China news agency, San Francisco, December 13- According to the document released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on the 12th local time, the US electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla will recall more than 2030000 electric vehicles in the country due to the potential safety hazard of the auto drive system.
NHTSA stated that this recall involves the 2012 to 2023 Model S, 2016 to 2023 Model X, 2017 to 2023 Model 3, and 2020 to 2023 Model Y. According to NHTSA, after Tesla's auto drive system is started, if the driver does not maintain the control of the vehicle, or is not prepared to operate the vehicle when necessary, the risk of collision may increase. If the driver fails to recognize that autonomous driving has been turned off or not started, the driving risk will also increase.
Tesla will begin taking remedial measures this week by remotely upgrading some vehicles to include more eye-catching visual alerts. When autonomous driving is started, the system will remind the driver to place their hands on the steering wheel and pay attention to the road conditions.
Since August 2021, NHTSA has investigated nearly 1000 crashes involving Tesla's auto drive system, 322 of which have received special attention. During this period, Tesla collaborated with NHTSA and held multiple meetings. Tesla disagreed with NHTSA's engineering analysis of its auto drive system, but agreed to implement remedial measures on December 5.
According to a report by NBC, an NHTSA spokesperson stated on the 13th that the investigation is still ongoing and the agency will monitor whether Tesla's remedial measures are effective.
This is Tesla's second large-scale recall in the United States this year due to autonomous driving issues. A document released by NHTSA on February 16th shows that Tesla is recalling 362758 vehicles in the United States that have installed or are awaiting installation of "fully automated driving test version" software. The document states that the "fully automated driving test version" software may cause vehicles to perform unsafe actions around intersections. (End)