2020 Tesla Model Y UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Owner-reported problems and safety issues filed with NHTSA. Review common failures, severity levels, and complaint trends over time.
Complaint Timeline
Chronological view of owner reports
I brought the car to the dealership to work on the recalls that are all done by over the air download. The car is not receiving the updates so I brought the car to the dealership to force the download on their computers. They stated they will not do any work on the car without doing a high voltage inspection due to the car being salvage. The charge for the inspection is almost $1500. The recalls have nothing to do with the high voltage but they are requiring me to pay it before they fix the recalls.
Interior of glass roof - dangerously hot on sunny days, capable of causing burns. This problem has caused several family members including children to yelp in pain due to brief contact with the glass (heads meeting glass surface while placing children in car seat, getting in and out of car seat and hands brushing against glass surface). The temperature inside the tesla also far exceeds other cars I go into. This is easily reproducible on any spring/summer day. I understand there are cars with black paint that can get hot and you try to avoid touching that area. But if there is literally black glass above you in the interior that is not insulated, that is completely unavoidable and a constant hazard. There should be insulation provided standard.
In Summon Mode, autonomous driving, our car collided with another stationary parked car
I can’t use the full self drive capability without the car malfunctioning or slamming on the brakes. I paid extra for a service that not only doesn’t work but makes the car unsafe to drive. They’ve continually tried OTA updates and nothing can fix it. They need to recall this car and reimburse.
Unexplained SUDDEN acceleration. At Kroger parking lot. I was at complete stop, then lightly stepped on accelerator to start moving and car suddenly, rapidly accelerated causing me to hit STOP sign. Unexplained acceleration! Fortunately no one was standing in front of the car. Caused some damage to the right, front area of the car.
While I was parking the car at a parking spot for a doctor's appointment, it accelerated by itself and drove over the parking spot front bump and drove a short downhill covered with grass. Then it drove across a street and stopped by hitting an SUV parked. During the whole process, I tried to stop it by braking it, but failed. While it slides down, I gave up controlling the car.
The drivers side rear door no longer opens. As a parent who drives with 2 children in car seats, this has made getting our kids in and out incredibly time consuming and awkward. Not to mention it just isn't safe at all to have a non operable door. From what I've seen after doing a quick google search, this is a common problem with Model Y AND Model 3 rear doors, which is absolutely unacceptable and needs to be addressed. You can even watch youtube videos of other Tesla drivers experiencing the exact same scenario as my family currently has. The day it happened I drove straight to a Tesla service center to get it taken care of. They told me they were too busy to take my car and that I needed to make an appointment. Their first appointment date at the local center was over 2 weeks out, which is also unacceptable for an issue involving passenger safety. So I set up a mobile service appointment for the following day which the following day Tesla changed to a service center appointment a week and a half out, citing they needed to order parts to fix this, granted no one has seen this door to diagnose what is happening but they already know enough to order parts to fix it, which means that indeed they have a manufacturing flaw that needs to be adressed. If it wasn't for the car seats it would be an acceptable nuisance, but add car seats to the mix and this scenario is a hazard.
The navigation system needs to be updated to enable larger font sizes! This has been a problem reported to Tesla for many years (see Tesla users forum), but they don't address the issue. THIS IS A SERIOUS SAFETY ISSUE! I cannot read the directions easily while driving. Consequently, I must move my head closer to the screen and spend more time looking at it to understand the next turn. This causes me to stop looking at the road for too long a period of time and almost causes me to have an accident! THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED NOW!
Total failure of HVAC system which could put driver in danger in extreme temperatures.
We had a crack on the windshield that Safelight tried to fix, but the crack expanded and needed to get a new windshield replaced. It has been 2 months now that we have been waiting on Tesla to get the new part in. In the. meantime, the crack has expanded to over 16 inches and keeps growing. Tesla keeps pushing back the service date claiming that they did not get the windshield in yet. If they do not have windshields, then how are they building new vehicles daily if they have a windshield shortage? The crack in the meantime keeps growing and it is a safety hazard.
HVAC "dog mode" failed for the second time after repair. Manufacturer says this is a known issue but no alert sent to owners. Screen indicates rising temp, notification sent to phone of failure. No known timetable for fix but no alerts to owners
When activating the turn signal at night, the blind spot warning image will display a glare that obfuscates the view of approaching vehicles.
After driving the vehicle in cold temperatures (below 28 degrees) the HVAC stops heating the car and a warning appears on the center screen that heating/cooling is limited or unavailable. Only cold air flows through the vents providing no heat. the heat does not come back after turing the car off or coming back a few days later, it has to get serviced. This issue has reoccurred twice and has been serviced both times, but now the heating system make extremely loud noise and shakes the car each time it is started which causes the alarm to go off. I have another service set up for investigation into that problem. The heating the car after the first visit worked for a few weeks and then stopped working, which I believe is going to happen again is few weeks after this second time fixing the heating.
