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Another Tesla Loses Its Steering Wheel, But Now It Is a Model Y

Tesla used to have steering wheels on the Model S, but replaced them with a yoke. After negative feedback on the idea, it brought back the steering wheel, so it may sound surprising that another Tesla lost its steering wheel. However, what happened is more literal than it may seem. A recently delivered Model Y unit lost the steering wheel while the car was driving.
Tesla Model Y lost its steering wheel a while after delivery 8 photos
Photo: prerak/Twitter
Tesla Model Y lost its steering wheel a while after deliveryTesla Model Y lost its steering wheel a while after deliveryTesla Model Y lost its steering wheel a while after deliveryTesla Model Y lost its steering wheel a while after deliveryTesla Model Y lost its steering wheel a while after deliveryTesla Model Y lost its steering wheel a while after deliveryTesla Model Y lost its steering wheel a while after delivery
This is not the first time something like this has happened to a Tesla product. On April 26, 2020, Jason Tuatara also tweeted that he had his Model 3 for just over a month when the steering wheel fell off. He tagged Elon Musk and wondered if the rest of the car would “fall to bits too.”

The owner of the latest Tesla to lose its steering wheel identified himself only as prerak on Twitter. Like Tuatara, the first thing this Tesla customer did was to tag Elon Musk to show him how bad the situation was. His Model Y had just been delivered, and he said his family was excited to get the EV on January 24. Driving back home on the highway, the steering wheel just fell off. The electric SUV owner said he was lucky that no car was right behind him and that he managed to pull over on the highway divider.

The pictures prerak shared show the vehicle still had a temporary license and that he got delivery of his EV in New Jersey. As usual, he also had to defend himself from the Tesla investors who challenged him as a FUDster or someone just trying to throw shade at the company. The Tesla customer shared a screenshot of his discussion with Tesla Service. There, we discovered his name is Prerakbhai.

In the message, the Tesla customer said that it was a “horrific experience” and that he was in the middle of the highway when everything happened. He adds that he was with his family in the car. The answer from Tesla Service was an apology and the information that the company was looking into his car.

This is a typical quality control issue. The steering wheel was loose on the steering column, and workers must have forgotten to add the nut or tighten it in a way that the nut quickly fell off – like the steering wheel eventually did.

It would be nice to hear how Tuatara solved the problem back in 2020 and how Tesla will compensate Prerakbhai for what he has gone through while driving with his family. Above all, it would be fantastic if Tesla created controls that avoided such embarrassing manufacturing flaws. Luckily, that did not happen with a steering yoke, which would probably be more challenging to put back in place.


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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
Gustavo Henrique Ruffo profile photo

Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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