the automaker said itâs providing a free software update to fix the problem.
I know it has to be called a recall, but they really should find another name for these things now that OTA SW updates for issues are a thing, not only for Tesla but also other manufacturers.
Nah I like the term recall. Just because the fix is âeasyâ doesnât mean the product wasnât broken. Automakers should take the software in their cars seriously especially the ones that market their cars like a cell phone.
Broken software shouldnât be accepted as much as it is. Especially in safety critical systems like cars, especially when they remove manual controls for things like steering, brakes, hand brakes and door handles. Fly/drive by wire is more dangerous when the software is unreliable. Mechanical linkages fail immediately or take a long time. Bad software fails in uncertain and potentially chaotic ways.
I just think itâs useful to have different words for things that can be easily fixed without having to go get the car to a mechanic and having no immediate safety impact, and things that may require you to take the vehicle to a mechanic ASAP because there is immediate serious danger. They should not be in the same category, and people should be aware that they require different levels of attention and urgency. When itâs all just referred to as a ârecallâ, people will start to not take them seriously when they more often than not are minor things like this.
I think a ârecallâ has a very specific legal definition, where the manufacturer has strictly defined responsibilities (identifying and notifying owners of affected vehicles would be one of those). It wouldnât surprise me if there was some external agency that acted as an auditor on that.
On the other hand, manufacturers can put out a âservice actionâ bulletin, where a particular repair is free to the vehicle owner, but none of those recall responsibilities are in place. This means that, for example, vehicle owners are not notified, so you just need to bring your vehicle in with the complaint specified in the service action. In this case, the vehicle owner might need to point out that thereâs a service action, because a shady dealer will pretend it doesnât exist, charge you for the repair, and also submit the repair to the manufacturer for reimbursement. This was a lot easier to do before the internet, since the information about that service action wasnât readily available to the public.
Itâs not useful at all, knowing which brand sells shitty cars that have major issues is a good thing, this whole attitude that you can do OTA fix something therefore itâs fine and we can ship bad product is fucking ridiculous attitude to a multi-ton weapon capable of killing multiple people
The problem is, and of course when it matters I forget the specifics, that there are many times when language is changed to soften how bad something is and it results in people not taking things seriously.
The issue here is cars being shipped in a broken state, thatâs it. They recall the vehicles and force people to skip out of work or whatever to get this shit done because their products suck, and if they wanted to not deal with that then maybe they should products that donât suck. They can also collect a bunch of these issues, seeing as theyâre common, and either make a patch of several minor issues or just say that the problem will be addressed at the next service. This is entirely on the companies to save their image, not us to change our language to make them feel better.
Yes absolutely.
The term recall is supposed to be when they literally recall the cars, like bring them back in, in the same context as you recall your dog after he runs around the yard.
No cars are being brought back in. No dealers are involved here. Itâs just a bug fix for the next software release.
I also donât like how the ability to fix bugs is creating a huge number of ârecallsâ. For example, last year Tesla had a ârecallâ because NHTSA decided the warning icons on the dashboard screen werenât big enough. Like the icons for parking brake and seat belt. Which is frustrating because the car is operated for years with the original icons and nobody had a complaint.
But if this was an old style car, where those were individual LEDs silkscreened in an instrument cluster, that would never be a recall because it would cost millions to replace every single instrument cluster on every single car. But because it is remotely fixable, it becomes a recall.
They sold a bad product that needs fixed, bad software shouldnât get an exception. The warning icons were probably not compliant and should never have left the factory.
You would absolutely take your vehicle in for service for a safety recall if the OTA didnât work. Which happens frequently enough that it still warrants being called a recall and the necessary steps once the vehicles are ârecalledâ in order to notify customers who might not otherwise set themselves up to get an OTA. Itâs not as simple as the car âjust does it overnightâ in every case.
Frequent software updates are part of having a Tesla. If the vehicle is unable to do a software update, then it is broken and would require service regardless of the recall.
