Tesla is asked to recover 158,000 vehicles due to potentially dangerous display failures months after Elon Musk-owned company recovered 9,500 Y models with defective roofs
- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent a letter to Tesla
- The letter asks Tesla to recall 158,000 Model S and Model X vehicles.
- All Model S vehicles sold in 2012-2018 and Model X vehicles from 2016-2018
- Problems come from a memory card that, when completed, turns off functions
- The memory card is partially filled each time the vehicle is started
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is asking Tesla to recall about 158,000 vehicles due to potential dangers from touch screen failures.
NHTSA has recently sent a letter to Elon Musk-owned firm investigating a possible defect affecting rear-view cameras and air-conditioning systems that unpack the glass.
The document specifically cites Model S vehicles produced from 2012 to 2018 and Model X from 2016 to 2018: these models are designed with a specific processor that fails when storage capacity is reached.
NHTS urges Tesla to notify the owners of the said vehicles of the withdrawal, if the firm declines that it has to explain this decision.
The letter comes just months after Tesla was forced to remove 9,000 cars from the Model X due to the roof lining and improperly placed screws that caused the roofs to fly while driving.
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The document specifically cites Model S vehicles produced from 2012 to 2018 and Model X (pictured) from 2016 to 2018: these models are designed with a specific processor that fails when storage capacity is reached
From 2012 to 2018, Tesla sold about 531,500 vehicles in total and the withdrawn cars could amount to between 15 and 20 percent currently on the road.
The problem comes from the memory chip manufactured by Nividia with an integrated eight-gigabyte flash memory device, which is partially filled every time the vehicle is started.
And when it reaches full capacity, the hardware fails.
Failures have been observed in the rear view / backup camera and loss of air conditioning unpacking and defrosting the windows.
A possible defect affecting the rear-view cameras and air-conditioning systems that unpack the windows is affecting the Model S (pictured) and Model X vehicles.
The problem also affects the autopilot’s advanced driving system, along with flickers, bells, driver detection, and alerts associated with these vehicle functions.
“During our review of the data, Tesla confirmed that all units will inevitably fail given the finite storage capacity of the memory device,” Stephen Ridella, director of the Office of Defects Research, said in the letter. the NHTSA.
NHTSA opened the investigation last June, in which Tesla had tried to correct it with “up-to-date” software updates.
However, the agency notes that the effort was “procedurally and substantially insufficient.”
The email comes just months after NHTSA forced Tesla to remove some 9,500 2016 Model X vehicles that died in November to cut them that could be separated and bolts that weren’t properly fitted.
NHTS urges Tesla to notify the owners of the said vehicles of the withdrawal, if the firm declines that it must provide an explanation for this decision (image is a model X)
NHTSA stated that the cosmetic lining of the front roof and spine may have adhered without first using primer, and that one or both spare parts may be separated from the vehicle while driving.
In October, a Tesla California customer posted a video on social media showing him driving down a freeway of his brand new Model Y after his roof flew just two hours after he was thrown from the ground.
“Hey @elonmusk, why didn’t you tell us Tesla sells convertibles now?” wrote the driver.
“Because the roof of the new Model Y fell off the road.”
The driver also wrote, “I had heard that there were some issues with Tesla’s quality assurance, but I don’t know how something as important as the roof can be lost.
The driver said the roof fell “literally two hours after leaving the parking lot” of the dealership from where he bought the car.
He writes that he immediately returned the vehicle to the dealership.