Tesla Is Recalling Thousands of Cybertrucks Over Scary Accelerator Fault

Dan Ladden-Hall
·2 min read
Liu Ranyang/China News Service via Getty
Liu Ranyang/China News Service via Getty

Tesla is recalling thousands of its Cybertrucks over a problem with the accelerator pedal, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced Friday.

The auto safety regulator said the pedals in certain Cybertruck vehicles have a pad that “may dislodge and become trapped by the interior trim,” in turn causing the truck to “accelerate unintentionally, increasing the risk of a crash.” A total of 3,878 Cybertrucks are being recalled to fix the issue.

Musk Is Fighting Tooth and Nail for His $56B Pay Package

Part of a safety recall report said the fault on Cybertrucks manufactured between November 2023 and April 2024 said the accelerator pad can become dislodged when “high force” is applied to the pedal. If the pad then becomes trapped in the interior trim, “the performance and operation of the pedal will be affected, which may increase the risk of a collision.”

An “unapproved change” in the production of the pedal—namely the use of a “lubricant” in its assembly—was blamed as the cause of the fault, with the lubricant reducing how well the pad stuck to the pedal. The report also notes that the vehicle can be brought to a stop if drivers press the brake pedal, which will override the accelerator.

“There were no injuries or accidents because of this,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote in a post earlier this week. “We are just being very cautious.” The NHTSA said Tesla will repair the fault at no charge to owners.

The recall comes after videos purporting to show an issue with Cybertruck accelerators went viral on social media. It also follows a Monday announcement from Musk that the electric automaker will lay off over 10 percent of its global workforce following a sharp fall in sales in first quarter of 2024. The company’s stock has plummeted almost 40 percent so far this year.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.

Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now.

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest Stories

  • Tesla staff say firm's entire Supercharger team fired

    The division responsible for the car-maker's huge fast-charging network is being axed to cut costs.

  • 2 dead in Highway 417 crash near Limoges, Ont.

    Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) say two people are dead following a serious collision between a transport truck and a car Tuesday afternoon that closed the westbound lanes of Highway 417 near Limoges, Ont., for several hours.In a statement issued Wednesday morning, OPP said emergency crews were called to the westbound lanes of the highway just before 3 p.m. where they found both vehicles engulfed in flames.OPPS said bystanders tried to rescue two people from the car but couldn't reach them becau

  • Trucker was watching Netflix in crash that killed grandparents, cops say. He’s charged

    The Iowa couple were in Minnesota visiting family, according to an obituary.

  • Grandparents, grandchild among 4 dead in wrong-way 401 pursuit crash

    WHITBY, Ont. — Ontario's police watchdog says two grandparents and their infant grandchild are among four people who died in a multi-vehicle crash on Highway 401 in Whitby when a suspect vehicle driving the wrong way was being chased by police. The Special Investigations Unit says the person in the suspect vehicle also died. SIU spokesperson Monica Hudon says Durham Region police became aware of a robbery at an LCBO in Clarington, Ont., around 7:50 p.m. on Monday and found a cargo van of interes

  • Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported

    ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada were in St. John's, N.L., Wednesday after a plane overshot the main runway at the city's airport. PAL Airlines confirmed the turboprop plane involved was chartered from the company, and that it went slightly beyond the runway during a landing, before it came to a stop. "The PAL team met the flight, passengers disembarked the aircraft and went to our charter facility to meet their awaiting ground transportation," spok

  • Toddler found asleep on passenger's lap with no seatbelt

    Police were "shocked" to find a driver and passenger without seatbelts, despite the latter also having a one-year-old child in her lap. Lancashire Road Police described how a traffic officer in a fully marked car was stopped at a red traffic light in Blackburn on Monday when they noticed the car next to them had an empty car seat. The rear seat passenger had a toddler lying on her lap.

