Complaint volume
1071 consumer-submitted complaints are matched to this model year. Treat the count as a research signal, then read the actual summaries for repeated symptoms.
Complaint records
2023 Tesla Model Y Complaints
1071 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2023 Tesla Model Y, grouped by component category.
1071 Total complaints
138 Crash reports
3 Fire reports
45 Injury reports
Complaint data reflects consumer-submitted reports. A complaint is not proof
of a defect, recall, or manufacturer fault. Enriched severity fields come
from official bulk records when the complaint can be matched by ODI number.
Buyer interpretation
How to use these complaints before buying
Complaint records are most useful when they turn into inspection points, seller questions, and comparison checks against nearby model years.
Pattern to inspect
The most common categories are forward collision avoidance, steering, vehicle speed control,forward collision avoidance. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 138 crash reports, 3 fire reports, 45 injury reports, and 1 fatality report. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 74 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 13,628 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to forward collision avoidance, steering, vehicle speed control,forward collision avoidance?
- Can I see recent maintenance and repair records?
- Has the vehicle ever been towed, involved in a crash, or repaired for the same issue twice?
- Can we also check the recall record for this 2023 Tesla Model Y?
Used-car checklist
Use these complaints before the test drive.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
2023 Tesla Model Y
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2023 Tesla Model Y complaints?
138 Crash
3 Fire
45 Injury
1 Fatality
92 Towed
34 Medical attention
What are the most common 2023 Tesla Model Y complaint categories?
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 184
STEERING 97
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 65
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 60
SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 54
SUSPENSION 54
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 36
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 34
VISIBILITY/WIPER 32
SEAT BELTS 26
1,071 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? On July 17, 2023, while driving on a highway in the state of Texas, my Tesla suddenly and unexpectedly engaged in a hard braking maneuver for several seconds while I was under Full self-Driving activated, despite there being no vehicle directly in front of me. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? As a result of this abrupt action, the two cars behind me were forced to swerve abruptly to the right to avoid a collision. I cannot stress enough how dangerous this situation was, and I am immensely thankful that no one was injured. This incident has shaken my confidence in the safety and reliability of the vehicle. As a responsible driver, my utmost priority is the safety of myself, my passengers, and others sharing the road. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? I have raised a formal complaint with tesla by email on July 17th and Also, raised a formal complaint by sending a letter on the initial date of July 18,2023 and by sending the evidence of vedio.. And, called them 2 times - But, I haven't received any proper response from tesla. ups tracking no: 1Z8880yw0346327053 Address i sent the mail: Tesla Motors, Inc. 3500 Deer Creek Road Palo Alto, California 94304 Attention: Vehicle Service 1-877-77-TESLA(1-877-778-3752) Email Address i sent complaint: CustomerSupport@tesla.com Ticket Number Created on Tesla Side: CI00B981EA Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? Tesla told someone reach me by Aug 3, 2023. But, no one reached to me. Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? NO Please reach out to me for additional evidence of vedio. And, I was unable to upload here since the upload limit (10 MB) is limited. Thanks, Surya Madhurakavi | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I bought the vehicle and after one day the cars power steering went off while driving and I couldn’t steer. As Tesla has an autopilot function it did not come with the car and no adaptive cruise control and I had to take it to service and leave the car for two days to resolve it. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING | As I was exiting my parking space I notice the steering wheel was stiff as I tried to navigate a left turn. I could not pull the wheel for a successful turn and to not block traffic I reverse slowly back into the parking spot. I rebooted the vehicle and was successful with no issues. Sent a message to Tesla service regarding incident. Mechanic says to have it towed the next time it happens again. Today for the second time (5 days later) as I try to leave for work the same problem appears. This time a reboot to the vehicle did not solve the issue. Rebooted 2 times and steering wheel was still frozen. Called for roadside assistance. Prior to this, there were warning signs that stated power steering reduced and lane departure off. With those warning signals I have a tesla service appointment scheduled. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING,LANE DEPARTURE | Vehicle was parked on the street. Put car in Drive, loud noise came from steering column, and warning message shows steering assist reduced and lane departure avoidance features unavailable and at that point the car had no power steering. Car was reset 4 times. Every time the vehicle was reset, loud noise came from steering column, both warning messages appeared, and no power steering. On 4th reset, power steering came back, but both warning messages still appeared. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING | Steering is locking up while driving. This happened 5 times in the past three weeks. Vehicle is scheduled for service. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING | After a software update I lost all power steering and could not drive the car. It had to be towed and the power steering motor replaced | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING | I received delivery of my new 2023 Model Y at the end of June. About 2 weeks ago, I was driving with my child in the car and at a left turn light. When the light turned green, I attempted to turn and the steering wheel almost completely stopped working. It felt like it was totally locked and with all my force, I was able to turn the car about 10% to avoid running into oncoming traffic. There was an alert for steering assist reduced. However, this was basically a locked steering wheel. The vehicle was towed to the nearest Tesla service center and per their notes, they replaced the steering rack and after test driving, they found an HVIL alert. Per their following notes, vehicle kept HVIL faulting and they had to pull logs and check signals and found that OSC kit was needed at VCFront. Installed OCS kit and alert stopped popping up. When I picked up the vehicle, I emphasized my great concern and how scary the incident was. They told me that if the issue continues, it's a hardware issue. