On Wednesday, Tesla announced that it is recalling over 2 million vehicles due to safety issues with its autopilot system. An investigation revealed that the autopilot safety system was not effective enough to prevent driver misuse.
According to the recall notice, there are certain circumstances in which the controls of the Autosteer feature may not be adequate to prevent driver misuse. The recall includes the 2012-2023 Model S, 2016-2023 Model X, 2017-2023 Model 3, and 2020-2023 Model Y. These vehicles are equipped with Autosteer, a feature of “traffic-aware cruise control”.
The recall was initiated following an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a part of the Transportation Department. The NHTSA examined 11 incidents involving Tesla’s Autosteer in August 2021 and concluded that there might be an increased risk of collision when Autosteer is in use.
Although Tesla did not agree with the agency’s engineering analysis of the Autosteer issue, it agreed to voluntarily conduct the recall and provide free over-the-air software updates to affected vehicles.
The NHTSA safety report stated that the software update will include “additional controls and alerts” to encourage the driver to adhere to their continuous driving responsibility whenever Autosteer is engaged.
A spokesperson for the NHTSA mentioned that the investigation is ongoing, and the agency is monitoring the effectiveness of Tesla’s solutions while working with the automaker to ensure the highest level of safety.
The spokesperson emphasized the potential of automated technology to improve safety, but stressed the importance of responsible deployment. They called the recall action an example of improving automated systems by prioritizing safety.
Earlier this year, in February, Tesla recalled over 360,000 vehicles due to a version of its “full self-driving” software that was found to potentially increase the risk of crashes, according to the NHTSA.
