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Tesla Is Recalling 40k Cars in Its 17th Recall of the Year
- sylware 4y agolet me guess, software issues again?
- bheadmaster 4y ago> the affected cars have problems with their power-steering assist system when driving on rough roads or after hitting a pothole I suppose it's not a pure software issue, but a combination of hardware and software issues in exceptional circumstances like potholes and rough movements.
- ed_balls 4y ago> exceptional circumstances like potholes I would not call it exceptional.
- za3faran 4y agoShouldn't the government be responsible for paying repairs to vehicles that have sustained damages due to potholes? Or do they just take people's taxes for no return?
- mvf4z7 4y agoEspecially not in the state of Michigan.
- lost_tourist 4y agoI thought Texas roads were bad, and then I moved to Oklahoma for a year. Yeah, I was wrong.
- lijogdfljk 4y agoI suspect it's a joke
- 6stringmerc 4y agoPoe’s Law in action, ladies and gentlemen. Hat tip to Elon, it’s a tough trick.
- bheadmaster 4y agoI meant exceptional in the engineering sense of being unexpected by original (happy-path) models of function, not exceptional in sense of being unheard of in the real world.
- salawat 4y ago...Except, in the engineering sense, dealing with rough surfaces/potholes should absolutely be filed under "normal use". If someone built a car that wasn't at least checked for behavior in media real, I certainly would have rather profound concerns over it's manufacture.
- bheadmaster 4y ago> Except, in the engineering sense, dealing with rough surfaces/potholes should absolutely be filed under "normal use". I never claimed otherwise. The engineers' original model of function was faulty, and should've included rough surfaces/potholes. But since it (obviously) didn't, that makes rough surfaces/potholes an exceptional circumstance in the context of their model.
- tyfon 4y agoYep, already fixed in an OTA
- robg 4y agoThis right here why I won’t be buying one anytime soon. From the nightmares I’ve heard about on supply chain issues affecting repairs to the constant concern of on-going quality control, cars should last 8-10 years.
- vardump 4y agoYou better watch out. There are over 1000 recalls in 2021 affecting 35M vehicles according to NHTSA. For some reason recalls are mostly only news when they're about Tesla. I guess it generates clicks? https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls/vehicle-safety-recalls-week https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls/vehicle-safety-recalls-week
- bigmattystyles 4y agoIt’s partly because Musk is very public. What you’re saying about this HN headline of a government report is fair, but if Musk was a boring CEO, this wouldn’t get any attention/derision from crowds. Is the double edged sword of no advertising and seeking exposure via the press
- switch007 4y agoSo years and years of hype from Tesla about an electric car and self driving revolution etc, all that hype in the media is fine. That was wanted, desired, intended. His constant need for attention all over Twitter including buying the company But then Tesla supporters cry when they’re singled out for recalls? It swings both ways Edit: not to mention the constant lying - sorry, artistic license in marketing - about the abilities of automated vehicles. But calling this a “recall”? Wahhhh.
- robg 4y agoThis also nags at me. The hype cycle was used to drive TSLA — cool, good for them. But absolutely cuts both ways. I’ve looked at buying one a bunch of times. Beautiful car and I love driving. But it’s a depreciating asset and I hate headaches of customer support.
- ChemSpider 4y agoWhy is a simple software update described as "recall"? Just for clicks? Alternative headline: "Tesla is improving their cars for the 17th time this year, at no cost to owners"
- ohgodplsno 4y agoBecause "oh shit power steering is gone" has not been an issue on any other car since the early 1990s unless your care came with no power steering initially. And because "oh shit power steering is gone because I hit a pothole" is not something you want improved, it's something that should never fucking happen and would never happen on any modern car.
- panick21_ 4y agoGo and look at all car recalls lots of things that 'should never happen in modern cars' happened to some company or another.
- andyjohnson0 4y agoIts not a software-only fix. From TFA: "According to [Tesla], the affected cars have problems with their power-steering assist system when driving on rough roads or after hitting a pothole. The issue would leave drivers without the assistance to move the steering wheel with the help of the electric technology, forcing drivers to use a lot of force to move the steering wheel and increasing the likelihood of crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)."
