Already in the crosshairs of justice, Tesla once again attracts the ire of American highway safety. And this time, it’s the steering wheel on his Model Y, when a driver had the unpleasant surprise of seeing his steering wheel come off while he was driving down the highway.
If Toyota engineers recently called the Tesla Model Y a work of art, while it’s still the best-selling electric car in Europe, it’s not without its flaws. In fact, the brand’s cars have always had a rather mediocre reputation for the quality of assembliess and materials. And this despite the fact that the manufacturer has still come a long way since its debut and the launch of the Model S. But the story we tell you today goes beyond the simple problem of fit.
A steering wheel that comes off
The case begins on January 30, when the account @Preneh24 expresses himself on Twitter. He explains that she had just received the Model Y from her a few days before. When suddenly, as she was driving down the road, the steering wheel of your vehicle comes off. Fortunately, the driver was able to pull over safely and stop while waiting for a tow truck.
We might think that this is an isolated case. Except it’s nothing. In fact, and as the site reports InsideEVs, a similar case had already occurred a little earlier, in 2020. This time, it was the driver of a Model 3 who had been affected, while parking in front of his house. Still here, no damage was observed while no one was injured. But in both cases, the owners got away with it.
@Elon Musk @TeslaOwnersWW @BLKMDL3 The family was excited to take delivery of the Tesla Y on 1/24/2023. I was driving on the highway and suddenly the steering wheel fell off, I was lucky that there was no car behind and I was able to pull the devider #Security First #Fixed #TeslaModelY #aid pic.twitter.com/4UMokFA2cv
— Prerak and Neha Patel (@preneh24) January 30, 2023
If the owner of the Model 3 had not had to advance any expenses, while Tesla had realized after verifying that there were indeed missing screws, it is not really the same story for the driver of the Model Y. The latter has seen collect $103.96 from builder, which is equivalent to the cost of repairs. A situation quickly denounced by the Internet user, who considered that he was not responsible for this manufacturing defect.
Thus, Elon Musk’s firm has decided to back down and cover the costs of repairing the vehicle. For his part, the driver wants the manufacturer to refund the entire car and take it back, though he says he no longer trusts the brand anyway. A case reminiscent of the one faced by Toyota, whose wheels on its bZ4X came off when it was launched.
a new poll
The matter could have ended there, while only two cases of loose steering wheel were listed. But it’s already too much for NHTSA, the US organization in charge of highway safety, who decided to initiate an investigation as the site explains electric. The results were quickly revealed and the organization concludes in its report that the two cars in question were subject toa repair that required the removal of the steering wheel.
Therefore, the latter would have been poorly reassembled after the operation, while the cars had only low mileage. Officials are currently working with Tesla to determine if other vehicles from the brand, which just finished 2022 strong, would also be affected. If so, a recovery campaign could be established.
Last February, the NHTSA had already ordered the brand to make corrections to its FSD (full self-driving) autonomous driving system, which would not respect the highway code. More than 360,000 cars would be affected by this recall which, in fact, is not really one. In fact, here we are talking about a remote software update, which does not require going to concessions.
The US automaker, which is preparing to redesign its Model Y and Model 3, is already under investigation following a recent fatal accident involving Autopilot. The latter is now lagging behind the autonomous driving systems of Ford and Mercedes, while the former is considered the most efficient on the current market.
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