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2020 TESLA MODEL 3 — Complaint #1854669

Open-data reference.

NHTSA Complaint about AIR BAGS:SENSOR:OCCUPANT CLASSIFICATION:DRIVER filed November 19, 2022

NHTSA complaint #1854669 (ODI reference 11494212) concerns a 2020 TESLA MODEL 3 and was filed on November 19, 2022. The owner reports the failure occurred on November 19, 2022. The report was geocoded to Arizona based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as air bags:sensor:occupant classification:driver, 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: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. 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 air bags:sensor:occupant classification:driver 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 2020 TESLA MODEL 3 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2020 TESLA MODEL 3
Component
AIR BAGS:SENSOR:OCCUPANT CLASSIFICATION:DRIVER
State
Arizona

Complaint Description

The driver seat occupancy weight sensor has to be replaced twice now. The car does not recognize someone is in the driver seat. It is unclear whether the airbags would deploy if I was in an accident as the car is unsure if someone is even inside. When I get out of the car it stays on. When I put it into reverse without having the seatbelt on it slams on brakes.

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 1854669
ODI Number 11494212
Date Filed November 19, 2022
Failure Date November 19, 2022
VIN 5YJ3E1EA3LF

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.