The electric car manufacturer Tesla had to issue a massive recall this month to fix faulty hood latches that can open while its cars are driving. The problem affects more than 1.8 million cars, which means it’s slightly smaller than the recall in December that applied to more than 2 million Teslas.
The problem, according to the official National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Part 573 safety recall report, affects model year 2021–2024 Model 3s (built between September 21, 2020, and June 2, 2024), model year 2021–2024 Model Ss (built between January 26, 2021, and July 15, 2024), model year 2021–2024 Model Xs (built between August 18, 2021, and July 15, 2024), and model year 2020–2024 Model Ys (built between January 9, 2020, and July 15, 2024).
The problem first became apparent to Tesla in March of this year after complaints about unintended hood opening from Chinese customers. By April, it had identified the problem as deformation of the hood latch switch, “which could prevent the customer from being notified about an open hood state.”
Although the problem is with the hood latch, as with many Tesla safety recalls, the problem can be fixed with an over-the-air software patch. The new software is able to detect if the hood is open and, if so, will display a warning to the driver to alert them to stop their vehicle and secure the hood.
The new software is able to detect if the hood is open and, if so, will display a warning to the driver to alert them to stop their vehicle and secure the hood
This should not be legal. They should be forced to recall vehicles and replace the faulty part instead of kindly asking drivers to pull over when the part fails.
The shit this company gets away with is astounding.
Driving on the highway
Hood pops open. Can’t see anything. Try to brake but crash.
⚠️ Warning! Your hood is open. Please pull over in a safe location and secure your hood.
Tesla: OTA update successful
Yup. No reason to rewrite the playbook.
“Full self driving” detects an imminent collision of it’s own doing. Car beeps and shuts off “full self driving”
Human was “in control” at the time of the crash, not our fault.
The only way the hood can pop open on the highway is if it was open before you departed, so the warning would alert the user just like the switch did before they can drive to a dangerous speed.
That’s not what they’re saying. It’s essentially a “door ajar” warning. The sensor is what’s failing, rather than the physical part.
Isn’t a sensor… A physical part???
Not if it can be fixed with an update, that’s a software issue.
But it’s not. If you read the article it literally states it’s due to not closing because of deformation of the hood latch switch. Which is a physical object. Sure, you can get a notification now that the thing is open, but guess what, if it flops open while driving, I’ll probably already know that.
Oh so here’s a fun thing. All American corporations have this level of freedom. We’re just paying extra attention to Tesla because their CEO can’t keep himself out of politics and the news. Ever notice you only see the CEO of GM/Stellantis/Ford when it’s a crisis or a new CEO? That’s how it works in a functional business. They aren’t any less shady, they’re just better at brand and scandal management.
Each country has it’s own authorities. Hopefully they don’t get away everywhere…
Ford did this. On multiple years of some vehicles the fuel injector can crack and leak fuel onto the engine and lead to a fire. Their fix is to put in a fucking drain tube to drain the fuel away if that happens rather than replace the faulty part. I’m wondering if there are any legal options to make them just replace the part rather than their half-ass non-fix.
Not even.
Ford’s fix required them to physically add parts.
This is more like if Ford just wrote a software update to detect the crack and leak, then pop up a warning that you need to pull over and “secure” the fuel.
Using software to patch design flaws seems to be a recurring cost-cutting pattern these days. Look at the MCAS of the Boeing 737 Max. This is how civilizations go to shit.
By April, it had identified the problem as deformation of the hood latch switch, “which could prevent the customer from being notified about an open hood state.”
I think there was a scandal before with the logic of that thing being not good at all and it becoming dangerous if you’ve put sufficiently heavy pressure to prevent it from closing a few times.
Surely this was all worth the 47 billion
Every day I’m reminded how glad I am that I changed my mind about buying into the early run of the 3 series. Shit quality and even a bigger POS in the head office.
I thought Elon would just tell everyone to drill in some hood pins.
But I guess trying to do it through software(…?) is even cheaper.
The comments read like a lot of people don’t quite understand the issue.
The bonnet (hood if you insist) latch may not warn a driver if it isn’t secured correctly. If it is secured correctly then it is fine. So it isn’t going to suddenly open.
If the latch isn’t shut correctly and then the sensor doesn’t report this then the bonnet may open unexpectedly.
If they can use a software update to correct the reporting then that’s it fixed.
There’s no issue with the actual latching mechanism. It’s just the sensor for reporting the latching state.
It may be that it currently works on a two value system. i.e a value for correctly latched and a value for not latched. If that’s the case and isn’t just not providing the second valve correctly then a simple software change to only use the latched value would fix this. As any other value or the absence of a value will report it at unlatched.
It’s a soft close latch, the frunk pulls the lid into the latching mechanism. The mechanism isn’t doing it’s job and needs to be replaced either with a properly adjusted soft close mechanism that grabs the lid, or with a non soft close standard latch that is very obvious to the user when it has not been properly closed.
Nope it’s the latch switch. So something that is switched when the latch is closed. Not the latch itself.
The comments read like a lot of people don’t quite understand the issue…There’s no issue with the actual latching mechanism.
…“Although the problem is with the hood latch” <— literally from the article. Care to re-read?
It’s just the sensor for reporting the latching state.
You skipped over the part where a) the latch is deforming, and as a result of that deformation b) the sensor can’t detect that it’s not closed, and so c) Tesla is pushing an update that lets people know their deformed latch isn’t closed properly.
But yes, we all misread the article. Not you. Definitely not you.
And what is the next word after the bit you have quoted?
Is it by any chance switch.
The full quote is deformation of the hood latch switch. Not the hood latch.
Thanks for further confirming my point that you’re not reading it correctly.
No, it’s quite literally not. Click the article, read the article all the way. Including the last paragraph. Where my quote is from.
Then read the recall. Then lookup the part. See what it is? Oh, it’s the entire latch assembly. Good job! Proud of you sweetie. 😘 Keep licking those musky boots!
Did you read the recall? Again it says hood latch switch deformation.
That may be part of the hood latch assembly but again at no point does it say that the latch not latching is the issue. Only the reporting of the latching state.
You’re really rather pathetic and I’m certainly no fan of Tesla or Musk. A brief check of my previous posts would confirm this.
As you’re obviously not very good at reading or understanding things then that fact probably did slip by you. You seem to be only capable of latching (you might not see what I did there being a bit dense) onto certain words without understanding the full issue.
You missed the part where the latch is deforming, causing it to not close or alert the driver. The software fix is yet another attempt to dodge the fact that they do not have enough repair capacity or financial reserves for a major fleet recall.
Read it again. It’s deformation of the hood latch switch. Not the hood latch.
Thanks for further confirming my point that you’re not reading it correctly
Too bad the software isn’t open source.
diff --git a/hood.js b/hood.js - if(false) { + if(true || false) { + alert("Check your hood")+ if(crashed) { + alert(e) + } else { + load_ad("vote_for_trump") + }
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software is able to detect if the hood is open and, if so, will display a warning to the driver
Imagine you’re on the highway, going fast, and a suddenly some really big red thing sits in front of your windshield, blocking all the view.
Surely you would have better things to do than looking for some warning text somewhere…
(For example, you would try to remember quickly what color your car is ;-)))
Who knew Tommy Boy drove a Tesla?
Fkn lol. How the fuck are these cars selling?
Tesla should recall all their cars because CEO is wearing a pointy hood
Although the problem is with the hood latch, as with many Tesla safety recalls, the problem can be fixed with an over-the-air software patch
This is what happens when you run all the car’s mechanical and electronic switches though some cheap, sh*tty tablet interface. Instead of directly wiring them to lights on the dashboard.
