Tesla is asked to recall 158,000 vehicles due to potentially dangerous display failures months after the Elon Musk-owned company recalled 9,500 Model Y with faulty 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 cars sold in 2012-2018 and Model X vehicles from 2016-2018
- The issues stems from a memory card that when full shuts down features
- 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 touchscreen failures.
NHTSA recently sent the Elon Musk-owned firm an letter stating it is investigating a potential defect that affects rearview cameras and air conditioning systems that de-fog windows.
The document specifically cites Model S vehicles produced from 2012 through 2018 and the Model X from 2016 to 2018 – these models are designed with a certain processor that fails when storage capacity is reached.
NHTS is urging Tesla to notify owners of the named vehicles about the recall, if the firm declines it must provide an explanation on that decision.
The letter comes just months after Tesla was forced to recall 9,000 Model X cars due to roof trim and bolts not properly placed that caused roofs to fly off while driving.
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The document specifically cites Model S vehicles produced from 2012 through 2018 and the Model X (pictured) from 2016 to 2018 – these models are designed with a certain processor that fails when storage capacity is reached
From 2012 through 2018, Tesla sold around 531,500 vehicles altogether and the recalled cars would account for about 29 percent.
The problem stems from the Nividia-made memory chip with an integrated eight gigabyte flash memory device, which is partially filled each time the vehicle is started.
And when it reaches full capacity, the hardware fails.
The failures have been observed in the rearview/backup camera and loss of the air condition that defogs and defrosts windows.
A potential defect that affects rearview cameras and air conditioning systems that de-fog windows is plaguing Model S (pictured) and Model X vehicles
The glitch also impacts the Autopilot advanced driving system, along with blinkers, audible chimes, driver sensing, and alerts associated with these vehicle functions.’
‘During our review of the data, Tesla provided confirmation that all units will inevitably fail given the memory device’s finite storage capacity,’ Stephen Ridella, director of NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation, said in the letter.
NHTSA opened the investigation last June, in which Tesla had tried to rectify it with ‘over-the-air’ software updates.
However, the agency notes that the effort was ‘procedurally and substantively insufficient.’
The email comes just months after the NHTSA mandated Tesla recall about 9,500 2016 Model X cars back in November die to trim that may separate and bolts that may not have been properly tightened.
NHTS is urging Tesla to notify owners of the named vehicles about the recall, if the firm declines it must provide an explanation on that decision (pictured is a Model X)
NHTSA said the front and spine cosmetic roof trim may have been adhered without first using primer, and one or both pieces of trim may separate from the vehicle while it is being driven.
In October, a Tesla customer from California posted video on social media showing him driving down a highway in his brand new Model Y after its roof flew off just two hours after he drove it off the lot.
‘Hey @elonmusk why didn’t you tell us that Tesla sells convertibles now?’ the driver wrote.
‘Because the roof of our brand new model Y fell off on the highway.’
The driver also wrote: ‘I had heard that there were some problems with Tesla’s quality insurance, but I don’t know how you can miss something as important as the roof being attached.
The driver said the roof fell off ‘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.