The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has asked Tesla to collect about 158,000 Model S and Model X vehicles that could suffer from display console failure, according to a letter published by the agency on Wednesday. Failures of so-called “media control units” on these vehicles can cut the owner’s access to the vehicle’s backup camera, temperature controls and Tesla’s autopilot driver assistance system, increasing the risk of an accident, the agency says of security.
The problem at the heart of the defect that NHTSA wants Tesla to fix involves worn-out flash memory chips used in the 2012-2018 Model S sedan monitors and the 2016-2018 Model X SUVs. Each time an owner turns on one of these Teslas, it consumes the full capacity of the 8 GB NAND eMMC flash memory chip integrated in the NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor that powers the monitors. When that capacity is reached – usually about five to six years later, the agency says – the monitors are blocked. Motherboard first reported on the problem in 2019.
Tesla confirmed to NHTSA that all units with this chip will “inevitably fail”, according to the agency, and also provided a statistical model showing projected weekly repairs lasting from 2020 to 2028, with most failures occurring in 2022.
NHTSA opened a formal investigation into the problem last June, and said on Wednesday that the investigation is still ongoing, despite Tesla’s request to revoke the vehicles. It is not clear whether Tesla will obey. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the letter, NHTSA acknowledges that Tesla has issued over-the-air software updates designed to mitigate the flaws, but the agency believes that they do not go far enough – especially as the problem cuts off access to the backup camera, which now it is a mandatory federal resource. “[T]These updates are insufficient in terms of procedures and substantially ”, writes the agency.
Although Tesla popularized the use of large touch screens in cars, it had more than one problem with these earlier models. In addition to the flash memory problem at the heart of the NHTSA recall order, the first Tesla monitors also suffered from bubbles and yellow streaks, as they did not meet typical automotive standards.