Tesla always has interesting solutions to even the most common problems. The American car maker recently issued a recall for no less than 817,000 cars, due to a software issue. According to the NHTSA, the aforementioned cars might have a problem with the seat belt chime which is mandatory in every new car sold, according to FMVSS 208, S7.3 (a)-(1).
Tesla says that this is a software problem and that its engineers already found a fix for it. According to the safety regulations authority, the chime is only affected in certain circumstances on startup. To be more precise, the error only happens in limited circumstances. When the chime was interrupted in the preceding drive cycle and the seat belt was not buckled subsequent to that interruption, it will apparently not go off. The glitch affects certain model year 2021-2022 Models S and X, as well as all Models 3 and Y.
Let’s say you get in your car, drive for a short amount of time and don’t put your seat belt on. The chime goes off, you stop, get out and then get back in. When you set off the second time, the chime won’t go off at all, to remind you to put on your seat belt. That’s the specific scenario this recall is aiming to cover.
No injuries have been reported by the NHTSA or Tesla as a result of this issue, but regulations must be followed. The fault was first noticed by Tesla on January 6, 2022, when it was discovered by South Korea’s Automobile Testing and Research Institute. Tesla’s team had researched the problem by the 10th, and by the 25th, they had discovered noncompliance and determined that a recall was required.
However, this being Tesla, the fix that was applied was a bit different. To be precise, the automaker published a software upgrade for the affected models. Model 3 and Y drivers received the update on January 27th, while Model S and X owners received it on January 28th, so there is no need for them to do anything else, such as bring the vehicle into the nearest Tesla service center. The recall was addressed from the comfort of the owners own home.
