2023 TESLA MODEL S Unknown Or Other Problems

The horn is a little button on the steering wheel. Tesla has since switched to a center horn. I assume this is due to safety concern that accessing the horn during a panicked situation is difficult. I have almost been in a few accidents as it is impossible to find the horn while evading a potential accident. Tesla will not modify my vehicle as a safety related issue and instead wants to charge almost 2,000. This should be a recall. Tesla switched back to a center horn, a clear admission that there is a design flaw. How they can't modify a vehicle under a recall is ludicrous.

needed to honk the horn to alert another driver of impending collision but the small button, now located to the right of the center of the steering wheels, is too hard to locate in a quick emergency situation. you look away , miss the button and set off wipers instead.,... shd be put back as pushable center

For 2023, Tesla has put the horn on the steering wheel. It's a tiny button on the right side. When you are in a very precarious situation and you have to honk without thought, it is impossible to find it quickly. I have been almost hit several times because I couldn't honk. I am scared and it is dangerous. In 2024, they moved it back to where it belongs because they knew it was an issue. I have asked to have my steering wheel replaced to have the correct and safe horn and they said that they wouldn't unless it was a recall. I think this should be recalled. It is unsafe.

To Whom It May Concern, I am writing to formally report a significant safety concern with the design of the steering wheel horn mechanism in my Tesla vehicle. The horn is not activated by pressing the center of the steering wheel, as is standard in most vehicles. Instead, it is operated via a small button located on the wheel itself, measuring approximately 1/2 inch by 1/4 inch. This design poses a serious safety risk. In emergency situations that require an immediate and instinctive response—such as warning another driver or preventing a collision—locating and pressing this small button requires visual attention. This necessitates taking my eyes off the road during critical moments, thereby increasing the likelihood of accidents. I have experienced multiple near-miss incidents and one collision directly related to the inability to quickly locate and activate the horn. When I contacted Tesla to request a replacement with the newer steering wheel design (which addresses this issue), I was quoted approximately $3,000 for the replacement. Upon calling to discuss the concern, I was told that I "knew about the design when I purchased the vehicle" and was advised to simply "get used to it." I believe this is an inherent design flaw that compromises driver safety. The horn is a fundamental vehicle safety feature and should be intuitive and instantly accessible without requiring the driver to divert attention from the road. I respectfully request that this issue be investigated as a potential violation of basic vehicle safety standards. I also urge Tesla to provide a remedy to owners affected by this unsafe design without imposing prohibitive costs. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. Sincerely, [XXX] [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

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.

I was nearly sideswiped and instinctively pressed the center of the steering wheel to honk my horn. However, this vehicle only has a touch-sensitive horn button. In an emergency, where milliseconds count, it's extremely dangerous to have to fumble around for a touch button instead of using the control that every car has had for decades. In this case, I was fortunate to be able to evade the inattentive driver, but this is a massive safety hazard that warrants a recall.

The Tesla Model S yoke with no horn in the center of the steering wheel is a safety hazard. The button on the steering wheel for the horn is not in a standard location and is difficult or impossible to find in an emergency without looking at the steering wheel. Twice I have tried to honk my horn at a motorist to avoid a collision, only to be met with silence.

The horn button is very small and difficult to find in an emergency. The absence of a mechanical button has nearly resulted in two collisions when I am not able to alert another driver. Knowing this safety hazard, Tesla’s newer cars have a large mechanical button in the center of the steering wheel. They will not retrofit this for less than $1,800.

Tesla has relocated the horn from the center hub where it has been on vehicles since the beginning of time, to a very small icon on the steering wheel cross-member. It's simply impossible to find this little icon in an emergency. I've already had almost three accidents because of this. They need to put the horn on the center hub like it's been on vehicles for decades so people can quickly use it versus looking for it when they have to take their eyes off the road in order to use it. Additionally, when it's on the cross member and you're turning the wheel the little icon turns with it then it's even harder to find.

