Tesla is recalling more than 2 million vehicles, nearly all the vehicles it has sold in the US to date, to fix a flawed system designed to ensure drivers pay attention when using the car. Automatic pilot.
Rather than physically recalling vehicles, documents posted today by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) state that Tesla will send a software update in an attempt to resolve the problem.
The recall includes nearly all vehicles Tesla has sold in the US, including the Model
It comes after a two-year investigation by the NHTSA into a series of crashes that would have happened while the Autopilot system was in use. Since 2016, the NHTSA has opened more than 40 specialty crash investigations involving Teslas where advanced driver assistance systems such as Autopilot were suspected to have been enabled. Nineteen traffic fatalities were reported in these investigations.
NHTSA said its investigation found that Autopilot’s method of ensuring drivers pay attention and maintain control is inadequate, and that “in certain circumstances when Autosteer is enabled, the prominence and scope of the feature’s controls may are not sufficient to prevent misuse by the driver. ”
In addition to adding additional checks and warnings “to further encourage the driver to adhere to their ongoing driving responsibility,” the NHTSA says safety recall report states that Tesla’s software update – which has already been issued for some vehicles and with the rollout still underway – will apparently limit where Autosteer can be used.
“Additional controls include increasing the prominence of visual warnings on the user interface, simplifying the ability to engage and disengage Autosteer, additional controls when engaging Autosteer and while using the feature off controlled-access highways and when approaching traffic controls, and possible suspension of Autosteer use if the driver repeatedly fails to demonstrate continuous and sustained driving responsibility while the feature is enabled,” the NHTSA report said.
According to Tesla’s own literature, Autopilot is a practical driver assistance system intended for use only by a fully attentive driver. It does not turn a Tesla into a self-driving car, nor does it make a car autonomous.” So despite the name, Autopilot can automatically steer, accelerate and brake in the lane, but it can’t drive for you.