2023 TESLA MODEL S Steering Problems

The steering wheels on these Tesla Model S vehicles have a horn button instead of depressing the center of the wheel. This button is difficult to find when turning the wheel or when an incident is happening.

The horn being a button is a safety hazard, and Tesla should replace it at no cost. On many occasions my steering wheel was upside down and I had to press the horn button and couldn’t find it. I expressed my concerns to Tesla and they said I have to pay to get the steering wheel with the horn in the center.

On May 3, 2025, at approximately 2:00 PM EDT, while driving a 2023 Tesla Model S on a busy highway in a high-density retail area, a vehicle suddenly pulled out from a driveway into the vehicle’s path, requiring an immediate honk to alert the driver. Due to muscle memory, the center airbag cover of the standard steering wheel was pressed, expecting the horn to sound, as is typical in most vehicles. However, the Model S uses a small capacitive horn button on the right side of the steering wheel, which could not be located quickly. The failure to honk in this critical moment necessitated a swerve to the left to avoid a collision, nearly causing an accident with another vehicle in the adjacent lane, which was fortunately a few feet behind. The capacitive horn button’s design is counterintuitive and hazardous, requiring precise pressing that often distracts from driving. This incident nearly resulted in a serious collision due to the delayed response caused by the horn’s placement. Previous experiences include accidentally activating windshield wipers when attempting to honk, increasing distraction. A prior complaint was filed with NHTSA about this issue, noting Tesla’s 2022 statement that vehicles built after November 2021 would receive a software update to enable a center horn. This vehicle, built in December 2022, lacks the necessary hardware, and Tesla has offered only a costly retrofit as a solution. This design flaw poses a significant safety risk by violating intuitive driving habits. NHTSA is urged to investigate the Tesla Model S steering wheel’s horn design and mandate a recall or free retrofit to install a mechanical center horn, aligning with standard vehicle safety expectations.

THIS VEHICLE HAS THE YOKE STEERING WHEEL.Issue is two fold. The right and left turn signal activation in on the face of the wheel and difficult to find since the arrows are not raised so you can feel them. You have to take your eyes off the road to find the left or right turn signal, then if they do not automatically turn off you have to repeat this again to press. Very unsafe and frustrating. Second issue: the Horn. Again, the switch is on the surface of the wheel and you can not feel it you have to search for it because of other switches nearby. The horn activation needs to be in center of wheel with an easy push sequence to activate. Searching for the horn switch is unsafe due to the speed needed to warn somebody and again, you have to take your eyes off the road to locate the small lit switch to blow the horn. If you are turning a Yoke Wheel and need to blow the horn, it is impossible. A Recall is needed to replace the entire Yoke Wheel with a Horn activation in the center, and a lever installed on the steering column for blinkers.

Experienced severe phantom breaking on [XXX] in route to Las Vegas at 70mph September 2024. In heavy rain, while windshield wipers set to auto...........wipers have stopped momentarily blinding the driver, a problem Tesla hasn't fixed on my neighbors 2019 Model 3. The stalkless design prevents safe use of turn signals, horn and gear shifts. Wife who only drives an ICE car can not safely operate turn signals, horn and gear shifts in my 2023 Tesla Model S. Camera system constantly renders 'Blinded' error messages halting Autopilot features. Tesla's resolution is to clean camera's before initiating Autopilot. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

The horn on this car is a button on the right side of the steering wheel. I nearly got into yet another accident when someone started backing up and nearly hit me. I panicked as they backed up and pressed the center airbag as a natural reaction, where a car horn had been for 100 years. Tesla has since changed this on new models, but they need to recall my model and repair this defect before someone gets killed.

Tesla removed the blinker stalk and replaced it with capacitive buttons on the steering wheel. This is very dangerous because the buttons move as you turn the wheel. To make it worse, they used capacitive buttons that are not raised so sometimes the ONLY way to turn your blinker on is to look away from the road and at the steering wheel to find the button. The buttons would be more useful had they simply been a rocker button like a lot of vehicles have on their steering wheel for volume control of the radio. But the real problem is that on multiple occasions, the turn signal button simply does not work. They do work 99% of the time but there have been several occasions where I have pressed the capacitive button and the blinker does not go on. I then have to look away from the road to confirm I am pressing the button but it still does not work. On a couple of occasions, if I press the other blinker button and then press the original blinker button, it will work. Other times if I press it enough times (i.e. over 5 times), it will then work. After the 1st complaint, Tesla replaced the component but it continues to happen. I believe it is a software bug and despite seeing other people report this problem to the NHTSA, Tesla told me no one else is reporting it. They suggested when I pick up the car that they show me how to press the button. What is more likely, that I don't know how to press a button or that there is a problem in their design? I know there is probably no rule against not having a blinker stalk because why would anyone ever design a car that would have moving buttons on a steering wheel but I think it is time for a rule and to require Tesla to fix this. If you can't require a blinker stalk, which would be the correct fix, then require the buttons to not be capacitive and to be raised. And who would design left and right buttons to be one on top of the other instead of being side by side. Terrible design and very unsafe.

