Elon Musk is a bit red in the face after Tesla had to issue a recall of 375,000 units. The fault involves the power steering assist in two models and there’s a risk that drivers won’t be able to control the vehicle if the problem kicks in. This essentially means that there’s a risk of a crash with potentially life-threatening consequences.
Tesla has reported that it’s unaware of any accidents, injuries, or deaths as a result of the fault and has already taken steps to rectify the problem with the minimum of inconvenience to drivers.
Tesla had to issue a recall over steering issues
According to a recall report Tesla submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the steering problem involves the printed circuit board that controls the electronic power-assisted steering (EPAS). If the board becomes stressed, you’ll feel the car lose steering power when stopping and accelerating again. If this occurs, the driver will find it difficult to control the vehicle, especially at low speeds.
The NHTSA explained:
“A loss of power steering assist can require greater steering effort, especially at low speeds, increasing the risk of a crash.”
The models affected by the recall are the 2023 Model 3 and Model Y that are installed with software versions prior to the 2023.38.4 version. As mentioned above, this increases the risk of an accident, so it’s advised that drivers get the software fault sorted out as quickly as possible.
Drivers don’t have to take their Teslas anywhere
Tesla has already released a free over-the-air software update to address the issue, meaning that drivers don’t have to take their vehicle to a service center, it can simply be downloaded via cellphone or Wi-Fi. Impacted owners can also expect to receive a notification letter sometime shortly after March 25, 2025.
Tesla says the EPAS issue is low-risk
Tesla offered drivers some reassurance, saying the vehicles are designed in a way that steering “will not be affected” if the “overstress condition” occurs while driving above zero miles per hour, meaning it only happens at the moment of acceleration or deceleration at the zero-mile mark. It states on the Tesla website that the risk is low as drivers can still steer their vehicle manually:
“Tesla’s design avoids any unreasonable risk to safety by preventing a loss of EPAS while the vehicle is in motion. In addition, Tesla does not believe that loss of EPAS when the vehicle reaches 0 mph is an unreasonable risk to safety because manual steering remains available.”
Tesla’s decision to recall the affected units (similar to what Honda had to do recently) in all markets to avoid creating confusion for customers after a regulator in a non-US market determined that the loss of EPAS control needed to be resolved through a recall. Carrying this out for the identical models in some countries but not others would have had consumers asking questions, so Tesla decided to apply the solution across the board.
Fact check: Is Tesla working on a hydrogen model?
Rumors of a hydrogen Tesla started getting people excited in 2024 about a so-called “Model H” being developed. If it’s true, it would mark a major shift from Elon Musk’s historically unflattering opinion of hydrogen. Musk has loudly and repeatedly slammed hydrogen fuel cells as “fool cells,” so if he’s developing a Model H, something serious must have come up to change his mind.
Reports of a supposed hydrogen-fueled Tesla circulated online in a number of videos and articles on several platforms. The article claimed that Musk made a turnaround on hydrogen as a vehicle fuel and intends to integrate hydrogen-powered vehicles into Tesla’s range. You can read up to find out how this turned out.