"The Circle Layer" Xu Hui
Edited by Ge Fanmei
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (hereinafter referred to as "NHTSA") said on February 17 local time that in the past nine months, a total of 354 complaints have been received about Tesla(TSAL.O) "ghost brake" incidents, because "ghost brakes" events cause vehicles to slow down sharply and often occur on highways, thereby increasing the risk of collisions with trailing vehicles, so NHTSA will launch an investigation into Tesla's "ghost brakes" incident.
On the same day, the latest announcement by China's State Administration for Market Regulation showed that Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Tesla (Shanghai)") filed a recall plan with the State Administration for Market Regulation. Effective immediately, the Company will recall 26,000 Model 3 (12,000) and Model Y (14,000) electric vehicles produced between December 28, 2020 and January 15, 2022. It is worth mentioning that in early February, Tesla just carried out the largest car recall in history in the US market, reaching 816,000 units.
In 2021, Tesla swept the world with an annual sales performance of 935,700 vehicles, an increase of 436,000 units or 87.2% compared with 2020. But compared with the hard-to-find popularity of Tesla's car, Tesla's stock price has been in a state of decline since it "peaked" at $1243.49 on November 4, 2021. During this period, Tesla founder Elon Musk repeatedly sold Tesla stock, and Musk and his first brother Kimbal Musk were investigated for insider trading. As of the close of trading on Feb. 28, Tesla's stock price was $870.43 per share, down about 28.29% from its share price high.
Investigated for ghost brakes
In fact, this is not the first time that NHTSA has launched an investigation into Tesla's "ghost brake" incident. As early as August 2021, NHTSA announced that due to multiple accidents involving Tesla Vehicles that collided with parked vehicles, it launched a formal investigation into Tesla's automatic driver assistance system, involving 765,000 vehicles, including Model Y, X, S and 3 models.
The so-called "Phantom Braking" refers to the unexpected activation of the brakes in Tesla's autopilot assist system, which usually occurs when the user opens the autopilot assist system of Tesla vehicles, and the vehicle will suddenly and without warning in some situation that does not require braking, which increases the risk of collision with the trailing vehicle.
Tesla owner complaint statistics
Source: Screenshot of Tesla owner complaint data in the Washington Post
NHTSA said complaints about Tesla's "ghost brakes" have surged since November 2021, with 107 of the 189 complaints originating from "ghost brakes," accounting for 57 percent. The models involve the Model Y and Model 3 produced between 2020 and 2022 and the Model 3 produced in 2019, and NHTSA said the Investigation Office has conducted a preliminary investigation into the accidental braking problem to determine the scope and severity of the potential problem and to fully assess the potential related safety issues.
Previously, Tesla said in October 2021 that the malfunction of its ghost brakes was triggered by the FSD full autopilot software update. Among them, the beta version of the FSD software is equipped with a fully autonomous driving test function for urban roads, and only drivers who have purchased or subscribed to FSD and obtained high scores in Tesla's safety test can obtain trial qualifications. It is worth mentioning that the beta version of Tesla FSD has not been pushed in China.
At that time, Tesla recalled the then updated version of the FSD software and announced that starting in May 2021, Tesla Model Y and Model 3 models delivered in North America would no longer use millimeter-wave radar as a sensor for the autopilot system, but would instead use a vision-based autopilot system.
Tesla issued an announcement that the North American Model Y and Model 3 models are no longer equipped with millimeter wave radar
Source: Screenshot of Tesla's official website
Tesla said the vision-based autopilot system is equipped with eight surround cameras that provide 360-degree visibility into the car at a range of up to 250 meters, and also uses 12 ultrasonic sensors to detect objects around the vehicle.
The Model 3 is equipped with 12 ultrasonic sensor images
Source: Screenshot of Tesla's official website
In this regard, Zhang Xiang, a researcher at the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center of North China University of Technology, an MBA tutor in business administration and an analyst in the automotive industry, told the researcher of Thinking Finance: "Tesla's automatic driving system is divided into three parts, the perception layer, the decision-making layer, and the execution layer. After Tesla did not use millimeter-wave radar, its decision-making level misjudged some scenarios, resulting in "ghost brakes", while in ordinary events " " will lead to rear-end collisions, and in serious events may even lead to death. ”
Zhang Xiang also told the "Thinking Finance" researcher: "In contrast, the autonomous driving systems of other car companies often combine vision, millimeter wave radar and ultrasonic radar to cross-verify, thereby improving the accuracy of perception and effectively avoiding misjudgment." Tesla's self-driving system based on vision sensors is not very mature under the current circumstances. ”
At the same time, Phil Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who focuses on the safety of self-driving cars, has publicly stated that in the absence of cross-validation of different types of sensors, it is difficult for only one type of sensor to determine the road situation, and if the developers do not correctly set the decision threshold to determine when there is an emergency and distinguish between false alarms, it will be easy to "ghost brake" events.
