2023 TESLA MODEL 3 — Complaint #1916504
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES:HOOD:LATCH filed August 6, 2023
NHTSA complaint #1916504 (ODI reference 11536774) concerns a 2023 TESLA MODEL 3 and was filed on August 6, 2023. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 5, 2023. The report was geocoded to Texas based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as latches/locks/linkages:hood:latch, 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 latches/locks/linkages:hood:latch 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 2023 TESLA MODEL 3 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
On August 5, 2023, my car charge got too low for me to make it to a charging station in Lafayette Louisiana. I had the vehicle towed on a flat bed. I put the car in Tow Transportation mode. While we were towing the car, I opened the car to check the battery level and somehow the frunk was activated (perhaps I accidentally hit it, I'm not sure). The frunk opened while we were going about 60 mph down the highway, the wind lifted the trunk up and it crushed my front windshield and the frunk and opening mechanics were damaged. Had we not immediately pulled over the frunk hood could have been ripped off the car by the wind and caused a major accident. This seems to be a flaw in the Tesla electronics/app system - you should not be able to open the Frunk once it is put into Tow Transportation mode.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1916504 |
| ODI Number | 11536774 |
| Date Filed | August 6, 2023 |
| Failure Date | August 5, 2023 |
| VIN | 5YJ3E1EA1PF |
Similar LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES:HOOD:LATCH Complaints for 2023 TESLA MODEL 3
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.