By Cristian Bustos. Originally published at ValueWalk.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is recalling more than 475,000 electric cars in the U.S. due to rearview camera and trunk issues that may cause accidents. The recall comprises the famous Model 3 and Model S vehicles.
Q3 2021 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
Recall
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Tesla must address a rearview camera issue in 356,309 Model 3 cars manufactured between 2017 and 2020. Further, 119,009 Model S vehicles have shown front hood issues that need to be corrected by the company.
The regulator said about the Model 3 issues: “The rearview camera cable harness may be damaged by the opening and closing of the trunk lid, preventing the rearview camera image from displaying.”
As for the Model S, Tesla said that a front hood latch issue may cause the hood to open “without warning and obstruct the driver’s visibility, increasing the risk of a crash.”
At this point, the electric car juggernaut has not reported any accidents, injuries, or deaths related to the problems causing the recall.
Tesla’s Autopilot
Tesla’s Autopilot system is under investigation by the NHTSA following 11 accidents registered since 2018 in which 17 people were injured and one died. In these events, the system would have played a key role.
Although there are several more accidents in which a Tesla has been involved, the 11 that will be part of the investigation are hogging the attention since they include the famous Autopilot or Traffic-Aware Cruise Control system.
Also, several of these accidents occurred at night and involved vehicles that were being attended by first responders in scenes where they were using flashlights, flares, signal boards, and cones that warned of dangers on the road.
The investigation may include only the 11 vehicles mentioned but, based on the results of the study, the NHTSA estimates that up to 765,000 Tesla Model S, Y, X, and 3, manufactured between 2014 and 2021 could be affected.
The name “Autopilot” and the Full Self Driving function have been deemed as misleading terms that could lead drivers to think that their vehicle can drive itself —when in fact it is a level 2 system that always requires human input.
Tesla is part of the Entrepreneur Index, which tracks 60 of the largest publicly traded companies managed by their founders or their founders’ families.
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