To limit the use of its “full self-driving” technology, Tesla has recalled almost all of its 2 million cars in the U.S.
According to a Tuesday letter by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tesla has agreed to issue a recall on its Models 3, S, X and Y. The agency said the recall is intended to limit harm caused by the company’s “autosteer” technology.
“In certain circumstances when Autosteer is engaged, and the driver does not maintain responsibility for vehicle operation and is unprepared to intervene as necessary or fails to recognize when Autosteer is canceled or not engaged, there may be an increased risk of a crash,” the letter reads.
As part of the recall, Tesla will launch an update for its cars and will mail notification letters to Tesla owners by February.
The letter comes after an NHTSA investigation that found nearly 1,000 crashes where autopilot was allegedly used. The agency found that Tesla’s comments about the features are a far cry from how the autopilot technology works in practice.
Despite the Tesla owner manual saying the tech should be used only on “highways and limited access roads by a fully attentive driver,” several federal and independent investigations have discovered crashes where the tech shouldn’t have been used at all.
Tesla’s recall this week is not its first relating to self-driving cars. Also this year, Tesla recalled over 350,000 vehicles after discovering that some cars in autopilot would intentionally violate traffic laws.
Indeed, the reputation of self-driving technology has taken serious hits this year. Cruise, General Motors’ self-driving brand of automated taxis, was shuttered after a series of high-profile collisions caused California to revoke the company’s license to operate. GM has since announced serious cuts to the project’s 2024 budget.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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