We took our first major road trip in our new 2022 Tesla Model S on Friday 10/14, leaving at 10:00 am for a 9 hour trip. During the trip the car experienced multiple severe incidents of the car braking hard while at highway speeds and two of the incidents almost caused an accident. The car drops 10 to 15 mph instantly for no reason. We drove the car home on Monday 10/17 without AEB, Auto Steer, FSD Beta, Emergency Lane Departure Avoidance and Obstacle-Aware Acceleration and used TACC occasionally and still had the issue but wasn't as severe. Even on the day we purchased the car (Sept 30) and drove it home (a short drive on highway 95) we had a similar incident but it was so new we weren't sure if it was us or the car but now we know it is a fault of the car and creates a very dangerous driving situation which could result in an accident or death to a passenger in our car or in the car behind us when our car decides to slam on the brakes for no apparent reason. There were no warning lamps, messages or symptoms of the problem prior to the failure. We turned in a service request to Tesla and their response was to drive the car and have it happen again and create a Bug report. So basically Tesla is asking us to put our lives on the line to help them diagnose the problem because they don't want to take the time to review the diagnostic data that is readily available to them. In our opinion, this is a very serious and dangerous problem and the car needs to be taken off the road unti
2022 Tesla Model S complaints
Owner reports filed with NHTSA about this vehicle, newest first and reproduced as filed. They are unverified accounts: one proves nothing, and a pattern across many is the thing worth reading. Back to the full 2022 record →
While ADAS is engaged, vehicle occasionally suddenly breaks and disengages while the road is clear and obstruction free. This happens frequently.
The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model S equipped with Michelin tires, Tire Line: Pilot Sport 4S Tires, Tire Size: 295/30/ZR21, DOT Number: 4M5203DX4321. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, TPMS warning light was illuminated. The contact took the vehicle to an independent mechanic where it was discovered that the tread inside both rear tires had severely worn to the extent that the wires inside both tires were exposed. The contact was informed that the failure could have led to a severe tire blowout. The mechanic also informed him that the failure was caused by a vehicle misalignment. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and the contact was informed that a diagnostic test was needed to determine the cause of the failure. The tires were not replaced. The failure mileage was approximately 10,000.
The OEM Michelin rear tire used on the 2021 and 2022+ Tesla Model S has a serious safety defect which results in extreme wear/tread separation at the inner sidewall/tread junction. Numerous defective tires are shown on this thread, among others: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/plaid-21%E2%80%9Drear-tire-woes-factory-defect.269394/ Both Tesla and Michelin report the tires are nationwide backorder (likely due to the number of tire failures in the field). Thus far, Tesla and Michelin have taken NO action on proactive tire replacements, despite repeated requests. (Perhaps they are awaiting accidents with fatalities first?) Please take action to secure a recall as this defect is extremely difficult to note as the tire tread separation occurs most often at the inner sidewall of the rear tires, a nearly impossible area to inspect.
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.
My new Tesla Model S, delivered 10/1/22 has frequent emergency breaking events every trip to town, approximately 25 miles on a 2 lane State highway. These breaking events involve severe emergency breaking and happen in cruse control or auto steering, (this car does not have auto driving feature). My concern is that these breaking events could cause an accident if a vehicle following me should rear-end my car because my vehicle breaks hard for no reason, without warning. I requested a service appointment from Tesla but my scheduled appointment was soon canceled by Tesla and instead, I was referred to a long written company explanation on why the breaking might be happening but nothing about when the issue might be corrected. I have a copy available if requested, and the vehicle is available for inspection upon request. Basically, the Tesla shop won’t look at the vehicle. To my knowledge, there is no authority, insurance representative, or independent service in New Mexico that would be interested in inspecting the vehicle, but I would make the vehicle available for such inspection within 100 miles of my residence. The emergency breaking event happened the first time I put the car in auto steering and again in cruse control, every time I drive the vehicle. There are no warnings lights or messages before, during, or after these events. A trip of 25 miles will have about 10 or more of these events. If cruse control or automatic steering is off and the driver has control, these ev
Factory oem tire separated on the driver side rear. This could have ended badly had i not noticed the difference in handling of the vehicle. It appears the rear camber of the vehicle causes strain on the inner side of the tire and there is zero calibration that can be made to help fix this. Tesla told me it’s a Michelin issue and Michelin says it’s a Tesla suspension issue.
The contact owns a 2022 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed with the ADAS Adaptive Cruise Control activated, the vehicle experienced Phantom Braking with an unknown warning light intermittently illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. Neither the dealer nor the manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 2,236.
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.
