NHTSA ODI #11629856

2021 Tesla Model S Complaint

Electrical System / Unknown Or Other

Filed December 10, 2024 · Incident date November 6, 2024

Vehicle
2021 Tesla Model S
Component(s)
Electrical System / Unknown Or Other
Complaint filed
December 10, 2024
Date of incident
November 6, 2024
Reported VIN
5YJSA1E68MF

Owner's description

On [XXX] at approximately [XXX] I was driving down a small back alley/street in Baltimore when my Tesla Model S Plaid sedan stopped operating. It would not restart, including with the emergency restart bar. Since I was unable to restart it, I left it there while I ran into an appointment. About maybe 20 minutes later it started up like nothing was wrong. I did not receive any warnings on the dash from the car that there was an issue, and I thought it must have been a computer glitch. Unfortunately, sometime between 10:30 and 11:30 am I was driving the Tesla on a major feeder multi lane feeder branch to a highway. I was on [XXX] merging onto [XXX] when the car just stopped with no warning. It is a miracle that I didn’t get hit, but it caused a truly dangerous situation with horns blaring, cars and trucks going around me. It was very unsafe. This time I was able to start the car with the emergency start bar Tesla has available. I was then able to drive the car to my office where the car was picked up and towed to the dealership. To make a long story short, apparently, they (service department) drove the car around the parking lot, trying to reproduce the problem but they said they were not able to. The only thing they were able to tell me about the car was that it had two high-voltage spikes and possibly that’s what caused the problem, but they didn’t know how to fix that problem. I did talk to the lead tech on my car, but at one point he said they were out of resources and would refer this to his general manager. The service manager told me that since they can’t reproduce the problem, that my car is drivable, I should pick it up and drive it. I refused. A car that stops dead with no notice in moving traffic is not a safe car. I was astounded that they would expect me to drive the Tesla. I told the manager that I would not drive it until it was fixed. It is still there. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

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