  • Sask. drivers who stunt or street race now face new licence suspensions, longer impoundments

    As of Wednesday, Saskatchewan drivers caught stunting or street racing will lose their licence for a week and their vehicle for a month.The penalties also apply to drivers who travel at twice the speed limit or exceed it by more than 50 km/h.The measures are on top of increased fines that date back to October 2022, when tickets for stunting and street racing — previously at $150 and $205, respectively — increased to $580.Subsequent tickets for street racing within a one-year period increase to $

  • Elon Musk's plan for a cheap EV seems to have hit another major snag

    Tesla has reportedly pulled back on plans to develop a new "gigacasting" method that's intended to simplify manufacturing and cut costs.

  • Classic Chevy Trucks Will Be Featured at Specialty Auto Auction

    Enhance your classic truck collection.

  • Safety gear, training, helped B.C. wildfire pilot survive crash, safety board says

    RICHMOND, B.C. — A Transportation Safety Board report says experience, recent training and safety equipment were key factors in a pilot surviving the crash of a firefighting plane south of Cranbrook in August 2022. The report says the pilot was alone in the Air Tractor AT-802A aircraft and had just finished his eighth water drop when the engine suddenly lost power, with no time to recover because of the low altitude. The report says the pilot couldn't quickly diagnose the problem, so focused ins

  • Are Hybrids Still a Smart Purchase for Families in 2024?

    It's likely that many -- perhaps the majority of -- Americans will be driving environmentally friendly vehicles one day. Although many governments around the world have steered future legislation...

  • US will require all new cars to have advanced automatic braking systems by 2029

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration just announced new safety standards for US cars. All new cars must have automatic braking systems installed by 2029.

  • CN, CPKC workers approve strike mandate as possible work stoppage looms

    Employees at Canada's two biggest railways have authorized a strike that could see thousands of workers walk off the job in three weeks if they are unable to reach new deals on contract demands. About 6,000 employees at Canadian National Railway Co. and 3,300 at Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. voted more than 97 per cent in favour of a strike mandate this week, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference said Wednesday. “After six months of negotiations with both companies, we are no closer to reachi

  • 5 American Cars That Cost the Most Over Time

    Careful car buyers spend plenty of time budgeting for the purchase -- how much they can afford to spend, put down and finance, and what kind of monthly payment they can tolerate. But even the most...

  • Exclusive-Tesla retreats from next-generation ‘gigacasting’ manufacturing process

    Tesla has backed away from an ambitious plan for innovations in gigacasting, its pioneering manufacturing process, according to two sources familiar with the matter, in another sign that the electric-vehicle maker is retrenching amid falling sales and rising competition. Tesla has been a leader in gigacasting, a cutting-edge technique that uses huge presses with thousands of tons of clamping pressure to die-cast large sections of the car’s underbody. Last year, as Tesla developed a new small-vehicle platform, it aimed to punch out the underbody in a single piece, Reuters exclusively reported last September, citing five sources familiar with the automaker’s gigacasting operations.

  • Driver jailed for killing man after speeding stop

    Taxi driver Shakoor Ahmed has been jailed for killing pedestrian Dan Beames.

  • Man jailed after deliberately driving into theatre

    Richard Kelly was sentenced to 12 months in prison after the crash in Darlington in March.

  • These are the most expensive vehicles to gas up

    Consumer Reports found that the Toyota Tundra is the most expensive vehicle in America to gas up, with costs nearing $120 per tank.

  • Edmunds: 2024 Kia Niro versus 2024 Toyota Corolla Cross

    High fuel economy is increasingly a popular desire as well. If this sounds like what you’re looking for in your next vehicle, consider the 2024 Kia Niro or the 2024 Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid. The Kia Niro is fresh from a redesign last year.

  • Ontario's police watchdog continues probe of high-speed pursuit involving fatal crash

    The investigation continues into a fatal collision that occurred during a high-speed police chase on the wrong way of Highway 401, located to the east of Toronto, on Monday night. Monica Hudon of Ontario's Special Investigations Unit confirmed with the media Tuesday that officers initiated the chase after spotting a cargo van they believed had been involved in a liquor store robbery. The chase initially began on the streets of Durham region before shifting to the 401, with both the van and the p