Electric automaker Tesla has recalled roughly 1.85 million vehicles for a software error that could fail to illuminate a warning light for the driver when the front hood latch is opened, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The recall covers certain 2021-2024 Model 3, Model S and Model X vehicles, and 2020-2024 Model Y vehicles. Because of the software issue, if a driver is not aware that the vehicle’s hood is unlatched, it may suddenly open when driving, reducing visibility and increasing the risk of an accident.
Tesla has released an over-the-air software update to detect an open hood latch and illuminate the dashboard warning light if it’s not fully closed.
According to NHTSA documents, the majority of incidents of unintended hood openings were reported in China. Tesla began investigating the problem on March 25 after receiving complaints of unintended hood openings on Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in the China market.
On March 28, Tesla began collecting lock mechanisms and performed in-service inspections on vehicles in China to further investigate the issue. In mid-April, the company’s engineers determined a condition described in NHTSA documents as “latch switch deformation,” which could cause the warning light not to illuminate if the hood on the vehicle was open.
The hood latch assemblies were manufactured by China-based Magna Closures Kunshan Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Magna International that supplies vehicle locks to Tesla and other automakers.
After these initial findings in China, Tesla continued to collect and inspect lock assemblies in other Tesla vehicles to better understand the problem and determine which vehicles may have the suspected lock assemblies.
On June 7, Tesla began conducting engineering studies of hood latch assemblies installed on vehicles sold in Europe and North America. Following this investigation, the automaker decided to voluntarily recall all of the vehicles on July 17 out of an abundance of caution. However, Tesla’s engineering investigation is ongoing.
As of July 20, Tesla was aware of three warranty claims or field reports in the U.S. that may be related to this condition. However, the company is not aware of any crashes or injuries caused by unintended hood openings on any of the recalled models.
Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed Sept. 22, but Tesla began rolling out a software update for some of the recalled vehicles on June 18.
Tesla also recalled 125,227 vehicles in June to fix a condition where the seat belt warning light and audible chime may not activate if a passenger is not wearing their seat belt. As with previous Tesla recalls, the company is pushing out a software update to address the issue.
