2018 TESLA MODEL 3 — Complaint #1785137
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:ADAS:AUTONOMOUS/SELF DRIVING filed December 28, 2021
NHTSA complaint #1785137 (ODI reference 11445222) concerns a 2018 TESLA MODEL 3 and was filed on December 28, 2021. The owner reports the failure occurred on November 30, 2021. The report was geocoded to Florida based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as electrical system:adas:autonomous/self driving, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: yes, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. A complaint that flags a crash, fire, or fatality is escalated on NHTSA's internal review queue and factors more heavily into any Preliminary Evaluation decision on this make and model. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same TESLA MODEL 3 cohort independently describe similar electrical system:adas:autonomous/self driving failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2018 TESLA MODEL 3 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
On November 30 at 6pm I was driving north on I-75 in the Tampa area with Navigate on Autopilot activated. I was in the middle lane, it was dark, and there was lots of traffic. My screen asked me to confirm the autopilot request to move to the left lane. I tapped the stalk to confirm. I did not look in the left lane and was not controlling the steering, though my hands were on the wheel. The car immediately turned into the left lane and side swiped a police vehicle. Nobody was injured and the damage to both cars was minor. Previously I had received alerts that my left pillar camera was "blocked", but the alerts went away, so I assumed that there was no problem. When the alerts appeared, auto steer was deactivated, but when the alerts went away auto steer worked again. I do not remember when the first alert appeared, but probably earlier in November 2021. Subsequently, the alerts have appeared and disappeared. I have requested service from Tesla, but the appointment is scheduled for next
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1785137 |
| ODI Number | 11445222 |
| Date Filed | December 28, 2021 |
| Failure Date | November 30, 2021 |
| VIN | 5YJ3E1EA9JF |
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Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.