Cabin climate control and preconditioning for the battery have failed. Message: "cabin climate control needs service". First noticed around 1/5/22 and report to Tesla Service. Car interior will not heat up at all, causing the car to be unusable due to: no heat, unable to defrost windows. This is a definite safety issue that Tesla has yet to address. We live in upstate NY, and outdoor temps have been very cold. But we did not have any issue in the winter of 2020-2021. We first complained to Tesla on 1/5/22. Tesla scheduled an app't to fix it on 1/18/22 (about 2 weeks later). They then cancelled it, saying "parts are unavailable." We have not been able to use the Tesla since 1/5/22. We have not been able to get any answers from Tesla Service about what parts need to be replaced, or how this can be fixed if it's a software issue. We are leaving for FL tomorrow, and even asked Tesla if they can find a service center between upstate NY and FL that will have the part (or whatever is needed) to fix this. They have been unable or unwilling to give us an answer. In fact, they have not been responding to text messages with the service. They are unwilling to give me a date when this might be fixed. It would be extremely dangerous for us to start the trip in the Tesla Y without any cabin heat/defrosting ability. And normal day-to-day use of the Tesla Y is impossible unless you dress for extreme cold temps -- even that doesn't solve the safety issue of keeping the windows defrosted. Very unhappy with Tesla Service and their lack of ability to help with this SAFETY ISSUE.
The trunk hatch door does not stop moving (opening or closing) when it comes into contact with an object. Incident #1: I closed the trunk not realizing that my husband was under the hatch door. The hatch door came down on his head and did not stop closing until he forced it to stop with his arm. Incident #2: I pulled the car into my garage but did not realize that I had not pulled the car far enough into the garage. I opened the trunk from the drivers seat. The hatch door hit the closed garage door and kept trying to open (scratching the hatch door on the garage door in the process) until I was able to pull the hatch door down hard enough for it to stop moving. This is a safety hazard. A child/person could get caught and injured in between the hatch door and the trunk and/or the hatch door and another object.
SECONDARY FRONT HOOD SAFETY LATCH FAILED CAUSING MY HOOD TO OPEN WHILE ON HIGHWAY
SINCE MY WIFE AND I TOOK DELIVERY OF OUR NEW MODEL Y, WE HAVE HAD MULTIPLE ISSUES WHICH HAVE REQUIRED SERVICING. THESE ISSUES RANGE FROM WIRES HANGING FROM UNDERNEATH THE VEHICLE TO WINDOW ALIGNMENTS TO OUR TURN SIGNAL NOTE WORKING AND MANY OTHER ISSUES. LATELY THE ISSUES HAVE BECOME A HAZARD TO THE OCCUPANTS OF THE TESLA AND TO THE PUBLIC. THIS VERY SERIOUS HAZARD HAS TO DO WITH THE VEHICLES CONTROL DISPLAY. THE DISPLAY HAS FROZEN IN PLACE NOT ALLOWING US TO KNOW WHAT GEAR WE ARE IN, HOW FAST WE ARE GOING AND WHETHER THE SIGNALS ARE OPERATING. THIS PROBLEM HAPPENED TWICE AND WEEK AND NOW IS HAPPENING EVERY OTHER TIME WE GET IN THE VEHICLE. WE HAVE HAD TO DEAL WITH A FROZEN OR BLANK OR MALFUNCTIONING SCREEN WHILE DRIVING DOWN IH-10 ENDANGERING US AND THE DRIVERS AROUND US. WE ARE ESSENTIALLY DRIVING BLIND. IT IS A FRIGHTENING FEELING HAVING THE DISPLAY FREEZING AND THEN REBOOTING WHILE DRIVING DOWN A BUSY HIGHWAY. WE THOUGH THIS WAS A ONE OFF, THE FIRST COUPLE OF TIMES THIS HAPPENED; NOW IT IS HAPPENING EVERY OTHER TIME WE GET IN THE VEHICLE. TODAY, THE SCREEN REBOOTED TWICE AND EVEN AFTER THAT, THE SOUND NEVER CAME BACK ON. WE HAD NO ACCESS TO THE RADIO NAVIGATION GUIDANCE OR AUDIBLE SIGNALS. NOT TO MENTION THAT THE AIR CONDITIONER FAN SUDDENLY WENT FROM HIGH TO LOW ON ITS OWN WITHOUT ANYWAY TO CONTROL IT. THE VEHICLE RANDOMLY ALERTS US THAT THE FRONT HOOD IS OPEN WHILE WE ARE DRIVING; THIS HAPPENS VERY OFTEN ALONG WITH THE OTHER ISSUES. THE SCREEN RANDOMLY DISPLAYS HAZRDS WHILE DRIVING AND THE SPEED AND GEAR SELECT DISAPPEAR RANDOMLY, REBOOTING OVER AND OVER WHILE DRIVING. THE CAR ALSO BRAKED VERY HARD ON THE HIGHWAY RECENTLY FOR NO REASON. MY WIFE AND I WERE BOTH IN THE VEHICLE. WE HAVE MANY VIDEOS AND PICTURES OF THESE OCCURENCES. MANY MORE RANDOM SAFETY ISSUES, TOO MANY TO LIST WHILE DRIVING. VERY HIGH SAFETY ISSUES.
Trend Over Time
Complaints by year
Other Issues
Common problems reported
Quick Summary
The 2020 Tesla Model Y has 17 UNKNOWN OR OTHER complaints on file. 3 crashes have been reported. Review the timeline above for detailed owner experiences.