The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a recall for 817,143 Tesla vehicles due to a seat belt reminder malfunction resulting from a software error. In the report, NHTSA states the audible seat belt chime fails to remind drivers to buckle up under certain circumstances, therefore not meeting safety compliance.
The audible chime in affected models is not always reminding drivers to buckle up
When the driver presses the brake pedal to start the vehicle—Teslas lack a formal “on/off” button, and instead ready themselves as soon as a driver enters and presses the brake before shifting into drive or reverse—an audible warning reminds them to buckle up. Or, it’s supposed to; per NHTSA, the chime is not working correctly. Apparently, if the chiming is interrupted and the driver has not yet buckled their seat belt, the audible chime might not alert drivers upon re-entering and starting the vehicle again during the subsequent driving cycle.
Say you start the Tesla, ignore the chime, and don’t buckle up while slowly backing out of the driveway. Midway, you suddenly realize you forgot your caffeine-filled Thermos, and you park the car and run back into your house. Freshly armed with coffee, you return to your Tesla, hit the brake to shift into gear, thus “re-starting” the car, but forget to belt up again; the audible seat belt chime does not immediately remind you to belt up. That is, in practical terms, what is happening. The software erroneously remains in the state of having already warned the driver to wear a seat belt. Hence, the driver only gets a visual warning and not the audible chime when they start the vehicle again.
It’s worth pointing out that the chime in the affected Tesla models will activate once the car exceeds a speed of roughly 14 mph. Additionally, at no point does the software-based malfunction affect the reliability or accuracy of the visual seat belt reminder in short, while the chime reminder might go silent in certain scenarios, there are other cues that a seatbelt isn’t buckled, including, well, the humans inside the car realizing they’re not belted in. The safety recall includes the following vehicle ranges: 2021-2022 Model S and Model X, 2017-2022 Model 3, and 2020-2022 Model Y.
Tesla will be releasing an over-the-air update in early February to resolve the issue. The EV automaker says it is not aware of any accidents related to the recall. Owners of the affected models do not need to take their vehicle to a service center and will receive a recall notice by mail due April 1.
