After two Tesla owners have lost their steering wheel while driving, U.S. safety regulators are investigating the company's Model Y SUV.
One person from New Jersey who filed a complaint with NHTSA said he had only had his Tesla for five days when, on Jan. 29, he and his family went on a drive. But while traveling on the road, the steering wheel suddenly came off. Fortunately the road wasn't crowded and he was able to "pull toward the road divider," according to ABC, without any collisions or injuries.
Tesla tried to charge the SUV owner $103.96 to repair the faulty steering wheel, until the complaint was posted on Twitter. That's when, like magic, Tesla became reasonable.
From ABC News:
The complaint has a link to a Twitter posting from the owner that included a video of the detached steering wheel and pictures of the white Tesla being towed.
At first a Tesla service center gave the owner a cost estimate of $103.96 to repair the problem. The service center apologized in what appear to be text messages posted on Twitter.
When the owner wrote that he had lost faith in Tesla and asked for a refund, the service center removed the charge and wrote that Tesla doesn't have a return policy, but he could reach out to the sales and delivery team.
The man was later given the option of keeping the car or getting it replaced with a new one, according to his post on Twitter. He posted that Tesla did replace his car.
Turns out the problem has to do with a missing bolt. In both cases where the Tesla steering wheel came off, a bolt attaching the wheel to the steering column was missing, according to CNN. And 120,000 Teslas could be affected. The investigation will determine whether or not there is a recall.
This Tesla snafu follows the company's recall of almost 363,000 cars in February over faulty "Full Self-Driving" software.
