2021 Tesla Model 3 Complaint Log

AC/Heat pump total failure at 18,317 miles. Due to cold weather in Michigan and simply running the car, the heat pump went out entirely which creates the climate control in the vehicle. This caused dangerous driving conditions since the windows could not be defogged and the vehicle was below freezing temperatures inside. The service agents I spoke with seemed to understand this was a common occurrence in cold weather climates. The reason I am reporting this, is although mine was replaced at no cost to me under warranty, this is a manufacturing oversight and needs to be addressed by the company. This can cause very unsafe driving conditions for many people, and cost thousands of dollars in repairs all because they sell a vehicle that has parts not suitable for the climates they operate in.

On certain sections of highway unsuccessfully attempted to activate auto-steer (two down clicks) multiple times in a row. Did this multiple times in a row but was unsuccessful to activate auto-steer. Instead a supposed "easter egg" (which activates with 4 down clicks) very loudly plays loud jarring music (called "rainbow road")...this is NOT FUCKING FUNNY--I nearly ran my car off the road and into oncoming traffic. Giant 2000 pound hunks of metal going at 60 mph should NOT FUCKING COME with special surprises. This is incredibly dangerous and jarring to drivers.

The supermanifold failed, causing the front defroster to not work properly, resulting in loss of visibility in freezing temperatures. This is a common problem with 2021/2022 model 3/model y with the new heat pump that was supposed to be fixed with a software update, but was not. I now have a $3900 repair bill on a 1 year old car with 56,000 miles. The warranty expired at 50,000 miles. The failure was not a result of negligence.

The wheel control arm bolts that hold the wheel onto the vehicle slowly unscrewed until they fell out (x2 bolts per wheel). It is available for inspection upon request. If a disconnected fully inflated tire is sucked under the car at high speeds, it may potentially flip the vehicle, badly rupture the battery pack or the wheel may jettison from the vehicle onto surrounding vehicles. It is unknown what kind of damage or after-effect would take place if the battery were severely damaged by an inflated tire and rim. The problem was observed, documented and repaired by Tesla. The effects of the problem were only observed at 1 MPH. A recall of this specific issue was listed for other Model 3 2021 vehicles, but our vin # was not included in this recall, while it should have been. Tesla has inspected the vehicle one time and claim the vehicle is now safe to drive. Insurance would not participate in any claims regarding this type of incident because nobody was hurt. We did not receive any warning prior to failure, not even a wobble, shimmy, clunk or precursor of any kind. The car appeared to be perfectly solid and then suddenly the wheel came off. The car did not crash into anything other than the ground when the wheel disconnected.

See attached document for complaint

At some point in 2021 Tesla released a software update that causes the vehicle to ignore the ambient temperature sensor for the first 15 minutes of a drive. Tesla explained to me that this was to avoid errant readings in hot environments with lots of reflected heat from pavement. I’ve reported the following safety issue to them several times through the winters of 2021 and now 2022, to no avail despite numerous software updates since. In cold environments where a vehicle is leaving a warm and potentially higher humidity environment such as a garage to a very cold and dry environment - just as the car begins using the sensor data the windshield will immediately fog up causing a major safety issue. This occurs with the hvac on auto and requires a shift of 30+ degrees, which is not an uncommon occurrence in cold environments. 50 degree garage to 17 degree outside for example.

Driving south on the 5 freeway right northing on Oceanside the vehicle shut down at freeway speed. I had to coast of the to the first Oceanside. Fortunately it was late at night and there were no cars in the immediate vicinity. In addition to this the vehicle has had multiple episode of phantom breaking. I do not feel safe driving the car.

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle experienced phantom braking. The contact stated that the adaptive cruise control was activated during the failure. The failure recurred several times. The vehicle had not been taken to the dealer to be diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 14,169.

