Tesla recalls 135,000 cars over screens U.S. says are faulty

(Bloomberg) --Tesla Inc. will recall about 135,000 Model S and X vehicles in the U.S. after a months-long investigation by the nation’s auto-safety regulator concluded their touch screens are defective.

Tesla equipped certain Model S sedans from 2012 to 2018 and Model X crossovers from 2016 to 2018 with Nvidia Corp. processors that are prone to wearing out, Tesla said in a recall report. The flaw can lead to the loss of rear-view camera display and other issues.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent a letter to Tesla last month saying it had determined the failures constituted a defect. While the company disagrees with the finding, it will voluntarily initiate a recall and replace memory devices within the processors.

Tesla shares rose as much as 3% to $865 as of 9:55 a.m. Tuesday in New York trading. The stock is up 22% this year.

NHTSA opened a preliminary investigation into the issue in June and upgraded the probe to an engineering analysis in November. The agency had asked Tesla to respond to its defect finding no later than Jan. 27, the day the electric-car maker reported quarterly earnings. Its recall report is dated Jan. 29.