571 of the 7,374 complaints filed about the Tesla Model Y are about the throttle and cruise control — 8% of everything owners reported. The worst model year for it is 2023.
571
Complaints
8%
Share of all complaints
109
Crashes
3
Fires
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
While exiting a drive-thru, I pressed the accelerator and the vehicle unexpectedly accelerated at a high rate of speed on its own. I attempted to brake, but the brakes did not respond. The vehicle struck a concrete median. Police report on file: East Hanover Township PD, Case #2026-12503.
NHTSA complaint #11758962 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Phantom braking while using the TACC on the tesla
NHTSA complaint #11758931 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
The contact owns a 2026 Tesla Model Y. While the vehicle was parked and attempting to shift into drive(D), the brake pedal was depressed, and the driver attempted to select the gear, but the gear display icon appeared semi-transparent. The driver was able to select the intended gear after several attempts; however, upon depressing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle unintentionally accelerated at a higher speed and struck a tree. The air bags did not deploy. No injuries were reported, and a Police report was not filed. No warning light was illuminated before or after the crash. Full Self-Driving (FSD) mode was not activated during the failure. The vehicle was driven to a collision repair center to repair the damage. The contact notified the manufacturer of the failure and requested assistance retrieving data from the Event Data Recorder (EDR); however, no assistance was provided. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired for the unintended acceleration. The failure mileage was approximately 2,000.
NHTSA complaint #11757772 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
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.
NHTSA complaint #11757226 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
I was using the Tesla FSD in stop and go traffic. At the moment I was moving with traffic at about 30 mph and then traffic started slowing down. The vehicle in front of me came to a complete stop. The FSD on my car started slowing down, but not fast enough. It rear-ended the vehicle at about 18 mph.
NHTSA complaint #11756721 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
I was operating my Tesla using Full Self-Driving (Supervised) when the vehicle approached an active school zone with flashing warning lights and a posted school-zone speed limit of 35 mph. FSD did not appropriately respond to the active school zone or reduce the vehicle's speed to the posted 35 mph limit, requiring me to disengage FSD and manually slow the vehicle. The incident was captured on the Tesla dashcam. The recording shows FSD active while approaching the school zone. At approximately 14 seconds into the recording, the vehicle was traveling approximately 52 mph with "Self-Driving" displayed while the flashing school-zone warning and SCHOOL pavement markings were visible ahead. The posted school-zone speed limit is 35 mph when the warning lights are flashing. Because FSD was not slowing the vehicle appropriately, I intervened and disengaged FSD. Immediately following my intervention, vehicle speed decreased from approximately 49 mph to 39 mph, 31 mph, and approximately 29 mph as I manually slowed the vehicle. This was the second time I experienced FSD failing to appropriately respond to this same active school zone. After this occurrence, I saved the dashcam recording and submitted a Bug Report through the vehicle. There were no warning messages indicating that FSD could not recognize or respond to the school zone. My safety concern is that FSD may proceed into an active school zone substantially above the posted school-zone speed limit unless the driver recognizes the failure and intervenes. The original dashcam recording is available and documents the vehicle speed, FSD status, active flashing school-zone warning, posted speed limit, and timing of my intervention.
NHTSA complaint #11756753 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Separately, the system could not hold a consistent speed on open highway with no vehicle ahead. It would surge from a set 70 mph to roughly 72-73 mph and then drop back, repeatedly, producing a pulsing acceleration and deceleration. The system also hesitated frequently and issued repeated audible alerts without an identifiable hazard present. I previously filed a complaint regarding phantom braking on this same vehicle (ODI number 11450326, filed February 4, 2022), which described nearly identical behavior triggered by trucks on the same Georgia-to-New Jersey route. That complaint concerned FSD/Autopilot software from 2022. The behavior described here occurs on Tesla’s current v14 Lite software released to Hardware 3 vehicles in July 2026. The defect has persisted across more than four years and multiple software generations. Unexpected hard braking at highway speed with no hazard present creates a rear-end collision risk to my vehicle and to following traffic.
NHTSA complaint #11755578 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
On February 17, 2026, around 4:20 pm, as I was departing my agency's parking garage structure, my 2023 Tesla Y uncontrollably and un-prompted accelerated at a very high speed. I applied the brake and it would not stop. I nearly killed the security guard at the garage who was trying to direct my vehicle to the correct exit lane. The vehicle ran across a sidewalk adjacent to the garage, ran across a street, hit a street parking meter, ran across another sidewalk, ran across and toppled a perimeter fence around a parking lot across from the garage I exited, ran over concrete wheel barriers, and continued running for about 300 feet before it came to a stop on its own. This duration of this terrifying ordeal was 3 to 5 seconds. The air bags did not deploy. I called 911 repeatedly for Police investigation and report but the Police never showed up. I towed the vehicle to a Tesla Collision Center, which inspected and investigated the accident, and the Tesla Center stated that the FSD system was working properly and did not find anything wrong. I informed the Tesla Center that I did not subscribe to the FSD system service and was not using it during the accident, and they stated that they stand by the determination of their engineering division that reviewed the "blackbox", information gathering device of the vehicle. The vehicle was totaled and non-salvageable. Prior to the accident, the Tesla Collision Center, had repaired the vehicle from a previous accident that occurred on September 25, 2025. There were no warnings before the vehicle uncontrollably accelerated at a very high speed. I have copy of the accident videos. Your platform would not allow me to upload the videos.
