(PresidentialHill.com)- Electric car maker Tesla has issued a safety recall because of faulty seat belt chimes. The recall will affect more than 817,000 of its vehicles.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, this is the second recall Tesla has issued in the last week.
Tesla has the ability to update the 817,143 effected vehicles remotely. The NHTSA said that the chimes are faulty. They may not work in the future if they were interrupted previously.
For example, if a driver exits their vehicle as the seat belt chime was going on, if may not work on subsequent trips.
In a summary of the recall, the organization wrote:
“The audible chime may not activate when the vehicle starts and the driver has not buckled their seat belt.”
Because of that, Tesla was out of compliance with the “occupant crash protection” requirements under federal regulations regarding auto safety.
In a letter sent to Tesla to describe the issue, Alex Ansley, an official with the NHTSA, wrote:
“The driver may be unaware that their seat belt is not fastened, increasing the risk of injury during a crash.”
To fix the problem, Tesla intends to update the software of its vehicles “over-the-air” this month. This means that vehicle owners won’t have to bring their vehicles in to a shop to have their vehicles serviced.
Tesla is one of only a few companies that actually make these extensive vehicle and software changes over-the-air. In the past, Tesla has been in trouble because of this, as regulators haven’t been notified of changes that typically would be completed through the federal recall process.
Tesla didn’t respond to comment requests from The Washington Post on the issue.
Lucia Sanches, a spokeswoman for the NHTSA, said the agency is always aiming to ensure that companies file recalls in the proper manner, even in cases where the fix can be done through a simple update of the software.
She explained:
“As required, Tesla filed a recall with NHTSA to address and issue with its seatbelt chimes. NHTSA is committed to holding manufacturers accountable and ensuring they are meeting their requirements to initiate a recall for any repair, including a software update, that remedies an unreasonable risk to safety, or a failure to comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.”
Tesla was called out in October after their failed to issue a formal recall, instead opting to issue an update to its software that allowed vehicles to see parked emergency vehicles better in low light situations.
Since the NHTSA called the company out, Tesla has issued many recall notices to make sure they’re in compliance.
One of the recent recalls it issued deals with vehicles that are equipped with the company’s Full Self-Driving beta. Some of these vehicles have reported rolling through stop signs instead of coming to a full stop.
Almost 54,000 vehicles that had this software installed were affected by the recall.
