Problems · by component

2016 Tesla Model X vehicle speed control problems

33 owner complaints to NHTSA about the 2016 Tesla Model X cite vehicle speed control, 8% of all 417 complaints for this model year.

Complaints
33
8% of all complaints
Crashes
19
Reported by owners
Fires
0
Reported by owners
Injuries
5
Reported by owners
01 —Owner reports

What owners say about the vehicle speed control

Verbatim from NHTSA complaints, newest first
“While parking, the accelerator pedal increased in speed without being pressed and the car had a sudden unexpected acceleration and crashed into a column in a parking lot.”
Owner complaint to NHTSAFiled Aug 16, 2024Vehicle speed controlCrash reportedODI 11609053
“Two issues that are concerning and I have told Tesla: 1. The car will be on cruise control and I will be relaxed and all of a sudden it will just brake for no reason. Praise God I am aware of it now and prepared so I have to compensate, but it is very dangerous and made the cruise control useless. While it was under warrantee I request it be fixed, but they said there was no way to do that. 2. The car's back up screen is compromised and has a distortion on the bottom that was caused by a download. I requested four separate times a service requests to fix it while it was under warrantee, but they were unable to repair it. The first time they said I needed to wait for a download, then the second time they said it was a hacker, third time they replaced a chip, and the four time they told me to repair it I need to upgrade my entertainment package for $1500 so I cancelled the appointment. All while I was under warranty. Four appointments later and I still have a distortion on my screen when I back up which is slowly getting larger and will be a safety issue I'm sure down the road. Two very obvious safety issues that while under warranty they would not fix. I wrote…”
Owner complaint to NHTSAFiled May 31, 2023Vehicle speed control, Unknown or other, Forward collision avoidanceODI 11524586
“I was turning left to northbound from westbound and as I was trying to accelerate to turn, my Tesla wouldn’t go past 11 mph. I stepped on the accelerator with all my might, but it wouldn’t go past 11 mph. On my dash, the alert said: “obstruction detected- speed will be reduced.” This is very concerning because the car was slowing down and obstructing the southbound lanes. This is very dangerous and could’ve caused a car crash. I could’ve easily gotten T-boned. After I made my slow turn, the car got back to normal and accelerated normally.”
Owner complaint to NHTSAFiled Mar 24, 2023Steering, Vehicle speed controlODI 11513687
“On Tuesday September 13th 2022 morning around 10.55am EST, I had entered the Hindu temple of Florida premises driving my TESLA model X. I slowly progressed towards the parking spot and made a slow right turn to park the car. At that time the Tesla suddenly accelerated at full speed, took off like a rocket, jumped the curb, knocked down a sign post and jumped into the ditch which leads into a pond. The car veered to the right, jumped out of the ditch back toward the parking spots, hit two vehicles ( a Honda CRV and a Lexus) with a significant force and hit a tree with a big impact and finally stopped. Surprisingly airbags did not deploy. I was wearing the seat belt and was the only one inside the vehicle. Fortunately with gods grace I escaped with minimal injuries. I get nightmares every day since then thinking about how close to death I was. Had the gone gone straight into the pond, I could have drown to death inside the vehicle, had it gone in a different direction and hit those concrete walls of the temple, I could have been crushed. More significant was it did not run over any of the visitors who frequent thaw temple! This sudden unintended acceleration not…”
Owner complaint to NHTSAFiled Sep 21, 2022Air bags, Vehicle speed control, Unknown or otherCrash reportedODI 11485773
“The car started giving error messages of systems failing one after another on the highway. It slowed down instantly as if someone pressed the brakes and I could not accelerate. Obviously I did not press the brakes. There were a lot of vehicles behind me and this could have easily caused an accident putting a lot of people at risk. I had to get off the highway asap and get the car towed. The error messages included charge port disabled, automatic emergency braking is disabled, power reduced, traction control disabled, stability control disabled, cruise control disabled, power reduced. Tesla diagnosed and confirmed this being an issue with the onboard charger being faulty and replaced that with charge port itself for a total of $3727.60. They refused to cover any part of this which I think should have been taken care of by the company.”
Owner complaint to NHTSAFiled Jun 4, 2022Power train, Vehicle speed control, EngineODI 11467551
“TL* THE CONTACT OWNED A 2016 TESLA MODEL X. THE CONTACT STATED THAT AFTER STOPPING AND PRESSING THE BRAKE PEDAL, THE VEHICLE SUDDENLY EXPERIENCED UNINTENDED ACCELERATION AND DROVE FORWARD CAUSING THE DRIVER TO LOOSE CONTROL OF THE VEHICLE AND DRIVE THROUGH A BUSH AND DRIVE OFF A RETAINING WALL AND ENDED UP CRASHING INTO A CAR. DURING THE INCIDENT THE AIR BAGS DEPLOYED AND THE VEHICLE WAS DESTROYED. NO INJURIES WERE REPORTED. NO POLICE REPORT WAS TAKEN. THE LOCAL TESLA SERVICE CENTER LOCATED AT 52 DERWOOD CIR, ROCKVILLE, MD 20850 WAS NOTIFIED OF THE INCIDENT. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOT CONTACTED. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 25,628. THE CONSUMER STATED THE LOCAL DEALER ESCALATED THE COMPLAINT TO TESLA HQ AND TESLA COULDN'T DOWNLOAD THE DATA AT THE TIME OF THE INCIDENT.”
Owner complaint to NHTSAFiled May 12, 2021Vehicle speed controlCrash reportedODI 11416272

Showing 6 of 33 reports. Read every report on NHTSA.gov.

Data from NHTSA Complaints API (owner reports, unverified) · synced Nov 10, 2026NHTSA vehicle page

Complaints are unverified owner reports to NHTSA and are not normalized for sales volume. One complaint can cite several components.