Blog Tesla Recalls 285K Cars in China for Autopilot Concerns

Tesla has recalled more than 285,000 vehicles in China for concerns over the Autopilot self-driving feature.

Announced Saturday by the State Administration for Market Regulation, the recall affects 211,256 Model 3 vehicles built at the company’s Shanghai factory and 35,665 imported Model 3 vehicles. The recall affected 38,599 China-made Model Ys.

Chinese regulators claim that Autopilot can be activated automatically, which can lead to sudden acceleration that could cause a crash.

“We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to our car owners,” Tesla said in a statement on its Weibo account. “In the meantime, Tesla will strictly follow national regulations and keep improving our safety protection, adamantly providing an excellent and safe driving experience to our customers.”

A fix for the problem can be delivered via a software update.

 

[drdumont]

Let us eschew obfuscation...

Is this writer referring to the TACC Autopilot or to the (currently $10,000) option called "Full Self Driving"?

There are misinformed folks who think the terms are interchangeable. They are not. TACC is a proven function which works well in my Teslas. FSD is not. Very much not.

 

[UncertainTimes]

The “recall” just involves playing a sound when TACC is activated. Apparently every other car on the planet doesn’t play a sound when activating cruise control and that’s ok.

 

[Zacster]

The “recall” just involves playing a sound when TACC is activated. Apparently every other car on the planet doesn’t play a sound when activating cruise control and that’s ok.

Don't we already have that? At least on American built cars we do.

My guess, without reading the specifics, is that it is too easy to engage AP by accidentally pushing down on the stalk and you don't know you did it. Every car with CC I've had in the past needed to first have the CC turned on and then set the speed, but all of my previous cars were over 12 years old.

But with TACC you still wouldn't just crash into the car in front of you, it would react to it. I agree though it can be unnerving for your car to not react when taking your foot off the pedal.

 

[drdumont]

Every other car maker - no biggie.
But since it is Tesla, the media is all about "OH MY GOD! HOW COULD THEY FOIST THESE DANGEROUS THINGS ON THE HUMAN RACE? WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!",
John 11:35. Copiously.

 

[MX_2017DE]

Recall for a software update?
Tesla? Seriously?
My Tesla gets OTA updates frequently.

 

[UncertainTimes]

Don't we already have that? At least on American built cars we do.

My guess, without reading the specifics, is that it is too easy to engage AP by accidentally pushing down on the stalk and you don't know you did it. Every car with CC I've had in the past needed to first have the CC turned on and then set the speed, but all of my previous cars were over 12 years old.

But with TACC you still wouldn't just crash into the car in front of you, it would react to it. I agree though it can be unnerving for your car to not react when taking your foot off the pedal.

Pretty sure there’s no dong when just TACC is enabled. Just the double dong when AP is engaged. Not sure about FSD does it triple dong? Important regulatory dong questions need answering.

 

[Zacster]

I’ll have to try it tomorrow.

Pretty sure there’s no dong when just TACC is enabled. Just the double dong when AP is engaged. Not sure about FSD does it triple dong? Important regulatory dong questions need answering.

 

[Iain]

Recall for a software update?
Tesla? Seriously?
My Tesla gets OTA updates frequently.

I think that's the joke. Calling it a recall sounds bad, sending an OTA update doesn't grab the headlines

 

[casey1202]

Pretty sure there’s no dong when just TACC is enabled. Just the double dong when AP is engaged. Not sure about FSD does it triple dong? Important regulatory dong questions need answering.

“Important regulatory dong questions need answering,” might be my favorite TMC quote of all time.

 

[Cuttin]

I've accidentally turned on my TACC on my MX, with my leg, multiple times. Got freaky but I realized right away. The blue light goes on. Don't rem if there's a sound.

But I can see that for someone who isn't used to it or is a poor driver they would freak out.

Agree that a sound would make sense. While it's true other cruise controls on other cars don't, it is a two step activation usually. Here it's one step.

And yes!
Recall sounds so gringy. Basically an OTA. But that won't garner headlines.

Lastly, I can't find anywhere what EXACTLY happened. No one says.

 

[Zacster]

And you know what the problem will be with the sound? There are already too many sounds in the car! I've stopped paying attention to all the beeps from getting too close to something when I know already that I'm good. I live in Brooklyn where everybody is too close and I don't need the sounds when I have to squeeze past a double parked car. I know I can turn them off but I haven't yet.

