Several thousand Tesla models produced after 2017 are the subject of an over-the-air recall relating to the company’s automatic emergency braking system, according to NHTSA documents.
The recall includes certain Models S, 3, X, and Y, and affects 11,704 vehicles in total. It is the result of a software communication error that may, under a specific sequence of events, result in a false forward collision warning (FCW) and a false automatic emergency braking (AEB) event.
NHTSA warns that if an unexpected AEB event occurs, it could increase the risk of a collision with the vehicle behind. Fortunately, it is not aware of any crashes or injuries related to the issue.
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In an investigation, Tesla found that the problem leading to these false positives was related to its 2021.36.5.2 over-the-air firmware update to vehicles in the early access FSD beta population. That update introduced a software communication disconnect between two onboard chips, specifically when the vehicle is waking up from “Sentry” or “Summon Standby Mode.”
Those modes put one of the chips in a low-power sleep mode, but the communication disconnect could result in the video neural networks that operate on the chip running less consistently than expected. That could lead the system to produce negative object velocity detections when other vehicles were present, which in turn could lead to the false FCW and AEB events.
A warning chime and message are displayed in the vehicle when a false-positive braking event occurs. Tesla also says it stopped rolling out the update after customers reported the issue and has now released a new over-the-air update (2021.36.5.3) that it says addresses the problem.
On October 29, Tesla had installed the update on 99.8 percent of the subject population. It says that no further action is required from owners whose vehicles are equipped with that, or a later, firmware release.
