On Thursday, Tesla recalled 362,758 vehicles, claiming that the software controlling the company's self-drive feature may cause crashes. The Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta is what allows Tesla owners to take their hands off of the wheel. The most alluring feature of this developing software is its ability to navigate through urban streets. However, nearly 400k of these vehicles may be negatively affected by faulty software. The bug specifically affects the 2016-2023 Model S and Model X, the 2017-2023 Model 3, and the 2020-2023 Model Y.
In a recall report posted on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's website, this error could cause vehicles 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.” The recall notice also noted troubles with picking up on “changes in posted speed limits." Additionally Tesla will accordingly update the software with their "over-the-air" response.
Tesla's Will Deliver Over-The-Air Update
The FSD Beta feature is only available to Tesla owners who subscribe to the FSD program. According to CNBC, this program has a $15,000 upfront payment, with a $ 199-a-month payment. The software is still experimental and hasn't been fully "de-bugged." Correspondingly, prospective program members must complete a safe-driving analysis before being able to test out this feature. CEO Elon Musk reported in Tesla's previous earnings call, “As of now, we’ve deployed Full Self-Driving Beta to -- for city streets -- to roughly 400,000 customers in North America. This is a huge milestone for autonomy as FSD Beta is the only way any consumer can actually test the latest AI-powered autonomy.”
Considering the safety risks posed by a still-in-development software, Twitter users are in shock about Tesla's recall notice. Specifically, frustration arose with the usage of "recall," especially given that the fix featured an over-the-air update. On Thursday, Musk took to twitter to respond to the verbiage confusion. He tweeted, “the word ‘recall’ for an over-the-air software update is anachronistic and just flat wrong!” Even with such chaos ensuing within Tesla, its stocks quickly recuperated from a 1% drop this week.
