The main/center screen blacks out on my tesla, which is where all the car controls and back-up camera is viewed. Even when it doesn't completely black out, the back up camera doesn't function as it just stays frozen a lot of the time. Outside of the backup camera issues, all other functions, like turning on or off headlights is also impacted. At other times it seems like it impacts charging the car, which can leave me dead if I cannot charge. Other functions have also been impacted like turning air conditioning and navigation, however not necessarily safety issues. These issues have happened while sitting in my garage trying to leave, charging my car at a tesla charging station, driving down the freeway or streets. I estimate they have been happening since about 60k miles and have progressively gotten worse.
2013 Tesla Model S visibility complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 22 of 22, newest first, as owners wrote them.
The media control unit (mcu) in my 2013 tesla model s stopped working when I rebooted the car while stationary (commonly needed to restore lost functionality), apparently due to a failure of the embedded multi-media card (emmc) memory. As part of this failure, the turn signals did not work when I later went to drive the car, the passenger airbag defaulted to 'off' (pic attached), and the HVAC system (including the windshield defroster) defaulted to an unknown setting and could not be controlled (neither by the dead mcu nor the smartphone application), though the car was otherwise still driveable. Apparently, the oem emmc had limited re-write capability and a relatively high re-write frequency; when it failed, it not only created driving safety hazards, but also cost more than $1,000 to repair what was probably an inexpensive part (under $10) for the oem.
Was supercharging about 7 hours away from home, my screen turned off and would not reboot.. The dreaded mcu failure every tesla owner fears, and every service center pretends does not exist. My car would not power off, as we were at the beach my A/C was on full blast. My car was now driveable with no key, and the doors would not lock whatsoever. Anyone with or without a key could just walk up touch the handle and get into my car. I had to stay close to superchargers as my A/C drained the battery heavily. Tesla essentially told me they would have to have me take it to a service center which were closed for the next 2 days because a mobile tech would not be able to replace it on spot. So now I get to drive 7 hours home in the most stressful situation of my life. As we got away from the coast and the temperature rapidly dropped I had water pouring off my windshield and down the sides of my car and out of my air vents! It was almost impossible to see and incredibly dangerous. My fiancee had to keep a towel in her lap to wipe the windshield every few seconds. Putting the lack of visibility aside and safety of a vehicle thats unable to lock. I had to manually find all tesla superchargers along the route I also had to guesstimate how much charge I would need to make it to the next station which was quite the task due to the high A/C drain. After our last charging stop we had maybe 120 miles to go and I charged to 170ish.. At least 50 more than necessary. There was one point on our trip where we had 16 miles remaining and 17 to go. Somehow through a little help from the man above we made it home with a couple miles to spare. It completely astounds me that tesla could just brush off such a horrendous failure of a very well known and documented issue. It's not a chance of if it fails as to a matter of when. Stock prices matter more than a customers safety.
Mcu main computer failed, prevented me from using defrost couldn't see while driving almost caused an accident as my entire front window view got block. The mcu allows you to use the screen which lets you turn on defrost. Very dangerous situation. This also controls your headlights.
The display screen, which allows you to control the entire vehicle, fails over time. It is a big problem since the car has no buttons and everything must be done on the screen. The problem is this one, as many other tesla owners have had. Https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/model-s-black-horizontal-line-in-mcu-screen.193133/ this appeared all of a sudden, and eventually the screen will completely fail making the car not usable.
Mcu has been malfunctioning. Without it I cannot control climate, backup camera, radio, turn signals, charging, navigation, and a number of other important features. This problem has been ongoing and intermittent, but recently has become more common.
Touchscreen went out. According to their system this is still a 'driveable' car and needs to be brought to them. The blinkers and headlights are controlled through this as are many other features.
Mcu1 with emmc is dead, which causes loss of center screen controls, thus you have no controls over interior defrosting or fogging to keep from having loss of visibility. In addition there is no backup camera. Also the car will no longer charge past about 20% leaving you stranded. Car was driving down the road when screen went out and would not come back. Last august I had to get the screen replaced for 1100.00 now this repair will cost 1600.00 and it comes with another screen. They will not just fix the emmc, p/n that is ordered for the repair includes a new screen that I don't need. I declined to pay for the repair at this time to wait until mcu2 is available, then a few days later my car will no longer even charge. Well it charges extremely slow to a maximum of 46 miles. They say the battery and drive unit is fine so guess what, no warranty for anything else for all this.
My screen and back-up camera both failed and had to be replaced.
The main touchscreen on my 2012 tesla s has stopped working completely- totally blank, resulting in no rearward facing camera, lower charging rates, no control over suspension height or steering stiffness; no A/C, no heat, no sunroof controls, no wifi, no bluetooth and no cellular; no map, no GPS. No radio.
On 9/5/19 my mcu (media control unit) (the main computer in my car) died. As a result, I was unable to: 1. Manually power off the vehicle and place in tow mode 2. Turn on parking lights, turn on/off headlights 3. Trigger on/off child protection locks additionally, 1. All heating, cooling, defrost, and defogging was disabled I've read that this is a common issue with model s/x cars on multiple forums including https://teslamotorsclub.com/ & https://forums.tesla.com. I believe the reason is shown here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-7b1waoj9q. Start at 8:40. This is quite worrisome, as it seems as though this failure will happen again in a few years. It was a hot day and not only was it unbearably inside my car, however, more importantly, many of the key safety functions (see above) were also disabled due to this failure.
Tl* the contact owns a 2013 tesla model s. The contact stated that the rear windows in the vehicle became inoperable. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where it was diagnosed that the window regulator failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired due to the parts not being sold. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 18,000.
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