According to US safety authorities, Tesla's driver assistance system does not sufficiently prevent the driver from completely getting out of the car. That increases the risk of accidents, which is why the regulator has asked the electric car maker in a letter to recall more than two million cars and update its system. That's practically all of Tesla's cars on American roads.
According to authorities, the company led by Elon Musk must recall Model S vehicles sold between 2012 and 2023. According to the authorities, there are 2,031,220 of the affected vehicles. The manufacturer must update the program free of charge for customers.
The measure was announced in a letter from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is dependent on the Department of Transportation. The recall follows a two-year NHTSA investigation into a series of accidents that occurred while using the Autopilot semi-automated driving system. Some were fatal. The Transportation Safety Board examined 956 crashes that initially allegedly involved Autopilot, then focused on a smaller group of 322 crashes, including head-on collisions and collisions due to possible unintentional disabling of the system.
The notice states: “Under certain circumstances when the Autosteer system [de dirección automática] is activated, the visibility and range of the function controls may not be sufficient to prevent the driver from abusing the advanced driver assistance function.” Consequently, “the risk of a collision may increase if the Autosteer system is activated and the driver is not responsible for the operation of the vehicle and is unwilling to intervene when necessary or does not recognize when the Autosteer system is deactivated or not activated.” ” .
The problem is that automatic steering can be activated without an effective warning mechanism that ensures the driver's attention and prevents him from becoming inattentive. The problem is that “foreseeable abuse of the system” can occur.
Updating the software will limit the use of the Autosteer system. “If the driver attempts to activate Autosteer when the conditions for it are not met, the feature will notify the driver through visual and audible warnings that it is unavailable and Autosteer will not be activated,” the recall documents state.
NHTSA has sent investigators to 35 Tesla accidents since 2016 where the agency suspects the vehicles were operating on an automated system. According to AP reports, at least 17 people were killed.
The regulator has become more aggressive in pursuing Tesla safety issues, including a recall of its Full Self Driving software. In May, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, whose department oversees NHTSA, said Tesla shouldn't call the system Autopilot because it can't drive itself.
Tesla recalled 362,000 cars back in February because its autonomous driving program allowed a vehicle to “exceed speed limits or wander.” [a través de intersecciones] driving in an illegal or unpredictable manner, which increases the risk of an accident.”
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