Tesla issues recall of 2.2 million cars

If it seemed like the driver of that Tesla wasn’t paying attention, you could be right. Tesla just issued a massive recall due to the failure of a feature that was supposed to make sure drivers are still paying attention while in Autopilot mode.

How massive? It covers nearly every car and almost every model of Tesla produced since Oct. 2012. That’s more than two million cars.

The absurd reason drivers are at their absolute worst right now

Tesla’s Autopilot feature is advertised as “self-driving” but still requires drivers to be paying attention to what the car is doing. This is important as, in certain situations, the autopilot function can turn off, or not properly deal with real world situations, requiring the driver to resume control of the vehicle.

A years-long study by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the U.S. showed that autopilot was not properly alerting drivers when they failed to pay attention to the task at hand. It showed this failure was a factor in numerous crashes.

Using the real world as a living lab for tech fantasys has unacceptable consequences. Who could have guessed?

Tesla’s recall is an over-the-air update, so no one actually has to take their car off the road. They just have to drive it themselves.