Table 1 shows one common seats related problems of the 2021 Tesla Model 3.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Seats problems |
Rcm2_a636 front passenger safety restraint system fault service is required passenger airbag turns off when a passenger is sitting in it. Error is intermittent and while occasionally turn off and on. Seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen should someone get in a car accident.
Resistive occupancy sensor consistently failing causing: -bluetooth to not automatically connect anytime the vehicle is entered - vehicle puts itself in park to prevent rollback if seatbelt is not applied - car does not recognize when driver is in seat these are serious safety concerns as it could cause a domino effect in safety features if not applied when needed.
Passenger srs system fault. Initial error is due to a fault with the occupancy sensor. Presumably disabling or degrading seatbelt pre accident tensioning and proper airbag deployment. Also causes repeated & distracting beeps throughout drive.
The driver's seat automatically adjusts when I get into the car. Normally this is a good thing, right? but when my wife and I both get in the car, and I'm going to drive, the car often assumes my wife is the driver and adjusts the seats to her settings as I'm getting into the car. This is a serious problem that has the potential to injure me. Since I'm tall, and my wife is short, the seat starts moving forward as I get in, and it starts to crush me. It's too hard to get back out, and I'm not always able to select my seat configuration quickly enough. If I happen to be carrying something as I get into the car, then that object usually is compressed between me and the steering wheel. There have been times where I didn't have my legs in fully, and they started to get crushed by the seat pushing them forward into the steering wheel. I've talked to Tesla about this several times. Tesla employees have told me that they hear about this problem regularly, but they don't have a way to fix it. And when I ask how to contact Tesla, they tell me use twitter. I think Tesla's service department should have a method to communicate customer complaints directly. No one has given me any feedback indicating that they intend to do anything, even though they acknowledge that this is dangerous. I also wonder if it is possible that this might happen while I'm driving! for example, what would happen if the battery on my phone drained? the bluetooth connection would be lost. Would the car then pair to my wife's phone and readjust the seats? of course, there is a simple fix. Instead of doing the automatic but stupid and dangerous adjustment, it should just ask for my confirmation. And never automatically go into a mode of "let's crush the driver"! I only want a computer to think for me if it's going to reason properly, in every situation, every time. Clearly Tesla didn't think this one through.
The rear seat doesn’t detect kids under 50lbs. Putting the seat in car seat mode only disables the seatbelt alert and doesn’t keep the rear fans on. You can turn them on manually, but the car forgets that they should stay on if you precondition the cabin from the mobile app. Meaning that my child cooks in the back seat due to lack of rear cabin conditioning unless I remember to turn it back on in a buried menu every time.
Seat sensor fail and was able to drive in the middle of the intersection to make a left turn. Since the sensor fail if vechicle is driven less the 5 mph the car will go in park- very scary when in the middle trying to turn left.