3 ms·

Mandatory safety feature not working not a safety issue? How do you work that one out?

• matthewdgreen 5y ago
  The recall is not specifically for vehicles with broken backup cameras. It is to deal with cars that have working cameras, but contain a flaw wherein closing the trunk could damage the cable and cause the backup camera to cease working. So TL;DR this should be fixed ASAP (hence the recall) but presumably those cars with currently-working cameras are perfectly safe to drive until then. The Model S hood issue, on the other hand, that’s more serious.
  • cududa 5y ago
    Okay so let’s say someone is at the grocery store, loads up the trunk, while doing so breaks the cable. Tries to backup without the camera/ obscured field of view inherent to the vehicle, hits someone. I get most auto manufacturers calculate risk of death versus recall value, but Tesla doesn’t really have the cash on hand to survive that, and the stock would get obliterated. Why chastise them for being proactive?
    • hunterb123 5y ago
      Yeah usually when my camera goes out I just say screw it and back up without looking. Just because it's a safety feature doesn't make it now the operators fault.
    • matthewdgreen 5y ago
      >Why chastise them for being proactive? Who is chastising whom? As an M3 owner I'm thrilled they're being proactive with this recall. I'm also thrilled that this issue is minor and any failure is easily detected. My camera is working fine, and as long as it continues to work fine I'm not at (extra) risk of hitting anyone. Compare this to a critical safety issue like a malfunctioning accelerator cable or a defective hood-latch -- those are things that could pop up at any moment without any warning and kill people. My point above is that safety-critical recalls exist on a spectrum, and this one is about as benign as you get. Whereas the Model S frunk issue is not benign at all.