the intersection of Medlock bridge rd. and parson rd. And it does not move, I had to turn on the emergency lights to save myself from accident and the cop had come after some time. We were lucky to save ourselves without an accident as the car stopped all of the sudden and there was no car behind. I think this is a problem with the car and needs to be inspected and nobody should be in this situation in the future. I want to raise this as a safety concern please for Model Y in the very first hour after the delivery of the car. INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | While driving acceleration pedal got loose and fell on the floor or the car. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Car was purchased December 30, 2022. The first time I engaged auto pilot, an oncoming semi was in its lane and my car slammed the brakes on while on auto pilot. It happened the next time I used auto pilot with zero perceived “threat”. I was extremely hesitant to use it, henceforth. I tried auto pilot over and over with my foot, poised and ready to take over the throttle, and my hand poised to disengage auto pilot. 12 times it slammed the brakes on-every time I used the feature it randomly braked, there was absolutely nothing around. These incidences were on two lane highways, no oncoming traffic, nothing in the road. Phantom braking. I do not feel safe using this feature on my brand new car because if someone is traveling behind me, it will cause an accident. I took my car in for minor service (for adjustment and stern issue) shortly after purchasing and mentioned this to the Tesla service Center representative. She said to me, “oh yeah, it does that sometimes. You have to be ready to take over.” Even being poised and ready to take over, I fear my reflexes will not be fast enough if there were someone traveling behind me at 60 mph. and it certainly isn’t how cruise control should work. I have a second service appointment, and actually noted the phantom braking (I subsequently learned this is what it’s called after googling, “random, braking with no threat Tesla model Y 2023”) on my service request to ensure that it has been documented because it’s a problem. A dangerous, unacceptable problem that needs to be fixed. My service appointment is 3/28/2023. Thank you. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | LANE DEPARTURE,BACK OVER PREVENTION | Bought 2023 Tesla Model Y on 29-Dec-2022. Noticed that when I am backing up the car, even when there is another car right behind, or any pedestrian crossing there was no warning. At first I thought some settings is turned off. Later, when I was changing lanes in freeway, no lane departure alert. Also no blind spot chime came on even though that option was turned on in settings. Almost I was about to crash into another car which was in my blind spot. I started googling and learnt that Tesla has removed ultrasonic sensors from Oct2022 onwards and they are working on Tesla Vision which is a camera based system. But Tesla vision is not ready as of 08-Mar-2023 when I am writing this. How is the 2023 Model Y manufactured without ultrasonic sensors and no Tesla vision passed basic safety test? I feel threatened every moment I drive the car without these basic safety features like rear object detection while backing up, lane departure alert, curb sensor alert, blind spot warning. I feel like I am driving a 2000 model old car which doesn't have any of these features. How does NHTSA deem Tesla cars manufactured after Oct22 safe on roads? I will be at financial burden and stress and risk of death without these basic features in a 70k+ car. Why is Tesla even allowed to make such low standard cars without any of the basic safety features? Attached screenshots of my chat with Tesla service also attaching the link Tesla support gave me as ref - https://www.tesla.com/en_eu/support/transitioning-tesla-vision Please investigate this issue and stop Tesla from making and selling unsafe cars for huge price and making profits but doesn't have the basic ethics to care about customer safety. Thanks | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | EXTERIOR LIGHTING,AIR BAGS | 3 days after purchase, headlights would not work, car towed to service center, both front headlight assemblies were replaced. 3 weeks after purchase, fault detected on passenger restraint, service center states passenger seat needs to be replaced to make airbag operational. I live 90 miles from service center, making these repairs quite difficult | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2023 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The contact owns a 2023 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while driving 40 MPH with the Autonomous Self Driving feature activated, the vehicle abruptly stopped without warning. The contact was then able to accelerate, and the vehicle started operating normally. The vehicle was not diagnosed. The dealer was contacted, and the dealer stated that should the failure recur, the vehicle needed to be diagnosed. The manufacturer was contacted, and the manufacturer stated that the vehicle needed to be diagnosed. The failure mileage was 1,250. | Crash: No Fire: No | 1,250 |
| Mar 2023 | STEERING | We leased the brand new Model Y on Tuesday January 24th at Tesla, Rockville, MD. On Friday January 27th at approximately 4:30pm we were driving on RT773 Riverside Parkway in the right hand lane and the steering wheel came totally out of the column with wires and electronic exposed. I was able to slow the car down and the car went up on the curb. I kept trying to put the steering wheel back in the column and somehow managed to get it in enough to drive home which was 5 miles away. All of the electronics did not work. Tesla came and towed the car the same evening. There was no working warning. Tesla towed the car and the next day on Saturday said the bolt to the steering column was loose and became dislodged. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |