Tesla is recalling almost 4,000 of its flagship Cybertrucks to fix a potentially dangerous fault with their accelerators pedals.
A safety recall report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that 3,878 of the vehicles would be recalled for repair — including all manufactured between Nov. 13 and April 4.
“On affected vehicles, when high force is applied to the pad on the accelerator pedal, the pad may dislodge, which may cause the pedal to become trapped in the interior trim above the pedal,” the report said.
The pedal problem was raised on social media this week by one driver who found that the vehicle was accelerating on its own after the accelerator became stuck to the floor when a rubber cover came loose.
A Tiktok video of cybertruck owner Jose Martinez illustrating the problem on his vehicle has been shared more than 42,000 times and viewed more than 6 million times on X, the social network which like Tesla is owned by tycoon Elon Musk.
The NHTSA said the fault was caused by “residual lubricant (soap)” which had been used to apply the rubber pad during the manufacturing process.
The report said “Tesla will replace or rework the accelerator pedal assembly” at no extra charge.
The NHTSA report said that Tesla first received notice of a customer complaint about the accelerators on March 31, followed by a second on April 3. The report said that Tesla made the determination to voluntarily recall the vehicles on April 12.
The report also said that Tesla has already begun to address the issue on vehicles in production or at delivery centers.
