Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Electric vehicle manufacturerTeslais recalling 817,143 vehicles due to a problem that prevents a seat belt reminder chime from working.
This week, theNational Highway Traffic Safety Administrationannounced that several Tesla vehicles failed to comply with a federal motor vehicle safety standard that requires a chime to activate when a driver starts their vehicle but has not buckled their seat belt.
KATRI alerted Tesla to the issue on Jan. 6, according to an NHTSAdocument.
Tesla, billionaireElon Musk’s car brand, investigated the problem in January and voluntarily determined a recall was necessary, the NHTSA said.
The affected vehicles are:
—2017-2022 Tesla Model 3 sedans
—2020-2022 Tesla Model Y SUVs
—2021-2022 Tesla Model S sedans and Model X SUVs
A 2019 Tesla Model S.David Zalubowski/AP/Shutterstock
The company did not immediately return PEOPLE’s request for comment but said in documents that it was not aware of any “warranty claims, field reports, crashes, injuries, or fatalities” related to the chime failure.
Fortunately for Tesla and its owners, the problem can be fixed with a simple software update, “so that the audible seatbelt reminder chime will reset if it is interrupted while chiming,” the company said in NHTSA documents.
The update will be free of charge and arrive in early February.
According to the NHTSA, the seat belt alert failure only happens when “the chime was interrupted in the preceding drive cycle and the seat belt was not buckled subsequent to that interruption.”
Such as event could happen if a driver exited their vehicle while the chime was active and later returned to the vehicle having never buckled their seat belt during their previous visit.
NHTSA documents said the issue does not affect the reliability and accuracy of the visual seat belt reminder, and that the chime will still be triggered if a vehicle goes over 13.7 miles per hour and a driver has not buckled their seat belt.
source: people.com
