Mileage when the problem started
Owner reports
Selected complaints filed with NHTSA by 2014 Tesla Model S owners, lightly cleaned up (personal details are redacted by NHTSA).
I have been driving my Model S Tesla for 13 years. On 30 April as I was pulling into a parking space at my local grocery store, I applied the brakes to ease into the space and my car surged forward with unintended acceleration. I smashed into the concrete base of a light pole, the airbags deployed and my car ricocheted back about 8 feet. There were no warning messages. I was taken to the emergency room and had whiplash and a burn on my leg from the airbag. No one else was hurt. I know it was the car that malfunctioned because my foot was still on the brake after the collision and the airbags bruised the right side of my right leg. It could not have bruised it in that way if my foot had been on the accelerator. The insurance company inspected and declared a total loss. I obtained the black box data from Tesla and am uploading the documents below. …
We have owned this car for a couple of months. Today, when I pulled into a parking spot at my office, the car accelerated quickly as soon as I made the turn to get into the parking spot. It jumped the curb and I barely missed hitting the office building. My feet were not on the gas pedal, the car did this on its own. None of the sensors went off to warn me of the curb like it normally does too. You can see from the skid marks how hard I had to slam on the brakes. Car damaged on front, assuming the windshield wiper fluid line was also cut with the fluid on the ground. Pictures attached.
In 2014, I ordered this Model S P85D, received it on 12/20/2014, I also purchased a 4-year extended service plan. Starting from March 2017, it started to encounter random yet serious problems. The car would randomly produce critical errors, displaying several types of error messages, while losing most of its driving power; the driver would have to perform emergency pullovers onto the road shoulder, if available, before the power rapidly reduce to zero. Then the driver need to restart the main computer (sometimes several times), to reset the error messages. Only after that, the car became drive-able again. I wrote an email to [email] on 03/23/2017 describing the problem, since then, this became a chronic issue; Service centers in Virginia, Maryland, and San Juan PR have performed numerous attempts on this problem, none of them was able to fix it. …
The rear motor (drive unit) has gone out on this car twice in the last four years. I purchased it after it was last repaired. It most recently went out on 08/04/2023. When it went out two days ago it had less than 30,000 miles on it. This car has a motor on both the front and rear axles, so while the vehichle was still moving forward, if it slowed down at all that would engage the regenerative braking. Once regenerative breaking was engaged, the rear drive unit would normal perform that function, but since it was out, it simply knocked the vehicle out of drive and made the transmission flash red. During this part, steering was affected in that the power steering was out, and the ability to move forward was diminished because the vehicle came out of gear. …
The autopilot will apply the brakes in what is basically a panic stop any time you are decending from a hill and there is an overpass crossing the roadway. It happens to me on a particular stretch of the freeway almost every single time, and has happened multiple times. Each and every time it occurs it is as the vehicle is decending from a rise and there is an overpass ahead. For some reason the vehicle detects the overpass as an obstruction and slams the brakes. This has happened at least half a dozen times. Fortunately there was never a car following me very closely. I make it a point when I use the auto pilot to be ready to take over at a moment's notice whenever there is an overpass ahead. The vehicle did this with the OLD (original MCS) and the NEW one Tesla just installed.
My car has severe phantom breaking due to adaptive cruise control. When I use my Tesla's cruise control on the freeway, on a complete flat straight away that has no vehicle in front of me, no sign/bridge in front of me, and no items/object in front of me, my vehicle while randomly/violently slam on the break violently hurling me and all passengers in my vehicle forward. This is even more dangerous when there are vehicles being me in close proximity who could easily could have rear ended me all those times. I am forced to not use my cruise control due to these dangerous conditions.
On February 11, 2024, as I was entering my house garage at a very low speed, the car suddenly accelerated and hit the wall of my garage, causing damage to the garage and interior of my house. The car was insured by State Fram. It was towed to a shop for repair at which time the insurance company notified me that the car could not be repaired. The car had been totaled. Over the following several weeks, I repaired the damage to my house and bought another car.
The vehicle went into "REDUCED POWER" (Turtle Mode) error. Which reduced the power and the ability to accelerate out of an intersection and away from incoming traffic. I followed the recommendations of powering the vehicle off. It would correct itself then randomly does the same thing. This is SAFETY ISSUE and needs to be resolved before someone gets into a major accident which will result in great bodily injury or death.
The accident took place on 7/9/20 around 9:15 am. Police report # 20-1291-ac I drove my car into the parking lot of 4519 post road (facing post road) and turned into the doctor's parking spot. The car had just about stopped and my foot was not yet off the brake when I suddenly felt the car accelerating. It went right through the hedge in front (about 1 foot away) then went smashing through the office marquee, over the stone wall and on to the street. My foot on the brake, I was trying frantically to stop. The car stopped. Relieved, I thought I should quickly get out of the car. To my horror, it started accelerating again. In the next few seconds, it felt as though I was in a james bond movie car chase. The next thing I knew my car was tearing through the white fence of a house and then I remember trying to get out of the car. …
In December 2016 the car accelerated spontaneously while I was in my driveway. Tesla maintained I pushed on the excelerator instead of the brake going from 2 to 92 miles an hour in just a few seconds. The car was repaired and on January 12,2020 the car once again self accelerated. Both times substantial damage was done to the front of the car and to my home. I was not injured however a passenger was in the car in 2016 and maintained she had hip injuries as a result. The insurance company did settle with her. Both accidents were not the result of my inadvertently depressing the excelerator. There definitely is a substantial danger to the public. The car is currently at raintree auto body in scottsdale arizona. I have not called Tesla az yet as I do not particularly want them to get the black box. …
NHTSA investigations
Sudden Unintended Acceleration
The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) received a petition requesting that ODI reevaluate its decision to deny DP20-001 on the basis that intermittent high electrical current demands on the vehicles' 12VDC systems may have caused some or all of the incidents examined by ODI in DP20-001. The petitioner bases this information on a review of open-source research and the DP20-001 denial.
Acceleration complaints in other Model S years
Frequently asked questions
How common are acceleration problems on the 2014 Tesla Model S?
NHTSA has 22 complaints about the speed control & acceleration of the 2014 Tesla Model S, 6% of the model year's 366 complaints.
Is there a recall for 2014 Tesla Model S acceleration problems?
No. NHTSA lists no speed control & acceleration recall for the 2014 Tesla Model S, though it has 9 recalls for other components. If the problem is widespread, a repair may still be covered by an extended warranty or a manufacturer service bulletin — ask a dealer.
At what mileage do 2014 Tesla Model S acceleration problems start?
Half of the complaints with a recorded mileage happened before about 30,000 miles, and 45% before 25,000 miles.
Is it dangerous?
Owners linked 12 crashes, 0 fires and 7 injuries to speed control & acceleration problems on this model year. If you notice symptoms, have the car checked before driving further.
Source: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) — owner complaints through October 20, 2026, recalls and defect investigations; fuel economy from the EPA. Complaints are unverified reports and are not proof of a defect. How we rate model years.