First time when it happened, i was able to control and It went to back to normal. I did not pay attention after. Second time I took right turn and the car drove in left lane but this time I felt steering was rigid and was unable to control the Steering and hit a tree. Driver seat air bag was deployed and all doors were locked. Gel from air bag burned my right hand wrist.
2023 Tesla Model Y steering complaints
Page 5 of 8: complaints 101 to 130 of 220, newest first, as owners wrote them.
We were driving on a 2 lane highway, when we came to an intersection with a center turn lane the car panicked and swerved left and then braked and disengaged the autosteer/cruise control. This was not with autopilot, just autosteer.
The power steering stopped working while I was pulling out of a parallel parking space. It started working again when my speed went above 5 mph. The risk was that I was briefly in traffic, and it was very difficult to steer the car. The dealer has not seen the vehicle yet, and I didn’t notice any warning messages, but I also wasn’t looking at the screen at the time.
On Sunday [XXX] I was driving to work, there was a moment where I felt the steering wheel was very stiff to the point where it felt weird and hard to control. I felt the two front wheels a bit odd, but then it went back to normal. I paid no attention to it after. As I was driving on [XXX] , my car started to automatically move to the left and I tried steering my wheel to get back in lane, but the steering wheel got so stiff that even using all my might I could not steer it. Eventually the car slammed against the cement wall three times as it spins. At the end, the police came on site and saw that the two front wheels were pulled inward. I believe it was a software/technology malfunction. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
I am reaching out on behalf of my wife who met with accident on 3/24/2024.She was driving Tesla Y model and this accident occurred due to System failure of Vehicle , brakes and Steering wheel get locked and she was not able to do anything and car hit the couple of trees on other side of parking lot . She was not using Autopilot feature and it vehicle didn't stop after applying the brake instead of stopping , its get accelerated and steering was also locked.
You have no doubt heard the news that Tesla has deployed Full Self Driving to all its vehicles as a "free trial." My Tesla received this update in the past few days. Last night I was driving on an expressway and engaged what has up until now been traffic-aware cruise control by pressing down one time on the right stalk. I expected regular cruise control but the car started steering for me. Tesla has changed the default behavior of the cruise control activation (one single downward press on the stalk) to instead activate Autopilot. My attempt to regain control caused me to jerk the wheel side to side in a way that could have led to an accident had I been in heavier traffic. This was unexpected behavior from the vehicle and I find it unacceptable that Tesla has changed a default function in this manner. I had to hunt around on the screen to find the setting to change the behavior back to regular Traffic Aware Cruise Control from one downward press. Furthermore, on the same 20 mile trip I had three phantom braking incidents while the car was on Traffic Aware Cruise Control mode. This is more than typical and these events can be dangerous if they happen in traffic. Tesla should not be allowed to deploy changes, especially without notice, that modify basic functionality of a car in motion from what the driver has become accustomed to.
I am receiving codes, GTW_w074 Steering Assist reduced, and UL_a020 Steering Assist reduced. In reality, steering is unavailable without extreme effort. This makes the car undrivable. I had the same problem in early February. The car was towed to Tesla for service and repaired. Now one month later the problem has returned.
My vehicle beeps liberally when parking in tight spots, anywhere near a line of any sort, etc. A few weeks after getting my vehicle in late November (I don’t remember the exact date), I was driving through construction at night and without warning, the steering “corrected” itself and I hit a cone causing 2 scuffs on my new vehicle. The steering locked, but thankfully I was able to get the vehicle back into the lane. When I called Tesla a few weeks later they asked for a specific date and time which I didn’t have. They said they were unable to help without that. Thankfully there was nothing more serious, but I would like my scuffs and steering fixed.
The Facts of the Incident: On [XXX], at approximately [XXX] PM, [XXX] , was driving our 2023 Tesla Model Y on Arizona State Route [XXX] ), a two-lane highway, enroute from Orange, California, to the Grand Canyon South Rim. The vehicle carried a total of four passengers, including my wife, myself, and another couple from San Diego. During our journey, an alarming and life-threatening situation unfolded. Without warning, our 2023 Tesla Model Y abruptly veered to the left, dangerously encroaching into oncoming traffic. Despite my immediate attempts to regain control by steering the vehicle away from the oncoming traffic, the steering wheel became unresponsive, effectively locking in place. This mechanical or software malfunction prevented me from correcting the perilous situation, resulting in a head-on collision with a large Ford 350 Truck, which was also traveling at a high speed, estimated to be more than 60 miles per hour. Fortunately, while there were injuries, there didn’t appear to be any life threating injuries. Because of the resources required to further investigate and do an analysis of the vehicle, as well as the challenge of dealing with Tesla Inc., law firms have declined to pursue further investigations. Morgan and Morgan initially started an investigation with Knott, LLC, Arizona, but then dropped the pursuit due to costs. The vehicle is still on-hold by my insurance company, USAA, but they may not hold it much longer before placing it on auction. However, it is urgent that the federal safety agency take possession and complete further analysis of this vehicle. Your assistance and consideration are appreciated, and I look forward to assisting with this investigation. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Vehicle is not up to date. Needs “over the air” update for auto steering.
