Electric vehicle giant Tesla recently initiated a safety recall for 125,227 S3XY EVs due to an issue with the seat belt warning system. Thanks to Tesla’s software update capability, affected owners would not need to bring their cars to service centers.
Glitch caused warning Lights, chimes to malfunction
According to the Part 573 Safety Recall Report, the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) mandates electric vehicles to have short audible and visual seat belt reminder signals to warn drivers if they have not yet fastened their seat belts.
When a driver starts the car and has not buckled up, a chime will sound for at least 4 seconds and a warning light will turn on for at least 60 seconds.
The report indicated that hundreds of thousands of Tesla electric vehicles’ seat belt warning lights and audible chimes may fail to activate as FMVSS requires.
“On certain affected vehicles, an open trace in the driver seat occupancy switch may result in a loss of the audible and visual seat belt reminder signals when the driver’s seat belt is not fastened after the vehicle ignition is moved to the “on” or “start” position.”
Part 573 Safety Recall Report
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) asserted that the Tesla EVs’ failure to alert drivers to an unfastened seat belt violates the FMVSS No. 208, S7.3(a)(1), increasing the ” risk of injury in a collision.”
Recall includes Model S, X, 3 & Y from 2012-202
Tesla’s safety recall caused by a faulty seat belt warning system affected 125,227 electric vehicles in the United States:
- 2012-2024 Tesla Model S produced from October 16, 2012 to April 29, 2024
- 2016-2024 Tesla Model X produced from December 16, 2015 to April 29, 2024
- 2017-2023 Tesla Model 3 produced from July 15, 2017, to November 15, 2023
- 2020-2023 Tesla Model Y produced from January 13, 2020, to November 15, 2023
Out of roughly 125,000 potentially involved Tesla EVs, only about 2% may have a problem with the seat belt reminder system.
As of May 28, Tesla has determined warranty claims that may be associated with the seat belt warning system fault.
Free update in June, no need for service visit
As usual, Tesla only needs to release an over-the-air software update to fix the issue. Therefore, affected Tesla owners no longer need to physically bring their cars to service centers.
As indicated by the Musk-led automaker, “software remedy will remove dependency on the driver seat occupancy switch from the software logic and only rely on driver seat belt buckle and ignition status to activate the seat belt reminder signal.”
Tesla plans to start rolling out the software update to affected electric vehicles in June 2024. Meanwhile, owner notification letters are expected to be sent by July 27, 2024. Affected owners may reach out to Tesla customer service at 1-877-798-3752. Tesla’s number for this safety recall is SB-24-00-008.
