According to the Reuters news agency, Tesla is recalling tens of thousands of electric cars in the United States that have the FSD (Beta) autopilot. It has turned out that the autopilot software does not pay attention to stop signs at intersections, and because of this the car does not stop moving forward.
According to the US NHTSA, this situation affects some cars of models S and X from 2016, model 3 (from 2017) and model Y (from 2020).
The problem is that due to a defect in autonomous driving, the car in autopilot mode does not stop at an intersection after recognizing the “no stopping” sign, but moves on, reducing the speed to 9.6 km/h. That is the option “stop on the move”, which appeared in electric cars Tesla in autumn of 2020, is involved.
NHTSA noted that, based on the federal law, manufacturers should not produce cars with faults that make road traffic unsafe. This includes deliberate choice of unsafe design solutions.
Tesla representatives have already responded that they have not received any claims or reports of accidents or injuries that are linked to such a defect in the autonomous driving system. However, they have promised to quickly deal with the problem by updating the software. The carmaker has told US officials that access to install the update will be available in February 2022.
Tesla representatives recently revealed that the number of their electric cars with the beta version of the autopilot system in the US was just under 60,000 units. Moreover, the automobile company points out that due to this autopilot the car does not become absolutely autonomous – the driver has to constantly monitor the road situation.
We would like to remind you that employees of the Californian Prosecutor’s Office frightened both automobile manufacturers and simple car owners. They accused a driver behind the wheel of a Tesla Model S of manslaughter when his car with the autopilot system on ran a red light and hit two pedestrians to death.