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s/recall/free over-the-air update/

No, those aren’t the same thing. Tesla had to be forced to make their product safe by the regulator. If these updates are so easy and trivial in your mind, why doesn’t Tesla do them without being forced to?

Tesla wasn't actually being forced. In the past, other automakers like Ford, GM, Porsche and Kia/Hyundai ran into the exact same problem. They just filed an inconsequential non-compliance petition to NHTSA because this issue is so minor and it would have been too expensive to fix --- for them. Source: https://youtu.be/480yxR_kmIg?si=dThdJD2_QceCyF_E&t=161

They weren't forced

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2024/RCLRPT-24V051-2023.PDF

"Tesla voluntarily made a recall determination."

That's how it works. There are incentives to voluntarily issuing a recall. The most important: no one can sue you for not having been up to the correct standard.

It's not a "blow" to a company when they issue a recall, it's a legal shield that, though they'd rather never have needed to put up in the first place, are very happy to have when need arises.

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