Tesla - Softonic English

Safety Warning for Tesla Model 3 and Model Y Owners: Watch Out for Steering Wheel Problems

NHTSA’s Office of Defect Investigation is investigating approximately 280,000 Tesla vehicles for steering problems.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating reports that the 2023 Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles lose steering control while driving.

TikTok DOWNLOAD

Approximately 280,000 vehicles could be affected by the results of the investigation, the agency reports.

NHTSA says it has received 12 complaints alleging loss of steering and power steering control in the vehicles. Five individuals filed complaints alleging inability to steer the vehicle, while seven others said a loss of power caused steering difficulties.

Owning a Tesla equals trouble, according to the mobility agencies.

Tesla is currently the subject of several defect investigations, including one investigating reports that Model Y SUV steering wheels have fallen off while driving the vehicle.

NHTSA has also received more than 800 reports of “phantom braking” problems in which Tesla vehicles suddenly braked in response to unseen hazards.

The company was forced to update the software of 1.1 million vehicles in China due to a braking and acceleration problem.

The company also faces a possible recall of its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving products for more than a dozen incidents in which Tesla vehicles using the driver-assist features have crashed into stopped emergency vehicles.

Tesla under investigation for Model 3 and Model Y steering wheels that freeze up https://t.co/CykmtymTUR pic.twitter.com/zhECO5u5mL
— The Verge (@verge) August 2, 2023

All brands have failures, but Tesla even more so.

All automakers face investigations and recalls of defective products, but Tesla is unique in its ability to fix some defects with software updates.

It is also true that Tesla faces more recalls than other automakers. Of the 400 recalls issued in 2022, affecting more than 25 million vehicles, Tesla took four of the top five spots.

TikTok DOWNLOAD

Some of the links added in the article are part of affiliate campaigns and may represent benefits for Softonic.

California Authorities Investigate Tesla for Autopilot Safety Concerns and Misleading Ads

As reported by CNBC, it seems that Tesla is in trouble. The mentioned media outlet has revealed that Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company is under investigation by the California Attorney General’s office for issues related to the company’s vehicle autopilot system and allegations of deceptive advertising.

Tesla Pros DOWNLOAD

The lawsuits filed against Tesla claim that the autopilot system in these vehicles occasionally brakes unexpectedly, which can lead to dangerous situations on the road. This issue has been referred to as “phantom braking,” and when it occurs, the affected cars come to a sudden stop, regardless of their location. Clearly, this can result in accidents involving other vehicles.

Tesla and its autopilot face new problems

As it has been revealed, it appears that the affected Tesla model is the Tesla Model 3, specifically when its autopilot feature is activated. One of the plaintiffs, named Greg Webster, who reported the problem to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2022, provided his testimony to CNBC, which prompted the California Attorney General’s office to reach out to him to learn more about his experience.

Currently, the California Attorney General’s office has not denied the possibility of initiating an investigation against Tesla in this case. At least, that’s what they acknowledged in a statement. They stated, “To protect its integrity, we cannot comment on, confirm, or deny any potential or ongoing investigation.”

Greg Webster’s testimony indicates that he feels deceived by Tesla, as he claims that the company’s marketing led him to believe that he had a vehicle with functionalities that would make it fully autonomous. According to what the plaintiff shared with CNBC, he purchased Tesla’s premium package for hundreds of thousands of dollars, expecting advanced features, but instead, he encountered the so-called “phantom braking” issue.

Tesla Pros DOWNLOAD

“Tesla should offer customers the option of a full refund for autopilot features if they are dissatisfied with the product,” complained Webster. “We bought a fully autonomous product and received a driver-assist product with partial autonomy.” With this potential case, Tesla is facing yet another legal battle due to its autopilot system, adding to an increasingly significant list of legal challenges the company is facing.

