Tesla Recalls 1.6M Cars in China for Driving Assist and Door Lock Fixes

 Tesla has recalled more than 1.6 million electric vehicles in China to fix its driving assist feature to prevent misuse by drivers and remedy an issue with door latches on some models, Chinese authorities announced Friday, less than a month after the company recalled more than 2 million vehicles in the U.S. after a federal investigation found it had failed to prevent misuse of its Autopilot feature.

The recall covers 1.61 million imported Tesla Model S, X, 3 and Y cars over concerns that the automatic assisted steering function, known as Autosteer, could be misused by drivers and increase the risk of collisions, according to a notification by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation.

An additional 7,538 imported Model S and X cars are also being recalled due to problems with their door lock system which causes the car’s side doors to open during a crash.

Tesla will deliver fixes for these problems with a remote software update, which means most car owners will not be required to take their vehicles to a service center.

The notice said the updates will be rolled out in phases.

Tesla’s stock was down nearly 1% to $235.80 in premarket trading, although it is unclear if the share price was impacted by the recall news.

 

Last month, Tesla issued a recall for more than 2 million vehicles—nearly all the cars it has sold in the U.S.—including the Model S, Model X, Model 3 and Model Y. The recall was in response to findings by a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation that found Tesla failed to adequately prevent the misuse of its driver assistance feature, which could lead to crashes. In the U.S., Tesla markets the feature as Autopilot, although it is not designed to operate fully autonomously without a driver’s input. The recall followed a two-year NHTSA investigation into Tesla’s driver assistance features after it was linked to deaths and accidents. This was followed by a second recall of 120,000 cars over the door unlocking during a crash issue. Fixes for both issues were delivered via remote update.

“In certain circumstances when Autosteer is engaged, and the driver does not maintain responsibility for vehicle operation and is unprepared to intervene as necessary or fails to recognize when Autosteer is canceled or not engaged, there may be an increased risk of a crash,” the NHTSA said in its assessment of the issue.