I have now had three near accidents (fortunately avoided) and have been unable to warn drivers of the other vehicles because the horn in my 2023 Tesla Model S is not located in the center of the wheel, but instead is small button on the right side of the steering wheel. The horn is used so little and the horn has been in the center of all vehicles for decades that learning to change ones motor skills especially at a moments notice is difficult, if not impossible. I'm not sure how Tesla was able to get approval from government safety agencies to move the horn on the steering wheel. I decided to submit this complaint when the last incident happened as I was turning at a light and because my current horn is on the right side of the steering wheel, I couldn't find it as it turns with the wheel. While the horn has not created an accident, it is necessary to avoid one and currently Tesla's horn is useless and should be recalled.

The horn location is a button to the right of the center airbag on the steering wheel. It is small, difficult to find when under stress and needed. Impossible to find when in a turn. In the past 10 months I have had multiple occasions needed to alert another vehicle of an unsafe situation, and have never been able to activate the horn when needed. This is simply not safe. My car is a 2023 Model S. I noticed that Tesla did change this s few months after I purchased my vehicle. They should fix the cars, like mine that have the poorly positioned horn activation button to the middle.

Tesla has not provided software updates for the 3 recalls listed for my VIN. Each time I ask them about the issue, they indicate my vehicle has the latest software update, but it does not.

This vehicle has a small button on the steering wheel to actuate the horn, instead of part of the center airbag (as most modern vehicles.) In the ten months I’ve owned this car, I have experienced numerous situations where I tried to use the horn in an urgently evolving situation, but could not as I could not instinctively find the horn button. I have complained to Tesla that I view this issue as a safety concern. I know they recognize this, as all new cars manufactured since January 1st of this year now have the horn as part of the airbag. Their response to me has been to purchase the new horn and airbag, at a cost of over $2,200. I firmly believe this should be a recall situation, as the present system does not allow easy, instinctive use of a primary safety device.

The horn is not in the correct place. The center of the steering wheel hub. In any accident scenario, your instincts fail and you wind up hitting the airbag with no result. This is. Design defect.

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.

I have owned a 2023 Model S Plaid for 6 months. I like the vehicle overall but it has 2 features that are actually dangerous. 1) Horn - There is a small hepatic area on the right of the steering wheel that engages the horn. It is impossible to find and press in an emergency situation. One has to take their eyes off the road to find the area before attempting to press it. Even then it is small and can still be missed. Their have been multiple times my car was almost hit because I could not use the horn to warn people in time. Tesla has now moved the horn to the middle of the steering wheel but will not retroactively fix this for existing customers. This will 100% cause unnecessary accidents. 2) Turn signals These are also small hepatic spots on the steering wheel next to each other. You have to look down to find them and pressing the wrong side signal is a common occurrence. This is also dangerous and requires user to take their eyes off the road to find.

Tesla changed their steering wheel on later models because they know that not having the horn in the center of the steering wheel is very dangerous. Several times I tried to honk my horn in dangerous situations and I missed the horn icon and turned on the windshield wipers instead whose icon is next to it.There should be a recall of the older style steering wheels!

i am reporting a dangerous design of the horn button on my and many other Teslas. The horn activation has been moved from the standard "center of the steering wheel" to a small button on the right brace of the steering wheel (the brace goes from the center of the wheel to the outer periphery). It is a most unnatural spot for a horn that is mostly used in emergency situations (e.g., a car doesn't see you) where speed to activation is critical. (I have yet to hit the little button the first time when I really needed the horn.) Even worse, if you are in the process of turning when you need the horn, its location could be anywhere! It depends on how much the steering wheel is turned! I mostly love my Tesla, but this seemingly minor issue is pretty, pretty bad. I bet it is already causing accidents - I was lucky the other car saw me just in time. And the horn button was NOT an option - Tesla trashed the center horn to save $$.

The horn on my car is triggered by a small flat electric "button" on the right side of the steering wheel. There is no horn when you hit the middle of the steering wheel. It is very difficult (and unsafe) to quickly react to a situation when you have to look down to find the horn. When backing out of a parking spot, the horn moves to my left side due to the wheel being turned. Several times, I have almost been hit in a parking lot because I can not quickly find the horn, and my muscle memory is to quickly hit the middle of the steering wheel. I have never had a car where the horn was not located in the middle of the wheel, and I have owned and driven many cars. This week, I was on a highway, and the car next to me began to move into my lane. My muscle memory hit the middle of the wheel, which of course did not work, and so I had to slam my breaks hard to keep from being hit. If I could have hit the horn in a fast and easy manner, the other car would have moved back into its lane. If there had been someone behind me, I likely would have been rear-ended from breaking so abruptly. I have had the car for more than a year, so I reject the idea that I will "just get used to it". Please look into this and request that Tesla recall and replace the steering wheel for all of their vehicles that have this horn arrangement.

