U.S. auto safety regulators have opened a preliminary investigation into a safety issue related to Tesla vehicles.
This time, the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), the equivalent of Transport Canada, is investigating a dozen complaints related to loss of steering control or loss of power steering with 2023 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.
The investigation covers some 280,000 vehicles. Five drivers stated in their complaints that they could no longer steer their vehicles at all. Seven others reported a loss of power steering requiring increased effort to maintain control.
One accident was reported, but fortunately no injuries were sustained.
Yesterday, NHTSA reported that loss of steering control may be accompanied by a message from the car to the driver, indicating that steering assistance has been reduced or disabled. The agency says investigators will look into the frequency with which the problem occurs, the manufacturing processes and the severity of the problem.
According to one of the complaints sent in by a Model 3 driver last May, the “car steering felt stuck and slid off the road which resulted in crashing into a tree.”
In June, another driver reported leaving a shopping mall in Alpharetta, Georgia in their two-week-old Tesla Model Y when “suddenly steering wheel did not steer. It was hard and saw the alert. Went to very close to opposite side of traffic and some how made it to across the road inside the shopping center.”
According to a more recent complaint, a Tesla Model Y less than 30 days old was turned on and the “wheel jerked hard right and made a thud”, followed by a warning on the screen "Steering Assist Reduced", accompanied by an error code.
In April, a driver reported that the power steering was disabled and told NHTSA that the car was unsafe to drive. “Tesla has moved my service visit from May 2 to May 25 due to a backlog of parts. They confirmed this is a recently known issue and noted the steering rack might be replaced entirely,” the customer wrote in his complaint.
If the company has to issue a recall to replace steering parts on 280,000 models, we're talking about an expensive campaign. We'll be following this story closely.
This investigation is at least the sixth launched by the NHTSA into problems related to Tesla vehicles in the last three years.