Tesla has assembled some of the Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in China without a redundant/backup microchip in the steering mechanism.
According to CNBC, there has been no official comment on the incident so far, and the news leaked through insiders and internal correspondence. It is claimed that ‘tens of thousands’ of cars have already been made without this chip, and that its lack might prevent owners of these cars from upgrading them to a Level 3 Autopilot system.
According to insider reports, the microchip in question was only provided for redundancy purposes and served no critical purpose. As such, the carmaker could eliminate it to free up as many precious chips as possible for other new vehicles. The current Level 2 self-driving tech has no need of the chip, and its removal should have no effect whatsoever on currently made cars. This would explain why Tesla decided to drop it.
An earlier statement from Tesla claimed drivers would be able to purchase the Level 3 Autopilot in the form of an over-the-air (OTA) update, because the entire hardware suite for it is already installed in the car. The chip removal may or may not mean that affected cars will be locked out of the upgrade until their owners visit service centers and have additional hardware installed.
We are told that the affected cars were sold in China, Australia and select countries of Europe.