As if the automaker’s most recent safety recalls weren’t bad enough, Tesla has acknowledged the overheating issue of the infotainment system’s central processing unit. More specifically, the CPU may not cool sufficiently to prevent high temperatures during fast charging or in preparation for fast charging. In addition to slow processing, this condition may lead to a restart, thus increasing the risk of a collision.
“You can’t be serious. How come?” In the Model S and Model X, which are fitted with a stalk-less yoke rather than a conventional steering with a gear selector on the right side of the steering column, you need the touchscreen to shift into the appropriate gear. Alternatively, the Model S and Model X feature touch-sensitive controls just below the centrally-mounted touchscreen.
Tesla became aware of this problem in December 2021, during routing high-temperature operation endurance testing on the Model 3 and Model Y central processing unit. The Texas-based automaker detected throttling and the built-in thermal protections engaged, prompting an in-depth analysis.
One month later, a 2021 model year Model S was brought to a Tesla service center for an overheating condition that caused the display to reboot while supercharging. The company notes a few other CPUs that were replaced under warranty in the same period, but curiously fails to mention how many of them were replaced. Tesla completed the investigation and confirmed the root cause in April, determining that an update would solve this problem.
No fewer than 59 field reports and 59 warranty claims were identified in the period between January 5th and May 2nd. Tesla highlights that it’s not aware of crashes, injuries, deaths, or property damage related to this condition.
129,960 is the number of potentially affected vehicles, and owner notifications will be mailed on July 1st as per the attached report. On the other hand, the firmware that includes the remedy for the overheating issue was rolled out at the beginning of the month. The population of S-3-X-Y vehicles was produced between February 3rd, 2021 and May 2nd, 2022.