Tesla is recalling greater than 2 million automobiles, almost the entire automobiles it has bought within the US so far, to repair a flawed system designed to ensure drivers are paying consideration after they use Autopilot.
Rather than bodily recalling automobiles, paperwork posted right this moment by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) state that Tesla will ship out a software program replace in an try to repair the issue.
The recall covers almost the entire automobiles Tesla bought within the US, together with the Model X, Model S, Model Y, and Model 3, and impacts these produced between October 5, 2012, and December 7, 2023.
It comes within the midst of a two-year, ongoing investigation by NHTSA right into a sequence of crashes that supposedly occurred whereas the Autopilot system was in use. Since 2016, NHTSA has opened greater than 40 particular crash investigations involving Teslas and situations through which superior driver help resembling Autopilot was suspected of being switched on. Nineteen crash deaths have been reported in these investigations.
NHTSA states that its investigation has discovered that Autopilot’s technique of guaranteeing drivers are paying consideration and in management are insufficient, and that “in certain circumstances when Autosteer is engaged, the prominence and scope of the feature’s controls may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse.” Moving ahead, NHTSA says it’s maintaining its Tesla investigation open “as we monitor the efficacy of Tesla’s remedies and continue to work with the automaker to ensure the highest level of safety.”
Aside from including added controls and alerts “to further encourage the driver to adhere to their continuous driving responsibility,” the NHTSA security recall report states that Tesla’s software program replace—already issued to some automobiles, and with the rollout ongoing—will apparently restrict the place Autosteer can be utilized.
“Additional controls will include, among others, increasing the prominence of visual alerts on the user interface, simplifying engagement and disengagement of Autosteer, additional checks upon engaging Autosteer and while using the feature outside controlled access highways and when approaching traffic controls, and eventual suspension from Autosteer use if the driver repeatedly fails to demonstrate continuous and sustained driving responsibility while the feature is engaged,” the NHTSA report states.
According to Tesla’s personal literature, “Autopilot is a hands-on driver assistance system that is intended to be used only with a fully attentive driver. It does not turn a Tesla into a self-driving car nor does it make a car autonomous.” So—regardless of its title—though Autopilot can steer, speed up and brake robotically in lane, it can not drive for you.