Under pressure from federal safety regulators, Tesla on Thursday launched a recall to fix defects in experimental full self-driving software deployed on public roads.
The recall affects 362,758 Tesla vehicles and includes certain Model S and Model X (2016-23), Model 3 (2013-23) and Model Y (2020-23) vehicles. The fix, which will be delivered via wireless software, is intended to fix code that can cause FSD-equipped Teslas to run yellow lights, disobey speed limits and travel straight from turn-only lanes. The recalled models represent about 10% of the 3.6 million vehicles Tesla has sold to date worldwide.
The company has been criticized for years by critics who say its use of the software is a risk to public safety. YouTube is littered with videos showing FSD-equipped cars crossing double yellow lines head-on into oncoming traffic, mistaking railroad tracks for highways, aiming cars at pedestrians in crosswalks, and more.
One critic even spent $600,000 on a Super Bowl commercial that aired in regional markets to show FSD Teslas running over child-sized dolls.
Regulators have been slow to act, but the latest recall shows that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is finally getting serious about autonomous driving and public safety, said Missy Cummings, a former Navy fighter pilot and expert in autonomous systems from George Mason University. Cummings recently completed a one-year stint at NHTSA, where she helped update employees on new technologies now proliferating in the automotive industry.
Data on automated driving accidents has been difficult to obtain, but last year NHTSA began requiring automakers to report such accidents directly to the agency when they involved serious injuries or deaths, a “critical” measure for enforcing recalls. like the one issued by Tesla on Thursday, Cummings said.
“I'm impressed that NHTSA was able to get Tesla to agree to this, and it shows that Tesla is starting to understand that working with NHTSA is better than an adversarial relationship,” she said.
Tesla's only public response was a tweet from CEO Elon Musk, who said the word “recall” is “anachronistic and simply incorrect.”
Whatever it's called, neither Tesla nor NHTSA said whether FSD should be used until the software is fixed. NHTSA said the software update will occur in the “coming weeks.” Cummings called that timeline unrealistic; According to her, this work will take half a year or more. NHTSA did not respond to questions about what would happen if the software was not fixed and how it would determine whether Tesla's software updates would fix the problems. According to NHTSA, letters will be sent to owners of affected vehicles by April 15.
The recall could cause sales and revenue problems for Tesla, said Stephen Beck, founder and managing partner of consulting firm Cg42. “For all those people who are thinking about an electric vehicle right now, thinking about Mercedes or Ford or Polestar or Rivian and the rest, you have to sit back and say 'hmm.' They will be thinking that maybe full autonomous driving is not as good as it seems,” he said.
Several automakers are selling their own versions of automated driving technology, although none go so far as to call it “fully autonomous driving.” No matter the automaker, the systems still require the human driver to pay attention, and when there is an accident, the human driver is responsible for damages, not the automaker, unless serious manufacturing defects can be proven.
Meanwhile, the California Department of Motor Vehicles has been investigating for nearly two years whether Tesla has violated state law by misleading customers into believing that fully autonomous driving means the car is capable of driving completely on its own.
