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Comment by mrkwse | Hacker News Reader

According to the initial Reddit thread (anecdotal evidence I realise), while this is the most severe and highest profile incident, there have been quite a few reports of windows being improperly sealed. So as you say, not a one-off, but rather a flawed manufacturing procedure.

I went along with a family member to a Model 3 test drive recently and it was surprising just how many little defects were there, considering the price of the car. While paint finish or panel fit isn't going to ruin a car overall, the fact the big easy-to-spot things are so clearly flawed does make one pause to consider how rigorous the QA is for the parts under the surface.

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On the other side, I've owned a Model 3 for a year now and have not had any quality issues at all compared to my previous Audis and BMWs.

Anecdotes do not equal data. Your personal experience with either situation says nothing about the underlying trends.

To be fair, the previous comment was an anecdote as well.

I find "anecdotes do not equal data" to be unscientific.

Your doctor doesn't take your oral history for fun, it's data. Now, just like a medical doctor we should weigh anecdotal data accordingly, but it's still data.

Here for example we can tell BMW/Audi reportedly sometimes make production errors. Tesla reportedly don't always make significant (to the commenter) production errors.

Sure, that's not terribly useful. It's still data.

/bugbear

Where only one or two anecdotes are presented, there is a larger chance that they may be unreliable due to cherry-picked or otherwise non-representative samples of typical cases

I’m not sure the doctor comparison holds up here.

The doctor takes your oral history to assess your health. Knowing that $x percent of family tree has high blood pressure means they can more accurately assess your risk of high blood pressure. For the population of “literally you”, your oral history is data. Now, if the next patient came in, and your doctor said “well, the last person in here has high blood pressure, you might have it to”, that’s an anecdote.

Similarly, telling somebody ~”My instance of $product worked great” isn’t really useful info for them. That’s a sample size of 1 out of a massive number.

He's responding to another anecdote, demonstrating that any anecdote likely has a counter-anecdote. You should read the context of a thread before replying snarkily.

This is scientism, word-thinking and a false dichotomy.

Why is this getting downvoted so heavily? It is totally true. If there are issues with the production, this will show only in big numbers. One anecdote saying "but I hade one and nothing happened" does literally say nothing about the problem.

Data shows that Tesla QA might not be good, but many other expensive cars are not great either.

Plus, Tesla has very high consumer satisfaction and low maintenance cost. Is that enough data for you?

I had a 2014 Model S and had a bunch of fit and finish flaws. Now I have a 2020 S and it has hardly any. fwiw

> to a Model 3 test drive recently and it was surprising just how many little defects were there

Apropos of anything else, I'd not be so surprised that the cars Tesla probably hand picked for test drive events are the cream of the crop.

Which means that when the showroom models don't even get it right, it's all the more underwhelming. The showroom demonstrator we saw had very patchy paint, misaligned exterior panels and trim, and gaps in the interior door finish too.

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