‘Reverse Gear On Tesla Is Now A Subscription’: Tesla Driver Tries To Reverse Park. Then It Gets Stuck And Blocks 4 Driveways

While Tesla may make the best-selling electric vehicle in North America, that doesn’t mean that everyone is thrilled with their purchase.

Like any carmaker, Tesla vehicles have a few common faults that consistently impact their cars. For example, criticisms have been levied against the company about its build quality. And features like the cars’ “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” have been accused of being ineffective and potentially dangerous.

One of the other issues that comes with owning a Tesla is that, given how different they are from traditional gas vehicles, much of the maintenance that must be performed on them can only be done by a trained Tesla technician.

This can make things awkward when, as recently shared by TikTok user Oliver (@speaktothegeektech) in a video with over 186,000 views, one’s car breaks down and blocks several driveways.

What Went Wrong With This Tesla?

In his video, Oliver shows his Tesla, which appears to be parked in a manner that is making it block four different driveways.

“As you can see, my Tesla is half on the pavement and half on the road. And that is not my drive. That is a neighbor’s drive. So, I’m blocking one, two, three, four neighbors,” he starts.

According to Oliver, the issue is that his car will not leave Park, meaning he can’t put the vehicle into Drive or Reverse to adjust its position.

“I’ve tried the ‘powering off and leaving it for a couple of minutes.’ And that isn’t doing it. So, I’ve got to call out Tesla now and see what they say,” he says.

Oliver continues by noting that the car was having similar issues before, but that they did not result in the car not being able to leave Park.

Tesla offers a “mobile mechanic” service in his area. However, he says that, as the incident occurred over the weekend, they wouldn’t be able to come out. And they were instead forced to tow the car to the closest Tesla location in Cardiff.

The problem, Oliver discovered after the tow truck arrived, is that the closest Tesla shop “in Cardiff is not open for drop-offs on the weekend.” Consequently, all the driver could do was tow his car into the correct driveway.

“Why they said they could collect it and take it to Tesla in Cardiff on a Saturday when it’s closed, I don’t know. But that’s another issue entirely,” Oliver says of Tesla support.

What Happened Next?

From here, Oliver’s situation got stranger.

After a Tesla mechanic came to pick up his car to take it to Cardiff, he was told that, in reality, his car wouldn’t be going to Cardiff—because that location was going to be closed.

“Just received message from the service center in Cardiff that they cannot fix the issue due to ‘upcoming closure for refurbishment. We will need to tow your car to the second nearest service in Bristol,’” Oliver reads in his follow-up video. “So why they didn’t know that already—it’s a bit of a mystery.”

Thankfully, there was another service station in Bristol that could perform the repair. However, Oliver was told that the repair would take a week. The problem is that he planned to use the car over the upcoming weekend to move his daughter into university.

How Long Did The Repair Take?

Fortunately for Oliver, he wouldn’t have to wait long. In a subsequent follow-up video, he says the car was repaired after just one day. Additionally, he was given an Uber credit to come pick up his car. However, as the Uber credit wouldn’t end up covering the whole ride, he took a train.

Upon receiving the car, he found it worked perfectly. Additionally, while he thought there was an issue during his return, it ended up being his wife playing a practical joke on him using the Tesla app.

Overall, he describes his experience as positive, adding that Tesla said they may be able to let him use the larger Model Y for the weekend for his daughter’s move-in.

“Overall, the service I had from Tesla was pretty good, if you think about it,” he concludes. “I know there was the whole mix-up about ‘it was supposed to be going to Cardiff. But it ended up going to Bristol,’ and not being open at the weekend and all that sort of stuff.”

Has This Happened Before?

Oliver says his issue had to do with a fault in the controls. However, other Tesla owners on the internet say that they, too, sometimes have issues getting the car out of Park.

Although the issue is rare, it’s not unheard of. Several drivers have complained that, when one uses their phone as a key, the car will sometimes wait a considerable amount of time before allowing the driver to switch from Park into Drive or Reverse.

Despite the issues experienced by Tesla owners, actually getting those issues fixed tends to be cheaper than with other carmakers. A 2025 analysis from Consumer Reports found that, over time, Tesla vehicles cost less to repair over 10 years than other major carmakers. Land Rover cost the most over 10 years.

Commenters Are Divided

Under Oliver’s first video, many users were quick to criticize Tesla for the issues its cars have.

“Maybe buy a petrol car. Goes backwards and forwards no trouble,” joked a user.

“Go into task manager. Look for TeslaOS. Delete it. Exit the vehicle. Go buy a proper car,” echoed another.

However, by the end, some had come around on the automaker.

“Name another car company that would fix it as quick as that and also pay for you to get to the dealership to collect it,” noted an additional TikToker.

BroBible reached out to Tesla and Oliver via email.