USA’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating two non-crash-related seatbelt failures in newer Tesla Model X vehicles.
Two Model X owners reported that their front seat belts disconnected from the anchor pre-tensioner. The separation occurred while the owners were driving their 2022 and 2023 Model X SUVs respectively.
Investigators state that “both vehicles were delivered to the owners with insufficiently connected anchor linkages.”
On March 24, NHTSA began investigating up to 50,000 Model X vehicles. The agency says the anchor and pretensioners “were not properly connected during assembly” and were only stuck together by friction fit, causing “connection failure” in both cases.
The report cited the following reason for the sudden disconnect:
The force exerted on the linkage overcame the resistance of the friction fit while the vehicles were in motion.
Last year, Tesla issued a seatbelt recall for over 24,000 Model 3 vehicles. Reports stated that the techs misassembled the rear seat anchor. Tesla also recently recalled several models over a software issue that is causing a “crash risk”.
The company’s lackluster quality control has been a subject of heated discussions among experts for a long time. The recent string of recalls has added fuel to that fire.
