Owner-reported complaints naming the driver-assistance system, filed with NHTSA
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Reports naming forward-collision avoidance, lane keeping, back-over prevention, cruise control and related electronic driver-assistance systems. Every record below is an owner-reported complaint about the 2018 Tesla Model S submitted to NHTSA — not a confirmed defect, not a recall and not a manufacturer bulletin. 74 reports on file name it.
Complaints are reports submitted by owners and drivers to NHTSA. They are not verified and do not establish that a defect exists.
The 25 most recent of 74, in the owner's own words
I pulled my Tesla Model S in a parking lot, and as I turned the car into a parking spot, the car suddenly accelerated, jumped the curb next to the parking lot and hit a tree. The car speed when I pulled into the parking lot and then into a parking spot was very low. so I was very surprised and startled to see the car suddenly on its own accelerating and jumping the curb.
Car was in summon mode and crashed into a fence . Caused damage to frond end of the car
I was entering my drive way waiting for the garage to open suddenly my car just accelerated and hit the wall.
Recently right side blind spot monitor camera stopped working. As result, majority of safety features in vehicle has been disabled to include forward collision warning, adaptive cruise control, and many other safety features of the vehicle.
both vehicle displays have stopped functioning, therefore there is no indication of speed, remaining charge, blind spot protection, or back up camera. also, turn signals are non-functional. This is a safety concern to yourself and other drivers.
On [XXX], my 2018 Tesla Model S (VIN [XXX] ) experienced a complete brake system failure while in motion. The brake pedal was pressed multiple times, but the vehicle did not stop, resulting in a collision. The emergency brake also failed to engage. 1. Component/System Failure: The braking system, including both the standard hydraulic brakes and the electronic emergency brake, failed to operate. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. 2. Safety Risk: This put my safety and the safety of others at immediate risk, as I was unable to stop the vehicle to avoid an accident. 3. Confirmation of Problem: The problem has not yet been reproduced or confirmed by a Tesla service center since the accident, but the vehicle previously had recalls in 2021 and January 2024 for brake and emergency brake issues that Tesla claimed to have remedied. 4. Inspection: The vehicle has been involved in an accident and has been documented by police and insurance representatives. Tesla has not yet inspected the car after the most recent failure. 5. Warning Lamps/Messages: There were no warning lamps or error messages on the dashboard prior to the failure. The brakes appeared normal until the moment they failed completely. This incident demonstrates that the recall-related brake defects remain unresolved and present a serious safety hazard. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
In July 2024 all the cameras on the Tesla Model S except the rear stopped working after a failed software update. This meant that all of the driver assistance systems as well as GPS, adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning, forward collision warning etc stopped working. The lack of availability of this system meant that the car no longer had any advanced safety features that came with the car. It took many months for Tesla service to diagnose and fix the problem, which they identified as a failure of the Auto Pilot computer. After I was finally able to get an appointment with the Service center, they replaced the Autopilot computer at a cost of over $1500. The failure first appeared in July 2024. The symptom was GPS location being stuck and Autopilot and all safety features being not available.
While driving both North (in the evening) and also South (in the morning) on [XXX] between Washington, DC and Richmond, VA I have experienced an issue with Tesla’s Auto Pilot that can be very dangerous and scary. While using the navigation system and with Auto Pilot on while in the left most line on this divided highway, the car made multiple attempts to steer into the Express Lanes even when the large gates are closed and the red lights are on to indicate that the Express lanes are closed in the direction of traffic. To counteract this, it is necessary to quickly take control of the steering wheel and to get it to cancel Auto Pilot, otherwise the car would go into the gates and cause an accident. This has happened to me several times when I was traveling in the left most lane and when the gates were closed. This happened in November, December and in January. The system has not learned to handle this situation and to avoid steering into the barriers. I reported these incidents to Tesla’s Support Team by phone and after several weeks I received a phone call whereby the local service center (Rockville, MD) called me. Josh, the person that called me read a lengthy text to me that essentially reviewed the driver’s responsibilities when using Auto Pilot. I asked if there was any indication that they will work on fixing this issue and I was told that the explanation I got (which was no explanation at all, just a reminder of driver responsibilities) was the entire response. I informed him that I would report the incident to NHTSA. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
While driving in Autopilot mode, approx 70 mph in light rain the vhicle began to drift side to side almost crossing over the lane dividing line. Upon grabbing the wheel to take control the vehicle entered multiple 360 degree spins crashing into "K" rail. In the past I have noticed when taking control of the vehicle from Autopilot the wheel jerks.
