What Changed After the Tesla Autosteer Recall? Not Much.
Bigger warnings and slightly increased driver monitoring are the results of looming government pressure.
On December 12, 2023, Tesla and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a voluntary recall of every Tesla sold in America with Autopilot and its companion function, Autosteer. Over 2 million Model S, X, 3, and Ys—nearly every Tesla ever sold in America—was affected, including our long-term Model Y Long Range. Applied via an over-the-air (OTA) software update, the recall is meant to address misuse of the Autosteer function, but what changed? We tested our Model Y pre- and post-update over nearly 700 miles to find out.
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Why Was There A Recall?
Tesla's Autopilot system and its related Autosteer function make up the backbone of its so-called "Full Self-Driving (Beta)" feature , which has been under scrutiny for years for a lack of safeguards. Since Autopilot was first announced in 2014, Tesla and CEO Elon Musk have many times exaggerated, mislead, or obfuscated the system's actual capabilities (up to and including faking a video of a Tesla driving itself autonomously ). Safety experts have long called on the company to be clearer in its marketing and communications about the system's actual capabilities and especially its limitations. They've also called for Tesla to step up driver monitoring while the systems are in use to prevent misuse. Several high-profile crashes, some of which were fatal, have been attributed to owners misusing the system and spurred previous recalls .
Autopilot and Autosteer are included on all new Teslas and have been available on all products for the past several years. Additional features are added by purchasing "Enhanced Autopilot" (currently $6,000 on the Model Y) or "Full Self-Driving (Beta)" (currently $12,000 on the Model Y, though we paid $15,000). Our car is equipped with "Full Self-Driving (Beta). "
The recall states: "In certain circumstances when Autosteer is engaged, the prominence and scope of the feature's controls may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse of the SAE Level 2 advanced driver-assistance feature.
"… if a driver misuses the SAE Level 2 advanced driver-assistance feature such that they fail to maintain continuous and sustained responsibility for vehicle operation and are unprepared to intervene, fail to recognize when the feature is canceled or not engaged, and/or fail to recognize when the feature is operating in situations where its functionality may be limited, there may be an increased risk of a collision. "
"SAE Level 2" refers to the Society of Automotive Engineers' ranking system for driver assistance functions, with Level 0 being a car with no electronic driver aids at all and Level 5 being a fully autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals. A Level 2 system is a "driver support system" that is "partially automated" but requires the driver to remain in full control of the vehicle and constantly supervise the assistance systems, staying ready to intervene at any moment if the system fails.
Tesla itself says "Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Capability are intended for use with a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is prepared to take over at any moment. While these features are designed to become more capable over time, the currently enabled features do not make the vehicle autonomous. "
What Was Recalled?
Per the recall notice published by the NHTSA, "all versions of Autosteer leading up to the version(s) that contain the recall remedy" were recalled and set to be overwritten by a new version of Autosteer software as part of full vehicle software version 2023.44.30.
It reads: "The remedy will incorporate additional controls and alerts to those already existing on affected vehicles to further encourage the driver to adhere to their continuous driving responsibility whenever Autosteer is engaged, which includes keeping their hands on the steering wheel and paying attention to the roadway. Depending on vehicle hardware, the additional controls will include, among others, increasing the prominence of visual alerts on the user interface, simplifying engagement and disengagement of Autosteer, additional checks upon engaging Autosteer and while using the feature outside controlled access highways and when approaching traffic controls, and eventual suspension from Autosteer use if the driver repeatedly fails to demonstrate continuous and sustained driving responsibility while the feature is engaged. "
What Actually Changed In The Car?
No message was displayed in the car, the Tesla app, or sent to our email address notifying us of the recall prior to the software update. Without knowing the software version number, we would've had no way of knowing a recall was pending, available, or installed through official Tesla channels.
Only by digging into the Release Notes that accompany every OTA update were we able to find information on the recall, where it was buried under 18 other updates, including a new video game to play on the screen (in park), an exterior light show set to music, custom lock noises like "screaming goat" and "random fart," the ability to automatically call 911 after a crash, and a trip-planning function on the mobile app that can send routes to the car. Beneath all of that, and multiple references to safety upgrades that are part of the recall but not identified as such, sits the "Over-The-Air (OTA) Recall" notice, second to last ahead of "minor updates. "
Tap on that entry, and you'll learn the recall software includes making the driver monitoring warning alerts bigger and repositions them on the screen, "increases the strictness of driver attentiveness requirements when using Autosteer" and, when approaching traffic lights and stop signs, introduces a "suspension policy" that prevents you from using Autosteer for a week if you've had five "Forced Autopilot Disengagements" due to misuse, and the option to activate Autopilot and Autosteer with a single press of the shift stalk instead of two.
