NHTSA Complaint #11544382 — 2023 TESLA MODEL Y

I was turning right from a residential street onto a busy street during rush hour. I heard a sound, which made me think I might have run over something. Immediately following the sound, an alert showed up on the car’s touch screen with the message: “Vehicle May not restart: Service required”. The car was immediately inoperable - the car could not move and it could not shift into neutral to be pushed off the road. The 12V battery of the car continued to function for roughly 10 minutes after the car became stuck, which I knew because I was able to exit my vehicle normally, the touch screen remained illuminated and I was able to turn my hazards on. It did eventually die and I became locked out of the car at that point. I was in the middle of a busy intersection with no hazard lighting at that point and the car could not be moved, so I called emergency services and requested a police officer for traffic redirection while I waited around an hour and a half for a tow. Regarding the initial sound that I heard, I checked under the car as well as in the street around it, and there were no signs of debris or any visible evidence of damage to the undercarriage of the vehicle. I can only assume that the sound that I heard was whatever failure that had occurred internally in the car. At the time of this incident, the car was charged to around 85% of battery, was only a few weeks old, had never been in any type of collision, or required any service. Tesla has inspected the vehicle and identified the malfunction as a failure of the front and rear drive inverter. The situation that I was in was dangerous to myself and to the other drivers on the road with me. A sudden and complete stop on a busy road or in a location without cell coverage could be life threatening. The fact that there were no warning lamps, messages or any warning symptoms of the failure is extremely concerning and puts drivers and others on the road with them at a high risk.