NHTSA Complaint #11557479 — 2023 TESLA MODEL S

The problem is with the regenerative braking. On an icy road, when the driver takes their foot off the accelerator, regenerative braking starts immediately and is quite strong as this is an electric vehicle. If the braking power is more than the icy road can afford, the wheels will lock up. This can and has caused drivers, including myself, to lose control and spin out. There’s nothing that the driver can do to avoid this, as there is no setting to attenuate or disable this feature (although there used to be a way up until 2021). In fact, the user’s manual actually warns of this: “In snowy or icy conditions, Model S may experience loss of traction during regenerative braking.” That’s it—just a warning as there’s nothing the driver can do about besides to driving in these conditions.