The side repeater cameras become very hazy with a pink shade at nights and the camera view when the turn signal is turned on displays this. This is quite dangerous if we rely on camera view for blink spot checks at nights.
2018 Tesla Model 3 visibility complaints
Page 3 of 3: complaints 41 to 61 of 61, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Tesla has upgraded the visual interface of the Model 3 to version 11 of their software. My vehicle is now running version 2021.44.30.7. The new interface hides critical functions of the vehicle required for safe operation of the vehicle, such as windscreen wipers, front and rear window defoggers behind the multiple menus of the user interface meaning unfamiliar drivers are unable to safely operate the vehicle. Previously these items were on the bottom status bar of the display. Telsa have placed entertainment options as the priority for the display versus safety options. Charging rates and associated energy safety options are similary hidden behind multiple menus or require the charge port to be opened to access functionality. The user interface of the vehicle is now more like a smartphone with attention to entertainment versus attention to safety. Critical controls need to be permanently on display on the top or bottom of the display so unfamilar drivers can readily access functionality for safe vehicle operation in all weather conditions. My wife, who drove the vehicle using the previous interface with controls clearly displayed on the bottom bar of the display, now feels completely unsafe in the vehicle, as multiple clicks through menus on the display are required to activate devices versus the single click on a function in the previous version. She now has to concentrate on the menu and divert her attention from the road to the display to active a function such as window defogging or wipers, presenting a serious hazardous situation for her and other road users. the federal safety agency and Tesla need to address the now unsafe condition of Tesla vehicles running this new user interface. Tesla in Europe has been subject to safety sanctions by government agencies for concealing critical vehicle functions including these.
The Dec 2021 software update changed the touchscreen drastically making it dangerous to use while driving. More time must be spent taking one's eyes off the road to find the icons, and more icons must be touched to control the component (e.g., turning on the defogger). I worry there will be an accident. Tesla customer service has been unresponsive. The chatbot told me to watch videos (which I did and which were unhelpful). No person has responded to my complaints and queries about how to revert the touchscreen to the previous version.
Recent Tesla software versions have hidden vital safety controls (front and rear window defrost) in sub-menus on screen where previously they were always present on the screen bottom row. Furthermore, frequently used controls (seat heaters) have been moved to sub-menus while they were previously on the main screen. Both of these above changes pose a distracted driving hazard. I have not personally installed these updates, but according to Tesla documentation this means I am no longer covered by vehicle warranty. This presents an unfair choice to owners: maintain vehicle warranty or allow Tesla to modify the vehicle in undesirable and fundamentally unsafe ways.
The latest update of the software (V11) has moved functions that were previously accessible on the main screen to a sub-screen requiring 3 touches compared to 1 before. These functions include the windshield defogger, rear defroster, and the seat heaters. This requires having to look and interact with the screen much longer than before, impacting safety. Prior software (V10) had buttons on the screen emulating those of other cars. These required 1 touch to.enable/disable the function. It now requires 3 touches: 1 to pull up the sub-panel, 1 to enable/disable, and 1 to dismiss the sub-panel. Also, the prior software allowed you to see the status of these functions on the screen. Now you have to touch the screen to pull up the sub-panel and touch again to dismiss.
Tesla released V11 software for its cars on December 24, 2021. The following controls were previously directly accessible on the touchscreen: Wipers, Front Defrost, Rear Defrost. These high importance safety controls have now been buried under sub-menus. I was shocked driving my car tonight when my windshield started fogging up and the Front Defrost button was not visible anymore. I could have crashed while searching various UI sub-menus to find it again in a panic.
Tesla changed the entire user interface with their software update to version 11. I believe that this software update will cause vehicle accidents since they removed quick access to critical features and replaced them with entertainment apps. As the driver of the vehicle I do not need quick access to video games / streaming services, and more importantly I should not have to go through several screens to access key functions like the window defrosters. Tesla removed quick access to the defrosters, the wiper controls, the seat heaters and tire pressure. Even the music player now causes driver distraction. This new update is an accident waiting to happen and is geared toward entertainment instead focusing on a safe driving experience. The windows that pop up on the screen even block critical features like wiper blade control. Tesla claims that since they removed the buttons for wipers and defrosters that I could use the voice command but with this new update the voice command feature usually crashes. The new icons for user interface a so small that they cause eye strain and make difficult to see the road after checking the screen. The bottom of the screen is stuck in night mode which also causes eye strain. Since this vehicle has no buttons just a touch screen this drastic change to the user interface is a serious safety hazard. Tesla needs to add an actual physical wiper control switch to their vehicles. The automatic wiper mode is defective because Tesla did not install rain sensors on their vehicles. Also the new software has a serious bug where the vehicle disables the safety systems (all cameras and the lane departure warning system). The vehicle safety systems were disabled on 12/26/21 and 12/30/21. I informed Tesla on both occasions and they saw this software flaw in my vehicle computer files. Please make sure that Tesla fixes their vehicle interface before someone crashes from distracted driving/difficulty using the touch screen interface.
