CRITICAL SAFETY FAILURE: Loss of Driver Override and Extreme HMI/Signaling Latency. 1. Loss of Override & Unintended Acceleration: While operating FSD (Supervised), the vehicle ignored a 65 mph set-point and accelerated to 80 mph. I attempted to reduce speed by pulling down on the steering stalk 4-5 times, but the vehicle ignored all manual inputs, requiring a hard disengagement. 2. Lane Departure / Path Failure: The vehicle failed to maintain lane centering, specifically crossing over the centerline into opposing traffic. This occured without warning or system-initiated steering alerts 3. False Signaling / Path Failure: I’ve seen at least two occurrences where system exhibits dangerous signaling conflicts, such as activating a right-turn signal while simultaneously executing a left-turn maneuver. One time it was on a 45–55 mph rural corridor where trailing drivers frequently overtake slower vehicles. A false right-turn signal acts as a dangerous "all-clear" for a trailing driver to pass on the left, creating a high- probability broadside collision scenario when the Tesla physically executes its left turn. I have no idea if this has occurred more than these two times as I don’t check this. The other time I caught on video, by chance, as I was trying to capture the surging behavior to show the Tesla service center 4. Audio & Visual HMI Latency: Audible instructions arrive 100+ feet after turns, and the map UI auto-zooms away from the driver’s focus, requiring constant manual screen contact to view street names. This forces significant Visual-Manual Distraction. 5. Confirmed Inadequacy: Tesla Service Invoice #[XXX] (Jan 27, 2025) documents: 'The current computer is a little too slow for full self driving function...' confirming the hardware is unfit for safety-critical processing. This incident is directly relevant to the federal safety agency Investigation PE25012. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
2017 Tesla Model S: sudden unintended acceleration
15 of the 432 complaints about the 2017 Tesla Model S describe sudden unintended acceleration.
- owner complaints
- 15
- of this car's complaints
- 3%
- typical mileage
- 5,602
- recalls
- 0
Sudden unintended acceleration by model year
What owners say
Approaching my garage door as it was opening when the car suddenly accelerated smashing through the garage door, through the back wall of the garage, through the laundry room and finally stopped in the main bedroom with the front wheels off the ground as the car rested on top of the washing machine.
The contact owns a 2017 Tesla Model S. The contact stated while approaching a stop light, while the contact was depressing on the brake pedal to slow down the vehicle accelerated on its own causing the contact to strike the vehicle in front. The contact stated that no warning light illuminated, and the brake assist did not activate. The contact stated when the vehicle struck the vehicle in front the vehicle continued driving forward and then the vehicle was able to come to a complete stop. The vehicle had front-ended damages and the other vehicle had rear-ended damages. No one was injured. The air bags deployed. A police report was not filed. The vehicle was towed to a repair center. The vehicle was not diagnosed. The manufacturer was contacted and did not provide any assistance. The failure mileage was 54,000.
On 12/03/20 at around 9:57am, after I slowly turned left into a parking near a white truck and just about to back up into my company's EV charging parking lot then the car suddenly sped forward climbing over the curb of the median separating the parking area and a driveway on the side of another company's building then running thru the median and heading fast toward the building before I slammed the brake in time to stop the car ~15 feet away from hitting the building. The driver's side of the car scraped a tree on the median and the driver side mirror broke the tree supporting pole. After the car was towed to tesla service center 2 hours later, they reported the next day that they found no error with the car. I was totally caught off guard by the unintended acceleration of the car that icould not brake early enough to stop the car on the median after it climbed over the curb. It was a clear day, I turned left into the parking with caution and focus on safety especially knowing the white truck was nearby and the median with the tree was visible in front. This is where I performed backing up my car almost daily at work so I could charge my car in the company's EV charging parking lot for the last 6 months. Before, during and after this life threatening incident, my health, mind, eye sight and awareness were and are very good. I do not smoke, drink or have any medication that can affect my driving control with safety. I reported this unintended acceleration to my auto insurer and assessment for damage repaired with tesla auto body shop is under progress. There is no police report because the incident happened on private property
I have reached out to tesla 3 times to fix a sudden unintended acceleration issue. 11 days after I reported the issue and they told me my car was ok to drive I got into a accident. It took tesla 5 months to give back the reports of the crash in which they said it was my fault. I have lost trust in the company and have seen that 127 other people have been affected by the same issue according to cnn please take care of this issue. Any tesla owner is a pioneer of a future creation. After the accident they told me autopilot is on beta mode its not perfect yet. They should not allow public to use a hazardous software. Also tesla employees were very negligent. I almost died in this accident with my father and the manager had no idea of my case even after my car was given to me and they said it was ok to drive. I got into a accident 11 days after they ok'd my car please help as I am frustrated and do not know what to do anymore or who to get to fix my car. I have documentation of addressing sudden intended acceleration to tesla multiple times. Thank you
On 1/19/20 at 1623 phoenix time while coming to a stop on a surface street the car suddenly accelerated. Prompt application of the breaks prevented an accident. This is the first time this has happened.