When driving I was cut off and reached for the horn. Due to the small button for the horn and the replacement, I couldn't use the horn in the emergency and almost had a very bad accident Tesla refuses to fix the problem

The steering wheel Tesla is using is causing a lot of safety concerns. The horn is now a button and not located in the center of the steering wheel. It's not very easy to find, especially in a stressful situation.

The horn on this car is a small button next to the windshield wiper button. I had a truck cut me off and tried to honk the horn and I pushed the windshield wiper button by mistake. The horn requires you to use your thumb and is very difficult to use in an emergency situation. My car is a 2023 with the steering wheel horn set up and now the 2024 Tesla model S has fixed this problem with a regular horn. I would like my steering wheel replaced with the 2024 steering wheel that has fixed this problem. Thank you.

This model has a small horn button on the right hand side of the steering wheel, rather than the traditional location of a large horn in the middle of the steering wheel. This is a VERY dangerous location for a feature that needs to be easily and quickly located to prevent dangerous accidents. The main use of a horn is to warn another driver that they may hit you. With a small button in the right side of the steering wheel, it's not possible to have to look down onto the steering wheel and find the button when encountering these dangerous situations. Tesla has since changed the steering wheel, moving the horn to the center of the steering wheel, however, there are a number of Tesla cars, like mine, which still have this issue. I believe these cars should be recalled and Tesla should replace the steering wheel free of charge so it is safe.

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.

The Tesla has a very tiny horn button that is not in the center of the steering wheel. The button is off to the right with other buttons for the wipers and auto cruise. It is extremely hard to find in normal situations, but impossible to find in emergency situations because the button moves with the steering wheel. Someone tried to change lanes into me. I could not both honk and avoid him. Very scary and dangerous. I thought you should know.

The horn activation placement is not in the center of the steering wheel under the pad. It is on a thumb activated button to the right side of the wheel. It is a design flaw which was changed due to the negative fallout with the 2024 car model. Tesla wants over $2000 to correct this safety hazard. I have had several times when a panic use of the horn was missed due to it not being placed where it has been since the invention of the automobile. Thanks for your time in this matter. [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

The horn button is too small and in a non-standard location that makes it difficult to reliably locate and push it when it is needed. Several times I have tried to locate the horn to avoid an accident or alert other drivers I am nearby, but I cannot locate or hit the small button in time. I have had to swerve out of my lane several times because of this. Fortunately, no cars have been behind me in the new lanes, but how much longer can I rely on that?

There is a police report but I'm not in possession of it. Therefore I selected no below to get it passed this page. I recently sold my 2016 Tesla model S and purchased a 2023 Model S. Tesla has moved the horn on the Model S from the center where it can quickly be used in an emergency to a small icon to the right hand side of the steering wheel. This horn is impossible to use in an emergency. It is a gray icon with no physical or other attributes. The driver must take their eyes off the emergency, locate the small icon among 4 other icons on the black surface, then get your finger perfectly on it to press, otherwise you activate your wipers worsening a bad situation. I have been in several near accidents because of this. It includes an elderly couple who were t-boned directly in front of me. I was unable to use the horn which would prevented the accident. The elderly couple were injured with blood strewn in the car where her arm was gashed open. Even simple situations such as a car backing out of the space in a parking lot can't be quickly prevented. Tesla how has a steering "wheel" with the horn back in the middle where it can be safely used, but they refuse to refit the cars with the unsafe horn. I have pushed this issue with Tesla and they agree many people have complained about the the unsafe horn. Tesla states they will charge $2800 to fix the problem. This must be recalled to prevent many more accidents. It should have never been implemented.

This vehicle has a flawed design for the horn. It has been relocated away from the center of the steering wheel to a small section (1") of a plastic panel on the "spoke" of the steering wheel. It is extremely difficult to locate this spot, particularly in an emergency (what horns are for in the first place...). A vehicle backed into me while I was stopped at a traffic signal and I was unable to alert that vehicle of my presence. They struck my vehicle and caused damage. Thankfully no one was hurt (this time) and the damage was minimal. This design is flawed and is destined to lead to unnecessary traffic accidents and injured or killed occupants. It is unbelievable that such a design has been allowed for a vehicle.