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | In a church parking lot ( while I was about 30ft away from my car with the phone key in my hand) somebody was able to drive my car away ( she has a same color Tesla Y as me). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | All of a sudden, steering wheel control was lost. Steering wheel was so hard to rotate that it was even difficult to park the car. Also, I was getting lots of pop up messages from tesla vehicle operating system. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On 8/1/2023, driving between Mojave, California and Inyokern, California on highway 14, a newly paved and striped highway being followed by a Mercedes Van, I was doing 70 in a 65 zone. No traffic in front of us. No road signs. No turn outs. No side roads. No bridges, overpasses or underpasses when suddenly the car braked from 70mph to 48mph before I pressed down on the accellerator to keep the Mercedes from hitting us. the front end of the Mercedes dipped as he hit the brakes hard and he honked his horn which is what I would have done under similar circumstances. In the next half hour we experienced the phantom braking phenomenon five more times before my wife found complaints about "phantom braking", a phenomenon we'd never heard of or had been warned about. We turned off the Automatic Emergency Braking and experienced no more events until after stopping in Lone Pine for charging. When we reentered the highway we experienced one more event before turning off the Automatic Emergency Braking system, once again. Hours before we'd been in Southern California driving on Highways 5, 101 and 405 cruising along at 70 with traffic close in front and behind us. If the phantom braking had occured there, we might not be here today. Calling the Tesla dealership in Reno the salesman was non-plussed about our experience and informed us we should be ready to hit the accellerator at all times. This is not an acceptable response to what could easily have been a major accident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING,LANE DEPARTURE | Summary: Loss of power steering/inability to steer the vehicle occurred twice (7/16/23 & 7/29/23). Issue appears consistent with Investigation PE 23-014. Other functionality was also lost on each occurrence. Details: 7/16/23 - Driver entered the car and immediately received several alerts including Steering assist reduced, stability controlled disabled, traction control disabled, Lane departure avoidance features unavailable, and Vehicle hold disabled. Steering wheel could not be turned and regenerative braking was not functioning. A video of the issue was created and is available upon request as it could not be loaded in its current format. Tesla was contacted on 7/17/23. They stated that a firmware update failed on the evening of 7/15/23. The vehicle was towed to service center and firmware was updated. the invoice from the service center as also attached. 7/29/23 - Driver entered the car and immediately received several alerts including Steering assist reduced and Lane departure avoidance features unavailable. The steering wheel could not be turned, but only with extreme force. There was no firmware update at this time. I was able to drive the car 3 miles to my home at very slow speeds. 2 videos of the issue were created and are available upon request as they could not be loaded in their current format. Tesla was contacted on 7/30/23. The vehicle was towed to service center where they determined that the steering rack needs to be replaced. The vehicle remains at the service center for repair. Background: Car was just received on 6/30/2023. I have had other issues as well. Upon receipt, the electronic seat mechanism was not working and my cameras do not appear to be measuring distances properly. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING,POWER TRAIN,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request?: I got delivery of my new Model Y and odometer was reading 3 miles, i took the delivery and drove 10 miles and it stuck the steering wheel , "rear motor got disabled alert" and vehicle went to slow speed on freeway all of sudden, i had truck behind me it would ended up very bad for me and family, i had to immediately put emergency signal and stop on road side, i tried to call tesla road safety helpline and they were totally busy and did not receive call. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? ; this car "rear motor disabled " twice in middle of freeway , Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center?: Yes they confirmed but unable to give me more details . Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? : No they kept it secret with less info. Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear?: No warnings, just stopped over in middle of freeway . so scary specially to new car. I would like NHTSA to inspect all new model Y car which have problems reported please check online and see the percentage of people received this kind of risky issues. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While driving about 75 mph on an expressway using autopilot or just cruise control, the car decelerated to about 40mph within a few seconds. Thankfully there were no other cars behind me. They likely would have crashed into me if so. I believe Tesla calls this problem “phantom braking.” There were no other cars or objects in front of me when this happened. This happened all within 2-3 hours on a road trip in sunny and dry weather on a pristine road. The first time was on “auto pilot.” After that scary experience, I only used cruse control and it happen twice more on the same trip. Again, weather was clear, it was during daylight and there were no other cars or obstacles in front of me when the “phantom breaking” occurred. Tesla said to hit the car icon on the car’s control screen if it happens again. Frankly, I feel it is unsafe to use autopilot or cruise control to do so to try and duplicate the experience to report it for Tesla. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING,VISIBILITY/WIPER | Steering got locked and stiffened in middle of the road in traffic.had to call 911 to help me to move my car.this was scary as it could have lead to crash or accident.some time front wiper is automatically wiping in dry summer days which is sometimes blocks the view while driving. Had to switch off the auto mode for wiper. