Tesla Autosteer recall could bolster lawsuits claiming the feature is dangerous: report

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Tesla is facing several lawsuits over crashes linked to its Autosteer feature.
The automaker last week recalled 2 million vehicles equipped with the autopilot technology.
Plaintiffs argue the recall proves the company knew the tech was dangerous, Bloomberg reported.

After issuing a recall last week on 2 million vehicles equipped with its autopilot technology, plaintiffs in lawsuits against Tesla argue the move proves the automaker knew its self-driving technology was dangerous when it was sent to market, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

Tesla is facing multiple lawsuits over crashes — some fatal — linked to the company’s Autosteer technology, which is intended to assist drivers in changing lanes and automatically adjust cruise control settings in traffic.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a formal investigation into the EV company’s driver-assistance technology in 2021. The recall announced by the agency on Wednesday addresses an issue in which the technology doesn’t do enough to ensure drivers pay attention while the Autosteer feature is on.

“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,” read a recall notice issued by Tesla this week.

Bloomberg reported that some plaintiffs in the cases against Tesla view the recall notice — which impacts 2 million vehicles on the road — as proof that the company knew the autopilot feature was dangerous when it launched.

“We believe that Tesla knew there was a problem and that this recall validates that,” Bloomberg reported Adam Boumel, an attorney working on a case related to a deadly 2019 crash in Florida, said of the recall.

Tesla representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

A total of 393 people have died in incidents involving Tesla vehicles, according to the Tesla Deaths database. Of those deaths, at least 95 people have died in Teslas that have either caught fire or while the vehicle’s Autopilot feature was engaged.

At least eight deaths also occurred while Autopilot was being used on roads where the feature should not have been enabled, including one case when a vehicle drove straight through a T intersection, The Washington Post reported.

In November, a Florida judge allowed a lawsuit against Tesla to go to trial after finding “reasonable evidence” that Elon Musk and other Tesla executives knew the company’s automated driving software was defective.

The lawsuit was filed by the family of Jeremy Banner, whose Tesla Model 3 drove under a tractor-trailer while the Autopilot system was engaged, leading to his death in 2019.