Tesla agrees to software fix on thousands of cars over safety concerns
Tesla is being forced to fix more than 50,000 cars in the US over a software feature that meant the vehicles failed to stop at some junctions.
When using the company’s “full self-driving” mode, which is a driver assistance feature that requires motorists to pay attention to the road, some models rolled through junctions that require all cars to stop.
The fix, which the company will carry out by a remote software update, was agreed by Tesla after meetings with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the US road safety regulator, according to documents posted on the regulator’s website.
The fix affects all of Tesla’s four models — the S, 3, X and Y — for customers using the FSD mode, which is officially in a beta testing phase.
The “rolling stop” feature was controversial when first introduced by Tesla into the software package because it tries to emulate driving behaviour that is common in some places but illegal in many US states.
Rather than stopping at a “stop” junction, vehicles merely slow to a crawl — allowing the driver to see if the way is clear — before accelerating again.
Safety campaigners say rolling stops lead to more collisions, both with other vehicles and with pedestrians or cyclists.
Tesla drivers using the FSD package are able to select whether they want to be “chill”, “average” or “assertive”, to set the driving behaviour. The system warns drivers that when selecting assertive or average modes it might perform rolling stops, according to Tesla owners online who have used the feature.
“Entering an all-way-stop intersection without coming to a complete stop may increase the risk of collision,” said the NHTSA in the online documents. It added: “Tesla is not aware of any collisions, injuries or fatalities related to this condition.”
The documents also said the Tesla feature was only enabled when driving below 5.6mph, and when the car’s detection system could not see any moving vehicles, pedestrians or cyclists.
Tesla has not yet commented on the fix.
While carmakers regularly face recalls of tens of thousands of vehicles for hardware fixes, Tesla has faced several recalls or safety fixes at the behest of the regulator over its use of in-car technology.
In December, Tesla disabled a feature that allowed passengers to play video games on the cars’ large dashboard screens while the car was moving, following a safety investigation by the NHTSA. The regulator said it “may distract the driver and increase the risk of a crash”.