Washington, 13 December 2023 (dpa/MIA) - US electric car manufacturer Tesla has issued a recall for almost all vehicles sold in the United States to fix a defective autopilot system.

The recall, by the luxury car maker founded and led by billionaire Elon Musk, involves four different Tesla models made between 2012 and 2023.

The recall reportedly includes more than 2 million cars with the driver-assistance system, which amounts to almost all Tesla vehicles sold in the US since the autopilot feature was launched in 2015.

The action follows a two-year probe by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), into crashes involving Tesla vehicles with driver-assistance technology.

In its investigation, the US regulator found that autopilot's driver monitoring system was partly defective.

The vehicles require modification of the driver assistance feature.

Tesla said it would install new safeguards to prevent the misuse of its autopilot advanced driver-assistance system.

This will adequately ensure that drivers pay attention when using the driver-assistance system.

Tesla plans to deploy an over-the-air software update that will incorporate additional controls and alerts to those already existing on affected vehicles to further encourage the driver to adhere to their continuous driving responsibility whenever autopilot is engaged.

The agency opened the probe into Tesla Autopilot in August 2021, after more than a dozen crashes involving Tesla vehicles.

NHTSA now said it is keeping its defect investigation open, and monitoring remedies provided.

Photo: MIA archive