Tesla and NHTSA have agreed on a recall campaign that will affect 53,822 Model S, 3, X and Y cars in the North America. The issue is software-based and will be fixed via an over-the-air update later this month, so visiting a service center is not necessary.
NHTSA admits that it is not aware of any incidents that could be tracked back to the Autopilot issue discovered, but insists that a fix must be released as quickly as possible.
In its current implementation, the Tesla Autopilot can sometimes ignore stop signs at uncontrolled intersections and proceed to pass the intersection at up to 9 km/h (5.5 mph). This only happens when the AI does not detect any other cars, cyclists or pedestrians in view and is confident that the current visibility is high.
Once upgraded, Tesla will follow traffic regulations to a letter and come to a halt before all stop signs to let the driver and the electronics decide if it is okay to move on. This behavior will become standard in all Tesla cars with Autopilot later in February.