My car was left on the driveway for a weekend where I was out of town. Upon returning, as I got into the vehicle and started reversing to get out of my driveway; several alerts popped up on my car. The alerts included "Steering assist reduced", "Stability control disabled", "Automatic emergency braking unavailable" and lastly, "Parking brake Fault." Immediately the power steering was gone and it took several pounds of force to turn the steering wheel even a little bit. Then, the parking brake engaged. No matter how many times I put the car into Drive, it would engage the brake again. My vehicle was halfway out of the driveway and into the road and I was causing my neighbors angst. After several reboots, it still was not working. I was unable to even get the car into neutral to push the car back on to my property and out of the street. After nearly 20 minutes of trying and almost giving up; the parking brake disengaged for a few minutes and allowed me to get back to the driveway. However, when driving the brakes were extremely loud when the car was in motion. The car was completely fine with no signs of wear and tear or issues prior to the out of town weekend. The car was also fully charged so to not run into any batter issues upon my return. After some internet sleuthing, this issue is decently common and is caused by faulty housing in the steering rack. The nuts/bolts that were used by the manufacturer could not withstand more than a few years of wear and tear. I believe there was a recall on the previous years for this exact situation. I am afraid I will have to take it to Tesla service and pay several thousand dollars as the warranty expired last year.
Received and error message, Lane Departure Avoidance features unavailable and steering assist reduced simultaneously while driving between 65-75 mph. Steering will required extreme effort to turn. I was about 5 minutes from home exited the highway and took the backroads. Steering did require extreme effort. The following morning, car worked fine.
Shortly after an update in December, my 2018 Model S started getting alerts: Driving visualization temporarily degraded, charge port sensor fault, autopilot cameras unavailable, automatic emergency braking unavailable, lane departure avoidance features unavailable, steering assist reduced. The map no longer knows where the car is located and cannot navigate or tell what the battery percentage will be at. All automatic features have stopped working. The service center claims the ECU needs to be replaced. It was upgrade to the Autopilot/Full self-driving ECU in 2020. I have read reports from dozens of other Tesla owners that this update also broke their ECU. I believe Tesla knows the new requirements for full self-driving to be safe and usable does not work with their current ECU. They want to charge me $1600 to replace the ECU. I cannot receive the recall OTA update with my current ECU.
I believe my software is hacked. Car was purchased 6 months prior to when the vehicle shows registered to me. The vehicle shows no location with Tesla and has no direct contact from the vehicle with Tesla. My display screen blacks out while I’m driving on the freeway or streets. Leaves me feeling unsafe in bad areas I am driving to pick up drop off kids from college, school, or film school projects . Some of the safety hazard warnings do not work at times. Does not give me correct supercharger locations which leaves me in scary situations. Traveling on [XXX] my car excelled to 91mph without warning and didn’t use any sort of automated system as I do not have that capability. Tried to step on brake but did not work and I changed lanes which suddenly caused the car to slowly bring the car to driving mode again. Very scary. The car speaker had a male voice and all the car occupants pulled out their phones to see if it was coming from their phones. But it definitely came from the vehicle speaker system. My iPhone was hacked with NSO Israel' Company Pegasus spyware and now my car is being hacked. I never connect my device to my car. Although my kids do periodically. Please advice on this urgent matter. Please contact me [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
On the afternoon of [XXX], my car’s speed assist was set at 30mph, and I was traveling north on [XXX] . At the end of that avenue where it joins [XXX] , a red traffic light was detected and my vehicle stopped normally. However a unique anomaly occurred. The vehicle crept forward three times against the light. I was required to apply brake pressure to stop the car from moving forward illegally. This phenomenon has never occurred since I have owned the vehicle beginning in early 2019. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Multiple components failed or malfunctioned. FSD beta, lane keeping assistance, lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control, and Automatic emergency braking, all failed or malfunctioned. I have requested TESLA to provide me the details on what happened, but after multiple attempts of reaching out to them, they are not providing any answers. I was driving with my son and we both got injured, my son was admitted to the hospital for 4 days. I am not sure if TESLA inspected it, they are not answering my questions. There was no warning or there were no symptoms of the problem before the failure. This is what happened, I was driving on FSD beta on a 2-way street with one lane in both directions, The car suddenly drifted, crossed the opposite lane, went over the sidewalk, and hit a tree. The airbags were released, and the front of the car was destroyed. The speed limit on the road was 25, and as it was in FSD mode, the speed was locked in at 25 mph. I was driving with my son, and my son got a lot of bruises internal and external from the seat belt, I had some bruises on my forehead. This is a complete failure of Tesla's FSD capability because it didn't detect the tree or the sidewalk and failed to apply the brakes. The car was declared a total loss by the insurance company. I am attaching a few photographs of the car after the accident.
The contact owns a 2018 Tesla Model S. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the forward collision avoidance feature was inoperable. The contact stated that due to the failure, the vehicle crashed into the guard rail. The contact stated that damage was done to the front driver's side and rear driver's side of the fender. 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 80,000. The VIN was unavailable.
