2016 Tesla Model S: jerking or lurching

Filed Oct 15, 2025 · Driver assistance · MI

My car is equipped with Full Self Driving. When I use that mode the car drives over , on, or dangerously close to the middle yellow line. Basically it drives you into oncoming traffic every single time I use it. It also has erratic fluctuations in throttle control that would confuse other drivers and possibly cause an accident. It’s constantly increasing and decreasing the throttle and feels jerky going down the road. I took the car to the Tesla Service center yesterday and they confirmed the issue and checked the hardware associated with the system. They indicated that the hardware was all working and adjusted properly and that the issue is a software issue. They told me to not use it and that eventually maybe Tesla will put out an update that may fix the problem. Tesla has sold thousands of cars with FSD and continues to call the system in BETA. They have since moved on to 2 more versions of the software and not offered an upgrade to the thousands of early adopters with the original hardware and software. The system is dangerous to drivers and everyone on or near the roadways when these are activated. Tesla said that can upgrade these “older” 2015 and newer models but haven’t because it will cost too much for them. They charged over $8000 for the system and it has yet to work. They need to be forced recall the system and fix these cars for everyone’s safety. The service manager told me he has a similar issue with car and he just opts to not use it. So even the employees at Tesla know of the issue.

Filed Jun 8, 2025 · Transmission · CA

I wanted to bring a situation to your attention, report an incident and understand why model years 2012-2020 Tesla Model Ss have not been recalled for a defective drive unit. This is a known defect - known by Tesla. There have been no recalls for mine - VIN number [XXX] . On [XXX], my 2016 Tesla Model S suddenly lunged and jerked down to less than 5 mph from about 45 mph in 5-10 seconds as a result of a defective and failed drive unit, here in San Ramon , CA. NO WARNING. We forced the car to lunge and hop over to the median with traffic stopping, building up, honking, braking....truly a miracle no one got hurt. I later saw both front and back wheels turning in OPPOSITE directions, simultaneously, as the tow truck driver was pulling the car on his flat bed. The tow truck driver said he has never seen anything like this! The defective drive unit has been a known issue which they corrected in 2020. A Master Tesla mechanic states that this is not about IF the failure was to take place, but WHEN it was going to take place. Tesla refuses to own up to the problem despite emailing their Head, Tom Zhu. I came across this conversation on Reddit and it appears that a comment made by the Tesla mechanic below is relevant. They could have prevented this by recalling the cars and changing the coolant seal. Here is his quote: "Every single large Tesla Drive unit will fail unless it's a recent revision U replacement (~2022 or newer) or has been retrofitted by a 3rd party. This applies to all RWD Model S made between 2012 and 2020, and all Performance S/X made until 2020. The coolant seal will fail and destroy the motor. This is not an if, but a when. If you have a car with one of these motors, there are a variety of 3rd party shops who can fix this issue forever for a lot less money than a fully dead motor. An attorney on this thread commented on a 2015 Tesla Model S: "This is a known issue with older Model S/X cars, yes. A 2015 is HIGHLY at risk of that. Also, a INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

Filed Dec 14, 2023 · Airbags, Body · MI · crash

So essentially I stopped for a charge about 30 minutes before, I charged it, then hopped back on the turnpike as I was heading to Outer Banks NC, while I was on the turn pike where I believe at the time I started to go around a curve not a sharp one but a curve right after coming off this bridge. Every 1 minute and 30 seconds you have to put your hands on the wheel and give it a jerk to keep it enable so it had to have popped up within the 1 minute and 30 seconds. As I was changing the album of the artists I was listening too I heard the BEEP BEEP BEEP which means you are approaching something and are about to hit it, As I looked up all I saw was blinking lights and really smacked the rear end of this traffic control truck, anywhere from 65-75 miles per hour with no time to react. If I remember correctly I had my car on 7 lengths away (maximum amount you can have away). As I hit the control I hit my head pretty hard on the steering wheel so the whole memory is blurry following when it happened and my adrenaline was very high but I didn’t wanna go to the Emergency room even though they suggested highly because I have no health insurance and that would have had to come out of my own pocket and I was stuck in Pennsylvania by myself and didn’t wanna get stuck in the hospital too. Thank you so much for taking your time to look at this it means a lot.

