Tesla recalls 2 million vehicles over self-driving safety concerns

More than 2 million Teslas have been recalled in the US for ‘Autopilot’ safety concerns. The recall impacts owners of 2012-2023 Tesla Model S, 2016-2023 Model X, 2017-2023 Model 3 and 2020-2023 Model Y fitted with the Full Self-Driving (FSD) software including ‘Autosteer’.

“In certain circumstances when Autosteer is engaged, the prominence and scope of the feature's controls may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse of the SAE Level 2 advanced driver-assistance feature,” said the recall report.

"Specifically, the investigation found that Tesla’s unique design of its Autopilot system can provide inadequate driver engagement and usage controls," a spokesperson from not-for-profit US safety body NHSTA (National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration) said.

At the time of publication, there has not been a recall issued for Teslas sold in Australia, with the FSD software not legal on Australian roads.

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The recall comes after NHSTA recalled 363,000 Teslas in February 2023 over issues with the Tesla FSD software.

That recall was prompted by safety issues at intersections, while the FSD software also ignored posted speed limits on occasion.

Tesla has said it will rectify the latest issues with an over-the-air software update.

NHSTA had already announced a probe into the Tesla FSD in August 2021, with its deeper investigation resulting into the latest recall. It initiated a second probe in August 2022, with both pending.

The probes came in response to Teslas with Autopilot crashing into first-responder vehicles as well as random sudden braking – known as ‘phantom braking’ – from considerable speed on highways.

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The latest recall comes only weeks after a former Tesla employee, Lukas Krupski, was interviewed in the UK’s BBC describing the system as unsafe.

Krupski allegedly leaked confidential Tesla documents to a German newspaper while he was employed by the car maker in Norway earlier this year, telling the BBC that the system is not ready for use on public roads.

Tesla autonomous functions were first introduced in 2012, although they were not necessarily operating immediately.

Tesla’s ‘Autopilot’ function was available for ‘pre-purchase’, meaning the capability was included prior to the system becoming functional, in late 2014.

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In 2015, Version 7.0 of Tesla’s FSD software included Autopilot for the Tesla Model S, which combined adaptive cruise control and Autosteer, a lane centreing capability.

Multiple collisions as well as several deaths have been recorded, including 23-year-old Gao Yaning who was killed in 2016 at the wheel of his Model S in China while allegedly using Autopilot.

The death of Joshua Brown, the first person killed in the US after his Tesla drove over a railway crossing as it was in use, saw a software update that required drivers to contact the steering wheel more often while using the system.

It also promoted NHSTA to examine the technology more closely.

The latest Version 12 software was launched in the US in late November 2023.