Tesla apparently recalled these cars to fix a flaw with the autopilot system
Well it was only a matter of time, I suppose. Tesla has once again put itself in the spotlight with its Autopilot assisted driving system forcing the American electric vehicle (EV) brand to recall over 2 million of its cars in the U.S as the aforementioned system has a flaw in it. What about the models in Malaysia?
Affected Models S, 3, X and Y cars produced between 5 October 2012, and 7 December 2023. This essentially means nearly all Tesla cars that were ever sold in the US are affected. While the fix for this issue will be done via over-the-air (OTA) software update, it seems unlikely Malaysian Tesla cars will be fixed this way.
Moreover, the NHTSA recall documents state, “In certain circumstances when Autosteer (autopilot) is engaged, the prominence and scope of the feature’s controls may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse of the SAE Level 2 advanced driver-assistance feature.”
The documents go on to state, “If the driver attempts to engage Autosteer when conditions are not met for engagement, the feature will alert the driver it is unavailable through visual and audible alerts, and Autosteer will not engage.”
This recall is also the second one that Tesla has been forced to make as a result of its autopilot feature this year and comes after a two-year investigation by the NHTSA which led to a total of 956 crashes that occurred while the Autopilot feature was allegedly being used, with at least 17 fatalities also being confirmed.
On top of that, as a result of that investigation, Tesla has conceded that the system’s method of ensuring that drivers are paying attention can be inadequate and ‘may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse,’ which in turn lead to this particular round of recall. Well if the brand actually bothered to build something that actually worked, this could have been avoided.
Obviously Malaysian roads are far from ideal and so the Tesla autopilot feature will definitely not be able to be used here to its full potential. However, even with road conditions in the U.S being infinitely better and autopilot still not functioning well, then clearly Tesla needs to admit its system is just flawed and fix it for good.
Naturally, Tesla has yet to make a statement as to whether or not this recall will affect its models in other countries outside of the U.S but if it does end up recalling Malaysian models, the brand will be left with even more unsatisfied customers. I just hope that more people see the brand for what it really is over time.
