US authorities are forcing Tesla to recall two million electric cars over a safety issue affecting its Autopilot autonomous driving system. Information that has everything to make headlines, which in fact did not fail to happen.
Almost all Teslas in circulation in the United States will indeed have to be updated to meet the requirements of the NHTSA, the federal agency responsible for road safety. The NHTSA criticizes Autopilot for not alerting the driver often enough to encourage them to remain ready to intervene. Currently, Tesla calls the driver to order when the latter has not given an impulse in the direction after a certain period of time, which varies according to the markets and their respective regulations. In Europe, for example, these alerts are more frequent than in the United States. Recently, the interior camera of Teslas which are equipped with it is also used to monitor the driver’s attention.
A simple remote update
Although Tesla has stated that it disagrees with the conclusions of the NHTSA investigation, the manufacturer will nevertheless recall more than two million affected vehicles (Model S, Model X, Model 3 and Model Y). The recall note, however, specifies that an over-the-air (OTA) update will be deployed very soon. It will aim to increase the number of Autopilot alerts, without knowing more about its exact modalities. Customers will therefore not need to go to the workshop to carry out this recall, which ultimately resembles a simple update, as Tesla very often carries out.