Tesla’s “fully autonomous driving” system is receiving negative publicity for the second time this week. First, its functionality was questioned by an advertising spot broadcast during the closely watched Super Bowl on Sunday, and now, in addition, almost 363,000 cars in America must undergo a software update. It could happen that Tesla will do exactly what the mentioned video pointed out: it will endanger traffic.
First, a short explanation: the Full-Self Driving system, i.e. “fully autonomous driving”, which is what we are talking about in this case, was only offered to selected customers who became so-called beta testers of this solution until November of last year.
But then Elon Musk’s car company released an upgrade, so anyone in America can now become a test driver. It is enough to pay a one-time payment of 15 thousand dollars – about 332 thousand crowns – or subscribe to a package that supplements the standard set of Autopilot assistants.
However, the entire software still only works in test mode, otherwise it would not be legal. In addition, as Tesla itself points out on its website, despite the label, the car can never drive itself, it must always be under the active supervision of the driver. However, unlike the solutions of many other manufacturers, Teslas can drive independently (next to the highway) even in city traffic – they can read signs, stop at traffic lights, brake or accelerate according to other cars in the given lane.
And precisely the system of self-driving in the city can be a stumbling block for some models. IN recall notice, which was issued by the American National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA for short), is written about a total of 362,758 cars. This includes Model S and X from model years 2016 to 2023, Model 3 from model years 2017 to 2023, and Model Y from model years 2020 to 2023. These are not all units produced, but only some of them. It is logical, because not all of them were equipped with the relevant software.
According to NHTSA, the system could cause the car to behave unsafely at an intersection. “For example, it could drive straight through an intersection even though it is in the turning lane, drive into an intersection marked with a ‘stop’ sign without coming to a complete stop, or drive into an intersection when the light is yellow and the driver should be ready to stop,” the office states. There could also be a problem with the driver setting the speed limit, which the car might completely ignore.
The solution is a remote software update, which Tesla will carry out free of charge in the coming weeks, writes the industry expert Automotive News magazine. By April 15, she should contact all affected vehicle owners by letter and inform them about the recall event.
NHTSA informed Tesla about possible problems already at the end of January. After several interviews, although the automaker did not recognize the authority’s conclusions, it nevertheless announced a voluntary recall action, it says in the documentwhich was issued on the whole issue.
By the way, the “recall” connection has become somewhat of a thorn in the side of Tesla owner Elon Musk. The on Twitter he answered in one of the conversations that the term “recall” for software updates is “anachronistic and in short completely out of place”.
Anyway, Tesla has so far identified eighteen claims under the warranty that could be related to the current recall. She should have received them between May 8, 2019 and September 12, 2022. However, none of them allegedly led to an accident or even the death of a person.
However, this is not the first time the NHTSA has investigated Tesla. For example, the Autopilot suite of assistance systems is still under investigation following a series of accidents that have resulted in more than a dozen injuries and one death. Separately, the office is also investigating hundreds of complaints that came in about the spontaneous activation of emergency braking.
