AI Technology has evolved a lot over the years, but it is yet to completely replace humanity. Tesla has found that out the hard way, and now, it has voluntarily recalled nearly 11,704 vehicles sold since 2017 due to a software error that may cause a false forward-collision warning or unexpected activation of the emergency brakes, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Tuesday.
All the vehicles, including Model S, Model X, Model 3 cars that were manufactured between 2017-2021, and Model Y cars that were manufactured between 2020-2021, have received a software update in October that let them gain early access to Tesla’s “Full-Self Driving” (Beta), its advanced driver assistance system. However, it does not make the vehicle autonomous and requires the driver to be attentive at all times.
Following the update, Tesla received several reports of false forward-collision warnings and automatic emergency braking events, following which it uninstalled FSD 10.3 and then updated the software to release the FSD version 10.3.1 to the affected vehicles. The NHTSA said it “will continue its conversations with Tesla to ensure that any safety defect is promptly acknowledged and addressed.” The EV company said that it was not aware of any crashes or injuries that have resulted from the error.
For now, Tesla has released an over-the-air software update to address the issue and owners will be sent letters notifying them of the issue and its resolution.
“This communication disconnect can result in the video neural networks that operate on that chip to run less consistently than expected,” read the safety recall report. “The inconsistency can produce negative object velocity detections when other vehicles are present, which in turn can lead to false [forward-collision warnings] and [automatic emergency braking] events.”
