Tesla has long been known (since May 2018) in the USA, the traffic safety authority NHTSA to recall a total of 158. 000 cars of types Model S and Model X prompted. A design defect on the on-board computer in the “Media Control Unit” (“MCU”) could impair the function of the rear view camera and “other safety functions”. That’s what NHTSA wrote on Wednesday (13. Jan. 2021) in a letter to Tesla. According to NHTSA, the defect concerns the Tesla Model S from the model years (“MY”) 2012 to 2018 and the Tesla Model X (test) from the years 2016 to 2018.

According to the NHTSA, the vehicles concerned are with a Nvidia Tegra 3 processor and an integrated 8 GByte flash memory. Every time the car is started, the software uses part of this memory. After too many overwrite processes, the flash memory can fail, which leads to the failure of the control screen. Statistically speaking, this should be the case after around six years, says Tesla.

Failure of important functions Without a functioning screen However, the cars no longer comply with the US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, or FMVSS for short. The MCU standstill leads to the failure of the reversing camera and the defrosting or defrosting function of the vehicle heating. In addition, the “autopilot function” of the assistance system is disrupted, the acoustic flashing display and warning tones are no longer issued.

The authorities classify the MCU failure as safety-relevant. Therefore she asks Tesla to initiate a callback to restore a roadworthy condition according to FMVSS. If Tesla does not carry out the recall, reasons must be given to the NHTSA. If it does not receive any satisfactory answers by the end of the month, the authority reserves the right to take further steps. Then there could be a mandatory recall.

Half-hearted problem solving Tesla could solve the problem by a preventive exchange of the Solve MCUs. So far, customers could only purchase the MCU after a defect from the manufacturer within the scope of the eight-year warranty or 100. 000 Miles for free, afterwards can be exchanged for around 3000 euros. Then the security risk due to the failure has already occurred. A firmware update (“2019. 32. 12. 7 “) should also significantly reduce the logging entries, which would lead to a later failure of the MCU. All of this can be read in more detail in our article “Tesla’s Flash Misconstruction”.

( fpi)