Tesla recalls over 800K vehicles for seat belt reminder issue

Tesla will recall more than 800,000 vehicles because of an issue with the seat belt reminder feature.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) disclosed in a Thursday safety report that 817,143 Tesla vehicles would have to be recalled because the seat belt reminder may not activate when a new driver cycle begins, which could lead the driver to operating the vehicle without a seatbelt.

The recall includes the 2021-2022 Model S and Model X, the 2017-2022 Model 3 and the 2020-2022 Model Y. Tesla, however, is not aware of any injuries or deaths stemming to this issue as of Jan. 31, according to NHTSA.

“If the audible seat belt reminder chime does not activate at the start of a new drive cycle and the driver does not notice the accompanying visual seat belt telltale, the driver may not be reminded to buckle their seat belt and may begin operating the vehicle in an unbuckled state, which could increase the risk of injury,” NHTSA wrote in its report.

Seat belt reminders are required to ring when vehicles are switched on, then the chime stops once the driver and passenger seat belts are buckled, according to The Associated Press.

NHTSA noted that the issue in Tesla vehicles only occurred if the driver kept the vehicle in the previous drive cycle when the seat belt reminder was ringing. The system did, however, function properly when the vehicle was driving faster than 13.7 miles per hour.

The malfunction was first discovered by the South Korea Automobile Testing & Research Institute, then it was further investigated by Tesla. On Jan. 25, the company determined that the issue was “a noncompliance” and subsequently made a recall determination.

The issue will be rectified through an over the air software update this month, according to the AP.

The massive recall comes days after Tesla said it was recalling more than 53,000 vehicles in the U.S. because of its “rolling stop” feature that allows vehicles to proceed through an all-way stop sign intersection without first coming to a standstill.