Tesla will recall 362,758 cars in the United States after flaws in driver assistance software were identified that could cause the vehicle to act in potentially dangerous ways at intersections, it announced Thursday.
This ‘recall’ covers all the models of the S, X, Y and model 3 lines, equipped with FSD ‘software’ (Full Self-Driving, or Total Autonomous Driving, in Portuguese), but in different manufacturing periods, reassembled, in some cases, by 2016.
The FSD, which is in the testing phase, is a ‘software’ called level 2, which deals more with driving assistance than with the autonomous driving system, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
According to the alert issued by the United States National Highway Safety Agency (NHTSA), failures of the ‘software’, when activated, can cause the vehicle to continue in a straight line when entering a a roadway that theoretically forced him to turn.
A car with the FSD software activated can also drive through an intersection with ‘Stop’ signs without coming to a complete stop or through an intersection with orange traffic lights without slowing down.
Affected vehicles may also “not react sufficiently to posted changes in speed limits” or fail to intervene when a driver exceeds the maximum speed allowed, according to the US agency.
To correct these defects, Tesla plans to perform a software upgrade, at its expense, as directed by NHTSA.
This “recall” also does not require the vehicle owner to return the car to a Tesla checkpoint.
“The term ‘recall’ to describe a software update is anachronistic and simply wrong,” said Elon Musk, CEO of the electric car giant, through the social network Twitter, in response to the statement.
In June 2022, NHTSA released a report indicating that Teslas equipped with driver assistance software, active at some point during the previous 30 seconds, were involved in 273 traffic accidents in the United States.
The US Department of Justice has opened an investigation into Tesla’s driver assistance systems, according to a document published in late January by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In the document, Tesla recalled that the FSD and the other ‘software’, known as Autopilot [Piloto Automático, em português]they were “developed to be used by an alert driver, with hands on the wheel and ready to regain control at a moment’s notice.”
But, for several years, Elon Musk promised much more of these vehicles, presenting in 2019 a vehicle capable of guaranteeing fully autonomous driving, without any intervention by a passenger.
So far, no vehicle in the range is equipped with this ‘software’.
Source: TSF
