- Tesla has announced that it will recall all Cybertrucks made between November and April after it received complaints that the cars might unintentionally accelerate
- Affected customers will be notified by the company in June when they can get the accelerator fixed at no cost
- The company has already made three vehicle recalls this year, affecting 2.4 million cars in total
Tesla has decided to recall all Cybertrucks it made, 3878 to be precise, fearing they might automatically accelerate. The Friday filing from the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) confirms this news.
Cybertrucks were a problematic project to begin with.
- When the car was first announced in 2019, it raised a lot of corners because of its sharp edges and relatively smaller windows that could lead to a crash. These concerns still remain.
- Then, the company delivered the first batch of cars almost 2 years late due to unavoidable delays caused by production issues and battery supply constraints.
Now, after releasing last November, Cybertruck owners started complaining that the car’s accelerator pad could come off, get stuck in the interior trim, and make the vehicle unintentionally accelerate. A new lubricant used in the making is believed to be the culprit.
‘The moment I let go of the break, it would lurch forward at full throttle again.’ – A Tesla customer
This is a huge safety concern. If a vehicle accelerates at the wrong time, a crash will be inevitable.
The only silver lining here is that so far there have been no reports of any crashes caused by faulty accelerators. Also, the car was launched in limited numbers and made available only across the US, Mexico, and Canada. So, it will be comparatively easier for Tesla to fix all units.
Related news: Tesla may open some automotive system coding to other automakers
What Happens Now?
Tesla has taken responsibility to fix this problem—and announcing the recall is its first step. The recall affects all the cars that were made between November last year and April 2024, which is about 3,878 models.
Usually, if there’s a problem with a Tesla car, it’s fixed with a software update. However, in this case, the owners of affected cars will have to return the cars to get the pedal fixed—free of cost, of course.
Tesla will notify the car owners of the next step of action in June through a mailed letter. Until then, the company has advised drivers to brake when they notice the acceleration rising.
Needless to say, Tesla’s stocks took a hit after this news went public. On Friday (April 19), it lost 1.92% and in the last 5 sessions, the stock price dipped by 14% overall.
Other Tesla Recalls
This isn’t the first time Tesla cars have been recalled.
Instance #1
In the first three months of 2024, Tesla made 3 recalls, affecting a total of 2.4 million vehicles.
Out of this, 2.2 million models were recalled in February alone, in the US. It started with an issue with the font size in the warning light, but the safety regulators soon extended their probe into the cars’ power steering loss and elevated it to the status of an engineering analysis.
Instance #2
In December last year, more than 2 million Tesla vehicles were recalled after a flaw detected in Tesla’s Autopilot system. Basically, it failed to detect whether the driver was paying attention to the road when the self-driving mode was on.
With so many callbacks, plus that Tesla will lay off 10% of its global workforce amidst low sales and rising competition, it’s safe to say that Tesla isn’t off to a smooth start in 2024.
However, as the automobile industry keeps growing, we can certainly expect Tesla to be a frontrunner in the industry sooner rather than later. A huge cog in Tesla’s wheel of redemption could be its ‘Robotaxi’ project. Tesla will unveil its first robotaxi on August 8.
