Tesla is having more seat belt problems. The company is recalling more than 125,000 Models S, X, 3, and Y because their seat belt warnings aren’t lighting up and chiming like they’re supposed to, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said.
Tesla’s seat belt problems go way back. Just a little over one week ago, the Elon Musk-led electric vehicle maker finished fixing seat belts on 110,000 Model X vehicles after some detached while the cars’ owners were driving. The first complaints of that issue were recorded in early 2023.
And Tesla’s seat-belt woes are little to nothing next to its disastrous Autopilot problems. The company had to recall nearly 2 million of its EVs — basically every Tesla on the road in the U.S. — in 2023 over safety concerns. The company’s driver assistance technology is linked to 29 deaths and over 200 crashes in the U.S.
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Tesla drivers had the worst accident rate in 2023, one study found, and the automaker’s recalls have only mounted in 2024. In fact, Tesla’s recalls are more far-reaching (in the U.S) than any automaker aside from Ford, with six in total affecting over 2.5 million vehicles. Its biggest recall in January affecting 2 million Tesla cars was due to its warning lights having too small of a font size, which the NHTSA says “can make critical safety information on the instruction panel difficult to read, increasing the risk of a crash.”
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its most recent recall over safety belts issued May 30.