I was going 80mph on the interstate coming back from Little Rock to Tulsa. The time was 4am in the morning with little or no traffic on the road. I was using only the cruise control with adaption turned on. The car all of a sudden without any warning almost came to a complete stop on the interstate. I later asked what caused this and was told it is phatom braking but this was VERY dangerous, if someone had been behind me they probably would have been messed up. I merely accelerated to make sure I was at least keeping the minimum speed limit. Please advise. Shawn

While using the base level of "autopilot," remaining in a lane and maintaining speed, the car will randomly slam on the brakes even when there are no vehicles or objects in front of it. The first incident occurred while driving late at night on an interstate. There were no vehicles in front of the car, but it rapidly reduced speed from 75mph to 30mph, before immediately speeding up again. The camera based "autopilot" is essentially useless and I have decided not to use it when driving.

I believe that Tesla's autosteer and Full self driving features are improperly designed. I will speak to them as if they were one and the same. I noticed that you have a check box for Lane Keeping Assistance above, but there is no checkbox for coercive auto steering, which is Tesla's product. The only ability it offers as far as steering the car is to forcibly disengage the autosteering feature. This is not assistance and this is the problem. A properly designed Lane Keeping Assistance feature continuously monitors driver steering action, lane position, and traffic conditions. If the Lane Keeping Assistance system finds itself 'alone' with little or no measurable input from the driver, action is called for. With the Tesla, the feature has an embarrassingly stupid 'driver attention check' which, until recently, could be easily defeated by the simple addition of a weight to one side of the steering wheel or the other. In a misguided attempt to correct this ridiculously poor design, they have recently made matters much worse. Now they distract the driver's attention from driving by forcing the playing of some sort of 'patty cake' type game, which does prove alertness of the driver, but detracts from the real and necessary work of circumventing the actual threats encountered in everyday driving. In short, a proper Lane Keeping Assistance feature should not be totally ignorant of the driver's subtle driving moves (it's an excellent feature as long as autosteering isn't engaged) and should honor requests to move into different parts of the lane long before disengaging, and no attention measuring system should come at the expense of driver awareness of actual issues. I have tried through email and phone to convince Tesla that something needs to be done, but have received no response from them.

Adding our vehicle to the list of those affected by what seems to be commonly known as "Phantom Braking". The most recent occurrence was on Interstate 25 southbound in northern Colorado when the "Autopilot" (Adaptive Cruise Control) suddenly braked and reduced our speed from 75 to 51 mph, with no vehicles or other obstructions visible. We were almost rear-ended by a car following us, however. I want to point out that this was only the worst example of several episodes that occurred that day, and on earlier dates as well. We no longer use Autopilot, which makes long trips much less comfortable. I also want to mention that our vehicle does NOT have Tesla's "Full Self Driving" (FSD) installed, so my hands were on the wheel at all times.

The cabin heater stopped working. I received an error code "VCFRONT_a447" recommending to take the vehicle in for service. This issue is a problem in sub-zero climates where the windshield will not defrost before and during driving. I have found 67 other cases from reddit and tesla motors club describing the same issue, on new or <2 years old cars. My components have not been inspected. I tried a full hard reboot of the software and no fix. Tesla service estimates $1,792 repair. Replacing a Supermanifold ($450.37) & A/C compressor ($1273.53) +tax =$1792. I am out of warranty by milage, car is 1.5 years old. 60,200 miles.

I'm getting a notification that says " cabin climate control system requires service cabin heating/cooling limited or unavailable". As a result of this failure the defroster is not working properly. The windshield defroster will only blow cold air very slowly. This causes the windshield to fog up very quickly in cold temperatures. I cannot see out of the windshield properly.

The contact leased a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated upon starting the vehicle, the center display failed to operate as designed. The contact was able to drive the vehicle; however, while driving 25 MPH, the vehicle stopped abruptly in the middle of the road. A message indicating that the trunk was opened was displayed. There was also a question displayed whether the contact wished to continue driving. The contact tapped the option YES however, the touch pad center display failed to respond. The contact exited the vehicle and attempted to close the trunk several times; however, the trunk reopened independently. The contact was able to close the trunk after eight attempts. The contact was able to continue driving to her residence. The contact stated that upon parking the vehicle, the trunk reopened independently. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and assisted the contact with towing the vehicle to the local Tesla Service Center where it was diagnosed that an unknown software had failed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer declined to provide additional information. The failure mileage was approximately 15,460.

