Canadian Ministry Requires Tesla to Change Indicator Lights Back

TapTechNews, Jun. 3rd. The Canadian Ministry of Transport has required Tesla to revert the brake and parking indicator lights in its vehicles back to icon form. Previously, due to the recall request from the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Tesla had changed the icons of these indicator lights to text through a software update.

In February this year, NHTSA required Tesla to change the original brake, parking, and ABS indicator light icons to text, and Tesla has remedied this through an over-the-air (OTA) software update. Subsequently, the Canadian Ministry of Transport also issued a recall notice last month, requiring some Tesla vehicles to change the updated text indicator lights back to icon form to comply with Canadian regulations.

Like in the US, many software-based recall issues can be resolved through Tesla's OTA updates. In this case, Tesla has also released a new OTA update to address the problem. The Canadian Ministry of Transport said that for owners who have installed Tesla's software version 2024.3.25, 2024.14.5, or higher, no further action is required.

Although the safety risk is relatively low, Canadian regulations require visual warnings to use universal symbols rather than text to avoid driver confusion, the agency wrote in the recall notice.

Many Tesla owners, including CEO Elon Musk, have called for safety regulatory agencies to change the language for recall events that can be remedied through OTA updates rather than requiring a mechanic. NHTSA responded that these issues still pose a safety risk and therefore require a formal recall, whether they are remedied through software updates or otherwise.