Some Tesla owners have yet another thing to worry about. As sales crash in Europe and protests gather outside Tesla showrooms in the US as a result of the CEO's political engagement, it now emerges that more than 376,000 Model Y crossovers and Model 3 sedans are at risk for power steering failure. So far, it has resulted in more than 3,000 warranty claims and caused 570 crashes, according to Tesla and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Federal investigators have known about the problem for some time—in 2023 NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation opened a preliminary inquiry after 12 reports of steering failures, including three Model 3s and nine Model Ys.
By February 2024, NHTSA had received 124 complaints about steering failure in 2023 Teslas and found another 2,264 reports of steering problems. Color me wrong, though—at the time, I wrote that "a software patch is unlikely to help," except a software patch is indeed the remedy here.
The problem is caused by excess voltage reaching the printed circuit board that controls the electronic power steering. That can overstress the components, which causes the power steering to fail next time the car slows to a complete stop. Unlike a recent steering recall affecting Mazda's CX-90 SUV, in this particular case the failure is unlikely to rob a driver of power steering while moving. The system is designed such that if the overvoltage occurs while the car is in motion, the power steering remains active until the car next stops.
A lack of power-assisted steering isn't the worst thing in the world—many readers will be old enough to remember when the feature was far from ubiquitous and parallel parking meant a bicep workout. But it's also not supposed to happen on such a safety-critical system.