Another day, another Tesla recall. Okay, that’s a little harsh, but the company did announce just last month that it needed to fix an issue with its Full Self Driving technology in over two million vehicles in the US. Now, Tesla has another issue affecting many of its newer models.
In a filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the company announced a new recall for issues with the backup camera. According to the filing, vehicles with a certain FSD computer and certain versions of the software would find that the backup camera would not work. The company says that “if the condition is present, the rearview camera display will appear blank when
the vehicle is shifted to Reverse.”
On certain affected vehicles equipped with full self-driving computer 4.0 and running a software release version from 2023.44.30 through 2023.44.30.6, or 2023.44.100, insufficient inter-integrated circuit protocol stability may prevent the rearview camera image from displaying in compliance with FMVSS No. 111, S5.5.3.
Tesla says that it began to see reports of this issue towards the end of December 2023 and started to test an over-the-air software fix in the same month. Thankfully, it does appear that the issue is software-related and not something that you’ll need to take your car in for since you’ll get a software update directly to the vehicle. The issue impacts the 2023 model of the Model S, Model X, and Model Y. It appears that the Model 3 has dodged a bullet on this one.
At no cost to customers, affected vehicles received an over-the-air software remedy, which began deploying on or shortly after December 28, 2023, with software release 2023.44.30.7. Software release 2023.44.30.7 or a later release incorporates sufficient inter-integrated circuit protocol stability to allow the rearview camera image to display in compliance with FMVSS No. 111, S5.5.3.
Tesla says that it began notifying its stores and service centers of the issue on January 24th and will send letters to affected customers in March. Hopefully, impacted owners have already had the issue fixed by the over-the-air software update that started to roll out earlier this month.
The recall comes a month after the NHTSA released a recall on almost every single Tesla Model 3, Model Y, Model S, and Model X that has been sold in the United States for a “defect” in Autopilot. According to that report, “In certain circumstances when Autosteer is engaged, the prominence and scope of the feature’s controls may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse of the SAE Level 2 advanced driver-assistance feature.” Tesla released a software update for that issue as well.
As Tesla recalls some more of its cars, it’s also gearing up to launch its next-generation EV. The company has already contacted suppliers about its intention to start mass production of a new electric vehicle in the middle of 2025. The vehicle is codenamed “Redwood” and, according to sources, will be a compact crossover.
The rumor, which was reported earlier this week, predicts that “Redwood” is the $25,000 electric vehicle that Tesla has been promising to build since 2020. According to the sources, the company is telling suppliers that it is expecting enough demand to build 10,000 of the model per week or over half a million per year.
