Some Tesla users may experience a problem with their touchscreen where it is black and unusable. Users won’t be able to change the AC or use many of the features of the vehicle while this is a problem. Use these steps to reset the touchscreen.
Contents
Newer Models
- Find a safe space to park the vehicle and shift the transmission into “Park“.
- Hold down both scroll buttons on the steering wheel until the touchscreen turns black.
- Wait about 40 seconds for the trouchscreen to restart.
Older Models
- Press the Brake pedal.
- While continuing the hold the Brake, press and hold both buttons above the steering wheel for about 20 seconds until the speedometer blinks.
- Stop pressing the steering wheel buttons, but continue pressing and holding the Brake.
- Hold down both scroll wheels. The screen should go blank, then a “T” will appear. At this point, you can release the Brake and scroll buttons.
After this process the touchscreen should reset. It will take about a minute or two.
I hope this guide has helped you fix your touchscreen in your Tesla.
Bill Krause says
March 20, 2021When the “black screen of death” afflicted our 2020 Tesla X two weeks ago, the dashboard also went out. no lights, no nothing.
Had to pull to shoulder and reboot. Also had to reboot two days earlier because of crazy dinging, odd error messages, etc.
I can’t even imagine how bad this would have been at night on I 95…..
So far, after two weeks with both email and phone, no response from DE Service Center.
Car is 6 mos old, 2000 total miles.
Model Xs says
October 8, 2021Damn! Had the same issue yesterday. My MX 2020 had to be towed to Tesla service. I’ll update when the issue gets resolved.
Richard Sieben says
December 15, 2021I had the same issue. I pushed on the right button on the steering wheel and gave command turn on screen. It worked!
Donald Fung says
May 25, 2021I got my Model Y on the 05/20/2021 and by the next day, I had the frozen screen and black screen. I tried the rebooting process that only fixed the problem temporary because within a few hours, the problem keeps happening.
My family and I were going on a out of town trip the first weekend, and after about 30 minutes in the trip, the black screen happened. My wife and son got scared that the car may shutdown, so we had to abandon the trip and went home very disappointed.
I wrote to the service department about the problems, but nobody has responded.
Gerri SORKinKIN says
July 9, 2021My screen has gone black twice today. I also had the screen freeze where I could see the text but the screen did not respond to touch. Scary! My Model Y is only about 4 months old. I live up the CA coast 2 plus hours from Santa Rosa.
George says
July 23, 2021Have a 2020 x
Same issues
Can’t take a trip or feel car is reliable
I am paying for a Tesla I want it to work
Considering NTSB for obvious safety issue. Lemon law or just getting a lawyer if not fixed in reasonable time frame
Obviously a safety issue
Someone gets hurt because of this there will be real liability issues
Recall time??
Glen says
September 25, 2021I have a 2017 Model S. I have had the MCU black screen issue for over a year. I now am having both the dash and MCU go black. It took me 20 minutes the other day to get the car so I could drive it. I have reached out to Tesla service over and over the last year and have yet to get any help with this. I understand there is a chip shortage but you would think some of the older Tesla’s that have been having this issue of over a year would get moved to the front of the line especially since I was given a recall email stating I needed to bring it in for replacement. It is now becoming a safety related issue. My wife will not drive the car. Ridiculous for a $100K car!!!
JL Nix says
December 5, 2021I have a 2014 model S. I bought the car 06/2017 and I have had the black screen problem starting about 6 months after I got the car. I called service center but I could not get any one on the phone just a voice mail message to go to Tesla app and schedule a service call if I had a problem. I scheduled a date to have car repaired about two weeks later, after one week the 12 volt battery also died, I placed another service call, I received a reply from service center saying ok no problem mobile tec would be at my home to replace the 12 volt battery but they would have to cancel SCREEN REPAIR they said they would let me know when they could repair screen problem, by the way this is second call that service center has canceled on my screen problem.
Danielle says
December 18, 2021I’ve been having the same issues with my 2020X. The screen froze and then went black for the fourth time yesterday while we were on a road trip. It froze while we were backing into a supercharger so since the back up screen was frozen we backed into the charging station and damaged the car. I feel it is unsafe and unreliable to drive at this point. I’ve been trying to schedule a service appointment for this issue since October. Tesla keeps canceling it saying my car doesn’t have an issue. I called the support line last night. They weren’t much help in resolving the issue but they did log a formal “case” about it and escalated it to the service center manager. Terrible service all around.
Lori L Mayles-Wells says
January 12, 2022I had the same problem—six month old car–I did what the first answer I saw here said, to hold down both buttons and it rebooted