2022 Tesla Model S Complaint Log

The Tesla center console screen fails to reliably respond to user-touches for simple inputs concerning the HVAC system. This system failure is highly repeatable in my car, and was first noticed driving on a normal Houston street at posted limits. A typical failure pattern, is the car is being driven on normal roads with their occasional imperfections. This can lead to finger-tips touching the display screen accurately, but only very briefly, to trigger an intended input. https://youtu.be/IcQ-mAuQ4cY The screen provides active areas for input in the form of buttons, and slider user-interface elements. In the video, I tap the slider that controls fan speed. Some 7 of 12 touches to the screen simply do not produce a corresponding effect: a) changing the slider positions; nor b) changing the rate of the HVAC fan. This is a safety risk, since a second attempt to touch the screen is required, demanding additional driver focus on the display, and away from watching for traffic and correct driving. This Tesla failure is a pattern observed across several user interfaces, including the voice command system, which is highly unreliable, even in quiet settings with normal N. American speech patterns, for which the car was presumably designed. Faulty car responsiveness across multiple systems is not a coincidence. It is a sign of cultural failure at the highest levels of Tesla to make their cars safe. No warnings, in the displays, or in the Tesla manuals, suggest that this would be a problem under any condition. No inspection has been made by Tesla of this car. Apple does not have this problem, even with their earliest phones. It is unknown what positive purpose there can be to have the display software reject taps, even brief ones. Or for that matter, why Tesla would fail to indicate that user-contact is insufficient and treated as error.

This is regarding the turn signal controls on the 2022 Tesla Model S requiring users to take their focus off the road at best and being difficult/impossible to use in many situations at worst. In order to turn on a blinker, instead of physically actuating a stalk like on virtually all other cars, the user has to find and press at a certain place on the steering wheel. There is no physical button to feel for, so one has to look down at the steering wheel to find the button. If one tries to feel around for it, they risk the chance of initiating the wrong signal, since they're flat, capacitance buttons. I've had several incidents where I was unable to turn on my blinkers because the wheel had been rotated and the arrows were not only way out of their normal location, but they were also confusingly reversed in direction. Instead of focusing on looking for pedestrians, watching other traffic, and properly starting the turn and/or exiting the roundabout, I have to focus on finding the turn buttons and figure out which one I need to use (since they're both facing the opposite direction in that wheel orientation). Other incidents include turning on the wrong indicator when the wheel is rotation half way around, and not being able to find the indicators quickly enough to activate them in emergency situations (like when an ambulance appears and I need to quickly turn them on to pull to the side of the road). Finally, unlike physical stalks, they give no physical indication of when they turn off, so they are often left on when the computer isn't smart enough to turn them off automatically, or when I don't think they're turning off properly, I press the button again to toggle it off only to have it turn off an instant earlier, causing me to turn on the signal again and possibly confusing other drivers. I've never had any of these issues with regular turn signal stalks in other cars, and this new design does not offer any visible benefits.

We experienced between 10 and 15 Phantom braking events on Highway 395 between Carson City and Apple Valley California. We also experienced Phantom breaking a few times during the trip back along Highway 101 in California. The events occurred only when the car was in adaptive cruise control and in basic self driving. Braking was alarmingly strong in two or three cases, and could have resulted in an accident if someone had been following behind us . Other Phantom breaking was moderate to barely noticeable. These events occurred when there were no other vehicles in the immediate vicinity of the car. Some occurred with no vehicles anywhere in sight. Conditions were 100%, in daylight, no fog or dust obstruction, a brand new clean car, and no other known impacts. The car was simply being driven on a Highway with two lanes going in each Direction. In most cases the opposing lanes were separated by large medians between 50 and hundreds of feet apart. When self- driving and adaptive speed control were off there were no incidents of this phantom braking. As I mentioned before this is a brand new Tesla S. This car was received on June 30th. It was on its first road trip when these events occurred.

Left side trim to the left of the glass roof I have protruding dents popping outward in metal. I had 3 dents and 1 of 3 was pushed down flush but the other two are still present. I have worked with Tesla service center and they have ignored my issue by not addressing the two additional protruding dents. Normal dents are known to go inward and these are going upward or outward. Tesla service drove to meet me with a same year model S as mine and both the left and right sides were observed to have many protruding dents potentially from the underlying frame. Several visits were made to service center as they continued to ignore my issue but after walking the parking lot they were surprised that other model S long range and plaids have dents protruding out of the metal which is not normal. As I have been told my issue isn't covered under warranty, not sure why. But my perspective something underneath the metal is causing it push upward or outward that should be addressed. I opened a BBB case 18002067 and the Tesla service center never addressed the concern to completion.

