Tesla is recalling more than 2 million vehicles sold in the U.S. due to safety concerns. Fortunately, you don’t have to drive your car anywhere.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) ordered the recall after a two-year investigation into a number of accidental collisions involving Tesla’s Autopilot system. The Associated Press reports that at least 17 people have died in accidents related to the Autopilot system.
While the NHTSA has ordered a recall, Tesla will try to fix the problem with an update coming this December that will limit automatic steering under certain conditions.
Autopilot has features called Autosteer and Traffic Aware Cruise Control. The Autosteer feature is a driver-assist system that can automatically steer, accelerate, and brake in its lane, but it requires the driver to keep their hands on the wheel at all times.
Still, safety experts have said that Tesla continues to hold drivers responsible for damage while it doesn’t fix the system’s problem with detecting and stopping for obstacles. Philip Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said some cars have hardware problems, meaning they need better cameras and physical sensors.
“This technology is not safe, we have to get it off the road,” said Dillon Angulo, who was injured in 2019 in an accident involving Autopilot. “The government has to do something about it. We can’t be experimenting like this.”
Last Monday, Tesla posted on X/Twitter that its safety metrics were stronger when Autopilot was engaged.
This isn’t the first time this year that Tesla has issued recalls. In February, a similar Autopilot recall was issued and fixed with a software update. In July, some vehicles were recalled for seat belt issues and had to be physically repaired.
