Tesla recalls more than 817,000 cars over seat belt chime malfunction
Tesla was forced today to recall more than 817,000 US vehicles after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) flagged a malfunction in the technology that reminds drivers to fasten their seat belts.
The agency said that in several models – including the 2021-2022 Model S and Model X, the 2017-2022 Model 3 and the 2020-2022 Model Y – a software error could prevent “the chime from activating under certain circumstances.”
According to the NHTSA’s safety recall report, the chime doesn’t work when the car stops and the driver doesn’t buckle their seat belt on restart, but it still activates when the vehicle exceeds 22k/h.
Tesla has said in the report it was made aware of the malfunction by the South Korea Automobile Testing & Research Institute on 6 January and that is performing a software update.
Today was the latest in a series of recalling, which have put the EV giant under a microscope.
On Tuesday, the Austin-based car maker recalled 53,822 vehicles thought to have a malfunction in their self-driving software, while in December almost 500,000 cars were taken off the market due to rear-view camera and trunk issues.
Despite the increasing amount of scrutiny, Tesla enjoyed an upbeat fourth quarter, with revenue exceeding analysts’ estimates by more than $1bn, City PM reported.