Tesla has recalled more than 120,000 Model S and Model X vehicles over the risk of car doors getting unlocked and opening when the car crashes in the United States, said the automaker on Friday (Dec 22).
An over-the-air (OTA) software update was released by Tesla for model years 2021-2023 which does not comply with federal safety standards needed for side-impact protection, said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
On Friday, Tesla in its filing with NHTSA, said it saw the unlatching of a cabin door after there was impact on the non-struck side in between routine crash test earlier this month.
The test vehicle was operational but did not have lockout functionality which Tesla found was excluded inadvertently from the software updates, which it started issuing in late 2021.
Tesla stated that it was not aware of any injuries or warranty claims related to the issue.
Tesla earlier recalled all 2.03 million
Tesla last week had recalled all 2.03 million of its vehicles which were on the roads of the United States. This was the largest action taken by the company in the county for fixing or replacing a defective product.
In the recall, the company was to install new safeguards in the car’s Autopilot advanced driver-assistance system, after safety concerns were cited by NHTSA.
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Speaking to Reuters earlier this week, NHTSA said that it plans to test hardware or software updates which were installed by Tesla on vehicles recalled for the Autopilot issue.
NHTSA said that the agency’s Vehicle Research and Test Centre in Ohio has many vehicles of Tesla that will be used for evaluating ways to solve the issues. It will also look into additional information such as “real-world incident outcomes before and after the remedy rollout as well,” it added.
The agency added that the over-the-air remedy of Tesla has not been evaluated by the company “because it only received the software update on the vehicles it owns a few days ago.”
(With inputs from agencies)
