Tesla filed a petition with US auto safety regulators saying that 612,000 vehicles manufactured since 2012 do not fully comply with federal safety standards because displays can be switched from miles per hour to metric only measurements, documents released Friday.
However, the automaker asked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to declare the non-compliance issue as insignificant to safety, according to the agency’s filing.
Tesla said it fixed the problem during production in September and more than 75 percent of affected US vehicles accepted the September firmware update.
Tesla said that if vehicles are set to display mileage only, then all of the features associated with the speed limit, such as Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Speed Assist, “convert mapped data from mph to km / h, reducing vehicle speed. automatically matches the correct speed limit. “
Tesla added that vehicle drivers can change the display back to miles per hour, saying the option is “easy to find in the display menu and not hidden in submenus.”
Tesla said it has not received any reports of accidents related to this matter, noting that the NHTSA in July and BMW in 2015 granted two petitions for insignificant treatment related to speedometer unit non-compliance.