Tesla issues a software recall on almost 700,000 vehicles

Tesla issued a new recall on a fleet of almost 700,000 vehicles, but fortunately, the fix is a simple over-the-air software update.

For years, Tesla fans have been complaining about the automaker being in the headlines for “recalls” that were only about software.

They claimed that the media unfairly used the recalls to make Tesla look bad when the fix were as simple as an over-the-air software update, which was often already pushed by the time the recall was announced.

Some have been pushing for a different name for such a recall, despite being very much the same thing as a hardware recall other than the fact that you don’t have to bring your vehicle to a service center physically.

It looks like NHTSA has been listening. While they are not changing the nomenclature, they are now making an effort to distinguish physical and software recalls:

I’ve just noticed the new “software update repairs recall” mention with this new recall affecting almost 700,000 Tesla vehicles today.

The recall has to do with the tire pressure monitoring system.

Tesla explains in the recall notice:

On affected vehicles, upon detection of a malfunction with the tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS), the TPMS malfunction telltale does not persist between drive cycles where the vehicle is off or asleep between the drive cycles, which does not comply with FMVSS 138, S4.4(b)(3).

The affected vehicles include

• Model 3: Model Year 2017-2025
• Model Y: Model Year 2020-2025
• Cybertruck: Model Year 2024

Again, the fix is a software update, which is already being pushed to the fleet.