Witness the Mesmerizing Seat Endurance Test Unveiled by Tesla

Tesla has unveiled today what will be the front seats of the Cybertruck, the highly anticipated electric pick-up. The video is amazing and the music…

Tesla doesn’t do anything new, but they always manage to present it in a way that makes it seem like it has never been done before, even by themselves. Tesla is not just about cars; it’s about marketing, and today’s marketing is top-notch. Not like Project 42.

Twitter DOWNLOAD

Tesla has unveiled today the front seats of the Cybertruck, the highly anticipated electric pickup truck presented by Elon Musk in 2020, in a new video released on their official Twitter page.

In reality, the video showcases Tesla’s seat testing robot in action, but it is highly likely that the seats being tested are intended for the Cybertruck.

Our seat testing robot performs 50k ingress/egress cycles, equivalent to a lifetime of use ? pic.twitter.com/qnW3AEjaGA
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 17, 2023

Reasons to believe in Cybertruck seats

We say this for two main reasons: they don’t resemble the seats used in any other Tesla vehicle currently on sale, and they feature the same controls as seen in a photo from May that showcased the interior of the Cybertruck.

The short video is accompanied by the caption, “Our seat testing robot performs 50,000 ingress/egress cycles, equivalent to a lifetime of use,” which should reassure future Tesla Cybertruck owners.

Now, while Tesla doesn’t provide any specific information about the seats, we can draw some conclusions based on their appearance. Similar to the front seats in the Model 3/Y and the Model S/X, these seats seem to have independent headrests.

However, the headrests appear to be much better integrated into the overall seat design, giving it a sporty seat look. The Cybertruck seats also seem to offer significantly more lateral bolstering in the backrest, which is a positive feature, especially if the bolsters are adjustable.

The upholstery appears to be vegan leather, and we see no reason why Tesla would use anything else when all their current models offer the same type of material. Did you like the video? Most likely, it is quite addictive.

Twitter DOWNLOAD

Some of the links added in the article are part of affiliate campaigns and may represent benefits for Softonic.

Tesla Cuts Prices In US to Beat Competitors, with Europe To Boost Demand

If you’re desperate to save the environment but can’t afford an electric car, 2023 may just be your year. Tesla has decided to cut down vehicle prices between 6% and 20% across several countries. While the experts speculate what the real reason behind this is, I have some suspicions of my own.

Usually, companies cut down on prices when there’s a higher supply than demand. One of the reasons experts believe Tesla is lowering sales prices is due to Elon Musk’s belief that a recession may be coming. Apparently, he’s willing to sacrifice profits in order to beat the approaching rise in interest rates.

A more plausible reason could be that Elon has noticed many smaller rival companies producing more electric cars. Where Tesla provides most of the electric vehicles in some countries, these new competitors may be why Tesla now wants to lower sales prices. Musky is becoming fearful that he’ll lose his grip on new customers, as fragile as that grip may be.

Just in case many of you have forgotten, South Korea has recently fined Tesla for issues with many of the vehicles sold in the country. While many news sources are missing this point, I think it’s important. With shares dropping as much as 6.4% and faith in the company falling, is it any surprise that the company is thinking of new ways to win customers over?

With these price drops, it makes me hopeful Cybertruck can be that much closer to originally stated prices!!! ???????? @elonmusk!! @Tesla pic.twitter.com/fEL1oY7sCL
— Dirty Tesla (@DirtyTesLa) January 13, 2023

Last week saw some Tesla price cuts already happening in Asia. It’s now happening in places like the Middle East, the United States, Africa, and Europe. Still, I have yet to see electric vehicles leaving a mark where I live. With so many fuel and electricity issues, we may need a car like in Back to the Future that runs on organic waste if we want to travel around in the next ten years.

More fines for Elon Musk, this time for Tesla

As if the lawsuit against Twitter wasn’t enough, Elon Musk is now in hot water with his Tesla company. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission is issuing a US$2.2 million fine against the electric car business for false advertising. Apparently, it has to do with false information pertaining to the driving range and how fast the vehicles recharge.