This message appeared this morning on my brand 18 day old new 2022 Tesla S I was driving from my home in Santa Monica to LAX, drove about 3 blocks when this message appeared. "VEHICLE SHUTTING DOWN - pull over safely" I turned around and did not quite make it home in my residential area. I did find a parking space and took an UBER to the airport. The car turned itself off. I feel fortunate this did not happen on a freeway for the obvious safety reasons.

I was unable to quickly find and utilize the vehicle's horn because of non-standard and intangible horn button. As a driver was illegally turning left into me and other oncoming traffic without looking, I instinctively tried to warn him by honking the horn, specifically by pressing on the center of the vehicle's steering wheel/yoke. However, unlike other vehicles, that doesn't activate the horn, so I couldn't warn the driver that we were coming. I had to divert my eyes down to find the horn button. The horn button is also a capacitance button, which means it can't be found by touch, either, meaning that attention must always be diverted from the car's surroundings to find and use it--including during any emergency avoidance maneuvers. It shares the same area of the yoke with windshield wipers and cruise control controls, which I also accidentally activated when trying to honk the horn. I was aware of the non-standard horn placement before this incident and assumed that I could remember the location and quickly find it in the case of an emergency, but when the emergency came, the instinct still was to press the center of the wheel/yoke. I've found many other drivers of this model (on forums, etc.) who have experienced the same issue, and many have encountered multiple emergency occurrences and still have not been able to adapt to this non-standard horn implementation.

The battery range is no where close to what is being presented. The long range model S does not give any where close to 400/miles per charg.

being total disabled and driving over 46 years tesla moved horn from it’s original place they want 1,800.00 put back in middle of steering wheel this is hardship and safety issue

I just completed a round trip from Minneapolis to Oregon. During cruise control, the vehicle frequently suddenly braked at highway speeds for no apparent reason. This was extremely dangerous a few times. I have put in a service request with Tesla.

While on A/P cruising on the free way the car slow down and start braking on its own !!

1) Lower drivers knee airbag panel improperly installed. Photos available. 2) This could cause malfunction of the airbag in an accident 3) No response from Tesla service when reported in the Tesla App, and in person. 4) No, but I have photos and the EPC identifies the parts in question. 5) Loose trim panel made the problem apparent, noted at delivery. Noted loose and broken lower dash trim panel under the steering Yoke. Upon investigation, noted the panel was designed to be held in place by 4 circular magnets, two on the panel and two on the lower dash support. However, in this case, a 10mm high strength steel bolt with a torque stripe was inserted into the mating magnet on the lower dash structure. The strength of the magnet was such that the bolt was apparently fully seated. The problem was, where did this bolt belong? It was found the adjacent lower panel was the knee airbag panel was designed to be secured by two 10mm bolts, and one was missing! The errant bolt was placed into the proper hole and torqued per the SM. The passenger side panels and bolts were found to be properly installed, and torque striped. I believe the placement of the Yoke makes it difficult for assembly personnel to ensure the airbag bolt is placed into the proper hole, and the magnet keeps the bolt in position when it is incorrectly placed. The problem is this leaves the lower knee airbag secured by a single bolt, and that is a potential safety concern. Please contact me for photos and supporting documents.

There is a concern that the rear door handles are opened by motorized mechanism. In a case of power failure, the only way to open the door is to pull a string on the floor of the back seat. From the outside, there is no way to open the door. My concern is when a child is strapped in car seat in the back and power is out due to electric problem and the car is on fire, there is no quick way to get to the child and remove the child safely. This is a safety hazard that need to be addressed right away. I emphasis this has not happened, thank goodness but is a potential of a disaster.

Steering Yoke Safety Issue: Tesla Model S Plaid cars come with a steering yoke instead of steering wheel. The steering yoke’s horn, turn signal, high beam, voice assistant, windshield wiper, and cruise control LED indicators that identify these buttons become invisible due to sun glare when the sun is behind or to the left of the driver. The glossy surface of the yoke combined with the weak LED lights of the indicators make the yoke unusable for honking the horn, make it impossible to find the horn, turn signal, windshield wiper, and other buttons, effectively making these features unusable. At a minimum, these critical safety buttons being invisible and having no tactile way to finding them during sunny days causes a significant distraction away from looking at the road. In the attached photo, you will see the effect of sun glare on the yoke while driving. This design flaw in the steering yoke/wheel puts my safety and the safety of others at risk because of inability to use the horn, windshield wipers, voice assistant, high beams, and turn signals when the sun or any other bright light causes yoke glare. Furthermore, the lack of tactile indication of where the buttons are, because they are only indicated/separated by lighting (LEDs) causes the driver to have to divert attention away from the road and onto the steering yoke to find the controls, or push parts of the yoke randomly until the correct function button is found. This is a serious safety issue which can be resolved by using a different material for the steering yoke indicator buttons, by having tactile separators/notches where the yoke buttons are so the user can find where to press during sunny days.

