China’s top market regulator has ordered Tesla to recall 2,740,642 China-built Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, requiring a free over-the-air update that adds in-cabin camera monitoring to catch drivers who stop watching the road while using Autosteer. The order, announced August 21, 2026 by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), is bigger than any single recall Tesla has ever issued in the United States.

Key Points

• 2,740,642 China-built Model 3 and Model Y vehicles covered, per SAMR’s recall filing.
• Remedy: a free OTA software update, no dealer visit needed.
• Adds interior-camera gaze tracking on top of Tesla’s steering-wheel torque check.
• Regulators found torque monitoring alone let drivers pass attentiveness checks while looking away.
• Covered cars were built between March 4, 2019 and December 7, 2025.
• It tops Tesla’s two largest-ever US recalls, at 2.2 million and 2.03 million vehicles.

What’s Affected

• Model 3: China-built units, March 2019 through late 2025
• Model Y: China-built units, November 2020 through late 2025
• Vehicles running Autosteer / assisted-driving features that use steering-wheel input to gauge attention
• Not included: imported Model S/X, covered by a separate door-release recall

SAMR’s finding exposes a real flaw in how Tesla polices driver attention. The old system watches for hand pressure on the wheel, on the theory that a gripped wheel means an engaged driver. Regulators concluded that’s a bad proxy: a driver can apply enough torque to satisfy the sensor while staring at a phone. The updated software adds the cabin camera into the loop, flagging a driver whose eyes have drifted off the road even with hands still on the wheel.

How This Stacks Up Against Tesla’s US Recall History

Run the numbers and the scale gets uncomfortable for Tesla. Its biggest-ever US recall came in February 2024, when it called back roughly 2.2 million vehicles, nearly every car it had sold in the country at the time, over instrument-panel warning lights too small to read. Before that, its most consequential safety action was the December 2023 recall of just over 2 million vehicles for the same underlying problem now surfacing in China: Autosteer’s controls weren’t strict enough to keep drivers engaged. Both campaigns, Tesla’s largest ever on US soil, fall short of the 2.74 million cars now getting new eyes put on them in China alone.

A Second Recall Landed the Same Day

SAMR simultaneously ordered a separate recall covering 2,975,910 Model 3, Y, S and X vehicles, China-built and imported, over interior emergency door-release handles that blend into cabin trim and can be hard to find after a crash cuts power to the electronic latches. That fix pairs warning labels with another OTA update that automatically lowers the windows after a collision. Together, the two orders touch over 5.7 million vehicle registrations, with overlap since many cars fall under both campaigns.

Tesla has not issued a public statement on either recall. Reuters reported the company did not immediately reply to a request for comment, and remedies for the door-handle issue begin rolling out September 25, 2026. The driver-monitoring fix needs no appointment. It lands the next time an affected Model 3 or Model Y checks in for an update, whether the driver is watching the road or not.