Since Tesla established itself in the Asian country in 2015, it’s sold about 45,812 units, according to September 2022 numbers. The company advertised specific numbers regarding how quickly the vehicles recharge and how far they can drive on full batteries. It looks like it may have been false marketing, as many South Korean vehicle owners are complaining.

It’s actually not the first time I’m seeing Tesla complaints this week. Movie maker and screenwriter, Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium, Chappie, upcoming Gran Turismo movie), tweeted that the window on his Tesla vehicle randomly shattered. Many Twitter fans commented that the same thing happened to them. It’s ironic, as Elon Musk made a video showing the strength of these windows by throwing a metal ball against one.

Has anyone ever heard of a Tesla window spontaneously cracking on its own? For no reason? I’m sitting in car and this just happened… pic.twitter.com/vRA8hb31En
— Neill Blomkamp (@NeillBlomkamp) January 1, 2023

One hilarious chap also commented that Neill probably lost his blue check mark.

Jokes aside, we’ll have to see how Tesla addresses the concerns of the Fair Trade Commission in South Korea. It also sent a report about a cancellation policy that doesn’t have sufficient information for consumers. This goes against an electronic commerce act in the country, which the commission holds highly. It could result in buyers losing money if the terms and conditions of canceling orders aren’t spelled out correctly.

It would be great if we could get some comments from Elon Musk about the state of his current companies. At the moment, Tesla and Twitter appear to be in deep water. The SpaceX project is the one that interests me the most, as I love astronomy and the study of planetary objects. I dearly want us to succeed in moving to Mars. At the moment, the project is trying to raise funds to the tune of US$750 million for the year ahead.

Tesla unveils new features while Elon Musk entertains audiences on Twitter

In February earlier this year, Elon Musk indicated on Twitter that Stea m would soon be playable in the latest Tesla models. It looks like this is finally a reality, as the vehicle company released a few holiday updates. In the meantime, Musk continues to put on an entertaining show on Twitter with several Tweets a day.

I’ll start with the Tesla news. Steam is finally playable in Model X and S vehicles. Cyberpunk 2077 is the top promoted game in the library, but there are a few others. It’s not surprising, as that’s the game that so many gamers asked about when Elon first tweeted about this feature.

We’re working through the general case of making Steam games work on a Tesla vs specific titles. Former is obviously where we should be long-term.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2022

There’s one important safety catch with Steam now being available in Tesla cars. Due to some incidents recently, you won’t be able to play games while driving. I would like to say “Duh”, but it looks like this isn’t as obvious as I would hope it should be. Many drivers have been caught playing games while driving; multitasking at its best.

Tesla unveils new features while Elon Musk entertains audiences on Twitter

Some other new features in Tesla vehicles include Apple Music integration, scheduling Light Shows, and accessing your cabin camera with the mobile Tesla app. All of these pale in comparison to Elon doing his daily entertaining tweets on Twitter. Not only does he continue to brag that the platform has transformed for the better, but he spends plenty of time replying to posts where he’s tagged.

The latest move he made was to show the Twitter Trust and Safety Council that he no longer needs them. There have also been some posts about the new Twitter Blue subscription model and the extended 4,000-character limit. Even the Twitter Files are active now, with Part 5 looking at how Donald Trump was removed from the platform earlier this year.

Under pressure from hundreds of activist employees, Twitter deplatforms Trump, a sitting US President, even though they themselves acknowledge that he didn’t violate the rules: https://t.co/60PplztV4k
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 12, 2022

At least NASA is being proactive with its nuclear fusion experiments.

Tesla to show off new self-driving technology

Will Tesla run the race to the first mass-produced self-driving car?

Tesla is a company that most people associate with being able to give us a taste of futuristic automobile technology, and they’re going to be demonstrating the newest in production later this month.

