Tesla to recall 2 million cars in US over Autopilot safety fears
US safety body forces over-the-air update over lack of driver monitoring that could lead to Autopilot misuseA recall notice has been issued in the US for more than two million Tesla electric cars after it was found that the Autopilot semi-autonomous cruise control system poses serious safety concerns.
Issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Safety Recall Report impacts the Tesla Model 3, Model Y, Model S and Model X, including almost every car built since 2015 and some that date back to 2012.
The recall follows a two-year-long investigation by the NHTSA, which found that Tesla vehicles did not adequately ensure drivers paid attention to the road while Autopilot was in use.
The safety flaw is reportedly due to a lack of driver monitoring while Autopilot is in operation that could see drivers misuse the system by not paying attention to the road ahead, creating a significant safety risk.
“One of the things we determined is that drivers are not always paying attention when that system is on,” said acting NHTSA boss Ann Carlson.
In its report, the NHTSA said: “If a driver misuses the SAE Level 2 advanced driver-assistance feature such that they fail to maintain continuous and sustained responsibility for vehicle operation and are unprepared to intervene, fail to recognise when the feature is cancelled or not engaged, and/or fail to recognise when the feature is operating in situations where its functionality may be limited, there may be an increased risk of a collision.”
Autopilot is said to be capable of self-steering, accelerating, braking, lane keeping and maintaining a gap between to other vehicles ahead.
It does not, however, meet the more advanced Level 3 criteria that enables hands-off, eyes-off-the-road driving in some circumstances.
Instead of having to physically recall all 2.03 million cars affected by the issue, Tesla has announced that it will release an over-the-air update that will “incorporate additional controls and alerts to those already existing on affected vehicles to further encourage the driver to adhere to their continuous driving responsibility whenever Autosteer is engaged”.
No details on the new safeguard measures have been released, nor has the car-maker announced if it will roll out the software to other markets, including Australia.
It’s thought the new software will increase visual alerts on the interface, simplify the engagement and disengagement of Autosteer and require additional driver check-ins once Autosteer is in operation to ensure the driver is concentrating.
The NHTSA probe sparking the recall was launched back in April 2021, following multiple collisions involving Tesla EVs.
Tesla upgraded the Autopilot system in June 2022, but incidents have continued to occur.
“Tesla’s unique design of its Autopilot system can provide inadequate driver engagement and usage controls that can lead to foreseeable misuse,” said an NHTSA spokesperson.
The federal agency initially reviewed 956 crashes where Autopilot was alleged to have been involved, before narrowing its investigation to 322 specific Autopilot-related incidents.
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