Complaint 2230103

2023 TESLA MODEL S • SEATS • incident Apr 9, 2026

Crash
No
Fire
No
Injuries
0
Deaths
0
Complaint ID
2230103
Make
TESLA
Model
MODEL S
Model Year
2023
Component
SEATS
Incident Date
Apr 9, 2026
Date Received
Jul 28, 2026
Data As Of
Sep 1, 2026

Complaint Summary

SEATS

Owner Narrative

​The driver's seat assembly on the vehicle suffers from a critical mechanical and software tracking defect that causes the seat to permanently jam into a mechanical lock, creating an immediate and severe safety hazard. ​The electronic calibration soft-stops for the driver's seat allow the mechanism to travel past the safe limits of the track when indexed or operated. When the seat reaches the absolute mechanical limit of the rear rail, the lead screw/worm gear mechanism binds tightly, resulting in a total mechanical lock where the motor lacks the breakaway torque to reverse direction. This causes the driver's seat to become permanently stuck in the fully rearward position. ​This defect directly compromises vehicle safety by potentially preventing a driver from safely reaching and operating the brake and accelerator pedals. ​The vehicle has been taken to the manufacturer's service center on three separate occasions for this exact issue. During these three visits, technicians physically replaced the seat motor, checked track alignment, and attempted recalibration. Despite these repeated hardware interventions, the defect persists, and the seat continues to travel past safe limits and bind into a mechanical lock. The manufacturer has now refused to correct the underlying track/assembly defect under warranty, incorrectly dismissing the recurring, hazardous mechanical failure as "customer education." The vehicle lacks a safe physical fail-safe to prevent the seat from self-destructing into a permanently jammed state.

Owner-submitted narrative on file with NHTSA. Complaint narratives are self-reported and have not been verified.