NHTSA Complaint #11485783 — 2018 TESLA MODEL 3

Tesla Model 3 (and other models) comes equipped with side cameras on the vehicle's B-pillars. Tesla has designed these components to allow cabin air to infiltrate the space between the cameras and the exterior glass. Of course, this means that humid cabin air will condense on the glass when ambient conditions cool the glass enough. This blocks the cameras, causing certain features (e.g. blind spot camera, auto lane change, lane keeping assist) to stop functioning. These features have been actively advertised by Tesla and sold for thousands of dollars as software upgrades, but do not reliably function because of this design flaw. As can be seen on many internet forums (e.g. https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/b-pillar-cameras-fogging-up.172226/page-8), this issue has been known for years, yet Tesla has provided no fix for the problem. As recently as Sep 2022, their service centers are still telling customers to run cabin heat to eliminate condensation, but the cameras are well insulated, thermally, from the cabin (see Page 2 infrared pics https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/camera-condensation.168472/page-2), so this does almost nothing, while potentially overheating the occupants. After 3-4 years, it is clear that Tesla is not interested in taking this design flaw seriously, and will only act if forced by safety regulators. This is an integral part of what Tesla has marketed as their cars being "safer than humans", and it's unable to cope with normal weather conditions (I live in Seattle, WA and routinely see this in temps as high as mid-50s to low-60s).