Verified government source

NHTSA complaint #11681396

This page summarizes an official U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration owner complaint. Use the verification links below to confirm the record directly with NHTSA.

Vehicle

2021 TESLA MODEL 3

Manufacturer

Tesla, Inc.

Components

FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE

Dates

Incident: 08/13/2025
Filed: 08/18/2025

Owner complaint summary

Component/System involved: Advanced Driver Assistance Systems — FSD (Supervised)/Autosteer (Lane Keeping Assistance) and Adaptive Cruise Control. Possible failure to warn/stop (FCW/AEB). Vehicle and data are available for inspection upon request. I preserved dashcam files and requested Tesla to preserve engineering logs and EDR. What happened & safety risk: On [XXX] at ~[XXX] PDT on [XXX] near East Palo Alto, CA, with FSD (Supervised) engaged, the system appeared to misinterpret an exit ramp/gore area as a continuing lane at a highway fork and maintained ~60 mph (posted ~70). As soon as I saw the trajectory was unsafe, I braked and began manual steering takeover, but the vehicle contacted a roadside sign near the gore/shoulder before I could complete the maneuver. I then stopped safely. No other vehicles were struck. Airbags did not deploy. This posed a serious collision risk to me, my passenger, and nearby traffic. Reproduction/confirmation: NOT REPRODUCED. I have not attempted to reproduce the event. UNKNOWN whether the issue has been reproduced by Tesla or a service center yet. Inspection to date: Police responded (report pending). My insurer has opened a claim. I opened a Tesla Service request asking to PRESERVE Autopilot/FSD engineering logs for the incident window and to coordinate EDR extraction; engineering review pending. Vehicle remains drivable. Warnings or symptoms before failure: No audible/visual forward-collision warning was perceived by me and I did not observe automatic emergency braking. No prior warning lamps/messages were noticed before the departure toward the gore. UNKNOWN whether any internal/partial interventions were recorded in logs. Evidence available: Four-camera Tesla dashcam footage saved and backed up (see [XXX] ); precise time window ~[XXX] PDT on [XXX]. I can provide files and cooperate with data retrieval/inspection upon request. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Crash reported
This is an owner complaint filed with NHTSA (ODI #11681396). It is not automatically an official recall, investigation outcome, or manufacturer admission unless the complaint text itself describes one.

Official record ID (ODI): 11681396. This page is the human-readable source link used across afterwarranty. The raw JSON link proxies NHTSA's public API for machine verification; prefer this page when reading the complaint.