Older Teslas are reportedly running into an issue where the screen stops working and the car won't charge
- Tesla owners and repair professionals are reporting that older models of Tesla are bricking due to worn-out flash memory, resulting in the car's screen to malfunction and issues with charging.
- The problem has been widely discussed on YouTube, Twitter, and online message boards in the last six months.
- On Saturday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that "[The problem] Should be much better at this point," - though his tweet did not elaborate on what action Tesla had taken to resolve the problem, if any.
- Tesla did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
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Some older Teslas are reportedly running into an issue stemming from the embedded flash memory on the vehicle wearing out, which can cause the cars have problems charging and the built-in screens to stop functioning.
In the last six months, Tesla owners repair professionals and have reported and discussed the problem on online platforms, including YouTube, Twitter and Tesla-related message boards.
The issue concerns a flash storage chip, called the eMMC, that's embedded on a piece of onboard technology called the MCU1. Flash storage is form of computer memory that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed to help a computer perform tasks quickly and efficiently. It is often used in computers, USB drives, digital cameras, and networking hardware. According to multiple repair professionals, Teslas are writing vehicle logs to this flash storage chip so frequently that the chip stops working properly.
Last week, Jason Hughes - an independent repair professional who claimed he had dealt with "over a dozen" broken MCU1s in the past month - tweeted about the problem. Addressing Elon Musk directly, Hughes urged the Tesla CEO to address the issue, adding that "it's literally killing a huge percentage of these units."
In a YouTube video posted in May 2019, a YouTuber and Tesla repair professional called Rich Benoit discussed the problem with another Tesla repair professional, Phil Sadow.
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Explaining the problem in more detail, Sadow said: "[Tesla] creates so many logs in the car, they write to [the chip] so fast that it basically burns them out. They have a finite amount of writes; they can only do so many writes. The amount of logging they're doing is excessive.
"When [the eMMC] burns out, you wake up to a black screen [on the car's central console.]," he continued. "There's nothing there. You can't tun on your climate control. You can generally drive the car, but it won't charge." He also suggested the problem tends to appear after about 4 years of driving, and urged Tesla to "open up diagnostics" for people who may be experiencing the problem.
As well as Tesla repair professionals, several Tesla owners have also reported the issue on message boards like the the Tesla Motors Club (which is unaffiliated with Tesla itself.) One user, LuckyLuke, wrote: "My MCU crashed a few weeks ago when I tried to switch language. It never came back from a reboot, screen stayed black no matter what I (and Tesla phone support) tried."
Though Tesla has not released a formal statement acknowledging the problem, Musk tweeted at Hughes on Saturday, in direct response to Hughes's tweet last week. Musk wrote that the issue "Should be much better at this point," though he did not mention any specific actions Tesla had taken to resolve it. Tesla did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
Tesla reports its quarterly earnings on October 23.
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