Tesla ‘Full Self-Driving’ recalled in the US as it may ‘act unsafe’

American electric carmaker Tesla has issued a voluntary recall in the US due to concerns its ‘Full Self-Driving’ (FSD) beta program may be dangerous.

According to the recall notice from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), it affects 362,758 Tesla EVs in the country, including the 2016 to 2023 Tesla Model S liftback and Model X large SUV, and all 2017 to 2023 Model 3 sedans and 2020 to 2023 Model Y SUVs – all of which have Hardware 3.0 to run FSD beta.

“The FSD Beta system may allow the vehicle to act unsafe around intersections, such as travelling straight through an intersection while in a turn-only lane, entering a stop sign-controlled intersection without coming to a complete stop, or proceeding into an intersection during a steady yellow traffic signal without due caution,” the notice said.

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“In addition, the system may respond insufficiently to changes in posted speed limits or not adequately account for the driver's adjustment of the vehicle's speed to exceed posted speed limits.”

Tesla will issue an over-the-air (OTA) software update to affected vehicles, but it’s unclear how it will be addressed given FSD beta relies on real-world scenarios and machine learning to improve its system.

Australian Teslas do not have FSD beta access yet and are unaffected.

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However, it remains a $10,100 option for new and current owners to software unlock Enhanced Autopilot safety assistance systems (a $5100 option on its own), gain traffic light and stop sign control while in adaptive cruise control (i.e. ‘Autopilot’), and promises FSD beta in the future (i.e. ‘Autosteer on city streets’).

The American safety authority emphasises FSD beta remains a SAE Level 2 driver support feature only to provide steering, acceleration and braking assistance – the driver is solely responsible and must stay alert and intervene as needed.

It comes as Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk tweeted this morning: “The word ‘recall’ for an over-the-air software update is anachronistic and just flat wrong!”

The controversial businessman previously complained to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Twitter in 2018 for reporting on Tesla recalling its power-steering system on the Model S.

“Tesla policy is to issue a recall before there are injuries,” Musk said.

“This is absolutely the right thing to do. Yet there were dozens of recalls by other car companies last month, incl w [sic] injuries & deaths, but you only [WSJ] wrote an article about Tesla. Why so?”

The FSD beta program launched in October 2020 to selected owners, and now has more than 160,000 Tesla vehicles enrolled across the US and Canada, according to Musk.

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Tesla Model S

The company previously required owners to achieve a high driver safety score to gain access to FSD beta, but the rule was dropped in 2021.

Like the rest of its safety assistance systems, Tesla FSD beta is powered by cameras only – instead of a combination of radar and LiDAR sensors used by full self-driving trials from companies such as Google’s Waymo and General Motors’ Cruise.

The upcoming 2024 Polestar 3 large electric SUV even has an option to add more advanced LiDAR sensors to prepare for a fully autonomous future, and the related Volvo EX90 will follow suit.