2023 Tesla Model S complaints

The problem is with the regenerative braking. On an icy road, when the driver takes their foot off the accelerator, regenerative braking starts immediately and is quite strong as this is an electric vehicle. If the braking power is more than the icy road can afford, the wheels will lock up. This can and has caused drivers, including myself, to lose control and spin out. There’s nothing that the driver can do to avoid this, as there is no setting to attenuate or disable this feature (although there used to be a way up until 2021). In fact, the user’s manual actually warns of this: “In snowy or icy conditions, Model S may experience loss of traction during regenerative braking.” That’s it—just a warning as there’s nothing the driver can do about besides to driving in these conditions.

I purchased my new 2023 Tesla Model S in 02/2023 (delivered in Fife, WA). The vehicle has staggered wheel sets - rear wheels/tires wider than the front. After being hit by a vehicle in 07/2023, the two back wheels were damaged. I took the vehicle to Exotic Collision center in Bellevue, WA, a Tesla-approved body-shop. While replacing the wheels in 09/2023, the body-shop found that the front wheels were installed in the rear, and vice versa. As a result, the tires didn’t fit properly which internally damaged the two wheels where wider tires were fit on narrower wheels, and all four tires. This was unrelated to the accident, hence not covered by insurance. I reached out to Tesla in 10/2023, with photos from the body-shop, and contact info of their technician. However, Tesla had denied accountability and demanded I pay in full for replacement tires/wheels. The two reasons they provided are - 1) I should have heard a noise, and brought back the vehicle to them immediately, instead of waiting for a body shop to find it, and 2) I couldn’t provide evidence that I didn’t change the wheels out myself. To me, neither reasoning makes sense. For #1, Tesla couldn’t show me what kind of noise I should have expected. Also, my vehicle is the proof that there would not be noticeable noise from the issue in every case. On #2, it is a case of proving a negative, which does not seem logical in this case. I know this to be an issue at the time I took delivery, given nothing else was done to the wh

The car does not have a horn button in the center of the steering wheel. There have already been multiple emergency situations where I needed to use the horn but could. It locate the button during the time sensitive emergency. This was a contributor to an an accident on 10/1.

Dear NHTSA Officials, I recently became the proud owner of a 2023 Model S. As pleased as I am with most aspects of the vehicle, there's a pressing safety concern I believe warrants your immediate attention. Nature of the Issue: Over the past two weeks, I encountered two separate incidents where nearby vehicles swerved into my lane. On both occasions, my instinct was to press the center of the steering wheel, expecting the horn to sound. However, it did not. Design Flaw: The actual horn mechanism in these vehicles is situated as a small capacitive touch button on the right side of the steering wheel. For seasoned drivers, such a drastic deviation from convention is not only counter-intuitive but can prove dangerous. Potential Resolution: There is already a discourse around a potential fix for this issue. An over-the-air software update by Tesla was proposed around 18 months ago, which, if implemented, could address the concern. Here is the pertinent tweet from Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, dated March 1, 2022: Link to Post: [XXX] Request for NHTSA Intervention: I urge the NHTSA to investigate this matter and compel Tesla to either release the promised firmware update or retrofit the steering wheels on the affected Model S and Model X vehicles produced since the design refresh. The implications of this design oversight go beyond just the driver's safety and extend to anyone in proximity to these vehicles. I trust that you will treat this matter with the seriousness it deserves and lo

While driving at midnight, I pulled away from a stop sign in a residential neighborhood, and hear a loud bang. The dash display turned red immediately, and the car lost all propulsion. The dash display said "Pull over safely, Vehicle shutting down." My phone app also showed a message of "Your car suffered a failure and will no longer drive. Contact Test Roadside..." I coasted to the side of the road. While calling Tesla Roadside assistance, within 15 minutes of the breakdown, the center display said "Low voltage energy remaining = 30%" and a few minutes later the entire car went dark. The doors, windows, trunks, glovebox, center screen, tow mode, and the hazard flashers no longer worked. The tow truck driver said he has seen this problem a lot and based on my description, he correctly diagnosed a failed inverter, which was Tesla's diagnosis. I searched online user forums and found many other people having the same catastrophic failure in new Tesla's. It's incredibly dangerous to lose all forward power. This is a new car with only 5K miles. And to lose all accessory power within 15 mins so not even the safety hazard flashers work is terribly dangerous.

Phantom breaking. I picked up my new Model S on Sept 7th. While on the thruway on AutoPilot, the car will suddenly brake. I am not near to anyone. This is a hazard.

At least 6 times on two different trips, while driving with Adaptive Cruise control engaged, the car randomly and aggressively applied the breaks. It was so aggressive that if there had been a car behind us, they would definitely have rear ended us going 60+ miles per hour. It was difficult to hold the car in the lane when the breaks were applied so aggressively. We did some research and found that there were over 700 comments on this problem and it was being labeled as "fantom breaking". The breaking is very aggressive and very unsafe. The representatives at the dealership simply acknowledged the problem and said that Tesla will continue to try to correct it with a software download.

