2013 Tesla Model S: sudden unintended acceleration

Filed Jan 25, 2024 · CA · crash

slowing down pulling into a parking spot and there was a sudden unintended acceleration causing the vehicle to jump over the bumper onto the other side of the parking lot causing property damage to the front passenger side and a vehicle to the right parking spot.

Filed Jul 17, 2022 · Brakes · TX · crash

I pulled into a parking spot going under 5miles and my vehicle suddenly accelerated at full speed. The car suddenly stopped a few feet later before doing property damage to the building. I hit a trash can. The insurance company totalled the car. Tesla has the information about the vehicle. If I had been there 2 hours later I would have killed someone who was lined up outside the store to buy a ps5. Tesla's position is that I moved my foot from the brake and hit the accelarator at full speed. That's ridiculous. No one would do that. My tesla was one of the first ones in dallas. It is a 2013. I loved the car but now am scared to death of it. I know the federal safety agency has investigated this. It is , however, improbable that this same thing has happened to so many drivers and it is driver error. Additionally, the tesla"black box" updates every 14 days, so there is no investigation possible and tesla can say "human error" as can the federal safety agency.

Filed Jun 25, 2020 · Acceleration · 75,000 miles · TN · crash

Sudden acceleration of the vehicle causing crash. Vehicle was in parking lot. Failure of the mcu causing blank screen.

Filed Feb 18, 2020 · Brakes, Electrical · 27,000 miles · CA · crash

Twice my tesla lunged forward accelerating speed when trying to park resulting in accidents. I reported both issues to tesla. First time they denied that happening and the second time this past year they needed additional information. Then when I provided the information my emails kept getting bounced back. First incident occurred when parking in a school parking spot with a cement block. As I was slowly driving into the spot the car suddenly accelerated so fast my car went completely over the block and I pulled the steering wheel left to avoid hitting the building in front of me. I remember I kept pumping the brakes and it kept going faster. I clipped the car parked next to me and my car we to into the dirt area and since I pulled the wheel left to avoid the building it continued off the dirt area back onto the parking lot and finally stopped. The entire bottom of my car was damaged from going over the cement block and my whole left side was damaged from scraping along the front bumper of car parked to the left of me. That occurred in spring of 2016. The 2nd occurrence was september 30, 2019. I had paralleled parked in between a golf cart and a car; my car was completely stopped I had my finger on my control to put it into park and once again it lunged forward and I jerked my wheel to the left in order not to hit the golf cart straight ahead. I ended up clipping the golf cart and my right front end got the brunt of it. I have photos if you want them but I need to get help loading them if you need them so contact me if you want them.

Filed Dec 7, 2018 · Engine, Transmission · 68,752 miles · CA

I was driving my tesla model s early in the morning in a quiet neighborhood when was slowly approaching to four-way stop sign intersection by gradually step on the brake. At the very beginning, I can feel the car decelerated, suddenly there was unintended acceleration that I felt. There was a jerking forward of the car, so I was not able to make a full stop at the stop sign. Then the speed drops down significantly, almost to zero. I pressed the flashing light because there was a line of cars behind me and I was in the middle of the road. The car was in almost zero speed, so I tried to move the car to the side of the road and pressed the acceleration pedal a little. The car didn't accelerate, instead, it turned into a stop situation. I realized I lost driving power of this car. I pressed the "p" button, then all four mode letters "p", "n", "r", "d" turned red, blicking. The car stopped close to the curb but partially in the middle of the road. I was able to get out of the car and called tesla roadside assistance. They checked some log and responded with towing service to send the car to the service center. The overall situation could have turned very severe safety issue if ever this happened on the highway, or there was human being walking across the street while I was not able to fully stop the car, neither control it. I am waiting for official service report but the car is confirmed not in drivable condition. And I feel extremely unsafe to drive it now and even not comfortable to drive it after what just happened this morning. The entire drive unit was maintained and changed to a new one in 2015, so its life only about 3 years in this car. Plus, I just had the car service at the tesla service center month ago. It is worrisome they can't even prevent such issue and detect it in an early stage, perhaps a design issue to address?

Filed Mar 30, 2018 · Acceleration, Brakes · 48,000 miles · CA · crash

Sudden unintended acceleration tesla. I drove my tesla from work, driving over 35miles during rush hour of the bay area. When I entered my subdivision, I was driving at 10 MPH, pulled into my driveway made 90 degrees turn at 5 MPH, applied the brakes. Instead of stopping, car sped up at extremely high acceleration. It drove through the garage door, hit maserati parked in the garage, and a motorcycle parked next to it. The maserati trunk was pushed in approx 3 feet, it slid sideways, hit the pillar, smashing driver door and window, slid to the front and hit the motorbike parked next to it. It completely smashed the rear truck, front and side of the maserati. It smashed the front end of the motorcycle. There were fluids front tesla, maserati, and bike all over the garage. The battery in maserati exploded leaking acid all over the garage. We thought the fuel tank in maserati broke. We had to call 911, dozens of personnel showed up including several fire trucks, police cars, ambulance, hazmat among others. They spend over three hours controlling the situation. They had to cut the garage door to pull out the maserati and tesla. It was towed to a storage facility nearby. Maserati was declared a total loss. I was completely shaken and have not been able to sleep at all for last three days. What if my kids had been playing in the driveway or in front of the house. After doing some research I found this is not a random instance. There are dozens if not hundreds of similar incidents wherein, when a driver makes a sharp turn into a driveway or garage and applies the brake, rather than slowing down car just decides to speed up like a bullet and goes through the walls or whatever comes its way. I have stopped driving for foreseeable future, I am not going to put my step in another tesla for my safety and safety of others. Stay away from this unproven technology for your/others

