China’s State Administration for Market Regulation ordered Tesla to add cabin-camera eye tracking to 2.74 million Model 3 and Model Y cars, on top of the steering-wheel torque check Tesla already uses there. The fix is a free over-the-air software update, not a hardware recall.
What the regulator objected to
The recall covers 2,740,642 China-built Model 3 and Model Y vehicles produced between March 4, 2019 and December 7, 2025. According to Electrek’s reporting, regulators determined Tesla’s existing attention-monitoring — based on whether a hand is applying pressure to the steering wheel — is insufficient to alert a driver whose gaze has left the road, which they judged raises crash risk. A second report from Gulf News confirms the same figures and notes the updated system will check both torque on the wheel and where the driver’s eyes are pointed.
How cabin-camera monitoring already works on U.S. Teslas
Cars sold in the U.S. already ship with a cabin camera, and it’s doing similar work today. Teslarati reports that the camera tracks eye gaze, head position, and steering inputs in real time while Autopilot or FSD is active (and above roughly 40 mph after 10 minutes of manual driving), issuing escalating visual and audible alerts if it judges you inattentive, before disengaging driver-assist features. Images are processed onboard and aren’t sent to Tesla unless you opt in to data sharing. The China order pushes that same eye-tracking approach from a driver-assist feature into the baseline attention check for a huge slice of Tesla’s fleet — it doesn’t change anything for U.S. cars on its own.
Ryan Shaw covered the recall in this video from September 1, 2026:
His video is a quick news rundown — the regulatory filing details and Tesla’s own documentation above are what actually back up the facts here.
Photo by Vladimir Srajber.