This car does not have a traditional horn that is the center of the steering wheel. Instead, it is a button on the steering wheel with no tactile bump or other indication that your thumb is on the button. I have had a few instances where I need to honk the horn at a driver pulling out in front of me and was unable to activate the horn in time because I had to take my eyes off the road to find the horn button so I could press it. This is a significant safety issue because the horn is much less useful and it requires the driver to take his/her eyes off the road at a critical time.

Driving in a snow storm, and it requires complete visual attention to remain in lane and maintain a safe distance behind car in front. But you also need to manage wipers and defrost controls. Since this car has no console buttons and no stalk controls, adjusting anything requires looking away from the road for a significant length of time. Changing wiper setting requires using the right hand to press the correct steering wheel button (which requires looking at it) and then adjusting the settings with a scroll wheel using the left hand while watching the dashboard screen. Changing defrost setting requires invoking a menu button on the main screen, then visually locating the correct control on the screen. Again, significant time is spent looking away from the road, which in these conditions is hazardous. A second issue is with turn signals. Since there is no stalk control, turn signals are controlled using buttons on the steering wheel. When navigating a round-a-bout, the driver is required to use the turn signal to indicate the desire to exit. But the steering wheel is upside down, so the correct turn signal button cannot be located. I believe that this car is hazardous due to its lack of stalk controls and reliance on screen menus for normal operations. I am not allowed to do things on my phone screen when driving, yet this car requires me to do essentially that.

A car was coming towards me and I couldn’t honk because I couldn’t find the tiny horn button without taking my eyes off the road.

The horn is a button now instead of a stalk and the turn signals are buttons now. This is dangerous as I almost got hit the other day and reaction was to hit middle of wheel for horn to alert other driver but nothing happened as it is a button and not in middle. Also harder to use turn signals now. Very confusing and dangerous. Tesla should be required to put horn in middle as in ALL other cars and turn signal stalks back

The Tesla Model S Plaid with the yoke does not have a functional horn feature in the center of the yoke. Instead, the horn button is a small one to the side. This is dangerous and not intuitive. Similarly, the capacitive turn signal buttons on the left make little sense. It’s particularly challenging to indicate the correct signal when I’m in a roundabout to note when I’m going to exit. There should instead be a stalk like every other vehicle I’ve ever driven in my life (I’ve driven MANY cars!) for the turn signal feature and similarly the center of the yoke/steering wheel should activate the horn. Tesla missed the mark on both of these areas. I entered 3/31/2023 as the date below, which is when I took delivery of the car in St. Louis, MO; however, the issue persists.

This complaint is about difficulties with the horn sensor on the steering yoke under emergency situations. After 14 months of driving the car, I have these safety issues: 1) The horn sensor is difficult to find in emergency situations. It is a single, small area located farthest away from the right-hand rest position and touching it requires a long stretch with the thumb. When turning, it is easy to lose the orientation of the yoke and nearly impossible to find the horn sensor. (See #5 in the attached image). 2) The horn sensor is near the cruise-control button ("right scroll button"). The cruise-control button is raised and I have accidentally engaged the cruise-control on multiple occasions when trying to reach for the horn sensor. I would lift off the accelerator, expecting to slow down, but imagine my panic when the car speeds-up due to the accidentally engaged cruise-control. (See #8 in the attached image). 3) The horn sensor does not work when wearing regular gloves. None of the steering yoke sensors with gloves. You have to wear special touch-senstive gloves. 4) The steering yoke airbag is NOT a horn button. All of my previous cars since 2000 had airbag horns. This is a hard habit to break. I urge the NHTSA to recall the steering yoke and make the airbag a physical horn button. This would alleviate the four safety issues above. Thank you.