They applied that font/icon change in Canada as well, and then Canada made them undo the change that NHSTA demanded. Double recall lol.
Which IMHO just shows that the recall in the first place was just NHTSA unnecessarily flexing on them
Guys, rail against the things that are true. There are enough of them that we donât need to exaggerate or make up new ones.
Regardless of what you think of Tesla, ârecallâ here doesnât mean what people expect it to mean.
Sorry we donât think like that anymore. Nuance and multiple truths are a waste of time. Elon supports a Republican that means he is bad and everything he does is bad and everything he has ever done is bad and he has no vision or leadership of his own he is just a rich asshole using Daddyâs money to buy cars and rockets and Twitter. Thus he is unworthy of praise for anything at all that he has done since he was born into a life of luxury and anything he touches is automatically shit worthy of being canceled or outlawed.
Every time thereâs a recall, I remember the equation from Fight Club and how the company has to make a decision to recall or absorb the costs. Tesla has had A LOT of recalls mostly with the cyber truck. Musk doesnât seem like the kind of person to be cautious and recall to be on the safe side.
So⌠What ARENâT they recalling?
Tesla may have figured out how SpaceX deals with the muskrat. They basically have a team of people that run interference with tons of busywork they shove in his face when he visits, so that he canât actually do anything.
If Trumpâs people have half a brain, they will talk to the people that give the British rich and powerful the run around.
How is it possible for the Muskrat to not be aware of all this, if we in the public are?
You think a billionaire that spends most of his âvery busyâ schedule tweeting nonsense cares to read the news?
Thereâs probably a dedicated intern that gives him daily briefings while Musk scrolls twitter for a new Nazi to retweet. The intern knows better than to upset the Muskrat, and keeps news about Tesla issues to a minimum.
For this kind of recall, the expense can be insanely low. Itâs just a software update that can be done over the air. Something that would warrant a recall is the type of thing they would fix for future builds. So they already put money into it to update the software for future builds. Just pushing it to older builds is simple. Ergo the part of the formula for âthe cost of doing the recallâ is, as previously mentioned, insanely low. This makes it very easy to have that cost be lower than the amount to settle out of court.
Recalls arenât just something that magically happen. Usually thereâs an investigation (by the NHTSA, or the company themselves). That investigation concludes that a recall is warranted or necessary and, in the case of voluntary recalls they do a cost to benefit analysis (like how Ford did when the Pinto was a bomb just waiting to be rear ended, and they realized they would save money by not recalling them).
But the NHTSA does force quite a few car manufacturers to do mandatory recalls regardless of whether they want to or not, usually to do with health and safety. You know. To prevent the Ford Pinto scenario.
So itâs not so much what they arenât recalling (although Iâm sure thereâs quite a lot). The real question should be, why do they have so many recalls? Why arenât they fixing the problems before they public gets a hold of these vehicles. And itâs not just Tesla we should be asking that question of.
That sounds like magic to me. To get anything involved with the government not throwing a temper tantrum and make it about themselves.
They do fight. But usually it doesnât end well for them. Usually they drag their feet and waste time hoping that most of the cars will be out of commission before the recall is forced on them or they fight the government over a proposed recall in court and lose. https://apnews.com/article/ford-nhtsa-fine-recall-slow-244e2318b794e2be10196414eba9a029
https://www.dailyjournal.com/articles/376533-tesla-recalls-too-little-too-late
Right now I know (brother is a tech) that Ford has problems with water pumps but no recalls have been issued. I suspect this is because of the cost to fix them and the fact that these cars are still in warranty, so itâs cheaper to have the people in warranty come information service and have it discovered that their water pump is shot than it is to tell them their water pump may be bad because the cooling system is contaminated. It cuts down the number of cars they have to fix significantly. Which is why (yes even if youâre not taking your car to a dealership) you should have your car inspected regularly if you arenât going to do it yourself.
I need one of these but for tesla recalls
Why does it feel like they recall more cars than they sell?
Turns out âmove fast and break thingsâ doesnât work that well in the auto industry
