Mileage when the problem started
Owner reports
Selected complaints filed with NHTSA by 2016 Tesla Model S owners, lightly cleaned up (personal details are redacted by NHTSA).
The contact owns a 2016 Tesla Model S. The contact stated that after releasing the brake pedal while parking, the vehicle suddenly experienced unintended acceleration and lurched forward crashing into the rear of a second vehicle. During the incident, no injuries were reported and no police report was taken. The cause of the failure was not determined. The manufacturer was notified of the incident. The contact indicated that prior to the incident a chip was installed due to a navigation problem. Also, the control panel display screen had a malfunction and audible warnings such as turn signals were not available. The failure mileage was 25,000
The contact owns a 2016 Tesla Model S. The contact stated that while turning into a parking spot, there was an unintended acceleration of the vehicle; it surged forward, jumped the parking barrier, and crashed into a wall. There were no warning lights illuminated. A police report was filed. There was no reported fire, injuries, or air bag deployment. The vehicle was towed to a body shop. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 93,000.
I was parking the car and gently tapped on the accelerator to inch forward. The car accelerated suddenly, crashed into a concrete sign holder, and knocked down a sign, until I was able to stop it using the breaks. The accident caused $5000 worth of damage that I paid out of pocket to fix, since I assumed I must have made a mistake. However when I got the car back a month later, unintended acceleration happened AGAIN - under the same circumstances. I was parking and inching forward. I tapped the accelerator and the car accelerated suddenly. This time I was able to stop it before causing any damage. At this point, I KNEW that the first accident was not my error, since it had now happened again, and I was 100% sure that I did nothing wrong. I looked up "unintended acceleration - Tesla" and found examples of the exact same thing happening while parking. …
The car was on enhanced auto pilot and was moving at about 50 mph, the traffic in front of me slowed down. The car failed to give an alert, it failed to slow down and stop. I applied the breaks, but by then the car crashed into the pick-up truck in front of me. The car came to a complete stop after the crash and the computer system in the car completely shut down. The car had to be towed to the garage. My safety and the safety of the driver in front of me were at risk due to malfunction of the enhanced auto pilot system We immediately filed a service ticket with Tesla and upon repeated requests we were told that car could not be inspected and the breaks or auto pilot system could not be tested as the car was not drivable. Police and car insurance company were notified. Tesla was able to provide us with a EDR There were no warning signs or messages prior to the malfunction.
Sudden unintended acceleration appeared to cause the Tesla while parking the car on the street in front of home accelerate go out of control and crash into the home totaling the car and damaging the house. Two days prior the vehicle was brought into a Tesla service location where Tesla replaced the 12 volt battery that they believed was causing the car not to power on properly at that time. After the crash and googling to see if others suffered similar issues it appears the NHTSA recently reopened a review of sudden unintended acceleration and this incident seems to align with concerns of the petitioner [redacted] . The police filed a report and it's at the towing place where the insurer Allstate is going to evaluate the car for a total loss.
On September 7th, 2024 around 7:35 PM, my tesla model S 2016 Suddenly accelerated, smashed in the siding of my house breaking the the siding of the wall and was totaled. All of this happened while my mom was trying to park the car in the garage the car suddenly took off without her pressing the accelerator. I have tesla to send an engeneer to collect the data of the car in which they said they did but have not yet gotten back to me on the issue. They informed me that they have collected the data on 09/20/2024
Incident Tesla Model S was up to date on recalls as far as we can tell, including the recent autopilot update via Tesla internet vehicle update releases. While driving in autopilot mode on the freeway in the lane next to the HOV lane, the autopilot got confused as to which lane it should keep and failed to maintain its lane. Incident vehicle drifted across the double lines into the HOV lane, where another Tesla Model S was driving. Both cars were damaged in the ensuing side bump impact, then the incident vehicle made a slight impact to another car rear bumper in front of the incident vehicle. No injuries were reported. A subsequent Traffic Crash Report was filed as required with CA Highway Patrol. We are awaiting this report in the mail. Our safety and others was put at risk due to the failure of the autopilot to maintain its lane. Insurance was contacted. …
CPU compatibility to existing OS and memory system causing multiple failures during driving with: 1. instrument cluster reset or reboot (temporarily disables all controls related to buttons/knobs on steering wheel and possibly other safety functions), 2. main nav/computer screen reset or reboot (temporarily disables all controls), 3. auto braking activation (cannot be disabled by user) enabled at dangerous and unpredictable times of city traffic, 4. backup camera picture not updating/frozen during backing uo vehicle, creating illusion of: a. not moving when in reverse while driving, b. not showing objects that may be directly behind vehicle when in reverse Manufacturer (Tesla) service ticket opened and closed as "resolved with memory reset" without follow-up if problems still occur
I was stopped at a red light, left signal on, when the car suddenly accelerated forward through the intersection in an aggressive 0-60 kind of start. I braked safely and was about to execute a U-turn a minute or two later when the car bolted forward again. There was no traffic other than the car behind me at the light, thankfully. There were no warnings or other signals and the car was not operating in AutoPilot. I reported the incident immediately to Tesla and the car is now out of state in their custody while an escalated investigation is conducted. They have, however, told us that the car is safe to drive and that it is not possible for this to have occurred. They also assert that all sudden acceleration cases to date have been related to AutoPilot and all have been driver error.
To whom it may concern, On July 26, 2021, my Tesla was hijacked remotely and controls were overridden while I was on the highway (I almost crashed). This happened sometime between 11:30am and 4pm. I reported the issue to the NY State AG consumer affairs office. In December 2021, the car suddenly turned off and locked me out. It was then towed to another State and I've been unable to get it back in my possession. Regards, Gaetano
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 2016 Tesla Model S?
NHTSA has 81 complaints about the speed control & acceleration of the 2016 Tesla Model S, 13% of the model year's 648 complaints.
Is there a recall for 2016 Tesla Model S acceleration problems?
No. NHTSA lists no speed control & acceleration recall for the 2016 Tesla Model S, though it has 10 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 2016 Tesla Model S acceleration problems start?
Half of the complaints with a recorded mileage happened before about 5,000 miles, and 71% before 25,000 miles.
Is it dangerous?
Owners linked 35 crashes, 1 fire and 37 injuries and 2 deaths 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.