The design of the car which uses turn signal buttons on the steering wheel instead of the traditional stalks creates a critical safety hazard. When attempting to use a turn signal while the steering wheel is turned (which happens when pulling out for circular driveways, making two very quick turns, or in emergency maneuvers), it is nearly impossible to find these buttons and be able to press the correct button. In fact, when the steering wheel is turned 180 degrees, the left and right buttons point in the wrong directions, and even if you can locate the buttons, it becomes very counterintuitive to press the correct position. There are so many times when I have had to take my eyes off the road just to see where the turn signal buttons are. Additionally there are multiple occasions when I have kept pressing the turn signal button but it does not turn on. It might be due to its capacitative nature. Turn signals need to be intuitive and easy to use. They should not require the driver to think where they are and guess the correct direction. This is such a fundamental safety feature. I am not sure how this design was approved in the first place. The NHTSA should require the manufacturer to replace the steering wheel with the traditional stalks instead of turn signal buttons on the steering wheel. Otherwise it creates a highly unsafe condition every time the vehicle is driven. The other safety hazard is the use of a tiny horn button on the steering wheel instead of the center of the steering wheel being the horn, as is the case with almost every car. So when is a horn used? Mostly in an emergency to warn other drivers. How does it make sense to take eyes off the road and look for that horn button on the steering wheel when even fractions of seconds are important to avoid a crash. I urge NHTSA to require Tesla to install stalks for turn signals and a center horn button, as these poorly thought of design elements jeopardize people's safety every time you drive the car.

The issue that appears to be a safety concern is the positioning of the horn button. With the release of the yoke style steering wheel, the horn activation was moved from the center of the steering wheel, where it is easily found in an emergency, to the right side spoke of the yoke steering wheel in the form of a tiny button, that is awkward to press in an emergency if the yoke is rotated during a turn.

I have a yoke to steer the car. The horn is only able to be activated by a small button and not a normal large push to the center of the wheel. It is a major safety hazard. You go to press the horn in an emergency and nothing happens. Then find yourself trying to find this small button and are probably already in an accident at that point. Please force them to fix this!

The issue everyone with a Model S or X has is that when they refreshed the car in 2021, the removed the stalks by the steering wheel and that's mostly ok, however the horn was turned into a tiny capacitive touch button which in an actual emergency situation, you can't find it and even if you think you do, you didn't hit it right and it doesn't trigger the horn. A few times now I've had people in parking lots or at dangerous intersections almost hit me and every single time I've failed to trigger the horn. Luckily I haven't been in a collision because of hit so far, but this is extremely dangerous. Tesla has definitely admitted fault by undoing this change in the 2024 S and X vehicles being produced, and I would like to propose that they be required to make this change to all current vehicles that are affected by this terrible design defect which is endangering the drivers.

The 2023 Tesla Model S does not have a standard horn on the steering wheel. Rather than pressing on the air bag to trigger the horn like in most cars, Tesla has a small (about the size of a pea) capacitive button on the steering wheel. The button is placed in such a way that finding and pressing the horn in an emergency situation is nearly impossible. A driver has to look down away from the road and find the button to press it. This has nearly resulted in 2 accidents for me personally as I was unable to alert another driver of a dangerous maneuver like a lane change in a blind spot. Horns should be very easy to engage without needing to look away from the road. Tesla has recently begun releasing cars with normal airbag horns. It is my opinion that Tesla should retrofit existing cars without airbag horns with these new steering wheels.

Horn button is off to the right making it difficult and have to look to honk the horn. When pressing the center, like all cars, it does nothing. Safety issue

The steering wheel horn button is in a difficult place. It’s not in the center like normal vehicles. It’s off to the side and difficult to find in an emergency. I don’t even use the horn any more because it’s difficult to find when I need it.

The horn being a touch button on the wheel is unsafe in emergency situations. I need to be able to hit the horn at a moments notice, and this button makes it difficult to do so safely.

My car doesn’t have a traditional horn, rather a small touch button obscured on the upper right of the “yoke” steering wheel. I’ve had multiple instances when I needed to use the horn only to not be able to find it in time. I believe this is a safety issue that Tesla should address.

To activate the horn you must press a small label which is not in the middle of the steering wheel. This requires taking eyes off the road and looking for the small area. There is a horn-like appearing big area in center of the wheel that has movement when you press it, but doesn’t beep the horn ---- See attached document for complaint

Another vehicle ran a stop sign in a parking lot as I was in the intersection. I couldn't find the horn button. The steering wheel has a tiny touch sensitive horn "icon" that's virtually impossible to find in an urgent situation, ESPECIALLY if the steering wheel is turned one way or the other. There is no raised area to help a thumb find the area to press even if one has both hands on the steering wheel. I couldn't look down to find it because I was trying avoid the other car, and my steering wheel was twisted to avoid getting hit. The car lacks the ability to press in the center of the steering wheel to sound the horn like cars have had for eons.

