The American National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched an investigation into 280 thousand new Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles due to reports of loss of steering control and power steering.
In a document published on the NHTSA website, it was stated that there were complaints that steering control was lost, and that the power steering assistance was reduced or disabled to drivers. Investigators will examine how often the problem occurs and how production processes contribute to it.
NHTSA has scrutinized Tesla many times over the years, largely in response to the automaker’s advanced driver assistance systems, Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD).
A driver in Woodbridge, Virginia complained that his Tesla Performance Model 3 started showing problems two weeks after its June 15 delivery. Driver complaint “Today while driving and turning left, steering wheel locked and showed error code that steering assist is disabled. Car steering locks and car code disappears when you get on and off again, but after driving a mile or 2 miles, the code reappears and the steering wheel is too bad. “It becomes stiff, making it almost impossible to turn in either direction. Driving at high speeds on highways is very unsafe and unreliable. Please look into this as I’m not the only one having this issue.” gave his statement.
Another Model 3 driver reported in May that “the car’s steering wheel got stuck, causing it to slip off the road and crash into a tree.” Tesla has been able to fix some bugs with software updates.
However, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) may request a recall of vehicles based on the outcome of the investigation.