I was driving my Model S from Oregon to Texas, 14-16 Sep. The car was new, picked up on 31 Aug. I had the car in Autopilot when I was on the highway on the drive to Texas. In the first two days I had four incidents of "phantom braking" at highway speeds, as high as 80 mph. There was not a lot of traffic those first two days and the conditions were dry so there was little risk to others and the car stayed straight during the braking. However it's not hard to imagine scenarios where unexpected braking at high speeds could be a problem, such as during wet or dusty road conditions, driving into a high speed turn with other vehicles nearby, etc. The vehicle has not been inspected but the incident has been reported to the dealer and I am awaiting guidance.
The horn "button" on the 2022 Model S steering "yoke" is impossible to engage consistently when the wheel is in any orientation other than straight. I have been in 5 near accidents that have required lane departures and roadway departures to avoid collisions with other vehicles because it has been impossible to find and engage the horn button without removing attention from the road and impending accident. This design essentially leaves the Model S with no operative horn in an emergency situation. There are no tactile keys to find the button in the dark, it is not illuminated, and there is no way to find it when the wheel is in a non-centered orientation. In many cases, I have inadvertently engaged wipers/washer fluid in the midst of an accident scenario, further obstructing my view and causing additional distractions from safely operating the vehicle. Please make them fix this!!!
Having the horn on the right side is a huge safety issue. When I need to push it while turning, it turns out to be impossible to locate in emergencies. I had multiple issues with this. It needs to be in the center of the steering wheel
A driver moving at highway speeds began to change lanes while I was next to him. I tried to honk the horn (which, on my yoke, is a small, haptic feedback touch screen of sorts) to warn him. The horn did not sound, either because it did not respond or because I missed the tiny, physically undistinguished area of yoke that serves as the horn activator.
I have quite a few incidents with fantom breaks on my Tesla. Two night ago I almost caused accident as my Tesla breaked for no reason. Many incidents happened before in the month.
While driving with Traffic Aware Cruise Control engaged and set at 55 MPH the car did a hard break to an almost complete stop in the middle of the lane for no apparent reason. This occurred at least two times and both times there was no traffic in front of me. The road was a two lane highway. There was oncoming traffic and cars behind me but no cars in front of me. The breaking was so hard on both occasions and it startled me and caused me to veer off the road in the first instance . The car behind me had to break suddenly as well. After the second occurrence I disengaged the TACC as it seemed to be sensing the oncoming traffic
I parked the car, My wife stayed inside. She opened the passenger door got out and opened the trunk to get her phone. She got back into the car and placed a call. after about 5 minutes of her being on the call, the doors locked and the horn started blaring so loud that she was in visible pain and crying. I came back to the car and was able to shut it off by unlocking it. My wife has ear pain and is having a hard time hearing as well as ringing in her ears. I have no idea why the car would lock and not allow her to get out to escape the ear-splitting noise. I really hope her hearing comes back.
I was driving to the airport at 4:00 am in the morning. I was on C470 going past SantaFa exist and had the cruise control set to 70mph. As I was just passing the exit the cruise control setting dropped to 45mph and the car broke hard for no reason. The cruise control setting was NOT set to the actual speed. This has happened on 4 other occasions while driving on the highway. This is very scary and very dangerous to any car that might be following me. I told the Tesla service person and they said, that it is called phantom breaking and they are aware of it, and if it happens again to just control the speed with the pedal. Doesn't seem like a good solution.
Tesla provides a back-up input form to its touch screen -- namely voice commands. Voice commands operate, among other things, map positioning, HVAC, lighting. Unfortunately, as quiet as the car is, the voice commands are a roulette wheel of results. 80% accuracy in detecting the specific command is the best Tesla manages. This would be a problem, by itself. However, even when the voice commands are accurately 'read back', and even when the voice command is one that Tesla explicitly has among the commands that Tesla reports (in its manual, etc.) to be an active function that produces an active result to the car's operation -- even then -- the commands/car still are unable to perform the documented function. 1) I commanded the car to 'turn on dome light'; 2) the car recognized 'turn on dome light'; 3) the car acknowledged 'dome lights on'; 4) but the car did not turn on the dome lights. The entire user interface operates in a random way at random times in random traffic. This is a recipe for distraction. Tesla needs to encourage eyes-up, on the road. Instead the multiple stages of failure, result in many unnecessary risks. The car was/is made available to Tesla's service center, and they are aware of the contents of this report. I expect zero result from their 'diagnosis'. SW release is 2022.20.8.
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 probl
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
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.
While on A/P cruising on the free way the car slow down and start braking on its own !!
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 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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 coul
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.
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NHTSA publishes every complaint as the owner wrote it and investigates only a fraction. Spelling, capitalisation and judgement are the filer’s own. What carries weight is repetition: the same component failing the same way across many filings, and whether the manufacturer eventually opened a recall for it.
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