NHTSA complaint #11753605 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
The Full Self Driving software does not allow the user to limit the maximum speed of the vehicle while in use. The car frequently drives 15-20 MPH over the actual limits in typical driving modes with no ability for the user to safely and precisely restrict its speed to a more safe and appropriate level. The car may begin a journey at an appropriate speed, and continue at that speed for miles, but for no reason that is apparent to the user, the system may begin to accelerate beyond a safe limit. This makes the driving experience while using this software less predictable and compromises the safety of the user and others on the road. The user controlled speed limiting feature was previously available, and worked well, but was removed as part of an update to version 14.x of the software. An alternative that is being used, which is much less safe, is that users can restrict the speed of the entire vehicle such that its speed may never pass a certain level, under any circumstance, even if the accelerator is fully depressed (by the user). Once enabled, this feature cannot be adjusted or disabled while driving. Users are using this vehicle speed restriction feature to more precisely restrict the excessive and unpredictable speeding of the automated system because they are not given the ability to do so safely and precisely via other means.
NHTSA complaint #11753209 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Tesla took off from a parking lot and was uncontrollable, went through the grass, crossed the street and construction before hitting the barricades and fell into a sewer as the road ended there. There were 2 passengers in the car and luckily both passengers came unharmed. But FSD needs to be investigated on why this happened.
NHTSA complaint #11752327 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Tesla's FSD system has ZERO opportunity for the driver to adjust what the car believes is the speed limit. My car often has no idea what the speed limit is. More often than not, it believes the speed limit is lower than it actually is, by as much as 30 MPH. This causes the car to impede traffic if I do not intervene. I can press and hold the accelerator to force the car to drive the speed limit, however I am then faced with a warning that the car will not automatically brake in an emergency. I run my car in "Sloth" or "Chill" 99% of the time to prevent speeding (something you should actually enforce), and this is really where the issue becomes somewhat problematic. If I'm on a 55 MPH road driving 55-57 and the car suddenly decides the speed limit is 30, in sloth, it will decelerate aggressively, making people behind me think I'm nuts... could potentially be dangerous. Recently I was on a "new" road into a campground, a couple days after school ended and there were children around, the speed limit on the road is posted at 20... the car said [XXX], and proceeded to accelerate aggressively of course I terminated the FSD session and just drove the car myself. But no matter which way it is, it's insane that I cannot adjust the speed limit to whatever the speed limit actually is. I own this car, and I pay for FSD for one reason, I'm getting older [XXX], and my driving skills and reflexes are not what they used to be. I'm spending my money to increase safety... please insist that Tesla allow us to adjust the speed limit, or provide a way to get them to do it in a timely manner. I report these situations to Tesla often... not once have they adjusted whatever they use in the background... same problems on the same roads over and over and over, day after day. Please force them to do the right thing! INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
NHTSA complaint #11749812 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
June 30, I was driving an highway, PA 376 during a rain storm, FSD 60 MPH 4-5 PM. The rain was heavy, vehicles in front of me flashing their emergency lights, I attempted several times to slow down, Acceleration Modes, towards me. Vehicle would not slow down, heavy rain and puddles blurred my vision, thinking I would rear end the vehicle in front of me. Traffic was light due to the rain, FSD needs better software to slow down during weather conditions.
NHTSA complaint #11749426 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
The contact owns a 2024 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving 25 MPH and making a right turn into an alley with another vehicle approaching, the contact stopped to reverse; however, while using the tap feature, the vehicle unintendedly accelerated and crashed into a concrete barrier twice. The vehicle was uncontrollable. The contact stated that the air bags failed to deploy. The crash was not captured on the camera inside the vehicle. A Police report was filed. There was no injury reported. The vehicle was towed to a towing lot and was next towed to the local dealer but was not yet diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The approximate failure mileage was 14,000.
NHTSA complaint #11746167 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
I am writing to formally raise a serious concern regarding the functionality of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. On May 11th, while the vehicle was operating under FSD, I experienced an unexpected disengagement of the system, which then reengaged on its own without any input from me. This erratic behavior caused the vehicle to hit the garage door and resulted in a crash.
NHTSA complaint #11745951 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
The contact’s wife owned a 2022 Tesla Y. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked, his wife shifted the gear shifter into drive(D), and the vehicle independently accelerated. The Autonomous feature was not engaged. The brake pedal was depressed; however, the vehicle failed to respond as needed, and the front center of the vehicle crashed into a pile of cinder blocks, drove through a gate, and crashed into a dumpster, where it came to a stop. As a result of the impact, the front driver's side tire detached, and the dumpster was damaged. The contact stated that another person helped remove the driver from the vehicle due to the front driver door being unable to open. The air bags deployed as intended. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was towed to a tow yard and was deemed a total loss. A police report was filed. The driver had pain in the back and sought medical attention. The contact's wife was informed of a slight fracture of an unstated bone in her back and ribs, and had to return to the doctor several times for medical assistance. The contact was certain there was no user error to have caused the crash The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.
