Sens. Blumenthal and Markey call for further Tesla recalls

Sens. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) wrote a letter to Tesla CEO Elon Musk to address the “substandard quality of its vehicles.”

The letter concerns the steering control and suspension in some of its vehicles that were recalled in China back in 2020. However, a similar recall over these components hasn’t occurred in the U.S.

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“We write with extreme concern following recent reporting about Tesla’s knowledge of safety flaws in its vehicles and concealment of the causes of these flaws from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,” the letter reads.

Already, the NHTSA has launched an investigation into the Tesla Autopilot function. According to then-acting head Ann Carlson, drivers weren’t always aware when the system was on, so Tesla recalled 2.2 million of its models to upgrade them with new safeguards.

“Tesla must stop blaming customers and recall their malfunctioning vehicles,” Markey wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“It is unacceptable that Tesla would not only attempt to shift the responsibility for the substandard quality of its vehicles to the people purchasing them, but also make that same flawed argument to NHTSA,” the letter reads. It suggests that Musk issue a recall similar to that made in 2022 and provide the NHTSA with accurate information.

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This letter follows a 2022 letter the pair of senators wrote to Musk raising concerns over the Tesla’s braking functions and a 2021 letter to the Federal Trade Commission to launch an investigation into Tesla for its advertisements surrounding its Autopilot function.

In response to the allegations, Tesla accused the report surrounding the component failures of carrying a “wildly misleading headline.” The company blasted the article because it “nonsensically suggests there are thousands upon thousands of disgruntled Tesla customers” and instead claimed, “Tesla’s customer retention is among the best and highest in the industry.”