Why Did This Tesla Strand A Couple?

A couple’s Tesla stalled in the middle of a road trip, initially locking them out of their vehicle. Although they managed to get inside, they say they were met with a series of frustrating hurdles that left them fearing if they could even manage to get their car towed to a service center.

TikToker Cassidy Carballo (@susoriginals) documented the hoops she had to go through in discovering why her Tesla apparently bricked on a road trip without warning.

“If you were thinking about getting a Tesla, don’t do it, we’re stuck,” she says.

Carballo begins her video with a recording of her and her partner seated inside their car. Next, her video cuts to footage of the vehicle’s blank middle infotainment screen. Then she shows the doors propped open while she complains about its inability to start. Carballo fears that they may have damaged the EV’s windows by opening the doors because the electronic mechanism that seals the glass after closing the doors won’t be engaged without power.

“It’s literally not turning on. And now, because we opened these, our windows are probably broken,” she says. “And we’re like probably 1,500 miles from home. And the closest Tesla dealership is literally three and a half hours away.”

At this point in the video, her partner chimes in to say they’ll need to travel 160 miles to get to a Tesla dealer. Continuing, Carballo breaks down the sequence of events that led to their EV’s refusal to start.

“Okay, so here’s what happened,” she says. “We got back from dinner, and the doors wouldn’t unlock. For one split second, the passenger side door unlocked. So I was able to get in. But then we tried to touch the touchscreen. Touch the brake, and nothing would respond. And we couldn’t even use the button to open the door.”

Afterwards, Carballo’s partner says the automaker’s roadside assistance representative was entirely unhelpful. “We also called [a] roadside service center. I spoke to a lady and she could not tell me anything,” he says.

“She was useless,” Carballo adds, before her partner says the employee suggested towing the Tesla to a service center.

“And for a second, that maybe there was a fire burning out,” Carballo continues. “Because we smelled some weird burning plastic smell. Thank God that stopped. But if y’all think we should be concerned about that let me know.”

Getting the vehicle towed turned out to be an ordeal as well. “The tow truck company doesn’t want to come get us ‘cause it’s too far. And it’s actually 224 miles of driving. We are so [expletive],” she says.

Subsequently, Carballo and her partner provided an update on their situation in a second clip about their stalled Tesla fiasco. Ultimately, they were able to find a towing company to come and get their car. However, the haul job was going to cost them at least $720. And the couple speculated that this cost would ultimately be more than $1,500 as “it might be an issue that the car’s locked up.”

As for the reason why the Tesla wouldn’t start, a text overlay in the clip hypothesizes the culprit could be either the standard 12-volt battery—which comes on every EV to operate critical functions like door locking or window switches—or a failed software update.

The first possibility is one that several drivers of Teslas and other EVs have experienced. Twelve-volt battery degradation can result in a variety of sporadic car behaviors. Owners report being unable to open their doors or having to roll down by themselves after these batteries start to fail. Attempts to interact with their car via the Tesla app also end in failure.

EVs have large lithium-ion battery packs that power their motors and are responsible for the actual driving. However, the 12-volt battery supports low-power features as well and must be replaced every three to five years. Lights, power windows, wiper motors, liftgates, washer fluid pumps, and electronics draw energy from the 12-volt pack. The car’s security system, door locks, actuators, and even anti-lock braking system are also tied to the 12-volt unit. The problem is that the EV industry, as a whole, isn’t always very good at figuring out how to charge those 12-volt batteries from the main traction battery.

Replacing these batteries isn’t as straightforward as it is on other vehicles, either. The Tesla Model 3, for example, has its 12-volt pack located beneath the front passenger’s seat.

How to Replace Tesla Model 3 12v Battery (Tesla Manual Instructions) DIY

The couple says that the towing company eventually bailed on them because their trucks aren’t outfitted with the proper equipment to transport Teslas.

Consequently, they had to book a hotel for the night. Further correspondence with the roadside service rep was unhelpful as well. Carballo says that the employee kept insisting that a failed software update was responsible for their stalled vehicle. In the clip, they show the car attempting to start and its interior lights flickering. A quiet humming sound can be heard in the background.

In a third video, they say they finally hit a stroke of good luck. Upon waking up in the hotel, they received a notification that their car’s doors were unlocked. This indicated that the car was powering on and communicating with their devices. 

They say the issue was, in fact, linked to the vehicle’s 12-volt battery. Fortunately, it had enough juice in it to power the car to get them to a Supercharger.

They say Tesla representatives instructed them to get the battery replaced as soon as possible. A Tesla employee also purportedly said that the primary EV battery was now “compensating” for the 12-volt unit. As a result, the vehicle’s charge would deplete faster due to the added wattage it’d consume.

Despite their experience, Carballo’s partner says he still has faith in the car, calling it one of the most reliable vehicles on the road. In a fourth and final video, the couple shared footage of them attempting to get into their car. After an initial scare, the door did indeed pop open and they were able to get on the road. While traveling to a service center in Salt Lake City, Utah, their infotainment screen displayed several warning messages.

They say they also couldn’t charge their phones and use other driving functions. Carballo notes that the Tesla rep’s warning about extra power consumption was true. The vehicle’s battery depleted faster than usual. Thankfully, they made it to the service center 10 minutes before closing and an employee was able to swap out the 12-volt battery. They say it cost $160.

InsideEVs has reached out to Carballo via TikTok comment for further information. We’ll update this if she responds.