Enlarge / More than 2,000 Tesla model-year 2023 Model Y and Model 3s have suffered steering failure, according to a new NHTSA safety defect investigation. (credit: Sjoerd van der Wal/Getty Images)

It's been a rough week for Tesla. On Tuesday, a court in Delaware voided a massive $55.8 billion pay package for CEO Elon Musk. Then, news emerged that Tesla was being sued by 25 different counties in California for years of dumping toxic waste. That was followed by a recall affecting 2.2 million Teslas. Now, Ars has learned that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation is investigating the company after 2,388 complaints of steering failure affecting the model-year 2023 Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover.

Paint, brake fluid, used batteries, antifreeze, diesel

Tesla has repeatedly run afoul of laws designed to protect the environment from industrial waste. In 2019, author Edward Niedermeyer cataloged the troubles the company ran into with air pollution from its paint shop in Fremont, California, some of which occurred when the automaker took to painting its cars in a temporary tent-like marquee .

In 2022, the US Environmental Protection Agency fined Tesla $275,000 for violating the Clean Air Act, which followed a $31,000 penalty Tesla paid to the EPA in 2019. But EPA data shows that Tesla continued to violate the Clean Air Act in 2023 .

Enlarge / Tesla says that Autopilot users should always keep both hands on the steering wheel. (credit: CBS)

More than 2 million Tesla electric vehicles are subject to a new safety recall today . At issue is the much-criticized Autopilot driver-assistance feature, more specifically the Autosteer component.

At one time, Tesla claimed that Autosteer cut crashes by 40 percent— a statistic that turned out to be completely false once a third party analyzed the data . Now, following an ongoing engineering analysis by the National Highway Safety Administration Office of Defects Investigation that found Tesla has inadequate driver monitoring and that the system could lead to "foreseeable misuse," the automaker has finally reacted.

Autopilot is Tesla's name for a suite of advanced driver assistance systems, but the two principal components are "traffic-aware cruise control" and Autosteer. The former maintains the car's speed relative to a vehicle in front, and the latter reads lane markers on the road and keeps the car between them. The system was originally based on one supplied by Mobileye, although that relationship broke down, and Tesla was dropped as a customer by Mobileye due to Mobileye's concern that Tesla was "pushing the envelope in terms of safety."

Enlarge / There's already one open federal safety probe into whether or not these steering wheels can detach. Now a new investigation concerns reports of steering failures. (credit: Sjoerd van der Wal/Getty Images)

Federal vehicle safety regulators are investigating a potential problem with the power steering in some Tesla electric vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation has opened a preliminary evaluation to determine if there's a problem with the power steering in model-year 2023 Tesla Models 3 and Y.

The investigation, sparked by a dozen customer complaints, is one of a number of open safety investigations into Tesla's EVs. Just this year NHTSA's ODI also opened probes into complaints of sudden unintended acceleration , and another is looking at the propensity for steering wheels to detach .

In this case, NHTSA received 12 complaints alleging steering failure in three Model 3s and nine Model Ys. Some complaints describe the steering suddenly and randomly locking in place; others relate power steering failures that required heavy effort to remain in control of the car.

Mistorqued bolts may need to be fixed in some Model Y second rows. (credit: Tesla)

Rivian was not the only electric vehicle startup to feature in my weekly recall email from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this morning. Both Electra Mecchanica and Lordstown are recalling a small number of EVs, but, more significantly, Tesla has issued yet another recall , and this time there's no software patch that can remedy the problem; affected cars have to actually be physically inspected.

Tesla is recalling 3,470 Model Y crossovers built between May 2022 and February 2023 in order to check that the bolts that secure the frame of the second-row seats are properly torqued. Those that aren't could potentially increase the risk of injury to occupants of the second row during a crash.

For owners worried their cars may be affected, Tesla says that a "second-row seat back frame that has this condition may not fold properly or may be loose and rattle during normal vehicle operation."

Enlarge / If you own a Tesla with FSD Beta, there's a recall in your future. (credit: Tesla)

On Thursday Tesla had to issue a recall for nearly 363,000 of its electric vehicles. At issue is the company's highly controversial "Full Self Driving" Beta, which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration believes is dangerous.

NHTSA has four principal complaints with the driver-assistance system:

The FSD Beta system may allow the vehicle to act unsafe around intersections, such as traveling straight through an intersection while in a turn-only lane, entering a stop sign-controlled intersection without coming to a complete stop, or proceeding into an intersection during a steady yellow traffic signal without due caution.

Additionally, NHTSA says that "the system may respond insufficiently to changes in posted speed limits or not adequately account for the driver's adjustment of the vehicle's speed to exceed posted speed limits."

Enlarge / Tesla has had to issue its largest-ever recall. (credit: Tesla)

On Thursday, Tesla issued a recall for almost 1.1 million vehicles due to a problem with their windows. The problem is related to the windows' automatic reversal function, the safety feature that lowers the glass if it's being raised and encounters part of a human being.

Unfortunately for the affected Teslas, during conformity production testing, "Tesla technicians identified window automatic reversal system performance that had greater than expected variations in response to pinch detection."

The problem affects Model 3s built between 2017 and 2022, Model Ys built between 2020 and 2021, and Models S and X built between 2021 and 2022. Tesla identified the problem in late August, and by September 12, after analyzing and validating its test results, the company made the decision to issue the recall.