DETROIT — Tesla has issued a recall for nearly every vehicle it sold in the United States because some warning lights on the instrument panel are too small.
The recall for nearly 2.2 million vehicles announced Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is a sign of increased scrutiny toward the electric vehicle maker.
The agency also said it has upgraded a 2023 investigation into Tesla’s steering problems to an engineering analysis, a step closer to a potential recall.
The recall came after a two-year NHTSA investigation into a series of crashes that occurred while Autopilot was in use. Some were fatal.
The agency reported that its investigation focused on the Autopilot method that now requires drivers to pay attention after a certain time in use to avoid “foreseeable misuse of the system.”
Autopilot may not react to stopped vehicles
Safety experts said that while the recall is a good step, it still puts responsibility on the driver and does not address the underlying problem that Autopilot may not react to stopped vehicles. They claim that Tesla’s driver monitoring system, which relies on detecting hands on the wheel, does not prevent drivers from letting go.
Tesla details on its website that its Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving” systems cannot drive the vehicles and that human drivers must be ready to intervene at all times.
In February of last year, the NHTSA also pressured Tesla to recall nearly 363,000 vehicles with its “Full Self-Driving” system because it can fail at intersections and does not always respect speed limits.
The recall was part of a broader investigation into Tesla’s automated driving systems.
Additionally, it raised doubts about CEO Elon Musk’s claims that he can prove to regulators that cars equipped with Full Self-Driving are safer than humans, and that humans almost never have to touch the cars. controls.
Documents released Friday by U.S. safety regulators say the recall for the lights will be done through an online software update. The measure covers Model S from 2012 to 2023; the Model X from 2016 to 2023; the Model 3 from 2017 to 2023; the Model Y from 2019 to 2024 and the 2024 Cybertruck.
Tesla has identified three warranty claims potentially related to the problem, but has no reports of crashes or injuries.
NHTSA explained that the brake, parking and anti-lock brake warning lights have a smaller font size than required by federal safety standards. That can make it difficult to read critical safety information, increasing the risk of an accident.
Tesla started sending updates
Tesla has started shipping the software update and vehicle owners will be notified by letter starting March 30.
NHTSA says it found the problem during a routine safety compliance audit on Jan. 8.
Safety regulators in the United States have stepped up scrutiny of Tesla vehicles. In December, NHTSA pressured Tesla to recall more than 2 million vehicles to update software and fix a faulty system that is supposed to ensure drivers pay attention when using the Autopilot semi-automated pilot program.
The documents indicated that the update will increase warnings and alerts to drivers.
Separately, Tesla will recall more than 1.6 million units of Model S, X, Y and 3 electric vehicles exported to China due to problems with automatic power steering and door latch controls.
The recall is due to problems with the automatic power steering function and applies to 1.6 million imported Tesla Model S, Model X, Model 3 and Model Y.
Source: With information from AFP and AP.