Tesla recently rolled out version 2021.44.25.2 of their vehicle operating system. This update introduced several major user interface changes. Including moving commonly used “virtual buttons” that had been permanently on the main screen, into buried sub-menus. This requires the driver to take their eyes off the road for a significant amount of time. Among the biggest concern is the windshield wiper controls. But also, seat heaters, and trip data.
Latest update from Tesla moved commonly used features several layers deep into hard to manage screen menus. e.g windshield wipers. This now requires drivers to take their eyes of the road for several seconds to activate the functions.
VIN: [XXX] I had an accident driving my Tesla model 3 on July 16th. Here is what happened: Driving autopilot at highway speed at ~65 mph Stray wheel/tire came and hit the front center hood/bumper of the car headon The hood flipped open tearing the hinges/struts on both sides of hood; hood lay flat on the front windshield With hood laying flat covering the whole windshield, front visibility became ZERO, also covering front windshield cameras Airbags popped on driver side (steering and below steering), and DEFLATED right away Autopilot did NOT disengage even after airbags deflated; car continued to drive ~65 mph on autopilot Not been able to see anything in the front, with both airbags deflated, and car still on autopilot at ~65mph, I found myself in a very life-threatening situation Eventually pulled the car to the shoulder on the left after changing one lane (still not been able to see anything through the windshield at ~65mph). Requesting: 1. Review and identify what Tesla auto-pilot could have done different and make improvements (since car had data on both sides of the car and front and back, as a computer, it should have at the very least slowed down or braked; or better yet avoid the on-coming wheel all together in that split second) 2. Why didn't the autopilot dis-engage and continued driving? 3. Front hood needs to have two front latches as in other cars - i.e., one main, one backup for situations like these (e.g., like Mercedes); single latch is not enough; both hinges holding the hood are very weak and broke within a second with just the wind. Hinges/struts need to be stronger. Just a wheel and here we are with a totally broken hood? 4. Autopilot is wrongly advertised as auto-pilot INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
Rear view camera often does not turn on (or is black, while side view cameras work); rebooting car's software system has no effect, as other owners have advised. Tesla mobile technician replaced camera, still doesn't work. Says it may be software or chip-related issue with media control unit.
Random crack appeared in late march, early april 2019 in middle of windshield ~4-5" long. No visible chip. After complaint that windshield cracked for no reason, we ended paying repair out of pocket. Service center didn't agree it as warranty item. Windshield replacement cost (total) was $1023.26. Invoice number 3000s0000056579. Noticed 4" crack in middle/left side of back window on october 2020. Has taken car twice to repair and they don't agree it's warranty item again. No chip. There appears to be part quality issue or structural design flaw causing windows to crack.
Rear camera frequently fails ranging in duration of failure from a few seconds, to hours, to days. Camera occasionally will work, but flicker between on and off. This failure occurs both while in motion and stationary. It presents a hazard whenever reversing/checking surroundings of the car. Multiple service attempts have not been able to resolve this issue.
The backup camera and side view cameras are intermittently not displaying while reversing. The camera displays the trajectory lines, however, the image is totally black. There is no camera feed. This problem has remained, despite several software updates. The camera at times will freeze on a previous image, not the current 'live' image.
After entering my vehicle and initiating a trip to work recently in the late morning. I had activated my windshield wipers to clean my front windshield and after traveling less than a block I heard a crack like pop sound even though nothing had impacted the glass and suddenly a 4 inch crack appeared in the the top middle of the windshield. I had started the process of cleaning my windshield while I was in my driveway and then had proceeded to enter my community street on my way to work and before I had left my local neighborhood, approximately less than 200 feet the crack had occurred and I hadn't even accelerated past 15-20 MPH. I though it strange that this happened as there were no other vehicles moving in the vicinity at the time and all I could think was possibly that the glass was super heated and the sprinkling of water on the windshield to wash it with the wipers may have contributed to the incident? It was a very bizarre occurrence.
