Two months have passed since Tesla started delivering the long-awaited Cybertruck, and the model has already been hit with a recall. It’s got undersized warning lights. However, that is an issue that has been affecting Teslas since 2012, and the carmaker failed to notice.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a recall for over 2 million Teslas manufactured between 2012 and 2024, and the Cybertruck is on the list. That is because the dashboard warning lights feature font sizes that are too small. That was quite a long time for NHTSA to realize that there was a problem since the fonts have been the same for over a decade on all Teslas.
Two months on the road and already back in the service shop. That is the route that the highly anticipated Tesla Cybertruck has to follow. The electric pickup truck fails to comply with the requirements of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 105, which refers to the "Hydraulic and Electric Brake Systems," and Standard number 135, which governs the "Light Vehicle Brake Systems."
The lights in question fail to comply with the standards due to an incorrect font size displayed on the instrument panel to show the driver that the vehicle is in either in Brake or Park gears, and that the Antilock Brake System (ABS) is active.
Photo: Tesla
The recall affects a total of 2,193,869 Teslas Model 3, Model S, Model X, and Model Y explames, plus the Cybertruck, which means basically just about every Tesla sold in the United States for the past 12 years. To fix the issues, the owners of the vehicles will not have to physically go to a service shop. Tesla will spare them the trouble and release an over-the-air (OTA) update to replace the undersized fonts with bigger and more visible ones.
According to the NHTSA, Tesla has already begun to release the software update. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed on March 30, 2024. To make sure that there is a fix for their car as well, the owners can contact Tesla customer service. We have yet to see if a similar recall is going to be issued for the Teslas delivered elsewhere around the globe.
The Cybertruck's aero disc covers eat up the sidewall of the tires
There is one more issue that Tesla has to deal with, but NHTSA has not caught wind of it yet and probably the Silicon Valley carmaker is trying to fix before that happens. Owners of the newly delivered Cybertrucks have reported issues with the plastic aero covers of the wheels, and the carmaker is now considering redesigning them.
Photo: Tesla
The owners have noticed that, while driving, the prongs of the aero cover can touch the sidewall of the tire and cause it to wear. Brian Reese, CEO and co-founder of T Sportline, has explained how such aero disc covers have worn the sidewall of the Cybertruck he is driving by about 120 thousandths of an inch.
The same issue was highlighted by drivers on the Cybertruck Owners Club forum, where they claim that Tesla has already stopped delivering the pickup truck with the aero covers installed and is taking the time to fix the issue. Furthermore, several owners of Cybertrucks reported that the aero covers accidentally flew off while on the move.
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