Two years ago, Elon Musk first confirmed that Tesla was creating its own AI chip for self-driving technology. This chip will be included in the new Autopilot Hardware 3.0 upgrade and will enable vehicles to be fully self-driving. It was said that production on this upgrade would begin at the end of this year’s first quarter, and it looks like that’s been confirmed, according to Electrek:

“Tesla is making significant progress in the development of its autonomous driving software and hardware, including our FSD computer, which is currently in production and which will enable full-self driving via future over-the-air software updates.”

Since this software was previously expected to be available for the Autopilot hardware’s 2.0 and 2.5 versions, Elon Musk said on Twitter that if the customers purchased the full self-driving software package, their vehicles will be retrofitted, but only when the software and hardware are fully compatible.

Anyone who purchased full self-driving will get FSD computer upgrade for free. This is the only change between Autopilot HW2.5 & HW3. Going forward “HW3” will just be called FSD Computer, which is accurate. No change to vehicle sensors or wire harness needed. This is v important. https://t.co/lICMpT7xnX

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 29, 2019

Retrofits will start when our software is able to take meaningful advantage of the Tesla FSD computer, which is an order of magnitude more capable. For now, it’s slightly disadvantageous to have Tesla FSD computer, as our software is more refined for HW2.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 30, 2019

With all the hype around cars that will actually be able to drive themselves, Tesla’s putting their money where their mouth is and is giving everyone a preview of the functions of the software on April 19:

“With a number of very exciting developments coming in the weeks and months ahead, Tesla will host investors on the morning of April 19th at our headquarters in Palo Alto to provide a deep dive into our self-driving technology and roadmap. Investors will be able to take test-drives to experience our Autopilot software first-hand, including features and functionality that are currently under development.”

Although investors will be the only ones able to test drive, the demonstration will be webcast.

Do you think this will actually come to pass, or will we have to wait for a little more tech tweaking? How do you feel about cars that will be able to drive themselves?

Watch thieves steal a Tesla by hacking it

New thieves can jack your car with only a tablet. Watch what happens.

The future is now, people. You can now steal cars by hacking into them. A (former) Tesla owner in the UK posted security footage online that shows thieves hacking into his car and driving away with it. The footage can be viewed below.

This looks like something out of Watch_Dogs. So, how exactly did these tech-savvy thieves hack into the car?

The thieves exploited something called a key fob. A key fob is a chip used in wireless car keys that send a randomly generated 40-bit code to the car, along with a command (unlock the doors, open the trunk, etc.). The car will recognize the code and then complete the command. The thief with the tablet is walking around in an attempt to catch the signal of the car owner’s key fob, while the other thief is presumably using his phone to boost the tablet’s signal. Once the key fob signal was picked up by the thief with the tablet, he could use it to give the car any command that could be used on a normal wireless car key.

For all of their technical prowess, the thieves seemed to have a lot of trouble unplugging the car from the charging cable. All you need to do is press a button on the cable.

There are a few things Tesla owners can do to protect themselves from technically proficient but cord-challenged thieves in the future.

First, disable “passive entry” mode while at home. Passive entry mode allows owners to unlock their car simply by walking towards it when their key is on the vicinity. Passive entry was enabled for the stolen car, allowing the thieves to access the fob key in the first place.

Second, enable “PIN to drive.” This feature allows users to set a code that must be entered before the car can actually be driven.

Third, place your wireless key in a faraday bag while at home. A faraday bag is a special pouch that prevents your key from transmitting signals while inside, preventing hackers from picking up on your key fob.

$58

EDEC Standard Window Size Faraday Bag- Signal Blocking, Anti-tracking, Anti-spying, Radiation protection for Cell Phones, Key Fobs and Credit Cards

From: Amazon

Learn More

Be careful, Tesla owners. All of the fancy technology included in these cars can be used against them. We’ll end this article on a lighter note by telling a joke:

What do you call a stolen Tesla?

An Edison!