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Comment by zemvpferreira | Hacker News Reader

> 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

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.

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Also, if you haven't experienced it, steering a car with failed power steering is much harder than a car that just doesn't have it, because you are fighting the hydraulics. Last time I had to do this it took all my strength and I had to brace myself against the door, just to turn into a garage. So the scenario addressed by the recall can effectively disable the vehicle.

Protip if in that situation again: it is much much easier to turn the wheel if the car is moving even very slowly.

If you are not moving, you are literally grinding the tires into the pavement with the entire weight of the car on them, if you are rolling it is easier.

It'll still be very hard.

I've owned several cars without power steering, definitely familiar with this. In my experience the effort to turn a car with disabled power steering exceeds this even when the affected vehicle is moving. Though I'm sure this varies by model and weight.

Normal car power steering operates with a rubber belt that can break at any time. It's being fixed just like you may have to fix a serpentine belt one day.

It's increasingly common for conventional cars to have electric power steering, because it definitely has advantages over mechanically-pumped systems—both maintenance and efficiency. GM tried this several years ago with poor results, but the systems providers (Bosch etc.) have made great strides; I expect almost all new models will have it soon.

Same failure mode, though.

No. It's being fixed as if every car off the line had been shipped with a defective serpentine belt from day zero. I have no bone to pick with Tesla but let's not confuse normal wear and tear with sloppy engineering.

> It's reasonable to expect any car built in the last 50 years to operate as normal after hitting a pothole.

The brakes on the Prius stopped working if you hit a bump or pothole, which is a pretty similar issue.

It might be literally the same bosch branded electric power steering part at fault.

If that's the case they should be called to task just the same.

There are over 1000 recalls in 2021 affecting 35M vehicles according to NHTSA.

https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls/vehicle-safety-recalls-week

It's reasonable to expect any car built in the last 50 years to have "recalls" such as this. Most, won't be fixed over an OTA update like this. Instead, you'd have to take it into the dealership and waste time that way.

This has been fixed already OTA.

> It's reasonable to expect any car built in the last 50 years to operate as normal after hitting a pothole.

Low profile sidewalls beg to differ.

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