While using cruise control on a cross country drive, there have been numerous instances of phantom braking in my Tesla Model 3 SR+ (2021). This has been occurring during both day and night driving on the highway, at speeds of 65-75mph. It appears to happen most frequently when there’s a slight up-hill on the highway followed by a slight downhill and then phantom brake, but there have been instances on flat highway road at night with phantom braking taking place.

Trip from Piedmont, California to Salt Lake City, Utah, I experienced three (x3) phantom breaking incidents at over 80 mph on interstate 1-80. The car without warning dramatically de-accelerated from approximately 85mph to 65mph or 60mph without warning and suddenly. Dog was riding in back and thrown into front dashboard on one occasion. Visited Tesla dealership on State St in Salt Lake City Utah upon destination arrival and manager/head at front desk laughed indicents off saying, "we've heard of such incidents just wait for the software update." Horrible. Beyond dangerous. I can report that in all three incidents there were no cars in front or behind me and the phenonenon occurred totally unexpectedly. Reported it also to Tesla repair shop in Berkeley, California, and intake group had zero sympathy and said, "it's a known software glitch."

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V702000 (Visibility) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was not contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect.

Tesla had been sending me messages since last year about the safety recall notice but they have not downloaded the necessary firmware update to remedy the safety issue NHTSA Recall no: 22V-702

Model 3 sudden Max speed reduction (60/55 to 25/30) when using Autopilot. This happens every time and in multiple areas when driving on I-4 through Orlando, FL.

I have had the car for about 1.5 years. In the last week it has started to have phantom braking where on a clear, flat road with no traffic, it suddenly has hard braking and slows from about 65 mph down to 40-50 mph. This has occurred when operating on Autopilot with the cruise control and autosteer on. There is a risk of a rear collision with this sudden braking. There was no warning. I do not have Full Self Driving.

The Tesla uses “auto high beam” when in autopilot. The pros of this can allow drivers to utilize the light so the cameras can detect anything to avoid any possible wrecks, but it does not have an option to be turned off. Along with other people online, my brights have flashed at people on the interstate and highways or haven’t turned off at all. This is irritating and limits the way I am comfortable with using autopilot. Please inform Tesla to make the auto high beam feature OPTIONAL.

The TPMS alerted me that the front driver tire was low at 36 psi. Pulled into gas station within a mile from initial alert and when I unscrewed the valve cap the valve stem broke and shot out of the tire and the tire deflated. The components were found and are available for inspection. The car has not been repaired yet and is currently at the Tesla Service Center in Agoura Hills at 28721 Bldg A Canwood Street Agoura Hills, CA. I drive two children under 5 and am lucky this did not occur at high speeds or while the vehicle was in operation at any speed. There is no reason this should have happened. There was no prior damage to the wheel or tire.

Driving in empty highway, no cars in front of me for great distances, on cruise control, the car would all of sudden perform hard braking. It happened many times in the course of two 6 hour drives over a weekend and I couldn't figure out what scenarios were predisposing to this. I also tried out autosteer (not autopilot) and it did it in autosteer too. It was very hard braking, not just disengaging, and so I just drove without cruise control because it is too dangerous and risks getting rear-ended because I am braking without warning and for no reason.

I was on a road trip on rural highways in Texas and New Mexico. The adaptive cruise control/autopilot system repeatedly hit the brakes when driving at highway speeds for no apparent reason. This would happen even though there were no cars in front of me or other obstructions in the roadway. If there had been another car behind me there would have been risk of a rear end collision because the car would unexpectedly significantly reduce speed. A few times when this happened, the car made warning sounds, but most of the time it would not provide any warning at all. I have tried making a service request with the manufacturer, but they claim that there are no hardware problems with the car and I have to wait for a firmware update.