Filed Jan 26, 2018 · Acceleration · 58,000 miles · TX · crash

Driver stopped car while pulling into garage with rear wheels on driveway sloping down and away from garage and front wheels just inside garage. Vehicle creep mode in off position. Car at rest. Brake released, and vehicle began rolling backward due to gravity. Accelerator applied, and no initial response, car continued to accelerate backward roll speed, so pedal depressed further (tesla vehicle logs show 25-50% pedal travel at this point), at which time drive unit quickly engaged at 25-50% of full acceleration resulting in a sudden unintentional forward acceleration. Driver caught by surprise and attempted braking. Unfortunately, vehicle impacted freezer unit in garage destroying the freezer and causing significant vehicle structural damage. This set of operating parameters was reproducible and reliably resulted in a short, but notable, delay in pedal response when rolling backward, resulting in further pedal depression, then followed by a sudden acceleration forward, which was short, but, with the potential to be significant when collision hazards exist nearby. The vehicle operating manual contains no warning regarding this situation. Tesla was made aware and would only comment that the vehicle did not malfunction. While that may be the case, the vehicle design sets up drivers for accidents that might result in injury and property damage when drivers are not warned of the vehicle's response in this unique operating circumstance. At the very least, it seems, tesla should include a warning to drivers about this situation so that drivers might be ready for sudden accelerations in such instances, or drivers might simply select creep mode on in such situations, which would prevent the sudden acceleration.

Filed Aug 24, 2015 · CA · crash

This accident report is a previous accident involving the same 2013 tesla model s 60 as reported in the federal safety agency report filed on august 24, 2015. On on may 7, 2013 while driving my 2013 model s 60, I pulled into a parking space in thousand oaks, california making a left turn into the spot. As I pulled in, I let my foot off of the accelerator,and applied the break. The car lurched forward, jumping a parking block, then over a curb, and finally into a cement light post. The airbags deployed and I was stunned. I immediately called tesla who sent a qualified tesla tow truck. It took two hours to get the car onto a flat-bed truck because the car lost all power and shut down. It had to be dragged over two parking blocks, sustaining even more damage. Tesla sent the car directly to the body shop. I insisted that they run a diagnostic test because I was (and still am) certain that the car accelerated on its own. The van nuys service center rep said that the car had to be repaired first before any diagnostic test could be run. After three weeks I received a letter from tesla. The engineers reported to me that the accelerator was depressed to 48%, seconds before the accident and 98.4% at the time of impact. I still believe that the car accelerated by itself. It is my sincere hope that by reporting this accident (and the subsequent accident on july 16, 2015) further investigations can be conducted before people are seriously injured or worse. My insurance company (farmers) does not intend to investigate. It is less expensive for them to pay for a replacement value than to determine the true cause of this incident. Fortunately, you and your agency aspire to a higher purpose.

Filed Aug 18, 2015 · Acceleration · 9,021 miles · CA · crash

Tl* the contact owns a 2013 tesla model s. The contact stated that the vehicle suddenly accelerated without warning to its maximum acceleration rate and crashed into five parked vehicles. The driver side of the vehicle was damaged and the air bags did not deploy. There were no injuries. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed away by aaa. The manufacturer was notified but was unable to advise the contact of the cause of the failure. The failure mileage was 9,021.

Filed Jun 28, 2015 · Electrical · CA · crash · fire

Timothy devine was killed after driving his vehicle off the road and down the canyon. The tesla started a brushfire that was so bad that 180 firefighters were called in and malibu canyon road was closed for over 9 hours. Tang, a spokesman from the highway patrol said that timothy devine was so badly burned he wasn't recognizable as a person and that fire had melted the car down to nothing. Was this suicide or driver error? Was this known problems with steering, unintended acceleration, brake failure, etc. Was this fatal crash, fire and explosions the the fault of the driver and or the fault of the vehicle?

Filed Jan 30, 2014 · Acceleration, Transmission · 200 miles · NJ

Tl* the contact owns a 2013 tesla s 985. The contact stated that he was experiencing several failures with the vehicle. There were various shifting issues when using reverse. In addition, unintended acceleration occurred only when driving in extremely cold temperatures. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer where the computer system was reprogrammed but the failures recurred. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 200. The VIN was unavailable. ..updated 04-16-14 *bf updated 04/17/14*lj the consumer stated after the re-flash, he no longer was able to put the vehicle in reverse. Updated 05/20/14

Filed Sep 26, 2013 · Acceleration · 9,600 miles · CA · crash

I was at a full stop waiting to turn left into the parking garage. When it was clear of oncoming traffic for me to make the left turn, I released my foot off the brake pedal and the car instantly surged forward very fast and hit another vehicle parked in the front of the garage. This all happened so quickly that I did not have time to avoid the impact. The time of occurrence was in broad daylight at about 6pm pst. I have driven this car for almost 10000 miles prior to the accident and know how to handle the car and understand the torque this car has. I have made thousands upon thousands of stops and starts with this vehicle and this is the first time this has ever happened. There is no other term to describe this other than sudden acceleration. The local police department dispatched an officer and no drugs or alcohol was involved. *js tesla instructed their staff to not communicate with me about this accident.