Has Autopilot failed? Tesla has recalled nearly all of its cars in the USA because drivers aren’t paying attention

Tesla has been forced to recall over two million vehicles in the United States after cars fitted with its Autopilot semi-autonomous cruise control was found to pose serious safety concerns.

Following a two-year-long investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the government safety body found that Tesla vehicles did not adequately ensure that drivers were paying attention while using Autopilot.

It’s thought that because of a lack of mandatory driver monitoring that the Autopilot was open to misuse by drivers which significantly increased the risk of a collision.

Commenting on the recall, acting NHTSA boss Ann Carlson said: “One of the things we determined is that drivers are not always paying attention when that system is on”.

Autopilot is said to be capable of self-steering, accelerating, braking, lane-keeping and maintaining a gap between it and other vehicles ahead but despite confusion among some consumers it is not autonomous.

Instead of a physical recall, Tesla has announced it will introduce an over-the-air update that will “incorporate additional controls and alerts to those already existing on affected vehicles to further encourage the driver to adhere to their continuous driving responsibility whenever Autosteer is engaged.”

Even though Tesla has initiated the recall it said it did not agree with the NHTSA’s findings.

The US EV maker has also yet to release details on its new safeguard measures, nor announce if it will roll out the software to other markets, including Australia.

The NHTSA probe was initially launched in April 2021 following more than a dozen crashes involving Teslas colliding with stationary emergency vehicles.

Tesla upgraded the Autopilot in June 2022 but incidents continued to occur.

“Tesla’s unique design of its Autopilot system can provide inadequate driver engagement and usage controls that can lead to foreseeable misuse,” said a spokesperson for the NHTSA which reviewed 956 crashes where Autopilot was initially alleged and then went onto focus on 322 specific Autopilot-involved crashes.

Following the release of its findings, it’s thought Tesla will be subject to multiple legal proceedings that will hinge on the so-called defects of the Autopilot cruise control.

Tesla says it will roll out the update to 2.03 million Model S, X, 3 and Y vehicles in the United States dating back to the 2012 model year.