Enlarge / Even Tesla says you should keep your hands on the steering wheel, but it helps if that wheel is actually connected to the steering column. (credit: Tesla)

Tesla has yet another federal headache to contend with. On March 4, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation opened a preliminary investigation after two reports of Tesla Model Y steering wheels detaching in drivers' hands while driving.

NHTSA's ODI says that in both cases, the model year 2023 Model Ys each required repairs on the production line that involved removing their steering wheels. The wheels were refitted but were only held in place by friction—Tesla workers never replaced the retaining bolt that fixes the steering wheel to the steering column. In 2018, Ford had to recall more than 1.3 million vehicles after an incorrectly sized bolt resulted in a similar problem.

The ODI document states that "sudden separation occurred when the force exerted on the steering wheel overcame the resistance of the friction fit while the vehicles were in motion" and that both incidents occurred while the electric vehicles still had low mileage.

(credit: Tesla)

Tesla is cutting prices for the second time in less than eight weeks . Reuters noticed that the automaker has dropped the prices of its more expensive, aging Model S sedan and Model X SUV yet again.

While these cars were revolutionary at launch in 2012 and 2015, they now face stiff competition from much newer vehicles from the likes of Rivian, Lucid, Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW. As a result, Model S and Model X sales combined represented only 5 percent of Tesla's global sales in 2022.

In 2022, a dual-motor all-wheel-drive Tesla Model S went for $104,990. In January, Tesla chopped about 10 percent off the price, dropping it to $94,990. Today, it's another $5,000 cheaper at $89,990.

Mistorqued bolts may need to be fixed in some Model Y second rows. (credit: Tesla)

Rivian was not the only electric vehicle startup to feature in my weekly recall email from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this morning. Both Electra Mecchanica and Lordstown are recalling a small number of EVs, but, more significantly, Tesla has issued yet another recall , and this time there's no software patch that can remedy the problem; affected cars have to actually be physically inspected.

Tesla is recalling 3,470 Model Y crossovers built between May 2022 and February 2023 in order to check that the bolts that secure the frame of the second-row seats are properly torqued. Those that aren't could potentially increase the risk of injury to occupants of the second row during a crash.

For owners worried their cars may be affected, Tesla says that a "second-row seat back frame that has this condition may not fold properly or may be loose and rattle during normal vehicle operation."

Enlarge / Cars parked at the Tesla Fremont Factory in Fremont, California, on February 10, 2022. (credit: Getty Images | Josh Edelson)

A class-action complaint alleges that Tesla and CEO Elon Musk repeatedly made false statements about the capabilities and safety of the electric carmaker's Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology.

The complaint , filed Monday in US District Court for the Northern District of California, comes less than two weeks after a recall of 362,758 cars based on a US government finding that Tesla's "FSD Beta system may allow the vehicle to act unsafe around intersections, such as traveling straight through an intersection while in a turn-only lane, entering a stop sign-controlled intersection without coming to a complete stop, or proceeding into an intersection during a steady yellow traffic signal without due caution." The problem is slated to be fixed by an over-the-air software update.

The lawsuit was filed by investor Thomas Lamontagne and seeks to represent a proposed class of potentially thousands of people who acquired Tesla stock. Tesla, Elon Musk, and other Tesla executives "made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operations, and prospects," the lawsuit said, continuing:

Enlarge / Photo illustration by Chesnot/Getty Images

Within weeks of the Twitter board's approval of Elon Musk's unsolicited bid to take the company private, the South African-born billionaire came down with a severe case of buyer's remorse. Twitter was not happy, and after Musk decided not to go through with the purchase , the social media company quickly sued him . In advance of the trial, set for October despite Musk's attempts to push it back to 2023, Elon Musk is apparently preparing for the worst-case scenario of being forced to consummate the deal.

With Tesla stock on a rebound, Musk has just sold $6.9 billion worth of shares in his electric car company, a move disclosed in regulatory filings on Tuesday. Musk got an average of $869 for the shares, which is significantly more than the $628 that TSLA shares were trading at in late May. TSLA had hit its 2022 peak of $1,145 on April 4, the day after Musk revealed his purchase of 9.2 percent of Twitter's outstanding shares.

In late April, after announcing his plans to buy Twitter, Musk unloaded $8.5 billion in Tesla stock , saying at the time that there were "no further TSLA sales planned after today."

Enlarge / Tesla's Autopilot system is good at keeping pace with moving traffic, but it keeps crashing into emergency responders parked by the side of the road. The NHTSA wants to know why. (credit: Tesla)

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation into Tesla's Autopilot driver assistance system continues apace. The Associated Press reports that on Tuesday, the NHTSA sent Tesla a letter requesting further information following 12 incidents of Autopilot-enabled Teslas crashing into emergency vehicles parked by the side of the road. In total, 17 people have been injured, and one has died.

The NHTSA sent Tesla the 11-page letter asking for detailed information on how Autopilot recognizes and reacts to emergency vehicles. The company must respond by October 22 unless it asks for an extension, and the AP says Tesla could be fined $114 million if it does not cooperate.

Specifically, the agency wants to know how the system detects "a crash scene, including flashing lights, road flares, reflectorized vests worn by responders, and vehicles parked on the road." Additionally, Tesla must tell NHTSA how Autopilot works in low-light conditions and what happens if the system detects an emergency.

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L'article Voitures électriques 2021 : prix, autonomie… tous les modèles disponibles en France est apparu en premier sur Numerama .

Enlarge / Interior of a Tesla Model 3. (credit: Tesla )

The California Highway Patrol said it arrested a man seen riding in the back seat of a Tesla Model 3 that had no one in the driver's seat. Param Sharma, 25, was arrested "and booked into Santa Rita Jail" on counts of reckless driving and disobeying an officer, the department said in a statement Tuesday. Sharma was arrested after multiple 911 calls on Monday around 6:30 pm reported a driverless vehicle "traveling eastbound on I-80 across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge toward the city of Oakland," police said.

Sharma spent a night locked up, and he "committed the same crime shortly after being released from jail," according to a story yesterday by KTVU Fox 2 :

Param Sharma met KTVU's Jesse Gary in San Francisco Wednesday afternoon, not far from his mother's high-rise apartment. After getting out of jail on two counts of reckless driving, he pulled up sitting in the back seat of a Tesla with no one in the driver's seat.

When asked if he purchased a new Tesla after the previous one was impounded he said, "Yeah, I'm rich as (expletive). I'm very rich."

"I feel safer back here than I do up there," Sharma also told KTVU from the right-rear passenger seat.

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