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Owner-Reported Problems · NHTSA

2020 Tesla Model Y — Problems & Complaints

NHTSA has 282 owner complaints on file for this vehicle. Every report below was filed by a real owner with the US government's road-safety agency.

282

Complaints

filed with NHTSA

Involved a Crash

owner-reported

Involved Fire

owner-reported

Injuries

across all reports

Years to Avoid

Tesla Model Y — Complaints by Model Year

Years flagged AVOID have at least twice this model's average complaint count — the strongest public-data signal of a bad year.

2013 Tesla Model Y

0 complaints

2014 Tesla Model Y

0 complaints

2015 Tesla Model Y

0 complaints

2016 Tesla Model Y

0 complaints

2017 Tesla Model Y

0 complaints

2018 Tesla Model Y

0 complaints

2019 Tesla Model Y

0 complaints

2020 Tesla Model Y

282 complaints

2021 Tesla Model Y

0 complaints

2022 Tesla Model Y

0 complaints

2023 Tesla Model Y

0 complaints

2024 Tesla Model Y

0 complaints

2025 Tesla Model Y

106 complaints

2026 Tesla Model Y

0 complaints

Problem Areas

What Owners Complain About Most

Forward Collision Avoidance 107 reports

Unknown Or Other 57 reports

Vehicle Speed Control 37 reports

Service Brakes 36 reports

Suspension 31 reports

Lane Departure 31 reports

Electrical System 28 reports

Steering 26 reports

In Their Own Words

Recent Owner Reports

Exterior Lighting ODI 11445730 12/31/2021

Turn signal causes excessive glare effect on the side repeater cameras during nighttime use. Driver is unable to view blind spot camera feed properly when engaging in a lane change.

Vehicle Speed Control ODI 11633239 12/30/2024

On drives longer than 40 miles, camera faults cause cruise control systems to degrade in function and then when the faults are cleared, full functionality resumes without driver alerts. Side repeater camera feeds and rear camera feeds inconsistently load, or take an extended time period to load (10+ seconds). Tesla has confirmed that the autopilot computer (HW3) likely needs t…

Power Train ODI 11385619 12/30/2020

AUTOPILOT/CRUISE CONTROL DISENGAGE FUNCTION SHOULD NOT BE ON ACTIVATED BY SELECTING UP/REVERSE ON THE GEAR SELECTOR. CAR INADVERTENTLY WENT INTO R REVERSE WHEN DISENGAGE WAS COMMANDED. NARRATIVE: CAR WAS ON INTERSTATE AT HIGHWAY SPEED WITH NAVIGATE ON AUTOPILOT AND ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL ON. AN ACCIDENT OCCURRED ON THE EXPRESSWAY AND THE STATE POLICE BEGAN TO SHUT DOWN THE RO…

Electrical System ODI 11445488 12/29/2021

While driving on a surface street, the vehicle stalled with very little time of warning for me to pull to the side of the road. The car came to a complete stop before I had a chance to completely pull over, leaving me in a vulnerable position. If this would have happened on the freeway I would have been definitely stranded in a potentially deadly situation. After calling Tesla…

Unknown Or Other ODI 11445332 12/28/2021

Backup camera intermittently fails to activate/engage when the vehicle is in reverse.

Same Vehicle

Recalls & Crash Tests

Complaints are one half of the picture — see the official recalls and NHTSA crash-test stars for the 2020 Tesla Model Y, or check your exact car by VIN with the free VIN lookup.

Check Another Car

Problems Checker

Any year, make and model: open the Car Problems Checker. Data: NHTSA (US DOT, public domain), cached up to 7 days.

Questions

FAQ

Is the 2020 Tesla Model Y reliable?

Owners have filed 282 safety complaints with NHTSA for the 2020 Tesla Model Y, most often about forward collision avoidance. Compare the complaint counts across model years above — a year with far more complaints than the model's average is the strongest 'avoid' signal in public data.

Which Tesla Model Y years should I avoid?

The rule of thumb used by analysts: a model year whose complaint count is well above the model's own average (we flag 2× or more) usually had a real manufacturing or design problem — not just noisy reporting. Use the year-by-year strip on this page.

Where do these complaints come from?

Directly from NHTSA, the US government road-safety agency. Any owner can file a Vehicle Owner Questionnaire; NHTSA publishes them as public domain data. We cache each lookup for up to 7 days.

Do complaints mean a recall is coming?

Sometimes. NHTSA opens defect investigations when complaint patterns emerge, and investigations can end in recalls. Check the recalls page for this vehicle to see what has already been recalled.