After making a right turn, the car accelerated automatically and drove onto the sidewalk. The driver was hitting the brakes and attempting to redirect the vehicle with the steering wheel but both components of the vehicle were locked, causing the vehicle to lose control and crash into several things on the sidewalk (flower pot, parked cars, building pillars). The Tesla is completely dead so we are unable to retrieve any data within the vehicle. The safety of civilians on the street as well has the driver and passenger of the vehicle were at risk due to the lack of control of the vehicle. Two weeks after the accident, Tesla sent out a recall notice in regards to autosteer which can increase risk of collision, but prior to this no notice/warning was in place. The police were involved and at the scene at the time of the event and a police report has been made. No messages were seen on the screen or on the Tesla app in regards to any car mode (autopilot, cruise control, etc.) the vehicle could've been on, nor any warnings about risk of collision due to the recall.
As I was trying to make a turn on a street which I have used for months, the vehicle started accelerating on its own. So much so that it laterally flew over a median curb and hit another vehicle. I could not steer the vehicle nor stop it despite the fact that I hit the breaks several times. It truly was a very scary experience, and I am not sure what caused it. I have read of similar issues in the past, but I never thought that this truly happens. As a result of the acceleration, I got into an accident that damaged four vehicles. I am a very good and confident driver with clean driving record, and I have no explanation as to what happened, other than that the vehicle took control on its own. There were no warning lamps before, the vehicle has not been inspected yet, but I assume it will be after I have reported this very issue to the insurance company. While I am fine, my safety and the safety of those who were involved in the accident could have been extremely in danger.
Vechile started skidding and didn't respond to steering wheel control, ultimately failed to a make a turn and fell off road into a ditch. Also emergency braking wasn't triggered to prevent vechile from falling off road and furthermore upon impact airbags weren't deployed. The driver sustained grevious injuries and was transported away by EMS.
Autopilot feature disengaged with a single, 3 second warning.
I was driving in the left lane of the highway. Just up ahead I saw something sitting on the guardrail to my left which was jutting into my lane, right about eye level. It looked like a long wood 2x4. I swerved to my right to avoid hitting the piece (scared it would shatter my windshield) and the steer correct safety feature (probably wrong term) quickly threw me back to the left and into the guardrail. I turned my steering wheel to the right to get away from the guardrail and it threw me back into the guardrail. It did this a few times. I didn’t understand what was going on. It felt like I had no control over the car. It just kept slamming back into the guardrail. I finally took my foot off the gas and it slowed down and stopped throwing me around. Luckily, there was no one next to me and no one else in the car with me. No one got hurt. If it wasn’t for that “safety” feature, my car wouldn’t have been damaged. I did call the police to let them know about the wood piece that was sitting on the guardrail so hopefully it gets removed and no one gets hurt.
As I attempted to make a left turn, I wasn't able to make a complete turn when the steering wheels partially locked on me, resulting the car hitting a utility pole, I could only drive forward or reverse, difficulty making a turn. I was able to make it home but the next day, it had to be towed to a Tesla authorized collision center for damage assessment. I'm hoping Tesla can remedy the problem because usually my kids are in the car with me. Reached out to Tesla regarding the incident, they took my information as to what happened exactly during the accident and that there would an investigation on their end which should take about 1 week.
While I was trying to pull up my vehicle at about 10mph from the street to my driveway after driving around 35 miles from work, the vehicle suddenly accelerated (Unintended Acceleration) to 40+ mph (based on logs) and hit the property. This put my life and others at home at risk. The vehicle was inspected by insurance representative. No warnings lights prior to incident. However, the message 'Corrective steering applied for your safety' appeared periodically while driving back home even though the vehicle was very much within the lanes.
The vehicle's steering wheel vibrates regardles driving on highways/freeways and/or city streets. It happens since day 1 of ownership and has been owning for 4 months now. The vehicle's screen got blacked out twice when it was moving; thus, i couldn't read speed and perfom other functions such as turn on AC and/or heat. The regenerative braking/one pedal driving sometimes does not work. It sometimes accelerates itself after slowing down after accelarator was not depressed. Autopilot was not used at the times of unintended acceleration. Had submitted questions and service requests to Tesla. Unfortunately, Tesla did not provide any feedback or perform any service related to these issues.
