2021 TESLA MODEL Y — Complaint #2178106
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about LANE DEPARTURE: ASSIST filed February 18, 2026
NHTSA complaint #2178106 (ODI reference 11718843) concerns a 2021 TESLA MODEL Y and was filed on February 18, 2026. The owner reports the failure occurred on February 1, 2026. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as lane departure: assist, 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 Y cohort independently describe similar lane departure: assist 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 2021 TESLA MODEL Y shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The car suddenly reduced lane assistance and steering assistance functionality. After calling Tesla they said it is not a software issue. I checked the service mode and it indicated a malfunction in the steering assist motor, which apparently costs $3500 to replace. Online, I have found many complaints about this problem that are not resolved by software updates. In addition, there was a large number used steering assist motors for sale online which indicates a more wide spread problem. This is not normal for cars to have this failure prematurely and is a serious safety hazard. I read online that some had their steering EPAS get locked while driving on the highway and nearly destroyed their Teslas
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2178106 |
| ODI Number | 11718843 |
| Date Filed | February 18, 2026 |
| Failure Date | February 1, 2026 |
| VIN | 5yjygdeexmf |
Similar LANE DEPARTURE: ASSIST Complaints for 2021 TESLA MODEL Y
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What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? System computer. After a Over the Air (OTA) update, most driver assistive functions are inoperative.
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.