I want to both report and complain about an incident that happened with me on december 14, 2019. I was traveling with my wife and two kids from vancouver, wa to my residence [xxx]. I was driving my tesla model 3 (bmx 2571) and the days before the car had a new update installed (that included improvements to wipers using some ai improvements). There was strong rain while driving on the I-5 freeway. The traffic speed was 70 MPH. I was in the middle of a huge pack of cars all moving at the ~ 70 MPH. What we encountered was- a) first wipers got locked (no movement et all), this reduced my visibility to almost zero and struggling to maneuver the car in the high speed traffic to avoid any accident. B) the car then went in some shutdown mode of display, both confusing me and leaving adrift as to how to handle the situation. It took both my wife and me some heroic effort to drive avoiding any accident until the car recovered (it was a period of ~30 sec which sounded like eternity for us) from this freeze, shutdown, and reboot. You can verify my claim as I did file a 'bug report' around that time. When talking of the anomalies, I have also seen that on freeways the autopilot has tried to put brakes all of a sudden in the past, thus creating life threatening situations. At all these occasions, I had filed 'bug reports' to help tesla. However, latest incident is beyond my wildest imagination and concerning with respect to the safety of life while traveling in a tesla car. Best, [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).
Our 2018 tesla model 3 has never provided a clear image of the rear camera feed. Especially at night time there are pink+green lines and color distortions covering the image that make it difficult to see and/or recognize objects in the path of rear travel or objects coming up fast from behind while driving straight with the rear camera feed enabled. Tesla has claimed these lines are a software bug that will be remedied with a future update since at least october of 2018, but after multiple software updates these same issues persist today. In summary, the rear camera feed is both grainy and obstructed by pink/green lines when reversing at night. The same phenomenon was the topic of a recent conversation thread in the tesla community of a major social network as well: https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/akkslh/model_3_backup_camera_not_sure_this_is_right/
When driving, the electrochomatic (auto-dimming) rear-view mirror and side-view mirrors only dim at a pre-determined time of day, which is long after it is dark out, and long after following vehicles have turned on their headlights. They revert back to normal (not darkened) long before sunrise. They do not respond at all to the following vehicle's headlights or to ambient light conditions. Along with this, there is a significant portion around the edges of the mirrors that never darken. There is no way for the driver to manually dim the mirrors. The only way to avoid being blinded by the following vehicle's head lights is to redirect the mirror, making the it useless. I brought this to the manufacturer's attention approximately one year ago. The service technician said it was a known issue and would be corrected via a software update. Although my vehicle's software has been updated many times, the issue with the mirrors has not been remedied. I have repeatedly reached out to the manufacturer regarding this issue and as of yet, no fix is in order. This issue is widely discussed in online forums, including the manufacturer's owners' forum. It appears that this issue occurs with all cars of this make and model. Owners' degree of upset seems related to whether they regularly drive just after sunset and/or just before sunrise.
I found a stress crack on my rear windshield, which the tesla service center in san rafael, california denied was caused by a defect in the glass. My service associate, patrick gerety was particularly unhelpful and I am lodging a complaint directly with the manager of the center, aston martin (no, really), as well. Many other tesla model 3 car owners are experiencing failures in their rear windshields. Some are being replaced under warranty, but many - like mine - are being denied. In some cases, the failure seems to be associated with the rear windshield heating system. I had to pay for the replacement. I'm uploading a portion of the invoice along with this description. Note that the car was stationary at the time that the crack was detected.
When wipers are set to 'auto' mode, they are far too slow to react. Do to the manual mode requiring the touch screen to change, a novice to the system would have a very hard time changing to the wipers to work much faster. This would cause a very unsafe and hazards condition. As it is now, I do not feel safe letting anyone else drive this car in the rain.
The visibility in the side and rear view mirrors is very limited. The visual indicator for the turn signals is hard to hear and view in the central console, which is also causing distraction for the driver and taking away his attention from the road. There is also no warning indicator for the blind spots during lane changes and the console show only cars in front, but not on the side blind spots. Blinkers in the side-view mirrors for turn signals and blind spot vehicles like in toyota and other models is much safer. This vehicle and model needs to be investigated and a possible recall should be made.
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