Tesla defect petition DP23002
Sudden Unintended Acceleration. NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation opened this defect petition about the vehicle speed control on 33 model years (2012–2023). Opened Jun 29, 2023 and still open — 3.4 years so far, against NHTSA’s goal of four months for a defect petition. open
What NHTSA says
Source: Office of Defects Investigation, as filedThe Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) received a petition requesting that ODI reevaluate its decision to deny DP20-001 on the basis that intermittent high electrical current demands on the vehicles' 12VDC systems may have caused some or all of the incidents examined by ODI in DP20-001. The petitioner bases this information on a review of open-source research and the DP20-001 denial. The petition and related materials can be reviewed at NHTSA.gov under the following ODI number: 11528471.
A Defect Petition is a petition from a member of the public asking NHTSA to open a defect investigation; the agency grants or denies it and publishes the reasons. The summary is the agency’s own text from its investigation file, unedited; the resumes carrying the full reasoning are linked below.
The paperwork NHTSA filed
Source: every document on this action, at nhtsa.gov- Opening resume — ODI’s own summary of why it opened this — the subject, what prompted it, and the vehicles in scope.
| Document | Code | Filed | At NHTSA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening resume | INOA | 2023 | |
| Filed document | INBC | 2023 | 20 files 1234567891011121314151617181920 |
| Filed document | INDA | 2023 |
These are NHTSA’s own files, served from the agency’s site — the resumes are what ODI wrote when it opened and closed the action, and the rest is the correspondence behind them, including what the manufacturer sent when the agency asked. They are linked, not copied: where a document names the people who wrote in, that redaction is the agency’s to make and its copy is the one you should read.
What owners had already reported
Source: complaints on file the day it openedWhen NHTSA opened this on Jun 29, 2023, owners had filed 10,675 complaints with the agency about the model years above, of which 998 named the vehicle speed control NHTSA went on to investigate. Owner complaints are the agency’s main early signal, and more can be filed while an action is open.
This is what the complaint file held on that date, not a claim about which reports prompted the investigation — NHTSA’s complaint records carry no investigation number, so nobody can make that link from the data alone. The opening resume linked above names the reports ODI itself cited. Complaint records on this site begin with 2016.
What this means for an owner
Source: and what happens nextAn investigation is not a finding that a defect exists, and it puts no duty on anyone. NHTSA opens a Preliminary Evaluation when complaints and other reports suggest a condition worth asking the manufacturer about; it upgrades to an Engineering Analysis when the answers warrant testing; it closes either when it recommends a recall, when the manufacturer recalls on its own, or when no defect trend is found. The agency’s own goals are about four months for a petition, eight for a Preliminary Evaluation or a Recall Query and eighteen for an Engineering Analysis; many run longer.
This one is open. Nothing is owed on the vehicle today; if it becomes a recall, owners are written to and the repair is free. The moment to know is the day the campaign number appears — Recall Watch checks each VIN against every new NHTSA campaign and emails you when one lands, or take a free one-line alert by model year.
Model years it names
Source: as NHTSA filed themAlso named on model years this site has no page for: 2012 Tesla Model S; 2013 Tesla Model S; 2014 Tesla Model S; 2015 Tesla Model S; 2015 Tesla Model X.
A vehicle page’s investigation list carries the same action; a name here is the scope NHTSA opened, not a list of affected VINs.
An investigation is not a recall. Yet.
If NHTSA’s questions become a recall, the campaign lands in the federal file first. Recall Watch checks your VINs against every new campaign the night it is filed.
Common questions
Source: NHTSA Office of Defects InvestigationIs DP23002 a recall?
No. A defect petition is NHTSA asking questions, not a recall. A safety recall carries an NHTSA campaign number and a duty to repair for free; this one has not produced one. Whether one particular vehicle has an open recall is a VIN question at nhtsa.gov/recalls.
Is DP23002 still open?
Yes, as of NHTSA’s latest file: opened Jun 29, 2023, 3.4 years ago.
Which vehicles does DP23002 cover?
NHTSA opened it on 33 model years: 2023 Tesla Model 3, 2022 Tesla Model 3, 2021 Tesla Model 3, 2020 Tesla Model 3, 2019 Tesla Model 3, 2018 Tesla Model 3 and more. That is the scope of the inquiry, not a list of affected vehicles; a recall, if one follows, defines its own population by VIN.