Photo: Marques Brownlee on YouTube / NHTSA / autoevolution edit
Tesla informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that it plans to do a safety recall for almost all the vehicles equipped with the partially automated advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) known as Full Self-Driving Beta (FSD Beta). The company admitted the software might fail and cause a crash. Here’s what’s going to happen now.
Tesla decided to do a wide recall for nearly all the EVs it made since 2016 that can run the FSD Beta – the unfinished driver-assistance system for which customers must pay $15,000 today. The automaker notified NHTSA that it is going to deploy an over-the-air fix. This means customers will have to connect their vehicles to a stable network and allow the download of the new build to begin and install itself.
The units affected by this recall are:
According to the NHTSA campaign 23V-085, the EV maker is recalling 362,758 units. Tesla previously said it has “around 400,000 FSD Beta paying customers.” This tells us that almost all FSD Beta-equipped vehicles are subject to this recall. The exceptions might be employee vehicles that have priority for software upgrades.
The Administration says Tesla discovered that the “FSD Beta system may allow the vehicle to act unsafe around intersections, such as traveling straight through an intersection while in a turn-only lane, entering a stop sign-controlled intersection without coming to a complete stop, or proceeding into an intersection during a steady yellow traffic signal without due caution.”
Moreover, FSD Beta may fail to automatically adjust the vehicle’s speed according to the speed limits and may fail to respect the driver’s inputs regarding the exceeding of posted speed limits.
Per the NHTSA, an FSD Beta-equipped EV may “exceed speed limits or travel through intersections in an unlawful or unpredictable manner that increases the risk of a crash.”
Tesla has its number for this recall – SB-23-00-001. Owners of the affected units will be notified about the fix and the necessary updates might be delivered sooner than April 15, 2023. That’s also the date set by the NHTSA as the deadline for Tesla to inform its customers about this recall.
Tesla has done multiple recalls in the past. However, most of them turned out to be over-the-air (OTA) software updates, meaning the customer was not forced to visit a dealership. It's also important to underline that only two recalls were connected to the controversial FSD Beta system.
Now, besides this latest recall, a comprehensive hardware update is expected for newer Tesla models. It might add multiple new and more performant cameras that can help FSD Beta work much better in various adverse conditions like when it’s foggy or snowy. Despite this possible progress, the automaker is still far away from the promises made by its CEO, who announced “one million robotaxis by 2020.” Waymo, Cruise, or Zoox might turn that dream into reality.
The same Elon Musk said in 2016 that a driverless Tesla was going to travel from Los Angeles to New York City in a year. That, as well as other wild promises, did not happen.
Tesla expanded the FSD Beta ADAS to real customers around three years ago. Since then, it has not delivered a working version of the very expensive software. The driver is still responsible and must hold their hands on the steering wheel, albeit some influencers do not do this. However, the world's most valuable car brand made real progress in collecting the necessary data to maybe deliver a final, out-of-Beta build sometime in the future. Until then, competitors like Mercedes-Benz, Ford, or GM are poised to overcome Tesla.
Finally, the NHTSA’s message sent to the well-known EV maker is available at the end of this article in .PDF format if you want to read the official communication. If you're among the affected customers, don't forget that you have the option of contacting the NHTSA directly unless Tesla manages to inform everyone in time.
The units affected by this recall are:
- 2016 - 2023 – Tesla Model S;
- 2016 - 2023 – Tesla Model X;
- 2017 - 2023 – Tesla Model 3;
- 2020 - 2023 – Tesla Model Y.
According to the NHTSA campaign 23V-085, the EV maker is recalling 362,758 units. Tesla previously said it has “around 400,000 FSD Beta paying customers.” This tells us that almost all FSD Beta-equipped vehicles are subject to this recall. The exceptions might be employee vehicles that have priority for software upgrades.
The Administration says Tesla discovered that the “FSD Beta system may allow the vehicle to act unsafe around intersections, such as traveling straight through an intersection while in a turn-only lane, entering a stop sign-controlled intersection without coming to a complete stop, or proceeding into an intersection during a steady yellow traffic signal without due caution.”
Moreover, FSD Beta may fail to automatically adjust the vehicle’s speed according to the speed limits and may fail to respect the driver’s inputs regarding the exceeding of posted speed limits.
Per the NHTSA, an FSD Beta-equipped EV may “exceed speed limits or travel through intersections in an unlawful or unpredictable manner that increases the risk of a crash.”
Tesla has its number for this recall – SB-23-00-001. Owners of the affected units will be notified about the fix and the necessary updates might be delivered sooner than April 15, 2023. That’s also the date set by the NHTSA as the deadline for Tesla to inform its customers about this recall.
Tesla has done multiple recalls in the past. However, most of them turned out to be over-the-air (OTA) software updates, meaning the customer was not forced to visit a dealership. It's also important to underline that only two recalls were connected to the controversial FSD Beta system.
Now, besides this latest recall, a comprehensive hardware update is expected for newer Tesla models. It might add multiple new and more performant cameras that can help FSD Beta work much better in various adverse conditions like when it’s foggy or snowy. Despite this possible progress, the automaker is still far away from the promises made by its CEO, who announced “one million robotaxis by 2020.” Waymo, Cruise, or Zoox might turn that dream into reality.
The same Elon Musk said in 2016 that a driverless Tesla was going to travel from Los Angeles to New York City in a year. That, as well as other wild promises, did not happen.
Tesla expanded the FSD Beta ADAS to real customers around three years ago. Since then, it has not delivered a working version of the very expensive software. The driver is still responsible and must hold their hands on the steering wheel, albeit some influencers do not do this. However, the world's most valuable car brand made real progress in collecting the necessary data to maybe deliver a final, out-of-Beta build sometime in the future. Until then, competitors like Mercedes-Benz, Ford, or GM are poised to overcome Tesla.
Finally, the NHTSA’s message sent to the well-known EV maker is available at the end of this article in .PDF format if you want to read the official communication. If you're among the affected customers, don't forget that you have the option of contacting the NHTSA directly unless Tesla manages to inform everyone in time.
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