2017 Tesla Model S defect investigations

Investigations by NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation that name the 2017 Tesla Model S. An investigation is how complaints can become a recall: complaints → investigation → (sometimes) TSB → recall.

• FSD Collisions in Reduced Roadway Visibility Conditions
  Engineering Analysis EA26002 · opened Mar 18, 2026 · still open

  The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) is opening this Engineering Analysis to evaluate Tesla’s Full Self Driving Beta and Full Self Driving (Supervised) (collectively, FSD) degradation detection system. The focus of this investigation will be to assess the system’s ability, when encountering reduced roadway visibil…

• Traffic safety violations while Full Self Driving ("FSD") is engaged
  Preliminary Evaluation PE25012 · opened Oct 7, 2025 · still open

  The Office of Defects Investigation (“ODI”) is opening this Preliminary Evaluation (PE) to assess the scope, frequency, and potential safety consequences of FSD executing driving maneuvers that constitute traffic safety violations. This investigation concerns versions of FSD that Tesla has labeled as "FSD (Supervised)" a…

• Compliance with Standing General Order 2021-01 Reporting Requirements
  Audit Query AQ25002 · opened Aug 20, 2025 · still open

  The Office of Defects Investigation (“ODI”) has identified numerous incident reports submitted by Tesla, Inc. (“Tesla”) in response to Standing General Order 2021-01 (the “SGO”), in which the reported crashes occurred several months or more before the dates of the reports. The majority of these reports involved crashes…

• Actually Smart Summon sessions resulting in low-speed impacts.
  Preliminary Evaluation PE24033 · opened Jan 6, 2025 · closed Apr 3, 2026

  On January 6, 2025, the Office of Defects Investigations (ODI) opened Preliminary Evaluation 24003 (PE24033) to investigate Actually Smart Summon (Summon) sessions resulting in crashes during active sessions. According to Tesla, Summon is a short-distance SAE Level 2 system, controlled by the user from a cell phone wit…

• FSD Collisions in Reduced Roadway Visibility Conditions
  Preliminary Evaluation PE24031 · opened Oct 17, 2024 · closed Mar 18, 2026

  On October 17, 2024, NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened a Preliminary Evaluation (PE24031) of Tesla’s Full Self Driving Beta and Full Self Driving (Supervised) (collectively, FSD) to assess: the ability of the FSD system to detect and respond appropriately to reduced roadway visibility conditions; whe…

• Recall 23V838 Remedy Effectiveness
  Recall Query RQ24009 · opened Apr 25, 2024 · still open

  The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) is opening a Recall Query to assess the remedy adequacy of Recall 23V838. On December 12, 2023, Tesla filed a Defect Information Report (Recall 23V838) applicable to all Tesla models produced and equipped with any version of its Autopilot system, which Tesla described as an SAE…

• Sudden Unintended Acceleration
  Defect Petition DP23002 · opened Jun 29, 2023 · still open

  The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) received a petition requesting that ODI reevaluate its decision to deny DP20-001 on the basis that intermittent high electrical current demands on the vehicles' 12VDC systems may have caused some or all of the incidents examined by ODI in DP20-001. The petitioner bases this inf…

• Defect Petition Interlock Request
  Defect Petition DP23001 · opened Apr 7, 2023 · closed Mar 18, 2026

  On March 21, 2023, the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) received a petition requesting a “recall of all Tesla cars” produced from 2013 to the date on which the petition was filed due to what Petitioner considers to be the increased likelihood of pedal misapplication. Attached to the Petition is a paper authored by…

• Pedestrian alert sounds
  Defect Petition DP22005 · opened Jan 27, 2023 · closed Aug 7, 2023 · led to recall 22V063000

  NHTSA received a petition on or about July 18, 2022, requesting that Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 141 be applied to all electric and hybrid vehicles operating in the United States. The petition can be reviewed at NHTSA.gov under ODI Number 11486072. FMVSS 141 establishes performance requirements for pe…

• Autopilot System Driver Controls
  Engineering Analysis EA22002 · opened Jun 8, 2022 · closed Apr 25, 2024 · led to recall 23V838

  The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) upgraded PE21020 to EA22002 on June 8, 2022, to extend work and deepen the PE21020 crash analysis, to supplement that analysis with additional data, and to perform vehicle evaluations to understand how Tesla’s Autopilot system may exacerbate human factors or behavioral safety r…

• Desiccated Air Bag Inflator Rupture
  Engineering Analysis EA21002 · opened Sep 17, 2021 · still open

  From 2000 through 2017, Takata produced millions of air bag inflators using two types of phase-stabilized ammonium nitrate ("PSAN") propellant -- propellant 2004 and propellant 2004L. After prolonged exposure to high temperature cycles and humidity, inflators using propellant 2004 can degrade, causing the propellant to…

• Autopilot & First Responder Scenes
  Preliminary Evaluation PE21020 · opened Aug 13, 2021 · closed Jun 8, 2022

  On August 13, 2021, NHTSA?s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened a Preliminary Evaluation (PE21-020) to assess the performance of Tesla?s Autopilot system (a system characterized by Tesla as an SAE Level 2 driving automation system designed to support and assist the driver in performing the driving task) availa…

• Fore Link Failure
  Preliminary Evaluation PE20020 · opened Nov 22, 2020 · closed Aug 12, 2024

  The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened this Preliminary Evaluation based on forty-three complaints alleging failure of the left or right front suspension fore links in Tesla model year (MY) 2015 through 2017 Model S and MY 2016 through 2017 Model X vehicles. The investigation has identified 426 instances of f…

• Loss of rearview camera
  Engineering Analysis EA20003 · opened Nov 12, 2020 · closed May 2, 2024 · led to recall 21V035

  On November 20, 2020, the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened Engineering Analysis (EA) 20-003 to investigate incidents of media control unit (MCU) failures resulting in loss of rearview camera in model year (MY) 2012-18 Tesla Model S and model year (MY) 2016-2018 Tesla Model X vehicles equipped with the NVIDI…

• Loss of rearview camera
  Preliminary Evaluation PE20010 · opened Jun 22, 2020 · closed Nov 22, 2020

  On June 22, 2020, the Office of Defects Investigations (ODI) opened Preliminary Evaluation PE20-010 to investigate incidents of media control unit (MCU) failures resulting in loss of rearview camera in model year (MY) 2012-2015 Tesla Model S vehicles equipped with the NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor with an integrated 8GB eMM…

• Sudden Unintended Acceleration
  Defect Petition DP20001 · opened Jan 13, 2020 · closed Jan 8, 2021

  On December 19, 2019, NHTSA received a petition from Mr. Brian Sparks requesting that the Agency recall all [Tesla] Model S, Model X, and Model 3 vehicles produced from 2013 to the present due to sudden unintended acceleration (SUA). In his petition and follow-up submissions, the petitioner identified a total of 232 no…

• Battery Management Software Updates
  Defect Petition DP19005 · opened Oct 1, 2019 · closed Sep 28, 2021

  In a letter dated September 17, 2019, Mr. Edward Chen petitioned the NHTSA to initiate a defect investigation of certain Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles that received revised battery management software in one or more over-the-air (OTA) updates from Tesla, beginning in May 2019. The petitioner bases his request on v…