Tesla recalled 362,758 cars on Thursday after finding malfunctions in its driver-assistance software that can cause the vehicle to react in potentially dangerous ways at intersections.
• Also read: Elon Musk found not guilty of cheating over Tesla stock tweets
• Also read: Electric vehicles in winter: Therefore, double the daily requirement must be expected
• Also read: A sleeping driver behind the wheel of her Tesla on the Autobahn
• Also read: 6,000 gallons of water to put out the Tesla battery fire
The recall affects all S-, X-, Y- and Model 3-series models equipped with or scheduled to receive FSD (Full Self-Driving) software, but over varying manufacturing periods, some dating back to 2016.
The FSD, which is in the test phase, is a so-called Level 2 software, which is more about driver assistance than autonomous driving.
According to the United States Highway Traffic Safety Agency (NHTSA) advisory, software bugs, if enabled, can cause the vehicle to continue straight when pulled into a lane that theoretically requires a turn.
A car with FSD software enabled can also cross an intersection with “Stop” signs without observing a full stop, or an intersection with solid amber lights without slowing down.
Affected vehicles may also “not respond adequately to signaled changes in speed limits” or fail to intervene when a driver exceeds the speed limit, according to the agency.
To fix these deficiencies, Tesla plans to perform a software update at its own expense, the release said. This recall does not require you to return your vehicle to a Tesla checkpoint.
“The term +reminder+ to qualify a software update is anachronistic and just plain wrong,” Elon Musk tweeted in response to the announcement.
In June 2022, NHTSA released a report showing that driver-assistance software-equipped Teslas that were active anytime in the last 30 seconds were involved in 273 traffic accidents in the United States.
The US Department of Justice has opened an investigation into Tesla’s driver assistance systems, according to a document released by the Securities and Exchange Commission at the end of January.
In the document, Tesla recalled that FSD and the other software known as “Autopilot” were “designed for use by an attentive driver, with his hands on the wheel and ready to regain control in an instant.”
But for several years, the head of the manufacturer, Elon Musk, has regularly gone much further in his statements.
As of 2019, he therefore promised the commissioning within a year of a vehicle capable of fully autonomous driving without the intervention of a passenger.
No vehicle in the range is currently equipped with such software.