COMPONENT/SYSTEM THAT FAILED: The service brakes failed to stop the vehicle. While reverse-parking at low (parking) speed, I applied the brake pedal and the vehicle did not stop as expected, resulting in contact with an object and vehicle damage. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request; it has been preserved and driven only minimally since the event. HOW SAFETY WAS PUT AT RISK: The brakes failed with no warning. Had a person been behind the vehicle, the failure to stop could have caused injury. This is the only vehicle for a family with three children who are regularly transported in it, and I no longer feel safe driving them. REPRODUCED/CONFIRMED BY A DEALER OR SERVICE CENTER: Not yet. INSPECTED BY MANUFACTURER/POLICE/INSURANCE/OTHERS: The insurer opened and then denied the claim and stated that no vehicle telemetry/data was available to preserve. No independent forensic inspection has occurred yet. Police did not attend. WARNING LAMPS/MESSAGES/SYMPTOMS PRIOR TO FAILURE: NONE. There was no warning light, no alert message, and no audible signal before or during the event. The parking sensors did not beep as they normally do. No ABS or brake warning light appeared at any time before or after. ADDITIONAL RELEVANT DETAIL: Approximately one week earlier, the front lower control arms were replaced. It is UNKNOWN whether the ABS wheel-speed sensor or related wiring was affected; the vehicle displayed no related warning at any time. No injuries occurred.
2023 Tesla Model Y: brake failure
8 of the 1,198 complaints about the 2023 Tesla Model Y describe brake failure.
- owner complaints
- 8
- of this car's complaints
- 1%
- recalls
- 0
Brake failure by model year
- 20261
- 20251
- 20242
- 20238
- 20222
- 20218
What owners say
Pulled into hospital parking garage. Stopped to pull parking ticket. When the parking gate was raised, Tesla immediately took off at very high uncontrolled speed. Basically a runaway vehicle. There was no accerlation on my part. Brakes did not work. Hit parked car in the garage about 300 feet from the parking gate. I was taken to hospital with broken wrist. Car has been totaled.
The primary safety restraint system, specifically the driver's side airbag, failed to deploy during a significant frontal impact collision. This severely compromised my personal safety, as my head struck the steering wheel with force, leading to injury and pain. Had the impact been more severe, the lack of airbag deployment could have led to much more serious, potentially life-threatening, injuries. Immediately after the impact, the primary braking system also malfunctioned, and the vehicle's warning and autopilot systems became compromised, posing further safety risks. The specific airbag non-deployment problem has not yet been reproduced or formally confirmed by a dealer or independent service center, vehicle is currently scheduled for its first post-accident inspection at a Tesla Collision Center address 6010 Richmond Ave, Houston TX 77057 on June 11, 2025, and is available for inspection. To date, the vehicle has not been formally inspected by the manufacturer, police, or insurance representatives for these specific malfunctions. Police responded to the accident scene and filed a report, but no technical inspection was conducted by them. There were NO prior warning lamps, messages, or symptoms indicating a malfunction with the airbag system before the collision. However, immediately after the collision, the primary brakes failed and the warning system and autopilot system showed signs of malfunction/disruption; no specific warning lights related to these post-impact issues appeared prior to their malfunction.
We were about the park in the marked parking lane and the vehicle unintedly accellerated, the brakes did not work and we saw message "Automatic emergency brake not available" and Air bags not available. We tried to control the vehicle to avaoid crashing into the porch of the infront apartment and steared the speeding vehicle and the vehicle hit the pillar of the aparement and finally came to halt few meters away in the parking lot as the front right wheel broke. 1. The ADAS Automatic emergency breaking seems failed 2. Forward collission warning seems not working 3. The safety of the driver and the passenger were at risk while the collission happened 4. I am not sure if the similar incidents happened or can be reproduced by the dealer/manufacturer. 5. Vehicle components inspected by the Tesla collission center but no software logs inspected and they said that they cannot get the device crash/event logs. 6. At the incident/while the incident was underway we saw few message that displayed "Automatic emergency brake is not avaiilable" and "Air bags are not available"
The process of the car losing control around 10:50am to 11:55am: We were driving on Woodgate Road and were making a U-turn. The car lost control just after the U-turn. The steering wheel spun and failed. The car sped up and the brakes did not work. The car hit the curb and the left tire burst. It went straight over. It was about 3 meters from the sidewalk to the hillside covered with weeds, and it was impossible to stop because the hillside was too steep.
I was trying to make right turn from Mcdonald's but suddenly, unintended acceleration, Tesla went into the intersection and hit the other side of car. - The emergency brake did not work and as a result of the accident , there was a severe damages in the front of the Tesla.
Error message “power braking assist reduced” displayed on the vehicle and the vehicles brake gave out. Meaning I was unable to utilize the brakes for slowing down the vehicle. The message disappeared after parking (and powering down) the vehicle for a bit. Had the same issue in a few days. Tesla is now replacing the entire brake pad assembly due to a brake sensor failure.
New Tesla Model Y brake failed and accelerated resulted in a serious crash within 2 hrs of taking delivery. I believe it is acceleration functioning and brake due to auto pilot feature. Vehicle will be available for inspection after 4 weeks. After taking delivery of new Tesla Y, we drove to temple. While parking car accelerated and lost control of the vehicle as brakes were not working. It hit the temple wall and when we tried to backup to get the car out of the crashed wall, it got even worse. It reversed in lightning speed and hit another car, run over the bushes and huge palm tree across the street and finally stopped. This terrifying experience caused huge mental trauma, multiple property damage, and financial hardship that we are dealing with right now. Fortunately, there were no injuries. We lost all the trust and confidence in Tesla. We are NOT confident of driving due to huge safety concern. It is a very important safety issue considering the customers at large. Tesla service has not worked on the diagnosis. We tried reaching out Tesla service to investigate the failure. There is no response from them and they keep cancelling the service appointment. On top of it, there is no appointment available in body shop for a month. This incident was reported to police. One observation was made during the incident where Auto pilot beta was displaying on the dash board monitor without invoking any self driving options.
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the 2023 Tesla Model Y brake failure
Is brake failure a common problem on the 2023 Tesla Model Y?
8 of 1,198 owner complaints about the 2023 Tesla Model Y (1%) mention brake failure. The model year with the most reports is 2021.
Is there a recall or service bulletin for this on the 2023 Tesla Model Y?
There is no recall or service bulletin for this area of the car on record.
Other symptoms on the 2023 Tesla Model Y
Adaptive cruise 251Phantom braking 128Ball joint 76Collision warning 60Power steering loss 45Wipers 42Sudden acceleration 36Lane assist 35Jerking 24Harsh shifting 22Steering lock-up 19Loss of power 18Grinding brakes 16Seat belt 16No deployment 15Headlights 15Backup camera 11Stalling 10Steering noise 10Screen failure 7ABS 6Tire blowout 6Fire or smoke 5
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