The Chinese government announced on Friday that Tesla would recall virtually all the cars it has sold in the country to adjust its assisted driving systems, less than a month after a similar recall in the United States.
To address the problems, Tesla will push updated computer software to its 1.6 million cars in China, the State Administration for Market Regulation said.
The updated software involves “adding additional automatic power steering control,” the regulator said. He also said Tesla would remind customers to pay attention to their driving and follow all regulations even if using so-called Autopilot capabilities.
Three weeks ago, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Washington ordered a recall to ensure drivers remain attentive while using Autopilot.
While Tesla’s Autopilot system is designed for highway use, U.S. regulators are increasingly concerned that many drivers are using it on local roads and not keeping their hands on the wheel.
China’s regulator has in the past insisted that companies make the same recalls in China that they announce in other markets.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The recall marks a setback for Tesla as China has become the world’s largest and fastest-growing electric car market. More than a third of cars sold last year in China were battery-powered electric cars or gasoline-electric plug-in hybrids, up from just 5 percent three years earlier.
Tesla has shown itself to be the only Western automaker that can compete with Chinese manufacturers in the global electric vehicle sector.
Chinese electric car companies are rapidly increasing their share of the European market, prompting the European Union to begin investigating alleged Chinese government subsidies. General Motors and Ford in the United States have reduced their ambitions in the field of electric cars. And in China, long-standing multinational leaders like Volkswagen have lost many of their customers to Chinese companies like BYD, Zhejiang Geely, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, Nio and Xiaopeng.
The mandatory software update ordered on Friday covers Model 3 and Model Y cars made at Tesla’s large factory in Shanghai, as well as imported Model S, Model X and Model 3 cars.
The Chinese regulator announced separately on Friday that Tesla would push updated computer software to 7,538 imported Model S and Model of collision.
For the door latch issue and assisted driving feature, Tesla will offer free programming update assistance to any customer who finds their remote downloads are not working properly.
Joy Dong contributed to the research.