During a road trip from Oklahoma to California and back my Model 3 suddenly and abruptly braked coming almost to a stop on up highway while cruise control was engaged. The braking was such that it caused occupants to lunge forward and seatbelts pretension. This aggressive braking is a common occurrence with Tesla and has been called “phantom braking”. This is not the first time this has happened to me. This is a recurring issue

It has been weeks and Tesla has still not provided a fix for this issue. It was supposed to be resolved over the air but we have called Tesla for weeks and they have no idea when the fix will be available. Do they have a time limit to resolve? Sep 19,2022 Manufacturer Recall NumberTBD NHTSA Recall Number22V702 Recall StatusRecall Incomplete

In vehicle speaker system occasionally resets, keeping speakers from making noise during a 5-10 second window. This keeps in-vehicle chimes and collision warnings from sounding at appropriate volumes.

Twice in October 2022 (18th and 20th), my vehicle decelerated suddenly during cruise control with no impediments in the road (i.e., phantom breaking). The breaking on the 20th was akin to slamming on the breaks, and both occurred at freeway speeds. I did *not purchase Tesla's self-driving feature. The vehicle also on the 18th tried to steer around an object that did not exist in the road while I turned onto a freeway on-ramp. I reported all three incidents at that time to Tesla for servicing of the vehicle. It is unknown whether any "repair" was actually done to eliminate phantom breaking (I no longer use Tesla's cruise control in similar traffic conditions which were at the time crowded outside of the carpool lane I was using).

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 80 MPH with the cruise control activated, the vehicle inadvertently decelerated to 20 MPH and experienced phantom braking. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 15,000.

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 70 MPH up a hill, the vehicle made a sudden stop without any warning, causing the contact and his wife go forward in their seats. The contact accelerated and the vehicle continued to operate normally. The vehicle was not diagnosed. The dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer was contacted and stated that the computer needed to be checked. The failure mileage was 4,100.

Driver side window fails to lock completely upon locking the car manually and/or using auto walk away function. This leaves the car very much unsecure and open to being vandalized. Additionally, the driver sides window fails to close fully when auto close button is pressed. The driver side window button has to be fiddled with few times to get a complete window seel.

Since owning this car in January 2022, there have been issues of phantom braking during cruise control or autopilot. However, today 10/6/22 during an hour and a half time frame my car has had phantom braking episodes at least 5 times in the middle of the highway where it's speed suddenly drops by 20mph.

On numerous occasions since I bought the Tesla in March 2021, the car will phantom brake when using cruise control and sometimes on it's own. This happens randomly with no warning and is very dangerous as it risks my car getting rear ended. This is an ongoing problem as you know but Tesla did nothing when I reported it and is still not doing anything. NOT GOOD.

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated while driving 10-15 MPH through standing water, he heard an abnormal sound coming from the rear of the vehicle. The contact stated that upon parking the vehicle, he noticed that the rear bumper had separated from the frame. The contact found the rear bumper on the ground a block away from his residence. The vehicle was taken to a Tesla Service Center who informed the contact that the failure was caused by water damage. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure but provided no assistance. The manufacturer advised the contact to take the vehicle to an auto collision repair shop where the vehicle could be repaired by his insurance provider. The failure mileage was approximately 59,800.

While driving on an otherwise unobstructed road, with no nearby obstacles on a Rural South Dakota Interstate, the vehicle suddenly slammed on breaks in an unsafe fashion, forcing the vehicle behind us to swerve to evade our car. We were told by Tesla service that sometimes, "road shimmering" can cause this behavior, and there is no remedy available. In response to this, I gunned the accelerator to try and remedy the issue, hitting unsafe speeds before being able to fully return control to the vehicle. This was NOT while using the vehicle's autopilot system for FSD (which was available on the car), but adaptive cruise control, though the same issue happens with FSD regularly. This is not the first instance of this happening (I have stopped using cruise control and FSD on the vehicle since), but the first time it seriously endangered myself and another driver.

