Tesla is restricting the use of its Autopilot driver assistance software as part of a recall of two million vehicles, one of the first results to emerge from an ongoing multi-year investigation by the nation’s top auto safety regulator.
The recall limits the use of Autosteer, the main feature of Tesla’s core Autopilot software that allows the car to stay centered in a lane even around sharp turns and has helped Tesla’s driver-assistance system still claim some operational dominance against opponents. Basic Autopilot, which comes standard on all Tesla vehicles, also includes a feature called Traffic Aware Cruise Control, which works like the adaptive cruise control found in most modern cars.
Specifically, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports documents released Wednesday that the way Tesla cars check to see if drivers are paying attention to the road while using Autosteer is “[i]insufficient.” To fix this, Tesla will soon ship a software update that will add “additional checks and alerts” to encourage drivers to stay alert while using Autosteer and, more importantly, to make “additional checks” to activate software in places where it should not be used.
Tesla has long said that the Auto steering function “intended for use on controlled-access highways with a fully attentive driver,” but its cars don’t prevent drivers from activating it elsewhere as long as certain basic conditions are met – such as the lane-marking system.
Adding any sort of restriction, then, is an impressive decision for Tesla, a company that almost never backs down from the possibilities of its cars, as CEO Elon Musk constantly pushes the idea of a “fully self-driving” future. And it comes at a time when the company is facing a series of lawsuits involving Autopilot. (One, in California, has already gone Tesla’s way.) The California Department of Motor Vehicles accused Tesla of falsely advertising the capabilities of Autopilot and its more advanced Full Self-Driving beta software, which Tesla recently tried to claim a First Amendment issue. The software suite is also the focus of a series of state and federal investigations.
NHTSA says in the documents that it began meeting with Tesla in October about its findings about the driver’s misuse of Autosteer. The agency says Tesla disagreed with the analysis, but ultimately decided on Dec. 5 to manage the recall.
