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I disagree that those headlines are even nearly so newsworthy! This Tesla recall is only 20k less than all that they sold in 2020. Ford recalling 200k cars is o

I disagree that those headlines are even nearly so newsworthy! This Tesla recall is only 20k less than all that they sold in 2020. Ford recalling 200k cars is only 5% of what they sold in that same year. This is a relatively large proportion of all Tesla's on the road.

atwebb 5y ago
That was my thinking, a major supplier / manufacturer recalling a year of (and 1/4 of all ever made) products is at least interesting. To OP's point though, it likely reached the front page so fast b/c it has Tesla in the name.
slg 5y ago
You can check this link[1] which I posted in another reply. There is a story there about Honda recalling 1.4m vehicles. That is right around a full year of sales in the US and exceeds annual sales for the last couple years[2]. That story got one upvote and zero comments when it was posted here last year. Once again, I am not trying to excuse Tesla for quality issues or say they make as good or a better quality car than any other manufacturer. I am simply pointing out that the name Tesla drives attention and clicks compared to their competitors and that is why you are seeing this story. [1] - https://hn.algolia.com/?q=recall+honda https://hn.algolia.com/?q=recall+honda [2] - https://www.goodcarbadcar.net/honda-us-sales-figures/ https://www.goodcarbadcar.net/honda-us-sales-figures/
- wk_end 5y ago
  Not that it matters a lot - but we've subtlety moved from total worldwide sales (Tesla) to US sales (Honda). 1.5M is a much smaller fraction of global sales for Honda (~a third). It's true that the hype cycle around Tesla might unduly inflate the seeming significance of this. It's also true that this is unquestionably a very large, very significant recall.
  - slg 5y ago
    > we've subtlety moved from total worldwide sales (Tesla) to US sales (Honda). Fair enough. I will happily admit I am not an expert on global auto sales and was just Googling for information. But either way, I think the pattern is clear that car recalls generally don't garner much attention on HN unless they involve Tesla or some other interesting angle like the corruption and criminal behavior at Volkswagen.
Retric 5y ago
Ford simply sells a much wider variety of cars which results in more frequent recalls. The odds of any one recall impacting a ford owner is less, but the odds of any recall impacting them are about the same. For example in the recent 16 million for airbags vehicle recall across multiple car manufactures only 3 ford models where impacted. https://oharelawfirm.com/blog/massive-car-recall-reveals-potentially-deadly-airbag-defect-millions-cars/ https://oharelawfirm.com/blog/massive-car-recall-reveals-pot...
mxschumacher 5y ago
it's interesting how Tesla is definitely not a car company when somebody mentions their absurd valuation but just like all the other car companies when something goes bad. Cannot have it both ways. I have read about Toyota's impressive production systems and then hear people claiming that Tesla's manufacturing capability is 10x better than anybody else's. At some point we'll have to decide whether looking like a duck, swimming like a duck, and quacking like a duck makes it a duck.
- kazen44 5y ago
  Tesla's manufacturing capabilities are notoriously bad. the inconsistency in their finishing on the cars is telling. the tech inside the cars is amazing, but not being able to do things like proper bodywork or having lots of cars with after production line installs is a sure sign of an immature production process.

atwebb 5y ago

That was my thinking, a major supplier / manufacturer recalling a year of (and 1/4 of all ever made) products is at least interesting. To OP's point though, it likely reached the front page so fast b/c it has Tesla in the name.

slg 5y ago

You can check this link[1] which I posted in another reply. There is a story there about Honda recalling 1.4m vehicles. That is right around a full year of sales in the US and exceeds annual sales for the last couple years[2]. That story got one upvote and zero comments when it was posted here last year. Once again, I am not trying to excuse Tesla for quality issues or say they make as good or a better quality car than any other manufacturer. I am simply pointing out that the name Tesla drives attention and clicks compared to their competitors and that is why you are seeing this story. [1] - https://hn.algolia.com/?q=recall+honda https://hn.algolia.com/?q=recall+honda [2] - https://www.goodcarbadcar.net/honda-us-sales-figures/ https://www.goodcarbadcar.net/honda-us-sales-figures/

wk_end 5y ago
Not that it matters a lot - but we've subtlety moved from total worldwide sales (Tesla) to US sales (Honda). 1.5M is a much smaller fraction of global sales for Honda (~a third). It's true that the hype cycle around Tesla might unduly inflate the seeming significance of this. It's also true that this is unquestionably a very large, very significant recall.
- slg 5y ago
  > we've subtlety moved from total worldwide sales (Tesla) to US sales (Honda). Fair enough. I will happily admit I am not an expert on global auto sales and was just Googling for information. But either way, I think the pattern is clear that car recalls generally don't garner much attention on HN unless they involve Tesla or some other interesting angle like the corruption and criminal behavior at Volkswagen.

Retric 5y ago

Ford simply sells a much wider variety of cars which results in more frequent recalls. The odds of any one recall impacting a ford owner is less, but the odds of any recall impacting them are about the same. For example in the recent 16 million for airbags vehicle recall across multiple car manufactures only 3 ford models where impacted. https://oharelawfirm.com/blog/massive-car-recall-reveals-potentially-deadly-airbag-defect-millions-cars/ https://oharelawfirm.com/blog/massive-car-recall-reveals-pot...

mxschumacher 5y ago

it's interesting how Tesla is definitely not a car company when somebody mentions their absurd valuation but just like all the other car companies when something goes bad. Cannot have it both ways. I have read about Toyota's impressive production systems and then hear people claiming that Tesla's manufacturing capability is 10x better than anybody else's. At some point we'll have to decide whether looking like a duck, swimming like a duck, and quacking like a duck makes it a duck.

kazen44 5y ago
Tesla's manufacturing capabilities are notoriously bad. the inconsistency in their finishing on the cars is telling. the tech inside the cars is amazing, but not being able to do things like proper bodywork or having lots of cars with after production line installs is a sure sign of an immature production process.