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I think any sort of safety-related recall is going to be a net PR loss for Tesla. Immaterial means the cost is irrelevant, not that it's low. I don't see any evidence that it's anything more nefarious than what they're claiming.

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The words 'material' and 'immaterial' when referring to business costs are usually financial jargon. I presume they described it as an immaterial cost because the expense is small enough that will not have a noticeable impact on their overall financial situation.

> An item is considered material, according to the American Accounting Association, when the knowledge of it would influence the decision of informed investor.

http://simplestudies.com/what-are-the-exceptions-to-basic-ac...

Isn't irrelevant essentially the same as low in this context? And I tried to clarify that I don't think they're doing anything nefarious either. It's just seems like classic Elon spin, that's all.

No. They're not saying "it won't cost much". They're saying "this is a safety-related issue, so we won't even discuss the cost because obviously safety is our first priority, no matter how much it costs."

Yeah you're right, I had a poor definition of immaterial in my head.

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