Tesla recalls 11,706 vehicles over Full Self-Driving Beta software bug

Enlarge / Tesla is issuing a recall over phantom collision warnings and brake activations. (credit: Aurich Lawson | Tesla)

Tesla's controversial "Full Self-Driving" feature took another hit on Tuesday. The Texan automaker issued a recall for nearly 12,000 vehicles after an over-the-air software update introduced a new bug that can cause false activations of the cars' forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems.

According to the safety recall report, the problem affects Models S, X, and 3 vehicles built between 2017 and 2021 and Model Y vehicles built between 2020 and 2021 that are running firmware release 2021.36.5.2. The updated firmware was rolled out to drivers in its beta testing program on October 23 and, once installed, caused a pair of chips to stop talking to each other when the vehicle wakes up from "sentry mode" or "summon standby mode."

That error prevents the neural networks that operate on one of the chips from running consistently, causing it to throw false-positive collision warnings and-more seriously-false-positive AEB activations.

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