Tesla recalls over 1.8 million vehicles due to hood release issue

Tesla is recalling more than 1.8 million vehicles in the United States due to a software flaw in the detection of an unlocked hood, the national auto safety regulator said today.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), an unlocked hood can open fully and obstruct the driver’s view, increasing the risk of a crash.

Tesla has begun rolling out an over-the-air software update to fix the problem, the NHTSA said. The updated software will detect an open hood and alert drivers to the situation.

The recall covers certain 2021-2024 Model 3, Model S, Model X and 2020-2024 Model Y vehicles, the regulator said. The vehicles, Tesla said, were equipped with a hood latch manufactured in China by Magna Closures Co Ltd.

The company said it launched an investigation in March into customer complaints about the uninvited opening of the hoods of certain Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in China. The company also began repairing the locking hardware and conducting an in-use inspection of the vehicle.

While there have been fewer such incidents in Europe and North America, Tesla said it began engineering investigations in the regions last month to inspect hood latches and decided to issue a recall earlier this month.

The recall is Tesla’s largest since December, when the company issued a recall of 2.03 million U.S. vehicles — nearly all of the cars on U.S. roads at the time — to install new safety features in the Autopilot system.

However, after reports of 20 crashes involving vehicles that had the new Autopilot update, the NHTSA has launched an investigation, saying there are “several concerns” about the recall.

Tesla last week reported its worst quarterly profit margin in more than five years, underscoring how hard it is for the electric carmaker to revive auto sales amid weakening demand.