The possibility of autonomous driving has always been one of the main advertising “chips” of Tesla cars. However, formally, the proprietary Autopilot and FSD systems correspond only to the second level of the classification of the American Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) out of five possible ones. Although, say, the Mercedes Drive Pilot can already boast of the third level in some conditions. Unsurprisingly, Tesla’s autopilot has long been the object of intense attention from the American state highway safety agency NHTSA.
During the next inspection, NHTSA experts found out that Tesla electric vehicles do not sufficiently inform drivers about the degree of responsibility when using the Autopilot system. As a result, they may overly rely on an electronic assistant and even abuse it, up to catastrophic consequences. The proprietary autopilot can accelerate, brake and keep the electric vehicle within the lane, and the advanced Enhanced Autopilot can even change lanes. Nevertheless, the system requires increased attention from the driver.
Most of the questions were raised by a specific component of the system called Autosteer, which is responsible for autonomous taxiing. NHTSA claims that it is this technology that can cause accidents due to its misuse. In addition, in some cases it is difficult to determine whether Autosteer is enabled or not, which leads to driver errors and increases the likelihood of an accident.
As a result of the investigation, Tesla was ordered to improve informing drivers about autopilot operating modes using visual prompts and warnings on the dashboard and the screen of the media system. The Autosteer component should have a simpler and more visual indication of its on and off. You will not have to go to the service for this, Tesla only needs to release a free software update that will provide additional information alerts and help drivers be more aware and focused.
The recall affected all four Tesla models — Model S, Model X, Model 3 and Model Y. In total, the problem should be fixed in 2031220 cars, that is, almost every Tesla sold in the USA!