Complaint 2233496

Complaint Summary

LANE DEPARTURE: WARNING

Owner Narrative

The Autopilot/FSD computer (driver-assistance ECU) on my 2021 Model Y (HW3) began failing intermittently on August 2, 2026, days after installing a software update -FSD v14 "Lite" branch. The component is in the vehicle and available for inspection. While driving at highway speed in high ambient temperatures (112–125°F), the system repeatedly disengaged with "Cruise control unavailable" (alert DI_a175) and "System error — take over immediately" warnings, and later alert APP_w46u on FSD engagement. Failures included: FSD and Autosteer aborting within seconds of engagement or disappearing from the menu entirely; complete loss of driving visualizations (no lane lines or vehicle overlays); rear camera blacking out; loss of speed-limit recognition and automatic turn-signal cancel. Both FSD and Autosteer Beta failed identically, indicating the fault is in the shared Autopilot computer/camera pipeline, not one feature. Because the same camera/compute stack supports automatic emergency braking, forward-collision warning, and blind-spot warning, the status of those safety systems during the failures is UNKNOWN — I had to complete long desert highway stretches fully manually, with repeated unrequested hand-backs of control creating a sudden-takeover risk. The fault is thermal-load related and intermittent: it recurred at high ambient temperatures, sometimes recovered after a rest or power-off reset, but on August 4 one full power-off reset at 88°F ambient failed to restore the system (it later self-recovered), suggesting progressive hardware degradation rather than ambient heat alone. Not yet reproduced by a service center: a Tesla service appointment is scheduled for August 13, 2026, and a service request with fault codes was filed in-app while the faults were active so remote diagnostics could capture them. No inspection yet by the manufacturer, police, or insurance. Public owner reports describe similar Autopilot-computer thermal failures on HW3 vehicle

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