The vehicle is equipped with a yoke style steering control. I find it difficult to use in the least and dangerous in many scenarios including emergency sharp turns, maneuvering in tight locations ie: a parking garage, parallel parking, trying to recover from a slip on ice and recovering from hitting a pot hole and having the yoke pulled from ones grip. In addition the yoke is fitted with turn signal buttons that are very difficult to discern when signaling is required in the middle of a turn. The yoke is also equipped with a horn button that I find impossible to find in an emergency. There were no test drives available when ordering this vehicle so I had no way of testing the yoke prior to taking delivery of the car. I would like to see Tesla offer a retrofitted traditional steering control in the form of a wheel similar to the control offered in older Model S vehicles.

The horn button is not in the standard place in the center of the steering wheel. Rather, it is a small 1/2” button that must be found and depressed with the tip of the thumb to sound. In an emergency situation to avoid an accident, trying to locate the button wastes precious time or worse yet leads the driver to take eyes off the road potentially worsening outcomes. I believe this horn button should be recalled and a standard horn should be present on the center of the wheel/yoke

I have used the self driving feature of my 2022 Tesla Model S on several highway trips, most recently a round trip between Seattle and Palm Springs. The following problems with the Tesla self driving feature were noted. (My car has only the basic self driving feature, not the full self driving upgrade) 1. Random “phantom braking” where the car, without apparent reason, suddenly braked. 2. On several occasions the car abruptly swerved off toward an off ramp. I think this occurred when the white line marking the side of the road was interrupted by the off ramp where there was no painted line. 3. On several occasions when the turn signal was activated in order to change lines the car started to move over into the adjacent lane but abruptly swerved back to the original lane. I was able to maintain control but it was a frightening event. Due to the unpredictable nature of these events I greatly reduced my use of the fsd feature.

While driving my car. 10s of error messages while on the Highway. Error messages were quite scary to the effect of “please pull over immediately and exit the vehicle” I ignored it the first time. Second time it occurred took a picture because tesla could not find the error the first time. Both times occur after super charging.

During our first road trip with this auto, we traveled along I-76 and I-80 on clear days; after setting the "traffic-aware cruise control" (aka adaptive cruise control), the car would brake randomly and for no apparent reason (such as approaching a car ahead of us). This happened so frequently as to make the feature useless during much of the drive. At other times during our trip, the cruise control would seem to work for a while, then start with random braking. On two-lane highways, though it didn't seem to regard oncoming cars in the opposite lane as a hazard (that's good), it still engaged in random braking when no cars were anywhere in sight. Once again, we'd just turn off the feature, as it became more of a safety hazard than having any benefit. Certainly, any cars that might have been behind us would have been endangered by unexpected braking, and had road conditions been at all slippery, such as on ice, it could have been downright dangerous. I'd rather that Tesla reverted to a "traditional" cruise control, where we can set the speed and then be responsible for managing braking situations.

PHANTOM BRAKING: I was driving northbound on the I-5 highway south of Sacramento, California using cruise control and traveling at the 70 MPH speed limit on September 14, 2022. At approximately 2:50 p.m., I moved from the right lane into the left lane by using the turn signal to execute the lane change. Once in the left lane, the car immediately began violently applying the brakes. There was a car behind me that appeared as if it was going to rear end me. I pressed on the accelerator pedal which allowed me to regain control over the vehicle and avoid being hit by the vehicle behind me. The weather was clear and visibility was excellent. There was no apparent reason for the emergency braking system to become operative.

The Left headlight does not work and the airbag compartment is protruding out at a weird angle. This has been like this since delivery.

Driving at 70 mph with Autopilot on, vehicle slams on brakes when approaching Semi Truck in oncoming lane. No vehicles in front or behind me. No known reason for this action. AutoSteer was not engaged.

