2021 Tesla Model Y Collision Avoidance Problems

Which parts fail

• Adaptive cruise control
  410
• Automatic emergency braking
  331
• Warnings
  123
• Assist
  52
• Warning
  27
• Blind spot detection
  15

Components named in complaints (automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise, lane keeping, backup camera).

Mileage when the problem started

• Under 25k
  2492%
• 25k–50k
  14%
• 50k–75k
  14%
• 75k–100k
  00%
• 100k–150k
  00%
• 150k+
  00%

Owner reports

Selected complaints filed with NHTSA by 2021 Tesla Model Y owners, lightly cleaned up (personal details are redacted by NHTSA).

The contact owns a 2021 Tesla Model Y. The contact stated that while driving at 60 MPH, the lane assist feature operated independently as he attempted to merge into the right lane. Due to the failure, the vehicle pulled back into the left lane which caused the vehicle to spin in a circle and crash into a median. The air bags did not deploy upon impact. The contact was not injured as a result of the accident. A police report was not filed. The vehicle was initially towed to the dealer where he was informed that the vehicle would be towed to an independent body shop for repair. The vehicle had yet to be repaired. The failure mileage was 24,300.

On two occasion, our brand new Tesla model Y lurched forward from a complete stop. The first time, on 2021/10/09 at 4:36pm I was at a car wash and trying to put the car in neutral. Fiddling with the gear selector, the car jumped forward without me touching the pedals. I hit the breaks and neither the car or anyone else was injured. The second time, on 2021/10/25 at 8:10 am, my wife was dropping off the kids at school. At full stop the car lurched forward again without her touching the pedals or the speed controller. The car hit the car in front of it 3 times with force. The car as well as the two other cars in front of it got seriously damaged. My two year old son was on board, there was many middle schoolers around but thankfully no one was injured. …

2021 Tesla's rear-view camera and collision warning systems did not activate when backing out of a parking spot. Tesla screen showed the navigation map instead of the rear-view camera while I was backing out at low speed ~2 mph. A 2003 Honda Pilot directly behind me was also backing up at the same time resulting in a collision. After the crash, I confirmed that all safety features were enabled and I have always installed all regularly scheduled updates. After searching online forums, I found many customers reporting problems with their on-screen camera not activating. I have noticed that the camera did not consistently activate in the past. Sometimes it would, other times I would have to manually press the Camera button on-screen in order to view behind me. There were no on-screen notifications of problems before the event. …

Autopilot was on during a light rain event where I was traveling less than the posted speed limit on the I95 northbound Highway. The autopilot appeared to force the car to abruptly jolt the steering wheel/tires, causing a slip/ hydroplane of the front end which forced the car into a left/sideways slide across the highway. The car slid sideways for about 100 feet or so before going straight into the concrete divider along the Highway (front driver side initial impact, then rear driver side 2nd impact). Control could not be regained with the vehicle. Steering did not work (tried to correct the path), it felt as if brakes did not slow the vehicle as the car approached the divider. Autopilot was fully engaged and lane keeping was active... with at least one hand on the steering wheel and moderate level of attention to the road. I must say I had likely became over-reliant on the autopilot. …

On October 1, 2026 at approximately 7:55 PM, I was driving my 2021 Tesla Model Y with Autopilot/driver-assistance engaged. The vehicle struck a fixed support pole of the canopy at my driveway. The pole was stationary, but the vehicle did not avoid it. The collision caused significant damage to the vehicle and canopy/pole. I am concerned that the Tesla driver-assistance system failed to detect and/or respond appropriately to a stationary object while engaged. I am not aware of any warning or intervention that prevented the collision. I preserved the available TeslaCam/USB data and made a separate backup. I also have photographs and other documentation. I contacted Tesla and requested review of the vehicle logs, camera data, Autopilot/FSD data and diagnostic/event information. …

First, the car was not in auto pilot mode or cruise control. The car was driven into the garage, 22 inches from the landing and put in park. The "P" was lit so it was in park when it suddenly lurched forward and hit the landing and the four way flasher came on. Damage has been repaired but was $2500. Per Tesla, the car was not at fault and the car functioned as intended but it was driver error. With all the safety features that this car has, why did it not sound a warning or apply brakes to prevent this from happening. I have read about hundreds of thousand's of incidents of sudden unintentional acceleration but yet nothing has been done about it. There is another problem with phantom braking when the car suddenly stops if you use the cruise control. I do not use cruise control because of this problem. …

Going 40 MPH on CA 210W in left lane. Full Self Driving available on vehicle but no autopilot/lane assist activated at time of incident. Steering wheel locked up completely; I was unable to turn the wheel at all so I ended up drifting across 4 lanes of highway (miraculously didn't hit anyone) and ended up under a semi. Car airbags did not deploy and system did not detect a collision. Contacted Tesla to ask about the cause of the accident multiple times; never got an answer. They had us pull the USB in glovebox and see if anything is on there but there wasn't even though dash cam was activated. They "escalated" the ticket to a supervisor and have been ghosted ever since asking for an answer. We scheduled a service appointment to have them check out the vehicle and they canceled it. …

The backup warning system did not work when I backed out of a driveway on a dark night. I knew there was a black car (sedan I believe) parked along the curb across from the driveway, and could partly see it in the backup camera when the tail lights would turn on (i.e., when I stepped off the drive pedal), but was unable to tell exactly how close I was to the car. There were no beeps from my car to warn me. My car stopped abruptly as the edge of my trunk lid hit what I guess was the corner of the other car. All damage appears to have been to my car - a dent in the trunk lid. …

I pulled up next to a parking space in a parking lot and the Tesla auto park feature was offered on the screen after detecting the parking spot. I pressed to auto park and the tesla proceeded to perform the auto park. During the parking the tesla hit the truck parked in front of the tesla while turning into the space and broke the taillight of the truck and scratched the tesla on right front side. I then braked and disable the auto park after the collision. I reported the incident to Tesla and they reported back that they don't see any issues with the sensors at that time and they say I need to take full responsibility. I cannot think of anything that was particularly challenging for this parking spot or surroundings. It seems a bad calculation by the sensors of Tesla or the software and it made a mistake. Given this experience I cannot trust any of Tesla autopilot features now. …

Tesla Autopilot lost control in rainy weather, swerved off the road on freeway at 80mph, swung back in the leftmost lane and then to shoulder, risking lives of driver and all passengers including 2 children. Impact resulted in broken wheel rims and bursted tires. This could have been fatal accident if there are other cars on the road at the time of incident. There were absolutely no warning on the screen and near zero time to react with vehicle wheels turning sharp left at 80mph. Footage though immediately visible on DashCam has disappeared from USB drive. Requested vehicle logs from Tesla but that too has gap in coverage exactly during time of accident. Tesla Service Center has not responded to request to get system log at the time of accident. Missing logs and camera footage exactly at the time of incident is suspiciously missing. …

Related recalls

NHTSA investigations

Collision Avoidance complaints in other Model Y years