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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a letter to Tesla that a car screen problem and related faults could disable the rear view camera and other safety-related vehicle functions.
The agency said the defect was found in certain Tesla Model S cars made in 2012-2018 and Model X cars made in 2016-2018.
Safety investigators “have reached the preliminary conclusion that the failure of the media control unit (MCU) is related to a defect that endangers the safety of motor vehicles,” the letter read.
On these vehicles, due to faulty media control, the car’s touchscreen may turn off and the driver will no longer see the image displayed on the rear / spare camera. This increases the risk of an accident and can lead to injury or death. ”
A failure in the multimedia unit can also block the use of the car’s windshield defrost and defrost system, affect the autopilot system and turn signal functionality “due to possible loss of audible signals, steering sensors and warnings related to these vehicle functions “.
The failure rate found in the study is “significantly higher than for vehicles that have been recalled in the past for similar reasons.”
In the letter, regulators asked Tesla to “initiate the recall of the vehicles and notify all owners, buyers and sellers” of the security system defect and “how to rectify it.”
Tesla, led by the world’s richest man, Elon Musko, is not required to comply with the federal agency’s request, but must provide an explanation before January 27.
The request could cause problems for the company, as 158,000 vehicles account for almost a third of all cars delivered by the manufacturer in 2020.
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