After two years of investigations, US road authorities have determined that Tesla will have to correct a flaw in the Autopilot system that equips nearly 2 million vehicles of the brand. The report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reveals that its experts have proven that the autopilot method to ensure that drivers remain vigilant while driving may be inadequate and “may lead to predictable misuse of the system”.
The software update includes the introduction of new control functions and additional alerts “to further encourage the driver to fulfill their ongoing responsibility to drive”, as stated in the publicly released documents. Autopilot is a Level 2 autonomous driving system, in which the driver must remain attentive and ready to take control.
It appears that the software update is already underway, remotely, and completely free of charge for all affected vehicles.