- ChemSpider 4y agoIt was purely a software bug (and fixed already): "The problem began when Tesla rolled out an update for a new calibration value for their electronic power assist steering system only to have alerts about the update a week later, according to the NHTSA. Tesla has released a firmware update to recalibrate the issue already. According to Tesla, 97% of the recalled vehicles had an update installed that addressed the issue. There have been no official reports of injury linked to the potential loss of steering assistance."
- mensetmanusman 4y agoIs a firmware update considered a ‘Recall’? E.g. Ford recalled 200k SUVs alone due to fire risk: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ford-recalls-198000-us-suvs-over-fire-risks-2022-09-01/ https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ford-r... In Ford’s case, it seems like a recall involved a dealer checking for a manufacturing defect.
- sbuttgereit 4y agoHistorically, there was little that could go wrong with a vehicle that wasn't in some way physical. A recall really meant recalling your product to the place of purchase for some sort of physical intervention. Today, there is software that can and does go wrong... Maybe moreso than the physical... But the regulatory environment hasn't kept pace with the technology. So software issues like this must still be called a recall and communicated as such. Unfortunately, the connotation of a severe issue requiring the physical product is also lagging in the culture, thus stories like the one posted about a software update delivered over the air
- wirthjason 4y agoSoftware has been in cars for a long time but I worry about its pervasiveness, especially as it applies to the lifetime of cars. I have a 1997 car that I keep for sentimental reasons and I like its “rawness” compared to my 2017 daily driver with auto-braking, lane assist, infotainment, directional headlights, etc. I made sure to buy an extended warranty on the new car because anything that goes wrong wrong will be an expensive fix that I can’t do myself. 20-30 years later how will these technologically modern cars fare?
- zerop 4y agoCan these be because of pressure at engineers for delivering at very fast pace?
- mensetmanusman 4y agoNot necessarily, I work in materials R&D and in most cases real world edge cases can never all be discovered without development rate going to zero; this is due to unbounded complexity in the world.
- watwut 4y agoI would guess insufficient processes and testing. Even if engineers are too tired and produce a lot of bugs, process and testing should find ensure they dont get into production.
- salawat 4y agoHah. Roght. Most places are preaching the "superiority of people to process/Fragile" nowadays. Where process is had, it's largely going to be as strictly enforced as the first manager looking yo juice some metrics. I've yet to see anywhere credibly stick/adhere to their own process.
- serjester 4y agoI used to work at a car company that has a reputation for reliability. This reporting is frustrating - a recall isn’t a bad thing, it’s a car company getting ahead of the problem. Our alternative was to sit on issues until someone (potentially) gets hurt and it’s a “real” issue. Not to mention, I’m not even sure how a firmware update gets this kind of negative publicity.
- salawat 4y agoFirmware updates can have drastic far reaching effects when your car is primarily computer controlled, and is, relatively speaking, chock full of software based interlocks that essentially implement product binning. People are becoming more aware of the impact of all that "crap nobody is willing to let you see", and it is, in my estimation, a good thing.
- sschueller 4y agoBut it hasn't been the car companies getting ahead of the problem. It has become the last thing they want to do. I recall Ford rather paying victims of roll overs than admit to recalling. The negative press is warranted especially if the recall was forced by the government.
- gremlinsinc 4y agoThis is also an underlying theme in fight club, since the narrator is a recall risk assessment analyst.
- Pr0ject217 4y ago"97% of the recalled vehicles had an update installed that addressed the issue" Also, voluntary recalls should be celebrated.
- 0xmohit 4y agoInteresting thread about Tesla and Elon: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1590111416014409728.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1590111416014409728.html
- nells 4y agoWith EVs, you lose
- etrautmann 4y agowhat is this hot garbage
- nells 4y agoIt’s a battery and you won’t be able to put it out in days.
- lost_tourist 4y ago"fail fast, fail early, fail often" applied to cars.
- throwaway5959 4y agoAt what point do they have to do a blanket recall?
- weeblewobble 4y ago"recall" is an overloaded term. the connotation is that theres a serious defect requiring the cars to be sent back to the factory, but often times its just like a firmware update. we should really have two different words for this. it kind of like in the NFL, "injured reserve" used to mean the player cant play again for the rest of the season. then they changed it to 4 weeks, so now you hear a player "is going on IR" and it's not clear what that actually means.
- nikau 4y agoRecalls are for safety issues - regardless if they are hardware or software, OTA or dealership returns, they are and should be tracked.