I have only owned my Tesla S for three months and have had several close call situations that would not have been as close if the car had a proper horn trigger located underneath the steering wheel airbag cover. The small capacitive button on the right side of the wheel simply isn’t safe, and 30+ years of driving has permanently imprinted the center location of the horn in my brain. In emergency situations, my subconscious makes me hit that large pad in the center of the wheel. And by the time I figure out why the horn isn’t sounding, it’s too late and I’ve had to take other evasive steering action that is often less safe.

This is the second time in the last two weeks that my backup camera has stopped working. I have talk to the service center about this I was told that it is not a safety issue but a convenience to the driver and that I should use my mirrors and turn my head around to see what is behind me. I have taken my car in the service center to see if they can fix the problem (8/23/2023). Backup camera worked for a while than stopped again . I have made another appointment with the service center to see if they can fix the problem (8/29/2023.

The car will rapidly break and decelerate with no obstacle in front. The care does this frequently but randomly. The car will slow by 10 -20 mps in a mater of a second or 2. The deceleration is had enough to throw unsuspecting passengers forward into locked seatbelts. It will do this with cars following behind. I wil ldo this between 3-12 or more times over a 100 mile drive. I have asked Tesla to fix this but they have said that this is a limitation of their program and that it can't be fixed. I think it is only a mater of time before the car is ended or put into a skid due to unexpected breaking.

Car suddenly accelerated and crushed into shop in parking lot

1) Horn is hazardous. Small 1/4" area hard to locate and activate. Impossible to locate when steering. 2) Turn indicators is hazardous. Hard to locate. Impossible to locate when steering. 3) front parking sensors do not work, 4) rear parking sensors do not work, 5) active lane departure warning does not work, 6) forward collision mitigation does not work, 7) rear collision warning does not work, 8) pedestrian detection system deos not work, 9) driver attention alert does not work.

My wife was driving the car through a twisty road, and she heard a clunking noise come from the front passenger door, and then the door opened. A warning came up that the emergency door release was pulled and that the door was open. My wife was the only person in the car and could not have pulled the emergency door release on the passenger side door. I took the car to Tesla, and they were able to confirm the error messages, but did not see anything wrong within the door that they felt explained the issue. They did not have an explanation other than suggesting we pulled the emergency handle, which was impossible since no one was sitting in the seat at that time. They also admitted that a recent software bug in Model S and X cars was likely the cause of previous errors about the emergency handle being pulled, since we know not to pull it. We were obviously concerned since the door opening suddenly could be quite dangerous. We have not had any symptoms before or since.

3 separate times the right pillar camera and 2 times for all cameras: The car's computer lost contact with the cameras and could not reconnect. In 2023, Tesla changed from radar to camera sensing technology. All driving functions relating to car positioning and cruise/speed control were lost at those times. Twice the car was under cruise control so the car interpreted this as 0 mph and initiated emergency braking from 75 mph on an interstate highway. I was able to avoid the following cars hitting me only by instantly accelerating back to posted speed. Tesla has been very difficult to convince that this is a problem. They say that remote diagnosis is inconclusive. Since they go for "at home" service first, 3 separate service times were cancelled by them, and they will not allow a service appointment at their shop for further diagnosis. Warnings came up on the instrument display, but only for 10 or 15 seconds, in words too small to read. Since I am trying to maintain control of the vehicle, I cannot stare at the screen to try and memorize, or find my phone to try and take a picture. This vehicle does not allow the owner to look at the error/trouble logs, so exact times and dates are elusive. Tesla refuses to start investigating until the exact warning, date, and times are advised. Dates are known, approximate times and driving conditions are known but aren't good enough.

The steering wheel and lack of lane change and transmission stocks makes the vehicle hard to control at low speeds. Swiping the screen forward for Drive and backward for Reverse does not create any tactile confirmation. Low speed parking lot maneuvers have already resulted in a few close calls. Along the same lines, the steering wheel makes low speed control difficult. Finally, the missing lane change stocks creates an obstacle for normal and high speed maneuvering as the process is not intuitive, confirmation of the blinker is somewhat absent, and you can’t always use the signal depending on the wheel angle. If the yoke is turned the stocks are impossible to signal as well honking the horn. I encourage the reviewer to simply turn the wheel and attempt to honk or signal a lane change. As a final note, I’d prefer not to share my personal information with the manufacturer. The companies ability to follow up with all its in car electronics and software is impressive but can be detrimental to the end users experience. Software rollbacks, feature rollbacks, etc is not a foreign tactic to get users to comply for Tesla. Other than that, it seems like a fantastic car.