Tesla to recall 125,227 vehicles over faulty seat belt warning system

[May 31, 2024]  (Reuters) -Tesla is recalling 125,227 vehicles in the United States due to a malfunction in its seat belt warning system that can increase the risk of injury in a collision, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Friday.

Tesla Model 3 on display at the Everything Electric exhibition at the ExCeL London international exhibition and convention centre in London, Britain, March 28, 2024. REUTERS/Peter Cziborra

The regulator said the vehicles failed to comply with the federal safety requirements as their seat belt warning light and audible chime may not get activated when the driver is unbelted.

The recall affects certain 2012-2024 Model S, 2015-2024 Model X, 2017-2023 Model 3 and 2020-2023 Model Y vehicles.

Tesla will release an over-the-air software update to fix the issue, with deployment expected to start in June.

The remedy will remove dependency on the driver seat occupancy sensor from the software and only rely on driver seat belt buckle and ignition status to activate the seat belt reminder signals, the NHTSA said.

Tesla had recalled 200,000 Model S, X, and Y vehicles in the U.S. in January due to a software malfunction which could obstruct drivers' visibility while reversing.

It also recalled 3,878 Cybertrucks in April to fix an accelerator pedal pad that could come loose and get lodged in the interior trim.

U.S. auto safety regulators also opened an investigation last month into whether Tesla's recall of more than 2 million vehicles announced in December to install new Autopilot safeguards was adequate following a series of crashes.

(Reporting by Surbhi Misra and Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)

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