There is a design flaw with the horn on the steering yoke. It is not easily located especially in times of stress or eminent collision. I have been driving for 50 years and all horns in my past vehicles have horns in the center of the steering wheel. Last April, I was backing up in a parking lot and through the rear camera, I saw a car behind me backing up. I stopped my car and could not get to the horn quick enough to alert the other diver and he continued to back up and he backed into my car causing $3,500 in damage. Yesterday, I was driving, and someone made a very unsafe turn that needed a horn to alert them, and I could not find the little button on the yoke to activate the horn. Yesterday's event, a near miss caused me to file this notice, although I should have done it sooner. Not as much of an issue, but the turn indicators are buttons too, and it is confusing to use them as opposed to a strike. I find myself not using the indicators as much in situations requiring a quicker need, typically like on the freeway. NHTSA should consider making all horns to be in the center of the steering wheel and all turn indicators to be strikes.

Was driving on a highway when suddenly a whole bunch of error messages came on and my car became hard to steer. Wobbled off my lane which was extremely dangerous going 70mph. I reported this to Tesla and set up a service appointment. The day before my appointment they rescheduled it, pushing it out 30 days saying they don’t have the part in store. They haven’t looked at my car. They said they’re waiting for a new steering rack but don’t know when it’s coming in. Mentioned towing the vehicle and it being unsafe to operate - they must know there’s something wrong and clearly there’s a backlog of issues. They should have told me this earlier. My car is practically new. There’s absolutely no reason the steering rack would have broken.

The horn button is located on the side of the steering wheel spoke, extremely difficult to find, especially in an emergency. I have had several incidents in which I was unable to locate the small button when needed to avoid a collision.

Tesla's decision to place the horn activation within a button on the steering wheel has impeded my ability to safely activate the horn in pretty much every emergency situation. It requires a glance down to find the button every time. This pulls focus off of the road and situation at-hand, posing major risk to all parties involved and increasing the chance of catastrophe. Further, the turn signals being put onto the steering wheel pose a similar risk, again drawing focus off the road to locate and activate the desired indicator direction. Worse yet, there is risk of indicating the wrong direction if attention must be focused on the road in busy intersections. Both of these items make this vehicle dangerous to drive, in comparison to a conventional vehicle, and has placed me and my family into harm's way multiple times. I strongly feel that Tesla should rectify this and retrofit these vehicles with the safety gear in the proper location.

Tesla moved horn button away from center of steering wheel to a small button the frame of the steering wheel. If the wheel is turned such as making a u turn and another car tried making a right almost hitting me. I had no time to find the horn button and this is very dangerous.

The horn is a touch button on the steering wheel which makes it hard to find and press in emergency.

No proper horn button, this is a major safety issue. Horn should be in the center or steering wheel. Almost got into crash.

The turn signals are confusing and will lead accidents or not using them entirely. The signals were moved from a stalk in earlier models to two stacked buttons on the left side of steering wheel. This leads to accidentally signaling in the wrong direction and looking down at the wheel before each turn which is also unsafe. The buttons are not raised so it’s also too easy to intend to signal but accidentally miss the button while turning. Tesla should replace the old turn stalk or move the right turn signal to the right side of the wheel and raise the buttons so you can feel them.

The activation of the horn using a small capacitive button on the right side of the steering wheel is a serious safety problem. I have had numerous near miss incidents that were closer than they should have been because I was unable to quickly locate and activate the tiny horn button. I've tried using the "whole palm" method described by the manufacturer, but my palm is so large, that it doesn't easily fit in the space between the air-bag cover and the wheel, and I just end up activating the windshield wipers (which makes things even worse!!) The CEO comment in 2021 that every vehicle manufactured after November 2021 had the necessary hardware to activate the horn by pressing on the air-bag cover (like most normal cars) and that only a firmware update was needed to make it available. However, it's now more than two years later, and the problem still has not been corrected.

This is the second time in the last two weeks that my backup camera has stopped working. I have talk to the service center about this I was told that it is not a safety issue but a convenience to the driver and that I should use my mirrors and turn my head around to see what is behind me. I have taken my car in the service center to see if they can fix the problem (8/23/2023). Backup camera worked for a while than stopped again . I have made another appointment with the service center to see if they can fix the problem (8/29/2023.

The steering wheel and lack of lane change and transmission stocks makes the vehicle hard to control at low speeds. Swiping the screen forward for Drive and backward for Reverse does not create any tactile confirmation. Low speed parking lot maneuvers have already resulted in a few close calls. Along the same lines, the steering wheel makes low speed control difficult. Finally, the missing lane change stocks creates an obstacle for normal and high speed maneuvering as the process is not intuitive, confirmation of the blinker is somewhat absent, and you can’t always use the signal depending on the wheel angle. If the yoke is turned the stocks are impossible to signal as well honking the horn. I encourage the reviewer to simply turn the wheel and attempt to honk or signal a lane change. As a final note, I’d prefer not to share my personal information with the manufacturer. The companies ability to follow up with all its in car electronics and software is impressive but can be detrimental to the end users experience. Software rollbacks, feature rollbacks, etc is not a foreign tactic to get users to comply for Tesla. Other than that, it seems like a fantastic car.