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING | Loss of power steering making vehicle very hard to steer. The day before power steering was lost, steering became step like - not turning smoothly but in incremental steps. The problem was confirmed by Tesla service and repair has been performed. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING | Service pushed a software update intended to fix a parking assist issue, and after that the power steering failed with a "steering assist reduced" message. I did a full power off and waited a few minutes, and since then it has worked fine. Also of note I mentioned this in my service ticket and they didn't respond at all. I attached a screenshot of the conversation from the Tesla app. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I experienced multiple dangerous phantom braking instances on Eastbound I10 between Van Horn and Ozona, Texas when the TACC system was in use. The car is on firmware 2023.20.9. There were no obstructions in the road and no traffic in front of the vehicle when the car suddenly braked going from 80mph to 50mph in a second before I could take control and accelerate. In two instances, cars were behind me creating a dangerous situation both in terms of an unexpected slow down on a barren stretch of interstate and possible road rage if motorists believed I was brake checking. There were no warning messages on the screen and no audible warning sounds. This is a consistent problem with this vehicle and seems to happen regularly on desert interstates or other highways where there are not many trees on bright sunny days. These events seem to happen on stretches of highway in which there may be a loss of cell signal so I wonder if that is a contributing factor. Regardless, Tesla needs to fix this issue as it is unsafe. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING | Unable to steer. Received the power steering error mentioned in reports, I don’t remember the error code. Happened in my driveway, so no issues with respect to time or place. Rebooted the car and the error went away, but still scheduled service due to error code. It resulted in bringing the car to a service center where the steering rack was replaced. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING,LANE DEPARTURE | The steering wheel on my 2023 Tesla Model Y, brand new with only 800 miles on it, kept on locking up out of nowhere, in the middle of the drive, and even on the highway, posing a major safety concern for me and everyone driving around me. My safety was put at risk since I could not steer my vehicle off the road and into a safe area, posing a risk-prone of a severe accident through rear-ending. The problem was notified to Tesla Service, which responded super late to this incident where I had to call them and wait on hold for 1 hour to speak to a representative who then followed up and told me to drive it to the closest service center, which I declined since the steering wheel locking up at random is a major safety. Tesla stated that I would need a new steering rack installed on my brand new 2023 Model Y. I don't understand how these vehicles are inspected and pass quality control on such a major issue. This issue is not just about a broken part but a LIFE or DEATH SITUATION and should be dealt which severely. I got multiple lights and messages when the failure occurred while driving, with steering assist required being the last notification which I have attached in the pictures. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | POWER TRAIN,SERVICE BRAKES | The contact owns a 2023 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated while pulling into the driveway, the vehicle accelerated at high-speed causing the vehicle to strike a wall at the contact resident. The contact stated the brake assist did not activate. The vehicle had major front-end damages. The contact's resident wall was damaged. Both the contact's wife who was driving and the passenger suffered concussion and whiplash. The contact's wife suffered neck injuries but neither the driver nor the passenger sought medical attention. A police report was not filed. The vehicle was towed to a repair center. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and the vehicle data. The failure mileage was 3,746. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 2 Towed | 3,746 |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING | Loose power steering control while driving. Mostly happens when car is backing but also has happened while driving. Twice, we narrowly avoided accident. We called Tesla and they said to reset the software upon which it did not show for a day and again started showing up. We are taking the car to be looked up by Tesla service center. This is extremely dangerous situation as loosing power steering makes car really hard to steer!! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING | While backing the vehicle out of my driveway the steering wheel completely froze and would not turn in either direction. The vehicle reported a fault, so I turned the vehicle off then back in and it returned to normal. There was an error reported in the app under the service section however it has now disappeared. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | While on the highway i lost all power steering and acceleration and breaking power. no blinkers or access to my cars screen would not put car in park while on the side of the highway. i had to cross 4 lanes with no power, blinkers, minimal breaking. The control computer completely broke and stopped working. this was a week after delivery. Telsa towed my car for free and fixed the issue. But did not give anything for almost killing me on the highway. what repair notes say they fixed/replaced. Steering Colum control module bolt Rc Airbag harness Faulty SCCM,CAN | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING | Had car less than a month. After a Tesla software upgrade, error message that power steering assist was disabled. Unable to turn steering wheel. Reset software twice with no change. Left the car for awhile. When I came back, steering worked. No issues since. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | STEERING,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | Steering wheel locked up one morning and immediately reported it to Tesla and they corrected it, but it seems like they just did a flush of the system. Not sure if there is still some fundamental flow. Charging port also kept on not responding either which basically makes the vehicle unable to move if it can't be charged. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |