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Tesla must fix the software of more than 2mn US vehicles, its third major safety update in the space of three months, coming at the end of a fraught week for the US electric-car maker.
The software update on 2.2mn vehicles covers Tesla’s 3, S, X and Y models and its new Cybertruck, almost every car the company has ever sold in the US, and was ordered because warning lights on the instrument panel are too small, according to federal safety standards.
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the small font size on the lights “can make critical safety information on the instrument panel difficult to read, increasing the risk of a crash”.
The digital fix involves increasing the font size for Tesla’s brake, park and anti-lock brake system, which are smaller than the mandated size, the NHTSA said.
Tesla was notified by the regulator of the problem on January 8 and the company “voluntarily made a recall determination” on January 24, the NHTSA said in a report dated January 30.
Tesla has already begun rolling out a software update, the NHTSA added.
The agency said Tesla was unaware of any collisions, injuries or deaths related to the warning size issue. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The carmaker issued another widespread software fix in December to improve safeguards in its Autopilot driver-assistance system, after an NHTSA investigation into a series of fatal accidents. The fix affected 2mn vehicles. Last month, Tesla rolled out a similar fix to 1.6mn vehicles in China.
Tesla has been under investigation by the NHTSA for more than two years over whether the Autopilot system ensures drivers pay attention to the road when the vehicle is steering itself.
The latest NHTSA ruling caps a week that has seen the role of Tesla’s board come into greater focus after a Delaware court struck down chief executive Elon Musk’s record pay package.
Musk had been awarded stock in 2018 that would only vest if he hit financial targets that, at the time, were considered impossibly stretching. The company’s profitability, and a rising share price that briefly valued it above $1tn, means the shares were due to pay about $55bn.
Following Tuesday’s ruling, Musk held a poll on social media site X, which he owns, asking whether Tesla should move its incorporation from Delaware to Texas, where it is already headquartered. After the result, he said Tesla’s shareholders would vote on the measure.
The pay ruling threatens to distract Musk at a time when Tesla’s decade of dominance in the electric vehicle market is under threat from Chinese competitor BYD, which overtook the US company late last year as the world’s largest battery-only car manufacturer.