But I could just see my reaction to a bong when AP is engaged. Huh? What was that for?

 

[captanzuelo]

There are cases here in the US where people accidentally turn on TACC and panic when the car starts moving on its own. One pedal driving exacerbates the problem when the now panicked driver slams his foot down on the accelerator. The problem being, Tesla is the only automaker that uses the gear selector stalk to also activate "cruise control." Heck, I've accidentally activated TACC but had the presence of mind to hit the brake pedal when I realized the car is accelerating on its own.

 

[Cuttin]

And you know what the problem will be with the sound? There are already too many sounds in the car! I've stopped paying attention to all the beeps from getting too close to something when I know already that I'm good. I live in Brooklyn where everybody is too close and I don't need the sounds when I have to squeeze past a double parked car. I know I can turn them off but I haven't yet.

But I could just see my reaction to a bong when AP is engaged. Huh? What was that for?

Brooklyn! I lived there. Tesla is definitely an issue there. Also the self presenting door on my MX is an issue. I turn off when I have to go in.

See this pic of a good park job in Brooklyn.


But I agree. Too many sounds. But they can make it more distinctive maybe.

There are cases here in the US where people accidentally turn on TACC and panic when the car starts moving on its own. One pedal driving exacerbates the problem when the now panicked driver slams his foot down on the accelerator. The problem being, Tesla is the only automaker that uses the gear selector stalk to also activate "cruise control." Heck, I've accidentally activated TACC but had the presence of mind to hit the brake pedal when I realized the car is accelerating on its own.

Good point on the one pedal part. I didn't think of it but so true. Prob contributed to all those "phantom acceleration" episodes a while back.

They should really come up with a double activated way to turn it on.

 

[Zacster]

Brooklyn! I lived there. Tesla is definitely an issue there. Also the self presenting door on my MX is an issue. I turn off when I have to go in.

See this pic of a good park job in Brooklyn.
View attachment 679404

But I agree. Too many sounds. But they can make it more distinctive maybe.

I find the car harder to park than my minivan was. I don't know why, but I always feel too close even though it is telling me I have 24" or whatever. But maybe it is all the beeping! Or maybe it is because I don't want to park "by feel". After 4 months now I'm getting used to it.

 

[David29]

My previous car was a Mercedes, with the same arrangement of stalks as my Tesla (same source), and to the best of my memory, there was no sound when it was activated, nor did it require two steps. There was no on-off switch for cruise control in any MB I owned for more than 20 years. Not saying that is representative of any other brand, but simply saying that Tesla is not unique. MB was and probably still is very safety-conscious, in my experience. But the cars I had were too old to have TACC, which might make a difference in the argument. (I also did experience inadvertent actuation of the MB cruise control a few times, or forgot it was on, so it was not perfect.)

 

[jjgg]

I'm not sure about all the "intelligent" cruise controls but it seems to me Tesla is the only one that activates cruise control at speed limit it thinks than the current speed your car is travelling. This would make it appear to be "sudden acceleration" in the case of accidental activation. It can be even worse when the car has the wrong speed limit info.

 

[Cuttin]

I'm not sure about all the "intelligent" cruise controls but it seems to me Tesla is the only one that activates cruise control at speed limit it thinks than the current speed your car is travelling. This would make it appear to be "sudden acceleration" in the case of accidental activation. It can be even worse when the car has the wrong speed limit info.

Good point.

Maybe they should change that to be inline with Reg cruise control and default at current speed. And have an option / setting item to make it match speed limit.

Would weed out the idiots.

 

[captanzuelo]

I'm not sure about all the "intelligent" cruise controls but it seems to me Tesla is the only one that activates cruise control at speed limit it thinks than the current speed your car is travelling. This would make it appear to be "sudden acceleration" in the case of accidental activation. It can be even worse when the car has the wrong speed limit info.

There's an option to change it to activate cruise control at "Current speed" versus "Speed limit." It was in an OTA update a few months back.

 

[jjgg]

There's an option to change it to activate cruise control at "Current speed" versus "Speed limit." It was in an OTA update a few months back.

You are right. The option is there. And "current speed" should be the default IMO.