San Francisco: Electric vehicle company Tesla is disabling a self-driving feature in nearly 54,000 vehicles that can prompt cars to autonomously perform a “rolling stop” — a maneuver in which the vehicle moves slowly through a stop sign without coming to a full stop.
As per a safety recall notice issued by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the consequence of this feature is that “failing to stop at a stop sign can increase the risk of a crash,” reports The Verge.
The change will be made as an over-the-air software update to Model S, X, 3 and Y vehicles using the beta version of Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” a driver-assist feature, release 2020.40.4.10 or newer.
The NHTSA said Tesla introduced the rolling stop functionality last October “in the limited early access FSD Beta population”.
As part of these limited updates, Tesla lets drivers select different “profiles” for their cars’ self-driving features. Drivers could choose between “Chill,” “Average,” and “Assertive” modes, the report said.
The last category was accompanied with a warning that the vehicle may “perform more frequent lane changes, will not exit passing lanes, and may perform rolling stops,” it added.
As per the report, it is unclear if these driver profiles will be completely removed, or if only the rolling stop feature in the “Assertive” mode will be disabled.