Tesla will recall nearly its entire fleet of cars on the road due to safety issues.
The company announced the move on Dec. 13 affecting more than 2 million cars after an investigation by federal officials found the autopilot safety system was “not sufficient to prevent driver misuse.”
‘In certain circumstances when Autosteer is engaged, and the driver does not maintain responsibility for vehicle operation and is unprepared to intervene as necessary or fails to recognize when Autosteer is canceled or not engaged, there may be an increased risk of a crash,” the recall notice states.
Recall Specifics
The recall includes the 2012-2023 Model S, 2016-2023 Model X, 2017-2023 Model 3 and 2020-2023 Model Y equipped with Autosteer.
Tesla will release an over-the-air (OTA) software update, free of charge. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed February 10, 2024.
The recall comes after an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The federal agency first investigated 11 incidents involving Tesla’s Autosteer in August 2021.
NHTSA Investigation
In total, NHTSA reviewed nearly 1,000 crashes where autopilot was initially alleged to have been used and focused on 322 autopilot-involved crashes “including frontal impacts and impacts from potential inadvertent disengagement of the system.”
The investigation, which Tesla cooperated with, found the driver “does not maintain responsibility for vehicle operation and is unprepared to intervene as necessary or fails to recognize when Autosteer is canceled or not engaged, there may be an increased risk of a crash.”
The safety report said that Tesla didn’t agree with the agency’s engineering analysis of the Autosteer issue, but on Dec. 5, agreed to voluntarily administer a recall and remedy: a free over-the-air software update to impacted vehicles.
Autosteer Issue
The update will “incorporate additional controls and alerts” to “further encourage the driver to adhere to their continuous driving responsibility whenever Autosteer is engaged,” the safety report said.
This is not the first time Tesla had to recall their autos due to issues of Autosteer. The company recalled more than 360,000 vehicles in February because of a version of its “full self-driving” software that may increase the risk of crashes, the NHTSA said at the time.