Tesla’s Cybertruck has been widely ridiculed. Its panel gaps are wide and amateurish, it’s prone to rust, and it looks like an ergonomic cheese grater. However, its most serious failure to date has resulted in the recall of nearly 4,000 vehicles.
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Association has recalled 3,878 Cybertrucks, including all those manufactured between November 13 of last year and April 4. The problem is the accelerator pedal: its pad can come off, causing the pedal to become trapped in the lining. about it. Needless to say, this is pretty bad.
“If the accelerator pedal pad becomes trapped in the interior lining above the pedal, the performance and operation of the pedal will be affected, which may increase the risk of a collision,” NHTSA wrote in its recall. warning.
The notice confirms an incident that took social media by storm earlier this week. The owner of a Cybertruck uploaded a video to TikTok which seems to show exactly this problem. “While driving, this thing slid up,” the sign said, demonstrating with the accelerator pad dislodged. “This slide up and the way I was still hooked on the pedal, kept the accelerator pressed at 100 percent.”
The saving grace for Cybertruck owners, which NHTSA also points out, is that the brake overrides the accelerator. But the moment a nearly 7,000-pound electric vehicle unexpectedly starts speeding, not all drivers will necessarily be sensible enough to take the right corrective action before something goes horribly wrong.
Tesla built its first Cybertruck in July 2023. But somewhere along the path to mass production, NHTSA says, the company introduced a new element to the assembly line: soap. The intention, apparently, was to facilitate the attachment of the accelerator pad to the pedal. Unfortunately, it also made the pad easier to remove. “Residual lubricant reduced pad-to-pedal retention,” the NHTSA recall notice says.
A Cybertruck customer reported the problem on March 31, NHTSA says. Two days later, Tesla engineers used data logs from the affected vehicle to confirm that the accelerator was pressed all the way down and the brake pedal stopped the Cybertruck. On April 3, another notice arrived to the customer. Within a week, Tesla received images confirming the nature of the first incident and conducted its own tests to replicate it. On April 12, he decided to establish a voluntary withdrawal.
That timeline matches previous reports that Tesla had suspended Cybertruck deliveries earlier this week. Tesla CEO Elon Musk appeared to confirm the issue in a tweet Wednesday night. “There were no injuries or accidents due to this,” he wrote. “We’re just being very cautious.” Telsa declined to comment.
The incident is another black eye for the much-beleaguered Cybertruck and for Tesla itself. The company’s shares have seen a precipitous decline this year, as competition from China intensifies and plans for a cheaper electric vehicle have apparently been scrapped in favor of an all-out push for robotaxis.
In December, the company had to recall almost all of its vehicles to fix a flaw in its Autopilot self-driving software, which it resolved with an over-the-air update. Meanwhile, the shareholder battle over Musk’s compensation package and X’s ongoing problems have been an ongoing distraction for the company.
NHTSA says Tesla introduced a new accelerator pedal component on April 17 and Cybertruck deliveries appear to have resumed. Cybertruck owners will have to take their vehicles to service centers for free repair as there is no software solution for the soap.