Driving with cruise control on following another vehicle 150 yards in front of me. I'm not even using Auto-Pilot because on how dangerous and unpredictable it is. I'm using Normal Cruise Control, which is also a disaster. A car built in 80s can perform cruise control without any hassle. It phantom braked and the vehicle behind me had to take corrective action. This has to be addressed to be fixed. Ditching radar for "vision" was a huge mistake that puts mine and many other lives in danger. A simple cruise control feature that every car is equipped with shouldn't be a death sentence waiting to happen.

Traveling between Colorado and Missouri, multiple instances of "phantom braking" where, without warning, the car would brake suddenly and very sharply, such that the tires would squeal and items in the back seat slid onto the floor. There were no obstacles, the weather was clear and there was no reason for it to do so. We were only using the cruise control and not the self driving program. Our safety was put at risk because had a car or truck been behind us, a severe rear end collision could have occurred. We were traveling at highway speeds at the time this occurred. We requested a service appointment but Tesla told us this could not be addressed in a service appointment. Tesla said this would be addressed in future updates. We told Tesla this was unsatisfactory and dangerous. We wanted the car inspected and the problem addressed but Tesla said the service appointment could not do anything. There were no warning lamps, messages or other symptoms before the failure. In fact the braking did not even disengage the cruise control, which normally is the case when the brake is applied. This had occurred previously and Tesla said it would be fixed with a computer update in July 2022. Obviously it has not been fixed.

Unexplained sudden braking while using adaptive cruise control. Almost got rear-ended as a result.

Pillar cameras constantly complain blocked or blinded. Services refused to even look into the issue blaming glare from the sun, even when happening to both on opposite sides of the car at the same time. Report it even happens at night I am told it might be too dark for the camera. Did not occur like this on my 2019 Tesla Model 3. This seems to be causing random unexpected lane departure alerts or failures in lane keeping on cruise control or with lane assist. Message are extremely frequent and distracting. Message placement is blocked by arm while holding the steering wheel requiring me to take my eyes off the road to read. Been complaining about this for months, one of the two cameras (drivers side) was replaced which improved the issues with that side complaining but passenger side complains extremely often. Drivers side issue not 100% resolved but improved after replacement, possible cabling or MCU/ECU issue. Instead of looking at the issue Tesla insists the cameras must be dirty, moisture, too bright, too dark, etc. And fails to even examine components. Recent appointment canceled by Tesla after the scheduled date and time without notice. Camera doesn't appear to detect or recognize people or objects in that cameras visions creating what appears to be a blind spot when viewing in vehicle display. Have repeatedly seen person walking around my car will disappear from the screen around the passenger front quarter but reappear when in front of the vehicle or by the rear quarter.

Cruise control (Autopilot) phantom braking events have gotten very bad. About once every few miles on an empty 2 lane highway the car slams on the brakes. I’ve made numerous bug reports over the years and if anything it’s gotten worse. It seems to have gotten worse with the software update a few days ago (v11.0 2022.24.6 40a0d11b18af).

Unexpected phantom braking occurring randomly but on multiple occasions during a 2000 mile multi day trip. Several incidents of a hiccup resulting on a jolt but at least three incidents of rapid and sudden deceleration without an observed corresponding hazard. Occurred a couple times while cresting a hill on single and multi lane roads. One severe incident occurred while passing a semi truck on a multiple lane highway. Causes high anxiety and potential for a crash, especially from behind. This has not been inspected by Tesla or others but note many reports of this online. No warning prior to event but cruise control did not work properly after event and required reseting.

On an empty freeway I5 southbound over a crest, the car emergency braked from highway speed with no obstacles or cars in front of it. The weather conditions were sunny, 98f, and some mirages were on the road surface. Autopilot was engaged and set to the speed limit. Emergency braking alert sounded and the car applied full power braking. Car is running software version 2022.24.6. prior versions of the software with radar support did not exhibit this phantom breaking behavior. The current version disabled radar and used "Tesla vision"

The steering system malfunctioned. Yes it is available for inspection. The car turned across oncoming traffic turning the vehicle 180 degrees leaving me facing oncoming traffic during rush hour. I could have died in a horrific accident. The service center for the vehicle sulfate they will not evaluate vehicle until body damage to vehicle are repaired. The vehicle had no notifications or warnings prior to the incident.