To see exactly what all that means in practice, we held off running the software update until a planned road trip. We drove the same route each way, running the pre-recall software on the outbound leg and the recall software on the return. On each leg, we activated Autosteer on the same stretches of road, which varied from long straights to gentle curves. All tests were performed on freeways and highways, the kinds of divided, limited-access roads Tesla says Autopilot and Autosteer are designed for, even though you can activate either on any road. Every test was performed in light or no traffic with a co-driver in the passenger seat to monitor the road and traffic conditions during the test.
The Difference? Not Much.
Post-update, there's no apparent difference in our Model Y's single central display. Activating Autosteer for the first time brought up a new, temporary notification letting us know about the option to switch Autopilot and Autosteer activation to a single press of the shift stalk instead of two, as well as the existing notification in small print at the bottom left corner of the screen telling the driver to "please keep your hands on the wheel" and "be prepared to take over at any time." So far, pretty much the same. It was time to misuse the system.
On our outbound leg running the old software, we timed how long it took the system to realize we weren't holding the steering wheel. (We hovered our hands over it so we'd be ready to intervene.) Depending on road and traffic conditions, the system would go anywhere from 30 second to nearly 2 minutes between warnings to "apply slight turning force to the steering wheel." The warning was displayed in small print at the bottom left corner of the screen, well away from the driver's field of view.
A gentle tug on the wheel was all it took to clear the warning, though we did notice that a continuous tug would eventually cause the system to shut off, likely Tesla's solution to driver's misusing the system by attaching weights to the steering wheel to fool the driver monitoring software. Ignoring the warning for more than 5 seconds caused a blue bar to flash in the upper left corner of the screen, and a few seconds later it would flash more quickly. Continuing to ignore the warnings would lead to a loud beeping in the cabin, and shortly thereafter the car would begin to brake automatically to get the driver's attention. The steering wheel sensing was the only form of driver monitoring and would let us reset the warning timer seemingly indefinitely as long as we jiggled the steering wheel slightly.
On the return leg, running the new software, the timing was the same. The system still took between 30 seconds and 2 minutes to display a warning, though now the warning was significantly larger and displayed near the top left corner of the screen, along with an image of hands on a steering wheel, which was much easier to see at a glance. After 5 seconds, the blue bar would flash above the warning, though now the flashing picked up speed much more quickly.
We also had one test session in which the car went more than 7 minutes without displaying a warning, though we couldn't replicate it.
What About The Cabin Camera?
A major criticism of Tesla's Autopilot has been the lack of serious driver monitoring. A system that checks if the driver is holding the wheel by measuring steering inputs can be easily fooled and doesn't actually confirm the driver is paying attention—only that something is pulling on the steering wheel slightly. Most automakers have moved onto more advanced systems, like driver-facing cameras that track eye position (but do not record images or transmit them) to make sure the driver is actually looking at the road. Although Tesla has installed in-cabin cameras in its vehicles for years, it has until recently resisted calls to use those cameras for driver monitoring.
The easiest way to determine whether a camera is doing anything is to cover it up, so we did. This is how we discovered the cabin camera in the Model Y (located above the rearview mirror) is only functional when Autosteer is engaged. Covering the camera during manual driving and while Autopilot (adaptive cruise control only, no steering assistance) was activated did nothing.
Covering it while Autosteer was active, however, immediately set off the biggest warning we've yet experienced in a Tesla. Most of the left side of the screen was replaced with a massive image of hands on a red steering wheel and a message highlighted in red telling us to "take over immediately." This was accompanied by loud beeping, and neither that nor the message would go away until we manually disabled Autosteer.
This proves the camera is operational now when Autosteer is active, but how much monitoring is it doing? It doesn't appear to be much. To test it, we tried using a cellphone while Autosteer was active (with our co-driver monitoring the car and traffic) and received no warnings so long as we tugged on the steering wheel occasionally. In one test, we were able to look at our lap for 2 minutes and 40 seconds without any warning from the vehicle, and we only ended the test because the co-driver announced other vehicles were nearby.
This doesn't mean the camera isn't tracking your head or eyes, though. We found if we turned our whole head away from the road or put our chin against our chest as if we were asleep, the system would warn us to pay attention after 5 to 10 seconds. It also tracks your eyes, but it only throws a warning if you look at the big center screen for more than a few seconds. Otherwise, it doesn't care where you look or for how long as long as your head is facing forward.
There's A Big But…
Further testing revealed that the cabin camera is only activated above 30 mph. Below that, covering the camera triggered no warnings even with Autosteer active. With the camera uncovered, the system stopped warning us about looking at the central screen or putting our head down as if asleep. As far as we can tell, at low speeds the camera does no monitoring at all. We were able to drive for miles and more than five minutes in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the interstate while staring at a cellphone in our lap with nothing but the occasional request to jiggle the steering wheel.