Recently I read an article titled 'us agency examining tesla unintended acceleration .' and I would like to report that I have had the exact same problem with my tesla s. Three months after purchasing my tesla, I was parking my car when all at once it accelerated and hit the car in front of me in the parking lot. It happened a total of 3 times in the first 16 months that I owned the car. I contacted tesla numerous times and after going back and forth with them, they told me that it was my fault because they said that I mixed up the brake and gas pedals. It was the weirdest feeling having the car accelerate all at once. I did not mix up the pedals. In the previous 50+ years of driving, nothing like this ever happened to me and then all at once, only 3 months after getting my tesla, it started. I have saved e-mails between tesla and myself concerning this issue if you would like to see them. I hope you are able to help solve this problem and to get tesla to admit that there is a problem. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me (see below).p[lkp
I was attempting to park, the car was traveling at perhaps 2 miles/hour, when the car suddenly accelerated, climbed a burm, hit a tree, and stopped on the other side of the burm in the middle of the street.
I was making a legal u turn on a city street to park. I pulled behind a parked car and was going about 1mph when my car suddenly accelerated and hit the parked car. There were no warning sounds until the car hit the other car and then the horn and lights on my car went off. The car was not on auto park and no air bags were deployed however my car and the car that was hit had extensive body damage. There were not injuries to people. I don't know why the car accelerated instead of stopping. I have never hit the accelerator peddle instead of the brake and I doubt if I did it in this case.
Tl* the contact owns a 2017 tesla model s. While attempting to park the vehicle at a low speed, the vehicle suddenly accelerated with the brake pedal depressed. The vehicle proceeded to jump the curb and crashed into some bushes. There was no warning indicator illuminated before, during, or after the failure occurred. There were no injuries and a police report was not filed. The vehicle was driven to the contact?s residence. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer for diagnostic testing. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 1,772.
On 3 occasions, vehicle made sudden, spontaneous attempts to make a left lane change. On two occasions the vehicle was in self drive mode on a freeway; on the 1st occasion, the vehicle was in the left lane and hit a guard rail; on the 3rd occasion the vehicle was stopped at a red light when it suddenly accelerated, turned sharply left and ran up an embankment into trees and bushes, sustaining substantial damage.
At our driveway on sun. 1/14/18, coming back from shopping a few minutes before four pm, suddenly the car took off by itself. It accelerated tremendously with the speed which was felt around 65-80 m/hr, hitting our heavy garage door, which was closed at the time, went through the garage, hit my parked porsche and pushed it to the left to the water heater. It then hit and broke the wall between our garage and courtyard, broke and pushed our concrete planter and stopped halfway between the garage and our family room windows in the courtyard.I firmly believe that this was the result of unintended acceleration. This is our new and second tesla my wife and I owned and drove.when my wife talked to local tesla representative, he refused to give us any computer generated report.the car still on the wall between garage and courtyard. We understand, tesla has a black box that we do not know where it will end up if we take it to tesla certified body shop.we appreciate it very much if you advise us what to do.
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the 2017 Tesla Model S sudden acceleration
Is sudden unintended acceleration a common problem on the 2017 Tesla Model S?
15 of 432 owner complaints about the 2017 Tesla Model S (3%) mention sudden unintended acceleration. The model year with the most reports is 2016.
Is there a recall or service bulletin for this on the 2017 Tesla Model S?
There is no recall or service bulletin for this area of the car on record.
Other symptoms on the 2017 Tesla Model S
Ball joint 41Backup camera 38Screen failure 25Adaptive cruise 23Phantom braking 16Grinding brakes 15Headlights 12Door locks 9Loss of power 6Overheating 6Wipers 6No deployment 5Harsh shifting 5Power steering loss 5
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