As has been widely reported, the Tesla Cybertruck was recalled last week for a major safety issue involving the accelerator pedal. Like most vehicles, the Cybertruck has a rubber and metal cover fitted to the accelerator and brake pedals. They are usually applied to improve aesthetics and provide a textured surface to avoid slippage.
But most automaker pads are tightly fit and not typically a point of failure. In the case of the Cybertruck, an unapproved change made to the installation process led to many pads not being properly adhered to the pedal. In situations of hard acceleration, the cover could slip loose and get lodged in the trim of the footwell, causing the vehicle to accelerate uncontrollably.
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Cybertruck's early woes continue
This pedal recall is only the tip of the iceberg for the long-awaited Tesla Cybertruck. In addition to being more expensive and with less range at launch than expected, the truck has suffered from a multitude of quality problems.
As a result of the recall, deliveries were halted this week. In the safety recall report, Tesla stated that “At no charge to the customer, Tesla will replace or rework the accelerator pedal assembly such that the assembly meets specifications and ensures sufficient retention force between the pad and accelerator pedal to prevent the pad from dislodging.“
Now deliveries seem to have resumed at some locations. One new customer took delivery on Thursday and shared the experience on the Tesla Cybertruck Facebook group. In the comments, he posted a photo of the fix applied by the Service Center to his vehicle. Since then, other owners have reported the same fix being applied at their own Service Centers.
We now have a service bulletin released by Tesla that has been shared online. To maintain “sufficient retention force between the pad and accelerator pedal to prevent the pad from dislodging,“ the rework involves drilling a hole at the base of the pedal and securing the pad to the pedal with a rivet.
A drilling jig is supposed to be used to properly center the drill on the pad. But based on the photos posted so far, it seems like some technicians are simply eyeballing it.
When it comes to aftermarket pads, you always want to go for ones that are installed with screws, bolts or rivets rather than slip-on designs. But the implementation here looks somewhat slapdash coming from the vehicle's OEM. Due to the potential for a dangerous situation, it is good that a fix was developed quickly. However, it is unknown at this time if this is a temporary fix or a permanent solution.
According to the service bulletin, the “replacement accelerator pedal assembly has a rivet installed on the bottom end of the pedal pad (Figure 2)” and differentiates this from previous pedal pads that do not have a rivet pre-installed. This seems to indicate that the “permanent fix” involves the same process of riveting the pad to the pedal.
For a vehicle that costs upwards of $100,000, you would expect a cleaner solution and one might be on the way. But in the meantime, members of the Cybertruck subreddit, Cybertruck Owners Forum and social media are having some fun at Tesla’s expense.
What do you think of this fix? Are you a Cybertruck owner yourself? Get in touch or drop us a note in the comments.
