Federal safety regulators ordered top EV maker Tesla to recall 1.1 million vehicles to address an issue with the automatic reversal system on the vehicles. 

The windows may not reverse direction as quickly as they should upon detecting an object between the window and the window frame. The result is that the window can pinch the object, such as a finger, in the frame potentially causing injury.

Tesla, which will try to fix the problem with an over-the-air update, said it’s unaware of any warranty claims, crashes, injuries or deaths related to the problem. 

The problem concerns the windows’ obstruction recognition, which is responsible for detecting objects that might get caught, such as a child’s fingers. The recall concerns Model 3 cars from 2017-22, Model Y cars from 2020/21, as well as Model S and Model X vehicles from 2021-22.

Solving the problem

NHTSA said the issue is a violation of federal safety standards for power windows. Tesla conducted additional testing after complaints were made, and confirmed the vehicles pinch detection and retraction performance in the test results did not meet federal automatic reversal systems requirements.

The updates began Sept. 13 with vehicles in production and prior to their delivery to customers. Owners will be notified by letter starting Nov. 15 about the OTA update coming to try to solve the problem.

Tesla’s recalled more than 1.4 million vehicles since Jan. 1 and that number hits 2 million if the 475,000-plus action announced Dec. 31, 2021 is added. The recalls have covered everything from the boombox function not emitting the federally mandated Pedestrian Warning System sounds to a seat belt defect on 817K vehicles to issues with the company’s full self-driving technology rolling through stop signs.

The majority of the recalls can be resolved with over-the-air updates. For example, in April, the company recalled approximately 48,000 Model 3 Performance vehicles from the 2018 through 2022 model year in the United States and 14,684 cars in China.

The action was because they may not display the speedometer while in “Track Mode,” according to documents released by NHTSA. 

The increasing number of recalls is a result of increasing pressure from NHTSA. With 10 recalls affecting 2.1 million vehicles in 2022, only Ford Motor Co. issued more.