Tesla is recalling over 125,000 vehicles in the United States due to a malfunction in its seat belt warning system, which can increase the risk of injury in a collision, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced on Friday. The affected vehicles fail to comply with federal safety requirements, as their seat belt warning light and audible chime may not activate when the driver is unbelted.
The recall impacts certain 2012-2024 Model S, 2015-2024 Model X, 2017-2023 Model 3, and 2020-2023 Model Y vehicles. To address this, the EV maker will release an over-the-air software update, which is expected to be deployed in June. This update will remove the dependency on the driver seat occupancy sensor and instead rely solely on the driver seat belt buckle and ignition status to activate the seat belt reminder signals, as per NHTSA’s statement.
This recall follows previous safety concerns involving Tesla vehicles. In January, Tesla recalled 200,000 Model S, X, and Y vehicles in the U.S. due to a software malfunction that could obstruct drivers’ visibility while reversing. Additionally, in April, Tesla recalled 3,878 Cybertrucks to fix an accelerator pedal pad that could come loose and become lodged in the interior trim.
Furthermore, U.S. auto safety regulators opened an investigation last month into whether Tesla’s December recall of over 2 million vehicles, aimed at installing new Autopilot safeguards, was adequate following a series of crashes.