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.

There are several safety related issues with the 2023 Tesla Model S 1) The horn is a tiny raised marking on the steering wheel (right side), and not like in "normal" car where pushing/hitting the center of the steering wheel will activate the horn. This is unsafe, since in emergency the driver automatically hits the center, and does not have time to look for the time horn "button" 2) The turn signals are also "buttons" on the steering wheel. It's OK when the car drives straight, but if you turn the wheel to either side, the driver must LOOK at the wheel, find the turn signal and then press it. 3) The parking warning system works intermittently. I already have three big scratches on my car which I bought in June 2023, when the system was silence when I was getting out of a parking space, and I hit the car next to me. 4) The Auto wipers don't always work. I was driving at 60MPH in heavy rain. The wipers were working fine when all of a sudden they stopped and my field of vision was totally obstructed.

First of all, I have been driving tesla for 9 years and love them. But this new model S has a tiny button for a horn instead of a center horn. This was a meer annoyance up until today when I was nearly plowed into a by a car going the wrong direction at 60mph and no horn when I'm slamming the middle of the steering wheel. This is a serious and dangerous design flaw that needs to be remedied and recalled. The panic of needing a horn is reflexively to slam your hands in the middle of the steering wheel, not look for a tiny button on the right hand side of the yoke.

The problem is with the regenerative braking. On an icy road, when the driver takes their foot off the accelerator, regenerative braking starts immediately and is quite strong as this is an electric vehicle. If the braking power is more than the icy road can afford, the wheels will lock up. This can and has caused drivers, including myself, to lose control and spin out. There’s nothing that the driver can do to avoid this, as there is no setting to attenuate or disable this feature (although there used to be a way up until 2021). In fact, the user’s manual actually warns of this: “In snowy or icy conditions, Model S may experience loss of traction during regenerative braking.” That’s it—just a warning as there’s nothing the driver can do about besides to driving in these conditions.

The car does not have a horn button in the center of the steering wheel. There have already been multiple emergency situations where I needed to use the horn but could. It locate the button during the time sensitive emergency. This was a contributor to an an accident on 10/1.

Dear NHTSA Officials, I recently became the proud owner of a 2023 Model S. As pleased as I am with most aspects of the vehicle, there's a pressing safety concern I believe warrants your immediate attention. Nature of the Issue: Over the past two weeks, I encountered two separate incidents where nearby vehicles swerved into my lane. On both occasions, my instinct was to press the center of the steering wheel, expecting the horn to sound. However, it did not. Design Flaw: The actual horn mechanism in these vehicles is situated as a small capacitive touch button on the right side of the steering wheel. For seasoned drivers, such a drastic deviation from convention is not only counter-intuitive but can prove dangerous. Potential Resolution: There is already a discourse around a potential fix for this issue. An over-the-air software update by Tesla was proposed around 18 months ago, which, if implemented, could address the concern. Here is the pertinent tweet from Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, dated March 1, 2022: Link to Post: [XXX] Request for NHTSA Intervention: I urge the NHTSA to investigate this matter and compel Tesla to either release the promised firmware update or retrofit the steering wheels on the affected Model S and Model X vehicles produced since the design refresh. The implications of this design oversight go beyond just the driver's safety and extend to anyone in proximity to these vehicles. I trust that you will treat this matter with the seriousness it deserves and look forward to your timely action. Thank you, [XXX] [XXX] [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

I have only owned my Tesla S for three months and have had several close call situations that would not have been as close if the car had a proper horn trigger located underneath the steering wheel airbag cover. The small capacitive button on the right side of the wheel simply isn’t safe, and 30+ years of driving has permanently imprinted the center location of the horn in my brain. In emergency situations, my subconscious makes me hit that large pad in the center of the wheel. And by the time I figure out why the horn isn’t sounding, it’s too late and I’ve had to take other evasive steering action that is often less safe.

Car suddenly accelerated and crushed into shop in parking lot