Tesla to begin software recall of 1.1 million vehicles in China

Tesla is issuing a voluntary recall of all vehicles sold in China between January 12, 2019, and April 24, 2023. The company will push an OTA update to 1,104,622 vehicles beginning May 29 to address the “energy recovery braking strategy.”

It’s an interesting one, Tesla filed for the recall following the Management of Defective Automobile Product Recalls Regulations. It isn’t an admission of fault as such but it is an action to avoid possible escalation of the potential fault within the system that can result in increased risk of collision - that’s according to the filing with the State Administration in China.

This has to do with the recent Tesla update to all of its vehicles that brings back the regen braking adjustment. In all of its markets, Tesla sent out an update that now allows drivers to choose between different levels of energy recuperation. But in China, the company issued a recall and its wording is quite telling that there was more to it than just an update.

It ties in with some of the stories from China we all see so often on social media. We all know the reports of Tesla cars spontaneously accelerating, some resulting in terrible accidents and some ending up with just a big scare. While the company always dismissed claims of the vehicles or the software being at fault, this recall shines a bit more light on the claims.

In the recall documentation, Tesla confirms that the vehicles with the current software do not allow the driver to choose the strength of regen braking and admits that the vehicles do not warn the driver if they press on the accelerator for prolonged times at full strength. The company admits that the combination of the two factors can lead to accidental acceleration - much longer than anticipated by the driver - and as a result, it can pose a safety hazard.

On one hand, it is hard to imagine that a driver would not realize that they are pressing on the accelerator too hard and too long. But on the other hand, if an inexperienced driver could overreact to the regen braking and accelerate much harder than normal, the result could be initially quite scary. And then, once the panic sets in, people just press on the pedal not realizing it’s the wrong one.

Is Tesla at fault here? The recall is the answer and it only confirms that the best software isn’t always as good as simple mechanical solutions. And it’s not necessarily the software’s fault either - as always, the weakest link is us, humans. The biggest variable in any software is the human interacting with it and even the best engineers will struggle to account for all the possibilities.

Via