We bought a 2023 Model Y from the Mesa Tesla on 12/17/23. The staff rushed orientation (we are first-time EV owners) saying they were so busy that we could only get 15-30 minutes max for a complex vehicle. They told us calibration is normal and to reboot the Y if anything happens and showed us how. Once we drove off the lot the A/C went out and we got calibration prompts saying Pull Over. We pulled over less than 0.5 miles out and the A/C came on. Because of the bullying at the dealer we we afraid to go back and decided to go home. Again the calibration prompts came on and Pull Over. My wife was driving with my daughter and my in-law's and I was behind her in another car with our son. She suddenly started slowing down on the road because the vehicle would not let her accelerate. I pulled over to the side but she could not. I went to her and rebooted the Y, per Tesla's directions, and the car went dark and locked me and my in-law's inside in moving traffic (my wife had exited with my daughter). We had to call Gilbert police to direct traffic around us (had many angry drivers until Gilbert police came not understanding why a Y with a paper license tag was stopped in the road) and a tow truck for help. Two other drivers did stop to help too. I found the manual release but my in-law's could not. The tow truck driver had to climb (we had previouly rolled the windows down with the A/C issue) from the front seats to the back to get my in-law's out and paid $140.00 to have our new Y towed back to the dealer. For one week the story keeps changing - there is a coolant leak, no coolant leak but bad sensor, now the PCS is bad. I do not understand how the government can sanction such vehicles. We saved for a long time to purchase what was a dream vehicle for my wife and our famil'ys life was endangered within minutes. We are terrified of this vehicle and being around others like it on the road.
UNKWOWN: ASSESSMENT: Date of Event 19 December 2022 Upon taking delivery from Tesla for 2023 Model Y vehicle with the above or contained VIN, driver experiences a series of events that result from a autosteer activation. Approximately seven (7) calendar days after receiving the vehicle a FDU (Front Drive Unit) was replaced. At approximately another twenty-one (21) calendar days after the FDU was replaced while activating active cruise control and or autosteer the vehicle unexpectedly aggressively accelerated (UAA) to unknown speed that was not observed by the driver. It was later found out by the drive through scheduling a service appointment that a series of settings and unknown factors may have caused the incident. This incident was video recorded as a result of a traffic stop conducted by a local sheriff's office. This event contained several other incidents before vehicle was stopped including UAA, collision avoidance (oncoming traffic), vehicle brake lockup, and unresponsive controls.
Steering got locked while driving. Couldn’t perform left turn in the middle of drive
Steering system malfunction and failure: I have a brand new Tesla Model Y for less than 3 months. Two months after I have the vehicle, the steering rack had an internal fault. The steering rack was replaced at the Tesla authorized repair shop. Eighteen days after that repair. I was involved in a car accident. The reason was because my car had veered to the right on its own while driving on a city street. I then turned the steering wheel to the left, but the car did not turn to the left. My car then hit another vehicle that was parked on the right side of the street. The front of my vehicle was totally damaged on the right side. The entire left side of the other parked vehicle was also totally damaged. I was NOT on cruise control. I was NOT on self- driving mode.
Steering assist reduced. The steering wheel completely stopped working in the middle of a drive.
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.
The car lost steering while driving. The wheel was super difficult to turn. The problem was confirmed by Tesla Service via phone call, the Tesla Service Center in Rochester and alerts on the screen. The car was towed to the service center.
Power steering was not able to control. Can't control the handle. It was locked. My car got towed to service center on same day. I received a call and they said rat or squirrel bite electric line. And charged me over $800 for it. I just figured out there is lot of cases like me.
1. What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? My 2023 Tesla Model Y's steering wheel was totally locked up. I was not able to control the vehicle at all. 2. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? It happened when I parked, but I believe this could happen anytime, anywhere while I am driving. That could happen on the freeway which I do not even want to imagine. I am now scared of driving it. 3. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? I have a service appointment tomorrow, so I am not sure this could be addressed by the service center, but I can easily find articles talking about the same issue. 4. Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? Not yet. 5.Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? No waring or alert popped up. I have a videoclip that I took when the incident took place, but I cannot upload it here because of its size.
I took my wife to a doctors appointment and upon going back into the car to drive off the steering wheel became VERY stiff. I had to use a considerable amount of force to move the wheel. My wife couldn't move the steering wheel at all. Some errors appeared on the screen 'Power steering reduced', and UI_a020 Steering assist is disabled. Ultimately had to call Tesla and they had to tow it away to a Service center.
Autosteer mode, while generally helpful and which I use daily, abruptly brakes hard and/or pulls hard to the right when its computer program misinterprets a mere shadow as a threat. While I am sure your organization already knows this well. I believe this has strong potential to cause a driver to over-react and lose control of the vehicle. Addition of a radar sensor as an input to the existing algorithm similar to the Chevy Bolt for separately assessing/confirming this perceived threat could resolve the problem in milliseconds and preclude this risk. Understandably, Tesla management as judged this acceptable since adding this capability would raise its cost and reduce its market share in the increasingly competitive EV market. But as a former systems engineer and general manager manufacturing aviation autopilot computers, I strongly disagree and remain concerned about its potential to cause a serious/fatal crash. Thus, I offer another voice pressing for reconsideration by your public safety organization.
Steering Assist is reduced shows up in the screen. The steering then becomes hard to manouver and you lose parts of the control of the car.
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