Filed Oct 11, 2022 · Brakes · CT

We were entering our driveway to park the car at the garage As always, I drove towards the end of the driveway to reverse into the garage. I turned the wheel towards the right, pressed the break to stop the car to reverse, car lurched forward and went down the small hill (3-4 feet high) to the neighbors yard and when I pressed the break again the car stopped (after about 15 feet from the driveway). Damages : Car’s bottom hit the ground and all plastic parts came out. Also, some kind of fluid (likely radiator ) started leaking. Also noticed some scratches/damages to the bumpers

Filed Jun 28, 2022 · Steering, Suspension · TX

I was traveling on HWY 98 in Florida, headed home to Austin, TX from vacationing. I was with my wife and three young children. I stopped at a stop light, and when I went to reaccelerate, the car lurched. I pulled over and discovered I could barely turn and the suspension was making a terrible sound. I was able to maneuver into a parking lot and determined that my front driver's side fore link had cracked and was no longer holding. There is an existing Service Bulletin (SB-17-31-006) that should have covered this. My car is in warranty, and I have had it serviced before the accident, but after the publishing of the SB and Tesla never notified me that the links should be replaced. This was a tremendous hassle, and posed a very serious safety issue, because the broken link can protrude through the wheel well can cause the wheel to lock up.

Filed Jun 22, 2021 · Acceleration · 25,000 miles · ME · crash

The contact owns a 2016 Tesla Model S. The contact stated that after releasing the brake pedal while parking, the vehicle suddenly experienced unintended acceleration and lurched forward crashing into the rear of a second vehicle. During the incident, no injuries were reported and no police report was taken. The cause of the failure was not determined. The manufacturer was notified of the incident. The contact indicated that prior to the incident a chip was installed due to a navigation problem. Also, the control panel display screen had a malfunction and audible warnings such as turn signals were not available. The failure mileage was 25,000

Filed Jan 19, 2021 · Brakes, Suspension · 60,224 miles · GA

While I was driving at highway speed in the left lane of 3-lane i95 north (~11 miles north of florence, south carolina) around 6pm on 1/15/2021, the car suddenly gave a shake and loud noise, and immediately, was out of control and was jerking violently side to side between lanes. I was somehow able to move the unsteerable car across 3-lane traffic and brought it to stop on the right side medium. This happened on a busy highway before mlk long weekend. Thank the many drivers who managed to avoid hitting us, my wife and I miraculously survived this incident but left severely traumatized. The shake and loud noise are like car going over a pothole. However, there was not any pothole on the left lane as I did not see cars in front of me moving like going a pothole. When I was waiting for my tow truck for the next 2 hours, I watched cars passing by and did not see any car moving unusually. Thus, I am certain that there is no pothole on the left lane. I inspected the car on site, I noticed that the driver rear wheel tilted inward. I had the car towed to tesla service center and they confirmed the $3,000+ suspension damage and damages to brake line as a consequence. My tesla ms is exact 4-years old (made in 01/2017) and 60,224 miles driven. To have this early suspension failure during normal driving on highway without any warning is simply unimageable and unacceptable. Though we are very luck to survive this, this suspension failure can easily cause major accidents and have many people killed. After researching online following the incident, I found that this is not a singular incident. There is a recall on tesla s/x suspension in china, too. It is absolutely not acceptable for tesla to issue a recall in china (a country with weak consumer protection laws) but not in USA. I sincerely that the federal safety agency treats this matter seriously to avoid further loss of lives.

