Tesla Recalls Hundreds of Thousands of Electric Vehicles Due to Defective On-Board Computers (1 photo)
Hardware problems in electronics have not been a frequent cause for recalls of Tesla products so far, since the high level of software control penetration allowed the company to fix many defects with an over-the-air firmware update. However, the defect in on-board computers discovered last year may have more serious consequences. 
Electrek, which published a detailed article on this topic back in December, explains that since July of last year, many buyers of new Tesla electric vehicles of various models have encountered a sudden failure of the on-board computer. In this condition, the car retains the ability to move, but loses many important functions such as active safety systems, displaying images from on-board cameras on the display, automatic control of windshield wipers and high beams, as well as navigation and the function of calculating the power reserve on the remaining charge.
Moreover, since the image from the rear view camera also disappears as a result of the failure of the on-board computer, this problem eventually ended up in a Tesla report sent to the American NHTSA agency, which is responsible for road safety. As the source explains, on a number of Tesla electric vehicles, with the exception of the Cybertruck pickup truck, manufactured between 2023 and 2025, when starting the on-board computer under certain conditions, a short circuit occurred, putting it out of order. Typically, the problem manifested itself more often when operating the car in a cold climate. Apparently, this explains why customer complaints became more frequent towards the end of the year. As of December 30, Tesla recorded 887 warranty claims, and it began an internal investigation on November 21 last year.
Since December 18, Tesla began distributing a software update for the on-board computers of electric vehicles from the "risk group", which changed the sequence of voltage supply to individual units of the on-board computer, reducing the likelihood of the system failing as a result of a short circuit. For preventive purposes, all Tesla electric vehicles will receive the update, but if the on-board computers of individual units fail before receiving such an update, the company recognizes this as a warranty case and will replace the faulty unit at its own expense. The problem is that the victims now have to wait up to several months for a replacement.
Judging by the text of Tesla's application to NHTSA, the recall campaign will cover 239,382 electric vehicles, including Model 3 and Model S model years from 2024 to 2025, Model Y and Model X model years from 2023 to 2025. The need for a software update will be determined by a combination of the on-board computer version and software. The loss of useful functions is not the main manifestation of the problem. In some cases, the on-board computer continues to partially function, but freezes in auto-update mode, which significantly increases the consumption of the traction battery, consuming up to 5 kW h per day without any useful load.
