Tesla’s Recall Challenged by U.S. Safety Regulators over Autopilot Efficacy

U.S auto safety regulators have initiated a fresh probe into whether electric carmaker Tesla’s recall of over 2 million cars in December is adequate, as concerns regarding crash events after vehicles received the software update were identified by authorities along with results from preliminary NHTSA tests on fixed machines following installation. This development follows a conclusion that there was evidence to suggest “Tesla’s weak driver engagement system was not appropriate for Autopilot’s permissive operating capabilities” and that it posed a critical safety gap, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) stated on Friday in a news release. Tesla declared part of its remedy to both necessitate opting-in from owners as well as allow drivers to easily reverse this measure, which NHTSA also cited while raising concerns about Autopilot’s name “may lead drivers to believe that the automation has greater capabilities than it does and invite drivers to overly trust the automation”. Tesla declared its biggest ever recall in December covering nearly all of its cars on US roads – a total 2.03 million units – as part of efforts to improve driver engagement when using Autopilot, which is intended for steering, accelerating and braking automatically within their lane while enhanced Autopilot can assist with changing lanes on highways but does not make vehicles autonomous. The new recall investigation covers Model Y, X, S, 3 and Cybertruck cars in the US manufactured between model years ranging from as far back at the end of the past decade (2012) through to mid-next decade’s 2024 lineup produced by Tesla. In February this year Consumer Reports – a nonprofit organisation that evaluates products and services – said its testing found changes made during Autopilot recall did not satisfactorily resolve several safety issues flagged in an earlier investigation launched late last year into the system, urging NHTSA to require Tesla “to take stronger steps” because of this.