Tesla Is Recalling 40k Cars in Its 17th Recall of the Year

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

I still consider Toyota to be a high-quality, trustworthy brand

every car company has recalls

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

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.

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.

While not a recall in the sense of having to surrender your car back to an official shop, this is far from an improvement. It's reasonable to expect any car built in the last 50 years to operate as normal after hitting a pothole.

I think OTA recall implementations are a terrific innovation, and far better than the old system of taking your car to a dealership (though the other automakers are adapting - I got a call the other day offering to send a tech to my house to apply the fix for a recall on my car). But fixing a defect in the car at the manufacturer’s expense is, quite literally, the bare minimum required.

It is a formal notice of a safety defect by a manufacturer to all affected parties that they have a defective product. It identifies the nature of the problem, the consequences of the problem, the affected parties, and the known remedy or steps the affected parties should take. It also requires the fixes to be offered to all affected parties free of charge.

A recall is supposed to be issued in all cases that a safety defect is detected to guarantee that all customers are informed of potential problems and that the manufacturers are on the hook for solving them.

"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)."