NHTSA Complaint #11716888 — 2024 TESLA MODEL Y

On Saturday morning January 3, 2026 I was driving with my wife, daughter and dog. There was light rain at the time and I had my adaptive cruise set at approximately 72 mph. I was driving our 2024 Tesla Y. At approximately 10:21am the rear of car began to slide right as we entered gradual left curve, possibly because we hit water on road. I tried to slightly correct right and when I did that the steering wheel aggressively corrected back left which put us into a slide. Within a second we hit a tree on the passenger side. The impact was severe and on the passenger side door where my wife was sitting. At that time I theorize that my dog was ejected out of the back window and thrown across the freeway. We then rolled in the other direction (I dont know how many times) down a hill and settled upside down. I immediately smelled smoke and began to try get out of my seatbelt but I couldn’t. I carry a knife and I was able to cut myself out. I then tried to open door and could not so I began punching the glass and eventually got it moving and pushed on it and got it open. I slid myself out, turned around and saw car was on fire. I pulled my daughter out and then began extracting my wife. She was unconscious and had obvious orthopedic injuries. I am 100% confident that had I been driving my other vehicle (non Tesla) that this accident would have NOT occurred. The Tesla and its steering system caused this accident. On top of that, the batteries immediately caught fire, my seatbelt release button did not work, and the electric door button did not work. Had I not been carrying a knife and strong enough to punch door open this story would have ended up differently. The car completely burned. As far as I know, this was the first time this exact issue presented itself. However, when looking online its seems this issue is fairly common with Teslas in wet weather.