Filed Apr 27, 2017 · Electrical, Steering · 5,000 miles · CA

I would like to report another example of the tesla autopilot causing a near accident that could easily have claimed many lives. Here is a new thread on a tesla forum: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/scary-experience-with-ap2-0-autosteer-on-the-highway.89874/ the owner will almost certainly not be reporting this to the federal safety agency himself because tesla have assured him that all is well. Other forum posters are telling him that autopilot just needs more time to learn. Please act now before lives are lost due to this reckless experiment. Snip: hello, I have a 60d with ap2- I tried using autosteer on the highway last monday (3 days after the update was released to my car), and had one of the worst/scariest experiences I've ever had while driving. I was driving on a major highway at ~75mph. Turned on autosteer and was driving along (with my hands on the steering wheel) when I noticed it wasn't taking a left curve/turn on the road and drifting into the adjacent lane. So I engaged the steering wheel to deactivate autosteer and to make the turn myself. As soon as I did this, all hell broke loose. Basically the steering wheel jerked all the way to the left, veering me inches from the barrier- and then as I tried to straighten the wheel it jerked me all the way to the right, across 3 lanes of traffic...and then back let to the barrier, back across traffic, and again 5 or 6 times. Of course I called tesla immediately and this is what I was told: 1) the car is not able to make that turn (a pretty mild curve) at 80mph- known issue with ap2. 2) the car functioned normally after that- any/all events following disengagement of the autosteer were due to "driver input/error"

Filed Oct 12, 2016 · Acceleration · 1,000 miles · CA

This is another complaint about the tesla autopilot. Just touching the stalk can make the car go to full throttle. Https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/new-cruise-control-stalk new cruise control stalk the new cruise control stalk that has been modified for autopilot does not have a white button on the end to turn cruise control on and off. The "on" for cruise control is simply tapping the stalk toward you -- which is all too easy to do when reaching for the turn signal. If the cruise control's last setting was 70mph and you happen to be going 10mph in traffic, the car lurches forward in an attempt to reach the preset speed as quickly as possible. This is scary and dangerous. Kasnider50 | october 10, 2016 blue85d, I can't tell if you're disparaging my "outrage" or not. But since you don't have the same car I have, maybe you should be a little less judgmental in any case. My owner's manual, says that the button (that no longer is featured) is/was how you turn cruise control on. Only in the newer models without a button turn on cruise control by pulling the stalk toward the driver. The manual says nothing about canceling cruise control with the button, only by pushing the stalk away. So--I continue to wish that it weren't as easy as it is to tell the car "I want to go seventy miles an hour...now!" when you're tooling along in slow traffic and simply want to change lanes. More than one person is going to drive this car, some not very often...so I believe it should be harder to engage the "return to preset speed." you can call that outrage, or you can call it common sense. It's all the same to me. These cars are being driven by people of varying abilities and can even be rented for a day without any instruction on the special dangers presented by autopilot more people will die unless this reckless experiment is halted

Filed Oct 11, 2016 · Acceleration, Brakes · CA

How much more evidence do you need to prove that the tesla autopilot is unsafe? Https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/autopilot-failed-to-notice-a-bus-today.78833/ autopilot failed to notice a bus today location:sacramento, ca stopped at an intersection behind a bus today at a red light. Decided to look for some new music so I turned autopilot on, seeing as how I couldn't see the red/green light and that'd tell me when to pay attention (car starts moving... Don't tell me you guys never use it for this, either!). Was at a complete stop about two car lengths from the bus. Engaged ap. Car immediately lurched forward. Hit brakes fast, which fortunately my foot was already over the pedal as I'd been previously stopped. Sat for a second confused. I'm now about a car length from the bus. Verified my ap was set to 4 car lengths. Engaged again. Car immediately shot forward, hit brakes. Car displayed the warning that an object was in front of me. I am pretty confident that either the car would have emergency braked or I would have hit the bus had I left it engaged. It definitely pulled forward full-power like it does if the person in front of you changes lanes and the lane is otherwise clear. It definitely made me think of all those people who accidentally drove into buildings and such and the little reaction time they must have had to figure out what was going on. I'm quite aware of how close ap will take you when stopped. The behavior was abnormal -- not only did this not seem to care that I was already quite close, it accelerated immediately and rapidly when engaging and gave no indication it would quit. Typically engaging it while stopped or behind someone will move forward very slightly if at all once you're already close.