NHTSA Complaint #11683388 — 2021 TESLA MODEL Y

Immediately after an over-the-air (OTA) update on Aug 8, 2025, my vehicle began showing camera connection errors and disabled multiple safety/ADAS features. Over the following days, I repeatedly received alerts that AEB was unavailable. The vehicle remained drivable, but AEB and related safety functions were inactive. Chronology: Aug 8, 2025: OTA software update to 2025.26.6 completed. Right after completion, the touchscreen displayed camera connection errors and disabled AEB / Autopilot / cruise control. Aug 11, 2025: While driving, I again received an “AEB unavailable” alert. Similar alerts appeared intermittently throughout the week. There was no water intrusion, impact, or external damage. Cameras were clean and unobstructed. I scheduled the earliest available Tesla Service appointment and reported the AEB failure as a safety issue. Service diagnosis: Tesla diagnosed a failure of the Autopilot computer (HW3) and ordered a replacement. Cost/coverage: I requested that the repair be covered by Tesla because the failure started immediately after the OTA update and I am a paid Full Self-Driving (FSD) purchaser. My request was denied; I was charged ~$1,600 (slightly discounted) for the computer replacement. Safety risk description: The failure disabled AEB and other forward-collision mitigation features without an external cause, beginning minutes after the OTA update. I consider this a safety defect because an advertised crash-mitigation system became unavailable during normal use, increasing crash risk. The timing suggests a possible software–hardware interaction (software change triggering or revealing a hardware fault) that could affect other vehicles.