— A Tesla Autopilot safety recall is under investigation by federal safety regulators to determine if more than 2 million Tesla vehicles are safe to drive while Autopilot is engaged.
Autopilot is the name for when Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer are activated at the same time, described as a level 2 advanced driver assistance system (ADAS).
The Tesla Autopilot safety recall investigation opened by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration includes more than 2 million of these vehicles equipped with any version of Autopilot manufactured up to December 7, 2023.
- 2012–2024 Tesla Model Y
- 2012–2024 Tesla X
- 2012–2024 Tesla S
- 2012–2024 Tesla 3
- 2012–2024 Tesla Cybertruck
Tesla issued the Autopilot recall because the system controls may not have been good enough in the job of monitoring driver engagement and misuse.
According to Tesla, a driver using Autopilot must keep their hands on the steering wheel and be aware of their surroundings. But drivers allegedly ignored the warnings and by putting too much trust in technology, many Tesla vehicles crashed into parked emergency vehicles.
In August 2021, NHTSA opened an investigation into why Tesla vehicles with Autopilot engaged were crashing into emergency vehicles even if those vehicles were parked with their emergency lights activated.
Many of those first responders had placed road cones, illuminated arrows and even flares on the roads, but Tesla drivers still managed to crash into the emergency vehicles. Some of those crashes injured or killed Tesla occupants.
The Autopilot safety investigation was upgraded in June 2022, followed by the December 2023 Tesla Autopilot safety recall.
NHTSA is investigating the details and repairs associated with the Tesla Autopilot recall due to crashes which occurred after the vehicles were allegedly repaired.
"Also, Tesla has stated that a portion of the remedy both requires the owner to opt in and allows a driver to readily reverse it. Tesla has also deployed non-remedy updates to address issues that appear related to ODI’s concerns under EA22002. This investigation will consider why these updates were not a part of the recall or otherwise determined to remedy a defect that poses an unreasonable safety risk." — NHTSA
According to government data, 467 crashes, 54 injuries and 14 fatalities have allegedly occurred when Autopilot was engaged.
CarComplaints.com will update our website with results of the Tesla Autopilot safety recall investigation.