My car will randomly apply the brakes when driving on the highway for no apparent reason. I have noticed this to occur when going under overpasses especially on a bright sunny day, but also at other times. I do not find it to be predictable and it can be quite dangerous if traffic behind me is very close. This has occurred many times, most recently as yesterday.
While driving using cruise control, in the space of 9-10 miles, the vehicle had 14-16 instances of sudden, unexpected braking for no reason. Most were moderate braking incidents slowing the car 15-30 mph before I hit the accelerator to get the car back up to speed. 2 incidents were where the car slowed 5-10 mph then resumed speed. Very disconcerting. There was little to no traffic on the road and in every case, there was no other car within a 1/2 mile or more to the front. Finally got fed up with this and turned off cruise. Left cruise control off as I passed through a city then decided to try it again. Soon after engaging cruise at 72 mph, the car suddenly and violently braked for no reason. It was such a hard braking that one of my dogs in the back seat crashed into the front seat. The hard braking continued until the speed was about 20 mph at which point, I hit the accelerator in order to resume speed. Note that no other car was visible on the roadway which was a 4 lane highway. Conditions were clear and dry. Soon after this incident, while still on cruise, the car suddenly braked moderately hard. Since the road was clear before and behind me, I decided to see what would happen. The car slowed to 38 mph and stayed at that speed for 3-4 seconds then slowly resumed the set speed. A short time later 1-2 miles further, the exact same sequence happened again. Again, note the road was clear with zero traffic ahead of or behind me. I then turned off cruise and decided to drive manually the rest of the way. This car is dangerous and should be removed from the road
I was using the Enhanced Cruise Control and the car just slammed on brakes out of nowhere. There was not any cars ahead or beside me at the time. This has happened about 5-6 times since I purchased the vehicle on March 10, 2023
Maryland State Police Report [XXX] says: On [XXX], [XXX] was driving his 2018 Tesla Model S in Maryland on what is known in the DMV as the important highway, "The Beltway". According to Police Report [XXX], "Unit 1 was traveling southbound in Lane 1 on [XXX]. The Autopilot feature on the Tesla was engaged. The Autopilot malfunctioned causing the Tesla to lose control and leave the highway on the Left Side. The Driver was Transported by ambulance to the hospital ...." "Equipment Failure, Ran Off Road Left" INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
While driving on the highway using cruise control, the car unexpectedly and rapidly slowed down. This has happened several (5-10) times, day and night, generally in low traffic areas (mostly with no traffic anywhere nearby). I have experienced this issue throughout my ownership of the car. In the most recent case, the car seemed to think that the speed limit had dropped to 35mph, perhaps seeing a sign from a nearby road. Other times, I could perceive no cause, so UNKNOWN. The date below is the most recent time, where the car thought the speed limit dropped.
Door handle not working and not popping out as expected and driver can’t go inside the car. A few complaints already from the internet and a lawsuit already filed by other owner and this seems to be recall already but nothing was mentioned yet Camera get blinded or get block easily with rain or sun. This is an issue if you’re using the autopilot.
On March 17, 2023 at approximately 4:00 pm MT, I was traveling at approximately 75 MPH with adaptive cruise control and auto pilot engaged when the car suddenly applied brakes with no obstruction ahead or behind or on the side. The car quickly slowed down to approximately 55 MPH, released the brakes and began to accelerate back to the speed limit of 75 MPH.
On freeway in traffic, autopilot is enabled. Vehicle is running perfectly fine in start stop traffic slowing down and speeding up as needed. Traffic starts to clear up, and as vehicle speeds up, there is a sudden slowdown again. Instead of braking/slowing down, autopilot turns off without an additional audible alarm (just the standard sound for turning off autopilot), instead the forward collision warning alert goes off. Able to brake in time to prevent accident.
I was using the vehicle's traffic aware cruise control, but not autopilot and the vehicle experiences sudden braking without warning or reason. I had no other vehicles near me, on a straight, flat road with no bridges, signs or other things to cast shadows. The weather was sunny, but the sun was not shining on the front of the vehicle. The most extreme instance starting braking the vehicle from 84mph and the vehicle reached close to 40mph before I could overtake the system by pressing on the accelerator. My passengers were thrown forward as well as our items within the vehicle. I'm thankful there was no vehicle behind me that could have rear-ended me. There is no reasonable way to contact the manufacturer other than asking for a service appointment which can't fix software errors. The manufacturer should provide an option for basic cruise control.
Higher-selling and older vehicles accumulate more reports. Counts are not failure rates and are not directly comparable between vehicles that sold in very different numbers.
Categories with enough reports to have a page of their own
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