Acura recalls TLX due to robot potentially cutting tires

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If you’re the owner of a 2022 Acura TLX with tires manufactured on September 1, 2022, specifically, then you may need to get your ride some new shoes (and you’re also the reason a robot just lost its job, for the time being). The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched a recall at the end of December because the rubber on said TLXes may have inadvertently been slashed during assembly; it estimates some 95 per cent of the potentially affected vehicles actually have damage to their tires. That may seem like a large number, but it’s important to note that only 19 vehicles are being recalled by Acura in total, which works out to an estimated 18 affected vehicles.

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However, chances are most readers aren’t in that 95 per cent, and are more interested in the part about the robot, so let’s dig a little deeper into that. According to the recall report provided by Acura to the NHTSA, tire supplier Bridgestone notified the manufacturer that a small number of the TLX sedans “may have sustained cuts/tears to the bead area during their tire-sorting and -loading process.” Well, someone (or something) has to take the blame for these 19 vehicles being recalled. In this case, Bridgestone has named the culprit: a robotic arm.

The robot is supposed to have a plastic piece at the base that is used to unstack tires, but it somehow rotated out of position, creating a sharp edge on the robotic arm. The sharp edge would have been exposed to the inside of certain tires, meaning the bead areas may have been cut while unstacking. Sounds like the stuff of horror films to me — are robots taking over the world and slashing our car tires? On a serious note, if the tire does have any sustained cuts or tears to the bead area, the tire could deflate over time, which could potentially lead to a loss of vehicle control.

Affected TLX owners will be contacted by mail and asked to take their vehicle to an Acura dealership. Acura says the dealer will replace all four tires, if necessary. For owners who may have already paid for repairs, they’ll be eligible for reimbursement.

As for the robotic arm, Acura and Bridgestone have confirmed (in the NHTSA doc) that “tire loading and unloading is now performed by a worker (human), rather than a robot.”