Recalls are frequent
Tesla frequently recalls vehicles. In 2021, Tesla launched six vehicle recalls in the Chinese market alone, involving a total of 543,800 electric vehicles, covering imported Model 3, Model S and domestic Model 3, Model Y and other models. If Tesla's global deliveries of 936,100 vehicles in 2021 are calculated, the proportion of recalled vehicles is 58%, which means that for every two vehicles sold, one vehicle is recalled.
On February 18, according to the State Administration of Market Regulation, Tesla (Shanghai) filed a car recall plan, and there will be slight movements in the positioning of the heat pump electronic expansion valve of some vehicles within the scope of this recall, because the software (2021.44 to 2021.44.30.6 version) has no corrective function, which may cause the valve to be partially opened, the heat pump compressor to stop working, and the heating function in the car to fail. Especially when the temperature outside the car is lower than minus 10 degrees, the Operation of Tesla's Windshield Defrost System cannot achieve the defrosting effect stipulated by relevant national laws and regulations, which will adversely affect the driver's vision, thereby increasing the possibility of collision risk when the vehicle is driving in cold weather, and there are safety hazards.
After the vehicle recall, Tesla (Shanghai) will upgrade the software for the vehicles within the scope of the recall through the vehicle remote upgrade (OTA) technology, and the user can complete the recall without going to the store; for vehicles that cannot be recalled through the car remote upgrade (OTA) technology, Tesla (Shanghai) will contact the relevant users through the Tesla service center to upgrade the software for the vehicle free of charge to eliminate safety hazards.
Source: Screenshot of the State Administration for Market Regulation
It is worth noting that on December 3, 2021, Tesla (Shanghai) recalled some domestic Model Y electric vehicles, a total of 21,500 because of the steering knuckle problem; on December 31, 2021, Tesla (Shanghai) recalled some domestic Model 3 electric vehicles, a total of 144,200 vehicles, mainly involving the trunk cover problem. At the same time, because of the problem of locking latches in the front trunk, Tesla Motors (Beijing) Co., Ltd. recalled some imported Model S electric vehicles, a total of 19,697 vehicles; recalled some imported Model 3 electric vehicles, mainly involving the trunk cover problem, a total of 35,800 vehicles.
In the United States, Tesla's recall of cars is even larger, and since late January 2022, Tesla has launched four recalls in the United States, involving more than 1.47 million units. According to the NHTSA notification on February 10, Tesla recalled 578,600 electric vehicles because of car audio problems.
Previously, on February 3, local time, NHTSA issued an announcement that Tesla is conducting safety recalls for more than 817,000 vehicles, mainly because of problems with the seat belt tips of relevant batches of vehicles. When the driver does not fasten the seat belt after the vehicle in question is started, the buzzer fails to start, resulting in no seat belt prompt ring. It is also the largest recall in Tesla's history, with vehicles equivalent to 87% of full-year sales in 2021.
Meanwhile, on January 26, Tesla recalled 54,000 cars in the United States due to self-driving parking capabilities, and on February 1, it recalled 26,700 cars due to the failure of the defrost and fog removal system.
It is worth mentioning that due to Tesla's compensation plan, in 2012, Musk obtained an option of 22.8 million shares of Tesla. On November 6, 2021, Musk launched a poll on Twitter asking whether 10% of Tesla stock should be sold. The voting results show that out of 3.5 million votes, nearly 58% of fans supported its sale of shares.
A poll launched by Musk
Source: Twitter screenshot
By the end of 2021, Musk sold a total of 15.7 million shares for $16.4 billion. Together with the shares given away, a total of 20.7 million shares were sold. However, by exercising the options, Musk acquired 22.8 million shares of stock. A wind message is displayed. As of the end of 2021, Musk owns 231 million shares of Tesla, accounting for 22.42% of the company's shares, and is Tesla's largest individual shareholder.
Musk has a chart of 231 million Tesla shares
Source: Screenshot of wind
On the first trading day after Musk's tweet, Tesla shares plunged 5 percent. The day before Musk tweeted, Musk's brother Kimball sold Tesla worth about $109 million (6.885 billion yuan). According to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, the SEC is now investigating whether musk and his brother Kimball sold Tesla shares in violation of insider trading rules.
In this regard, according to the "Phoenix Network Technology" report, Musk responded: "Kimbar did not know that I intend to do an investigation on Twitter. He also said Tesla lawyers "knew" he would conduct a polling investigation. According to his previous settlement with the SEC, Musk's tweet containing important news needs to be reviewed by Tesla's lawyers. "Given that my vote on Twitter led to me losing more than $1 billion when selling stocks, the idea that I care about my brother might make millions less when selling stocks is completely ridiculous." Musk said.