Tesla recalls nearly all its US vehicles in largest-ever such move

Tesla is recalling 2.2 million vehicles, or nearly all of its electric vehicles in the United States, due to incorrect font sizes on warning lights, which increases the risk of a crash, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Friday.

This is more than the 2.03 million vehicles Tesla recalled in the United States two months back, its biggest-ever such move at the time, to install new safeguards in its Autopilot advanced driver-assistance system.

Tesla has been under the NHTSA's scanner for its autonomous driving aid that is intended to enable cars to steer, accelerate and brake automatically within their lane.

The latest recall includes vehicles across Tesla's various models, including the Model S, Model X, 2017-2023 Model 3, Model Y, and 2024 Cybertruck vehicles, the NHTSA said.

"Warning lights with a smaller font size can make critical safety information on the instrument panel difficult to read, increasing the risk of a crash," the NHTSA said.

Tesla began releasing an over-the-air software update on January 23, free of charge, to fix the issue, the regulator said.

The software update will increase the font size of the visual warning indicators for the brake, park and antilock brake system (ABS).

The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard requires warning indicators for vehicles equipped with hydraulic brakes to be at least 3.2 millimeters high.

The standard also requires contrasting colors for the written, visual warning and the background, with one of them being red.

Tesla's Cybertruck started receiving a software update to fix the issue for the units in production, the report added.

The recall is also the first for the new electric pickup truck model that Tesla started handing over to customers last November.

The Austin, Texas-based automaker's stores and service centers will be notified after January 31 and owners will get notification letters through mail, the report said.