My son was driving my Model Y Performance Trim Tesla Model Y on May 23,, 2022 and thank god he was in a relatively safe parking lot; the vehicle had a loud thud noise coming from the rear and then it spontaneously died due to allegedly a rear motor failure (it's a dual motor Model Y). The Tesla then turned off essentially and locked itself in "Park" -- the vehicle could not be taken out of Park. Had to get it on a flatbed -- it now sits at the San Antonio, Texas Service Center off interstate 10 where allegedly it will be undergoing a diagnosis. But this rear motor failure (according to some of the indicator lights) is unbelievably dangerous inasmuch as the failure occurred without warning and without an opportunity to apply reasonable contingency protocols -- had this happened on a highway or street lane -- the complete unexpected stopping of the vehicle would assuredly be cause for grave damage and serious bodily injury or death.
2021 Tesla Model Y engine complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 14 of 14, newest first, as owners wrote them.
My wife and I were driving south on Interstate-93 in NH on Superbowl Sunday. Traffic was heavy and we were traveling about 65 mph when our 2021 Model Y Tesla started beeping and the following message came on the screen - “PULL OVER SAFELY, Vehicle shutting down”. My wife was driving and had just enough time to cross over three lanes to get into the breakdown lane before the car came to a sudden stop. The car did not want to restart. We called the Tesla service center and they were about to order a tow truck but we asked if there was a ‘ctrl/alt/del’ type option. She had us select Safety>Power Off. When our Tesla came back on everything was seemingly normal so the service center said ‘this is very rare’ and that it should be okay to drive. We drove another few miles down 93 and luckily took an early exit ramp because the car shut down again at the bottom of the ramp. My wife and I restarted the car again and managed to limp home in some sort of “Power reduced” mode (i.e. painfully little acceleration). This was potentially a very dangerous situation! Luckily we were able to safely get into the breakdown lane but there wasn’t much time to spare.
These are additional comments regarding complaints numbers 11406321, 11406325, and 11406632. According to tesla documentation, loss of phone key communication should give 2 to 3 minutes drivability to get to a safe stop. There was no statement that I found in that documentation to describe how the driver is notified of the failure. Regarding the statement by tesla personnel that I tried to shift into park while moving, the car does, indeed, prevent that from happening, and gives the driver a loud audible warning. The date of occurrence listed with this submission is approximate.
These are additional comments regarding complaints numbers 11406321 and 11406325. Since that time we have had increasingly frequent problems with the phone keys on multiple phones. My suspicion is that the problem I initially reported in case number 11406321 was caused by loss of communication of that phone. I have never been able to re-establish that phone as a phone key, and we are now experiencing problems with multiple phones. I most strongly believe that there is a huge safety issue with the phone keys. Failure of that bluetooth connection would result in the immediate stopping of the vehicle.
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