The 3 rear-looking cameras display 3 images to the center display, when the car is in reverse. I rely on them as I pull my car into the narrow opening of my garage stall at home. The opening is for a single car, & has pillars on either side, allowing 8-9", total, clearance with mirrors folded. Even with mirrors extended, I have limited visibility to the clearance of the sides of the car, as they pass the pillars. The repeater cameras, in the front fenders, are a great support to see the garage as I back into my garage. However, the UI, immediately upon selecting 'Reverse' while near the home garage, conceals 50% of these side images from view with a pop-up rectangular user interface (UI) -- ruining any advantage I have to see the rear as I pass these obstacles. As a result, I have to dismiss the pop-up UI & avoid triggering the controls within it, by making a sliding motion on the center display, with my fingers applied to the UI. This is a problem because: 1) the UI displays the option to trigger one of my 3 garage doors, each of which have an associated homelink rectangular button. This is useless when the garage is already open. 2) I'm in reverse, so I'm trying to back-in to the garage in one motion. Adding an extra steps, by clearing this obscuring UI distracts. 3) With tight clearances added problems are: trash might lie outside the garage; items can be left in my garage stall; people could be nearby. Distractions mess this up. Tesla likely fails: a) that the garage could already be activated to be open (or even opening) -- & therefore, tends to prompt the user multiple times, while parking; b) that 3 homelink garages are at the home. They didn't budget screen real-estate to show the homelink buttons without obscuring the backup display-screens assigned to each of the 3 rear-ward facing cameras; c) that a driver prefers to back-in to the parking space, relying on views of the 3 cameras to avoid obstacles. Tesla counted on people to forward to park.

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while pulling out of the garage without the seat belt securely fastened, the audible seat belt reminder failed to engage. The contact stated that the vehicle was taken to a Tesla service center twice, where it was diagnosed that the software needed to be updated; however, the service center advised the contact that they were unable to update the software on his vehicle for unknown reasons. Additionally, a Tesla mobile technician came to the contact's residence to repair the failure but was unable to update the software. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact stated upon contacting the Tesla service center he had previously taken the vehicle to, to inquire whether a recall was associated to the failure, he was referred to the NHTSA.gov website. The contact became aware that the VIN was included in NHTSA Campaign Numbers: 22V045000 (Electrical System, Seat Belts) and 22V063000 (Electrical System, Forward Collision Avoidance). The vehicle was not repaired. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The failure mileage was approximately 400. Parts distribution disconnect.

My Tesla plaid arrived with a yoke steering wheel. The sales associate told me that it's easy to get used to, and that it works well. I have driven the car for a couple weeks now and it is clearly a safety hazard. First off, it is difficult to steer, especially if you need to get out of a dangerous situation quickly. The yokes shape is extremely wide, and you have to reach hand over hand to turn. If you lose control on a icy road and need to keep the wheels facing in the direction that you wish to go, you will be unable to do so. Next, this yoke steering wheel has buttons for the horn and turn signals. I tried using my horn two days ago to tell someone in a parking lot that my car was close to theirs. I almost hit their car because the horn button was not working. Next, when I am steering, the turn signals and windshield wipers are accidentally triggered. This happens all the time. Furthermore, these issues do not make it safe to direct the vehicle under a high stress event. Having your windshield wipers triggered while trying to steer quickly is disorienting. It is only a matter of time till this steering wheel causes an accident on the roads.

I own MSLR 2022, on the manual it says to open a rear door in the unlikely situation when no power, fold back the edge of the carpet below the rear seats to expose the mechanical release cable. Pull the mechanical release cable toward the center of the vehicle. I have a floor mat that covers the secret hole stated in the instructions as well. It adds an additional step. My concern is that in a circumstance when the car is on fire or submerged in water, the rear passengers may lack the knowledge or calmness to unlock the doors.

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while driving 35 MPH in inclement weather with no other vehicles nearby, the vehicle came to an abrupt stop. The contact stated that the brakes were applied without driver input. The contact stated that the emergency stop message was displayed during the failure. The contact stated that on another occasion, while driving 45 MPH, the vehicle suddenly stopped. The contact had since stopped using the Forward Collision Avoidance: Adaptive Cruise Control. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 50,320.

The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model S. The contact stated that the shift bar became inoperable. The hazard warning activation switch was inoperable. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer where it was diagnosed that the control bar needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted but no further assistance was provided. The approximate failure mileage was 1,500.

During normal driving, I was unable to activate the horn on a regular basis. The yoke steering wheel does not have a horn activator in the traditional "center" part of the steering column, and the purported method of activating the horn by covering all of the buttons on the right side of the steering york never worked for me. It's dangerous and I found myself on multiple occasions not being able to activate the horn.