U.S. Safety Regulators Force 135,000 Tesla Mass Recall

By Andrei Ene

Posted on February 3, 2021

The electric vehicle company Tesla has decided to recall almost 135.000 Tesla Model S sedans and Model X SUVs. The reason for the recall of the 134.951 2012-2018 Model S and 2016-2018 Model X vehicles is related to the safety issue of one of their touchscreens whose media control unit (MCU) made them to stop working.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) was the one who notified TESLA of the recall request in a formal letter on 13 January. It appears that the large center touchscreen is prone to a failure which could lead to the loss of rearview or backup camera images, exterior turn-signal lighting, as well as windshield defogging and defrosting systems that “may decrease the driver’s visibility in inclement weather.”

Tesla noted in a letter to Stephen Ridella, the Director of the Office of Defects Investigation of the NHTSA that it has had no accidents related to the touchscreen failure and assured that the vehicles could still be fully and safely operated even if the screen is not functional.

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“Having fully considered NHTSA’s request, and in the interests of efficiently resolving this matter and providing a better experience for the customer, Tesla has decided to file the requested Part 573 report for the OTA firmware updates, even though we have not decided that a defect exists,” the letter stated.

However, back in November, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it reviewed a total of 12.523 claims and complaints about the issue, while last month the agency told that “during our review of the data, Tesla confirmed that all units will inevitably fail given the memory device’s finite storage capacity.” Clients complained that Tesla would not cover the cost of replacing the MCU once the warranties expired.

Following the conversation with the NHTSA, Tesla decided to replace the defective units and reimburse the customers who replaced a failed part because of lifetime wear. The recall is scheduled to begin on 30 March 2021.