Due to allegations of losing steering control and power steering, U.S. auto safety officials announced that they had started investigating 280,000 new Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.
After receiving complaints from owners of the vehicles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched a preliminary investigation. One Model 3 driver complained that the steering wheel felt stuck and caused the car to slide off the road, which resulted in crashing into a tree.
In June, a driver in Alpharetta, Georgia, reported that a two-week-old Tesla Model Y was leaving a shopping center when the steering wheel abruptly stopped. “It was hard to miss the alert when the vehicle came very close to the opposite side of the traffic and somehow made it across the road inside the shopping center.”
According to the NHTSA, this is the first stage of a formal investigation to see if the issue constitutes an excessive safety risk. Before requesting a formal recall, NHTSA needs to escalate the probe to an engineering analysis.
Another recent complaint stated that when a Tesla Model Y was turned on, the “wheel jerked hard right and made a thud,” the screen cautioned that the “Steering Assist Reduced” and flashed an error code.
The driver reported that the power steering was not working, that it felt dangerous to steer, and that Tesla had rescheduled his service appointment from May 2 to May 25 owing to a shortage of parts. They acknowledged that this problem is recent and that the steering rack may need to be replaced entirely.
A driver in Honolulu reported that the Tesla’s steering wheel started suddenly locking up a week after buying it. The driver said it “occurred six times on different dates before we could get it to the Tesla service department.” The driver stated, “Currently, the vehicle remains at Tesla for the next three weeks while we await a new steering rack/motor.”
