US agency investigating Tesla front suspension failures | Hacker News Reader

US agency investigating Tesla front suspension failures

abcnews.go.com

63 pointsxoxoy15 comments

This shouldn't be all that newsworthy, except that it's Tesla this time. NHTSA investigations happen fairly frequently for all kinds of issues - you can see them at [1].

[1] https://www.nhtsa.gov/search/safety-issues#investigation

I guess the only argument I can make is that people who invest in companies like Tesla watch for this kind of thing. I am a backyard mechanic. Honda and Toyota both hold their value and that is for a reason. Tesla is shiny and new right now and popular but if people start to think of them as less then reliable that can cost them greatly. Suspension failing in 4 years tells me either poor design or poor material choice. Either way it was a bad choice however it got there. Is Tesla going to become the next Dodge and design everything to fail just outside of warranty? Although maybe not news worthy definitely of interest and being a new company deserve this kind of scrutiny. I remember but can not find the source way back Tesla was talking about a one price car where you just paid “x” dollars and he would worry about the insurance and maintenance I believe it was for 20years. Like a promise you pay us this much and as long as you don’t crash will get 20 years of driving or they will fix it. That is confidence in a product. Now I really wish I could find the article this was discussed.

Perhaps, I think they just haven't had the years on their cars to have that sort of reliability. They're definitely overvalued, but they're overvalued because of investor madness that isn't going away soon.

uber accidents and problems get tons of media coverage. taxi accidents and lawsuits. Ignored completely

Overdid the weight reduction, perhaps?

That's very aerospace. But when something bumps an aircraft, it gets maintenance and even slightly damaged parts get replaced.

>even slightly damaged parts get replaced.

Usually but not always. It's true that aircraft demand much more diligent maintenance than terrestrial vehicles though.

There are provisions in most maintenance programs for deferring repairs on minor damage and/or what's called a minimum equipment list that outlines what can be broken and still let you fly legally.

To be fair, Tesla is always on the news. I guess that's one of their biggest strength point, being able to always stay in the spotlight. This means however that also negative things get reported. But I guess that is also beneficial to the brand, as "it's not important what people are saying, what matters is that people are talking about it" (loose reference to a quote I don't remember the author of)

I disagree. It's newsworthy because it affects a relatively enormous proportion of Teslas on the road.

An insightful related comment from /r/cars: https://www.reddit.com/r/cars/comments/k0sbdh/tesla_accused_...

Not in the article for some reason, but Tesla already did a recall in China for this issue. They claim that the road conditions in China are different, so this isn't an issue in other countries, but the suspension in the US is the same as the one recalled in China.

Associated class action: https://www.classaction.org/media/williams-v-tesla-inc.pdf

Disclosure: We own Teslas.

Sounds like what some people are referring to as “wompy wheel”

No pictures of the failed joint or even an expert saying "they used the wrong type of metal"?

To me this seems like an article missing the relevant details...

I don't have a reference handy, but... I have read in the past that this particular issue with Teslas was reportedly caused by badly cast parts with too many inclusions. Since I've been burned by that particular issue myself, it stuck in my head.

Expect more negative news about Tesla next 3 weeks, due need to push down price of TSLA. Indices must purchase lots of their stock by the December 21 deadline.

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