Tesla, Inc. will recall almost 200,000 vehicles over a software issue affecting the rearview cameras which could lead to crashes, authorities said Tuesday.
Tesla informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Monday of the safety recall of 199,575 2023 Model S, X, and Y vehicles in which software instability could prevent the display of the rearview camera, the NHTSA acknowledged in a letter. “A rearview image that does not display while in reverse decreases the driver’s visibility and increases the risk of a crash,” the letter noted.
The vehicles affected were equipped with full self-driving computer 4.0 and ran a software release version 2023.44.30 through 2023.44.30.6 or 2023.44.100, according to the letter.
Tesla released an over-the-air software update for the affected vehicles at no cost to their owners, the NHTSA said in the letter. Tesla was expected to have notified all affected owners of the recall by March 22.
“[I]t is illegal for a manufacturer, to sell, offer for sale, import, or introduce or deliver into interstate commerce, a motor vehicle or item of motor vehicle equipment that contains a safety defect once the manufacturer has notified NHTSA about that safety defect,” the NHTSA warned. “This prohibition does not apply once the motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment has been remedied according to the manufacturer’s instructions.” (RELATED: Elon Musk’s Tesla Issues Recall For Almost All US Vehicles After Government Probe)
The number of warranty complaints about the problem, which Tesla began receiving in late Dec. 2023, stood at 82 as of Jan. 22, 10 days after Tesla decided to recall affected vehicles, CBS News reported.
Tesla also recalled more than two million vehicles in Dec. 2023 over a glitch in its Autopilot technology after the NHTSA investigated several automated driving systems (ADS)-related crashes, the CBS News report noted.
There were 52 ADS-related crashes in Aug. 2023, the month with the highest tally of such crashes in 2023, NHTSA data showed. There were only two such crashes in Dec. 2023, the month with the only single-digit crash tally in 2023, according to the data.