Senators call on Tesla to recall components known to pose risk to consumers

Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Democratic Sens. Edward Markey and Richard Blumenthal called on Tesla to recall all vehicle components that are known by the company to "pose a risk to consumers."

Sen. Markey, D-Mass., and Sen. Blumenthal, D-Conn., sent a letter to Tesla Wednesday citing a report suggesting that officials at the electric vehicle company know about existing flaws in its cars but are hiding them from regulators.

"We write with extreme concern following recent reporting about Tesla's knowledge of safety flaws in its vehicles and concealment of the causes of these flaws from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration," Markey and Blumenthal wrote to Tesla's CEO Elon Musk.

"We call on you to swiftly recall all Tesla components that pose a safety risk and correct the record with NHTSA to ensure it can properly do its job."

The NHTSA is investigating a suspension connection point, the fore link, and power steering after failures experienced by Tesla drivers, the senators noted.

Markey and Blumenthal also noted that Tesla recalled the front suspension aft link and rear suspension upper link in China in 2020 but took no such action in other markets including the United States.

They added that Tesla "repeatedly attributed the suspension failures to 'vehicle misuse' or 'driver abuse'" placing the blame on consumers including while facing questioning from the NHTSA on why it was not pursuing a recall.

"In light of these apparent false and misleading representations, we demand that you correct the record in every respect and that you commit to providing accurate and truthful statements in the future," the lawmakers wrote.

Markey and Blumenthal said in Wednesday's letter that they have long pushed for autonomous vehicle technology safety. They noted that they sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission two years ago calling for the agency to launch an investigation into Tesla's advertising of driving automation systems.

Earlier this month, the NHTSA announced a recall that affected more than 2 million Tesla vehicles over crash risks related to their autopilot controls. The recall covered up to 2,031,220 Teslas including 2012-2023 Model S, 2016-2023 Model X, 2017-2023 Model 3, and 2020-2023 Model Y vehicles equipped with all versions of Autosteer.