Not only that, but at low speeds the steering wheel warnings were fewer and farther between. Whereas at high speeds we'd get warnings between 30 seconds and 2 minutes after taking our hands off the wheel, below 30 mph warnings consistently arrived 3 minutes after taking our hands off the wheel and were just as easily dismissed and reset by tugging gently on the steering wheel. In traffic jams, the system is doing no more monitoring post-recall than it was before, which seems like a deliberate choice and does almost nothing to combat driver distraction or prevent misuse of the system at lower speeds.
The Bare Minimum
As far back as 2015, Tesla rejected increased driver monitoring, reportedly at Musk's direction . He's long been outspoken against "nags" demanding drivers keep their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road, and as recently as January 2023 Musk agreed with a Twitter user that experienced Full Self-Driving (Beta) users with 10,000 miles of use should be able to turn the warnings off entirely and said that option was coming soon, though he backed off a promise to make that change when the NHTSA came calling 10 days later . In June of last year, a security researcher instead discovered a secret setting buried in Tesla code that turns off the warnings entirely, though it only appears to be accessible by Tesla employees.
The NHTSA began looking into reports of crashes resulting from Autopilot, Autosteer, and Full Self-Driving (Beta) misuse in 2021. While it has the power to compel recalls, typically automakers institute voluntary recalls before it gets to that point, which is what happened here. Recall fixes aren't vetted by the NHTSA ahead of time; the agency instead continues its investigation into "fixed" vehicles to see if the repair worked.
In our estimation, Tesla has done the bare minimum to satisfy the NHTSA's concerns. It has made the warnings more visible, but it has not increased the frequency of those warnings. It continues to rely on easily deceived steering wheel torque sensors for all driving conditions that don't involve Autosteer and even some that do, rather than cracking down on driver distraction at all times, as many competitors have done. It has finally enabled the head- and eye-tracking function on the interior camera, but only when Autosteer is active and the car is traveling more than 30 mph, and then only when the driver appears asleep, turns their head away from the road, or looks at the car's single screen that controls nearly all vehicle functions and has long been accused of being distracting in and of itself.
To us, this update seems clearly tailored to stave off further government action for the time being while keeping "nags" to a minimum, not to reduce driver distraction and improve safety. Declining to publicize the recall and bundling it with more than a dozen other features while burying it at the bottom of the list suggests an intent to hide the information from owners. The fact we were able to look at a phone for more than 2 and a half minutes at 70 mph while using Autosteer post-recall is damning, made worse by the fact we could look at our phone seemingly indefinitely when traveling below 30 mph. Tesla often touts its cars as the "safest" in the world but continues to resist implementing the latest safety technology in good faith to prevent its customers from misusing its work-in-progress software.
For More On Our Long-Term 2023 Tesla Model Y Long Range:
We Bought A 2023 Tesla Model Y Long Range For A Yearlong Test
The Supercharger Difference
How Far Can You Tow With A Tesla?
Were you one of those kids who taught themselves to identify cars at night by their headlights and taillights? I was. I was also one of those kids with a huge box of Hot Wheels and impressive collection of home-made Lego hot rods. I asked my parents for a Power Wheels Porsche 911 for Christmas for years, though the best I got was a pedal-powered tractor. I drove the wheels off it. I used to tell my friends I’d own a “slug bug” one day. When I was 15, my dad told me he would get me a car on the condition that I had to maintain it. He came back with a rough-around-the-edges 1967 Volkswagen Beetle he’d picked up for something like $600. I drove the wheels off that thing, too, even though it was only slightly faster than the tractor. When I got tired of chasing electrical gremlins (none of which were related to my bitchin’ self-installed stereo, thank you very much), I thought I’d move on to something more sensible. I bought a 1986 Pontiac Fiero GT and got my first speeding ticket in that car during the test drive. Not my first-ever ticket, mind you. That came behind the wheel of a Geo Metro hatchback I delivered pizza in during high school. I never planned to have this job. I was actually an aerospace engineering major in college, but calculus and I had a bad breakup. Considering how much better my English grades were than my calculus grades, I decided to stick to my strengths and write instead. When I made the switch, people kept asking me what I wanted to do with my life. I told them I’d like to write for a car magazine someday, not expecting it to actually happen. I figured I’d be in newspapers, maybe a magazine if I was lucky. Then this happened, which was slightly awkward because I grew up reading Car & Driver, but convenient since I don’t live in Michigan. Now I just try to make it through the day without adding any more names to the list of people who want to kill me and take my job.
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