Tesla issues its largest ever vehicle recall over seatbelt safety

Tesla will be recalling its largest ever number of electric vehicles over something that may sound mundane but could impact driver safety as it concerns the seatbelt system, said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The agency demands that Tesla fixes the seatbelt chime in no less than 817,143 of its cars because it fails to sound in certain conditions like when "the chime was interrupted in the preceding drive cycle and the seat belt was not buckled subsequent to that interruption". 

This could happen if the driver went out of the car while the chime was on and subsequently returned to create a new drive cycle and fool the system. They'd still get the visual "seatbelt unbuckled" sign on the car's info screen, though. Nevertheless, according to the NHTSA "these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 208, "Occupant Crash Protection", so the issue has to be remedied. The models affected by this latest Tesla seatbelt safety recall are as follows:

• TESLA MODEL 3 2017-2022
• TESLA MODEL S 2021-2022
• TESLA MODEL X 2021-2022
• TESLA MODEL Y 2020-2022

Thankfully, the seatbelt chime fix is fairly straightforward and wouldn't require pesky visits to a dealer or waiting for days that the issue gets fixed there. Tesla will have to mail notification letters to all owners of the affected Model 3, Model S, Model Y, or Model X vehicles with the information that it will be performing an over-the-air software update to remedy the issue and restore the seatbelt chime performance to its rightful form and function.

Get the 50A ChargePoint Home Flex EV charger on Amazon