Tesla has yet another federal headache to contend with. On March 4, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation opened a preliminary investigation after two reports of Tesla Model Y steering wheels detaching in drivers' hands while driving.
NHTSA's ODI says that in both cases, the model year 2023 Model Ys each required repairs on the production line that involved removing their steering wheels. The wheels were refitted but were only held in place by friction—Tesla workers never replaced the retaining bolt that affixes the steering wheel to the steering column. In 2018, Ford had to recall more than 1.3 million vehicles after an incorrectly sized bolt resulted in a similar problem.
The ODI document states that "sudden separation occurred when the force exerted on the steering wheel overcame the resistance of the friction fit while the vehicles were in motion" and that both incidents occurred while the electric vehicles still had low mileage.
An Associated Press report says that in one of the two cases, the wheel detached five days after the vehicle was delivered to a customer in New Jersey. According to AP, Tesla initially told the aggrieved owner that it could fix the broken car at a cost of $103.96. Tesla later replaced the car for free.
In addition to this probe, NHTSA is also investigating whether Tesla Autopilot can detect and avoid motorcycles, why Autopilot keeps hitting emergency vehicles, and whether the removal of radar sensors on Tesla vehicles has caused hundreds of phantom braking events.
Tesla is also the subject of a Justice Department investigation into whether or not it has misled customers over Autopilot's capabilities, something that California's Department of Motor Vehicles is also pursuing.
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