The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced it has concluded its investigation into a Tesla recall that dealt with potentially faulty rear-view cameras, more than three and a half years after the investigation first began.
The NHTSA’s investigation was launched in November 2020 and prompted by reports of rear-view camera malfunctions. The investigation covered over 158,000 Tesla vehicles, including 2012-18 Tesla Model S and 2016-2018 Tesla Model X vehicles equipped with the NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor with an integrated 8GB eMMC NAND flash memory device.
These incidents raised concerns about potential safety hazards, as the failure of components like rear-view cameras can compromise driver visibility, particularly during maneuvers such as reversing.
Tesla addressed these concerns by targeting the root cause of the problem, the 8GB eMMC NAND flash memory devices that according to the NHTSA’s findings has a limited lifespan of five to six years. Once this period elapses, the device becomes prone to failure. The agency felt this time period was insufficient for a component that provides the driver with safety functions and controlled critical vehicle systems.
In response, Tesla issued a recall to replace the hardware and also deployed a software update to prolong the life of the new hardware.
As part of the NHTSA’s ordinary processes, the agency will continue to monitor the issue, but have now closed their investigation, which was at the level of an Engineering Analysis (EA).
You can read the full ODI Resume below.
