Not harmless!

Dangerous fault: recall for 1.8 million Teslas

As long as the hood is locked in place, everything is fine.

(Bild: Stephan Schätzl)

Tesla has been forced to recall 1.8 million vehicles in the USA because the hood can suddenly fold up while driving and block the view.

According to the US regulatory authority NHTSA, the software in the affected models may not recognize when the hood is unlocked.

Unlike most other cars, Tesla's hood is not additionally secured. Normally, you pull a lever in the interior and then have to feel for another latch on the hood and push it to the side to open it. Or (as with BMW, for example) you have to pull the lever twice to actually unlock the front flap.

In many places you can read about a problem with the "hood" - in Tesla, however, there is a front trunk (frunk) under the front hood. There is no additional unlocking mechanism here

(Bild: Stephan Schätzl)

With Tesla, you just tap a button on the display and you can open the hood - without any additional safety device. This only works when the car is stationary, but can easily happen accidentally if you touch the screen. After unlocking, the software should prevent the car from moving. However, this is exactly what is not guaranteed in at least 1.8 million vehicles.

This concerns certain Model 3, Model S and Model X vehicles from model years 2021 to 2024 and Model Y vehicles from model years 2020 to 2024.

The manufacturer has initiated a software update and is informing customers, according to the NHTSA. Tesla explained that customers from China had complained. As a result, the company had also investigated the problem in Europe and the USA. The affected hood latch was produced by Magna Closures in China.

Customers should not be aware of the update; at Tesla it works "over the air", i.e. automatically, without a visit to the workshop. And in principle, it is nothing unusual for such an update to be carried out to improve or repair the car or, for example, to add new functions.

In Europe there is currently no recall due to this error (if this changes: here is Tesla's recall page). Nevertheless, it cannot be ruled out that the problem also exists or existed here and will be rectified unnoticed.