Tesla has issued a recall of about 48,000 Model 3 Performance cars in response to pressure from the National Highway and Traffic Safety Agency (NHTSA) over the vehicle’s speedometer, which can fail to display while the car is in Track Mode.
The news arrives via the NHTSA’s most recent Safety Recall Report, which attests to a recall of 48,184 Tesla Model 3 Performance vehicles manufactured between Feb. 18, 2020, and April 6, 2022.
The NHTSA’s report follows a similar finding from China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, which concluded that speedometer gave inadequate information for safe driving while Track Mode was engaged.
Track Mode is a feature “designed specifically for use on closed autocross circuits and racetracks,” in Tesla’s account, facilitating easier cornering at high speeds in these specialized contexts (Track Mode is nonetheless available to all drivers). The NHTSA found that, when Track Mode was engaged on the Model 3 Performance vehicles, the speedometer would display a speed number without specifying a unit of speed such as miles per hour or kilometers per hour. Tesla has blamed the issue on a firmware update released last December, which the company says inadvertently removed the speed units from the speedometer under the specified conditions.
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