Tesla is recalling more than 2 million vehicles to fix a system that’s supposed to ensure that drivers are paying attention when they use the car’s Autopilot feature, according to the company.
Documents posted Wednesday by U.S. safety regulators say the company will send out a software update that will fix the problems, The Associated Press reported.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in announcing a recall, said it concluded a two-year investigation into a series of crashes that happened while the Autopilot partially automated driving system was in use.
An agency spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News that its investigation found Autopilot’s method of ensuring that drivers are paying attention can be inadequate and “can lead to foreseeable misuse of the system.”
The recall covers nearly all of the vehicles Tesla sold in the U.S. and includes models Y, S, 3 and X produced between Oct. 5, 2012, and Dec. 7 of this year.
The NHTSA says the software update includes additional controls and alerts “to further encourage the driver to adhere to their continuous driving responsibility.”
Autopilot can steer, accelerate and brake automatically in its lane, but is a driver-assist system and cannot drive itself, according to Tesla.
Autopilot includes a feature called Autosteer that is intended for use on limited-access freeways when it’s not operating with a more sophisticated feature called Autosteer on City Streets.
The update was to be sent to certain affected vehicles on Tuesday, with the rest getting it at a later date, the NHTSA said.
The software update apparently will limit where Autosteer can be used, according to the BBC.
The NHTSA said it had sent investigators to the site of 35 Tesla crashes since 2016 in which the agency suspects the vehicles were running on an automated system. At least 17 people have been killed in those crashes.
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