Tesla Resolves 700k Vehicle Recall via OTA Update; NHTSA Now Highlights OTA Recalls

Tesla has issued a recall for 700,000 vehicles in the US, which addresses a software bug that impacted Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) sensors. Of course, this recall was resolved with an over-the-air (OTA) update on Tesla update 2024.38.7. 

As the software bug could potentially pose a safety issue, a mandatory NHTSA recall was filed by Tesla. This bug impacted the Model Y, Model 3, and Cybertruck. As usual, mainstream news media has let loose on Tesla, issuing articles and headline reports on TV covering the recall - but of course, not mentioning it was fixed by an OTA update, even before the notice was released.

You can read NHTSA’s entire recall notice here.

The Bug

Update 2024.38.3 reset the TPMS warning indicator when the vehicle was powered down or put to sleep between drives. This could potentially leave a driver unaware of a persistent TPMS issue, wherein they could have too little or too much air pressure in a tire.

According to the NHTSA filing, Tesla identified the issue on November 6th, 2024, and then confirmed in a further investigation that there was indeed an issue. Shortly afterward, update 2024.38.7 began rolling out on November 12th, just under a week later.

Tesla also confirmed that there were no real-life impacts - so no collisions, injuries, or fatalities as a result of this bug while it was in the wild. They did note that 76 warranty claims were filed during the 6-day period, which helped to isolate the issue.

OTA Recalls Now Recognized by NHTSA 

According to a post by DriveTeslaCA, the NHTSA has now added an icon to their website indicating whether a recall is fixed via an OTA software update. 

The message reads: “Software Update Repairs Recall”. 

That’s certainly a step forward, letting users know the issue will be addressed via a software update and they won’t need to bring their car into service. We’d like to see NHTSA next adopt some of the lessons learned by Transport Canada, which issues recalls solely by e-mail.

NHTSA will be using approximately 50 trees worth of paper to print and ship the recall notices, which will likely arrive sometime in January - months after the issue has already been resolved by Tesla.

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