Tesla recalls 362,000 “full self driving” cars

Tesla is voluntarily recalling more than 360,000 of its cars in the United States, across all four models, equiped with the company’s Full Self Driving Beta software.

While Tesla agreed to the recall, as requested by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the company did not agree with the administrations analysis leading to the recall.

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According to the NHSTA, the Full Self Driving Beta (FSD Beta) system may “allow the vehicle to act unsafe around intersections, such as traveling straight through an intersection while in a turn-only lane, entering a stop sign-controlled intersection without coming to a complete stop, or proceeding into an intersection during a steady yellow traffic signal without due caution. In addition, the system may respond insufficiently to changes in posted speed limits or not adequately account for the driver’s adjustment of the vehicle’s speed to exceed posted speed limits.”

Tesla is offering a free over-the-air software update to impacted cars.

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The recall follows a NHSTA report that cars with advanced driver assistance technologies were invovled in nearly 400 crashes in 10 months, between 2021 and 2022, and that cars using Tesla’s FSD counted for 273 of those incidents. Five of of the crashes involving Teslas were fatal.

While the NHSTA collected the data that led to this recall, the New York Times reports that the agency allowed the automakers involved to redact descriptions and details of the crashes. That decision makes it harder for reserachers to determine what exact roll the FSD systems played in the crashes.

Elon Musk, head of Tesla, did admit last year that FSD Beta systems were struggling to deal with Toronto’s streetcars.

Telsa isn’t the only automaker having difficulty with its automated driving systems. A Cruise, powered by GM, in Austin was filmed driving into a bike lane last January.

Of course, if autonomous vehicles don’t turn out to solve the world’s traffic problems, we could all just ride bikes.