All Investigations » Investigation DP19005

  Defect Investigation of Battery Management Software Updates

Investigation of Battery Management Software Updates

Subject: Battery management software updates
Components covered:
  • Electrical system:12v/24v/48v battery
  • Battery
  • Electrical system:propulsion system:traction battery
  • Electrical system:propulsion system:traction battery thermal:management:software
  • Electrical system:propulsion system:traction battery:management system/energy control module (bms/becm)
  • Electrical system:propulsion system:traction battery:management system/energy control module (bms/becm):software
Investigations Summary: On September 19, 2019, the office of defects investigation (odi) received a defect petition dated September 17, 2019, requesting that NHTSA initiate a defect investigation of certain tesla model s and model x vehicles that received revised battery management software in one or more over-the-air (ota) updates from tesla, beginning in may 2019. The petitioner alleges that the software updates were in response to a potential defect that could result in non-crash fires in the affected battery packs and that tesla should have notified NHTSA of the existence of this potential defect and conducted a safety recall. The petitioner also alleges that this software update reduces the driving range of the affected vehicles. A copy of the petition will be added to the public file for this defect petition and odi will evaluate the petitioner's allegations to determine if the petition should be granted or denied. The following voq numbers are associated with the issues discussed in this resume:11254112, 11246771, 11246770, 11243758.
Vehicles Affected by this investigation:
  • 2012 Tesla Model S
  • 2013 Tesla Model S
  • 2014 Tesla Model S
  • 2015 Tesla Model S
  • 2016 Tesla Model S
  • 2017 Tesla Model S
  • 2018 Tesla Model S
  • 2019 Tesla Model S
  • 2016 Tesla Model X
  • 2017 Tesla Model X
  • 2018 Tesla Model X
  • 2019 Tesla Model X

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