The adaptive cruise control (Tesla "autopilot") system has unexpectedly disengaged and applied light to heavy braking numerous times. The system frequently mistakes a particular highway sign for a stopped vehicle and applies moderate braking. The system has also applied light to heavy braking in circumstances where I simply cannot figure out what the camera is interpreting as a hazard. This puts me and other drivers around me at risk as it is unnecessary and unpredictable braking at highway speeds in traffic. Tesla has not been able to remedy this problem and I do not consider the cruise control system to be safe to use. This has happened more than 10 times.

Was driving about 35-40mph on city street when car abruptly applied emergency braking. Car automatically slammed on brakes (screeching) and came to complete stop. This action was dangerous because it could have caused an accident if another car was behind me. Caused fear and panic as I believed something or someone had hit my vehicle, it also scared a pedestrian that was walking along the sidewalk. The sudden braking also caused my body to violently jerk forward and backwards. This has not been reproduced or confirmed by dealership or service center. It has not yet been inspected by anyone. I have made an appointment for car to get inspected, appointment is 9/16. No warning lights or symptoms came on prior to this incident.

While using my Tesla's Full Self Driving (FSD) feature (Navigate on Autopilot) on a recent road trip through West Texas, the vehicle, on multiple occasions, would automatically brake while cruising at speeds of 80 mph (speed limit was 75 mph), which consequently dropped the vehicle's speed over 20 mph within seconds. The result was being forcibly slammed forward with such a jarring, unexpected force that would have easily slammed me as the driver and my front seat passenger into the wind shield if we were not wearing our seatbelts. This happened multiple times on the trip. The only way to recover was to depress the accelerator and forcefully hold on to the steering wheel until the braking system released and control was returned to the driver. If this had occurred on a crowded highway rather than on the open spaces of the West Texas interstate system, I am convinced there would have been a rear impact collision. This "phantom breaking" as Tesla claims, is a serious issue that will no doubt lead to fatalities if not corrected. This issue manifested without warning and with no alerting. The issue can be easily reproduced and the component has yet to be inspected by any 3rd party. I fear people will die because of this issue until it is resolved. Thanks, Sean Merino

I was driving in Oklahoma on a straight interstate highway at 75 mph using cruise control (not autopilot) and experience a sudden application of full brakes. The application was so sudden the tires "chipped" and decelerated to below 45 mph before I could take control by applying throttle. On the same trip, I was near Midland, Texas and experience another serious phantom braking on a clear straight highway. By this time I experienced 10 additional minor braking issues. On my return trip, I did not use cruise control or autopilot and didn't have a single incident. I reported the incident to Tesla Service and reported ever incident via the feedback button (when it worked). I'm a retired Boeing engineer experienced in flight controls, fly-by-wire control, and aircraft subsystem design. I have no confidence in this design.

I was driving SB on N Gate Rd in Vacaville, approaching the gate for Travis AFB. There was traffic backed up at the gate and I put the car into Autopilot to negotiate the stop and go traffic. I had been in Autopilot for maybe 50 yards when the car suddenly accelerated on it's own and veered to the right. The brakes would not work to stop the car and the steering wheel would physically turn but it wasn't changing the direction of the car. The car veered off the road to the right and into a utility pole.

While driving with the Autopilot system engaged at 55 MPH, on a clear, sunny day, the vehicle applied the brakes and rapidly decelerated to 40 MPH before I could press the accelerator pedal to restore my set speed. There were no objects of any kind on the road. No hills or curves were involved. I was fortunate that no vehicle was closely following me or they might have run into me due to my unexpected and unnecessary brake application.