NHTSA complaint #11745984 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
I am writing to bring to your immediate attention a serious safety incident involving our brand‑new 2026 Tesla Model Y (Juniper), equipped with FSD version 14.2.2.5 and Software Version 2025.45.10. We purchased this vehicle as our dream car, and for nearly six months it delivered exactly what we hoped for—innovation, safety, and an exceptional driving experience. That trust was the foundation of our decision to choose Tesla. On [XXX], at approximately [XXX] in Frisco, TX, that trust was shaken by a sudden and alarming event. After coming to a stop and while making a routine right turn at under 10 mph, the vehicle unexpectedly accelerated on its own, causing an immediate loss of control. The entire incident unfolded in seconds, leaving no opportunity to react or correct the vehicle’s behavior. The incident happened at the intersection of [XXX]. The "Autopilot" feature in Tesla was on at the time of the incident. The impact was severe. The airbags deployed, the vehicle was declared a total loss by insurance, and first responders—including the Frisco Police Department—were required to clear the wreckage. My wife sustained injuries in the crash and continues to recover. Witnesses at the scene confirmed that the acceleration was abrupt and not driver‑initiated. The emotional and physical toll has been significant. More importantly, the nature of this incident raises serious concerns about a potential safety issue that could affect other Tesla owners. We feel compelled to ensure this incident is thoroughly examined. If there is a systemic issue—software‑related or otherwise—it is critical that it be identified and addressed to protect other drivers and uphold the integrity of the Tesla name. We truly miss our vehicle and the confidence we once had in it. We hope Tesla will treat this matter with the seriousness it deserves and provide a transparent path forward. Thank you for your time, attention, and commitment to safety. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
NHTSA complaint #11745911 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
• FSD received a software update earlier this same morning. • While navigating a parking garage under FSD, the vehicle initiated an unprompted reverse maneuver. • The reversal happened with no warning and no meaningful time for driver intervention before impact. • The vehicle struck a structural beam, causing damage to the vehicle above the rear driver side door, as well as shattering and causing splintering of the roof glass.
NHTSA complaint #11744795 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
VEHICLE INFORMATION Year: 2024 Make: Tesla Model: Model Y Mileage at time of incident:1,288 Date of incident: XXX Location of incident: [XXX] On XXX, I was operating my 2024 Tesla Model Y in [XXX] when the vehicle experienced a sudden and unexpected malfunction of its Autopilot/autonomous driving system. The vehicle activated in Autopilot mode without my intentional input, causing me to lose control and resulting in a serious crash. Prior to the collision, the vehicle's Autopilot system, engaged without my input and abruptly accelerated. I was seriously injured as a result. The vehicle, a brand-new 2024 Tesla Model Y, was in normal operating condition with no prior mechanical issues. I had not modified the vehicle in any way. Following the crash, Tesla provided data to attorneys regarding the incident which I believe to be inaccurate and inconsistent with my experience. I am requesting that NHTSA: 1. Open a formal investigation into this incident 2. Investigate the accuracy and completeness of data Tesla provides following Autopilot-related crashes 3. Preserve my complaint as part of any ongoing investigation into Tesla Autopilot/FSD systems Was I injured? YES Number of injuries: 2 Were there fatalities: NO Was there a police report? YES INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
NHTSA complaint #11744005 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Component/Issue Description: Following a recent over-the-air (OTA) software update to the vehicle's Full Self-Driving system, a dangerous user interface defect was introduced. Immediately upon an FSD disengagement—the critical transition window where the operator must resume manual driving control—the center touchscreen populates a mandatory, invasive feedback popup menu. This menu causes a severe driver distraction and creates an immediate safety hazard. The popup blocks vital driving visualizations and navigation data on the screen at a high-stress moment. Furthermore, the UI creates a functional touchscreen lockout, demanding manual and visual interaction from the driver to clear the box while the vehicle is actively in motion. Forcing a driver to divert their eyes from the roadway to navigate a touchscreen menu immediately following a system intervention creates an unreasonable and systemic risk of collision. The manufacturer has provided no setting to disable this dangerous distraction.
NHTSA complaint #11743977 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
The Tesla Autosteer (equivalent of adaptive cruise control) failed to brake on seeing the car ahead braking. In the 5 seconds before impact, the car ahead had started braking. The autosteer did not brake for the first 3 seconds and then It asked me to take over 2 seconds before collision. It did not apply automatic emergency braking causing me to rear end the car ahead of me on the freeway at around 30mph This is supposed to be a safety driver assist feature which instead was the primary cause of the accident. The take control was too late to avoid collision. This is a serious safety issue.
NHTSA complaint #11743816 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.