Tesla recalls 1.8 million cars because their hoods can open while driving
Tesla recalls 1.8 million cars because their hoods can open while driving
The problem seems more prevalent in China than elsewhere, "for reasons unknown."
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
Just like the rumored cut all driver aids instant before crash to say it wasn't due to any of the auto pilot features
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.
It’s not the actual latch that’s faulty, but the warning the driver should get, if they haven’t closed the frunk properly.
This right here is why there should be a distinction between software updates and physical recalls. Calling this a recall without actually taking the product in and fixing the product is really deceptive.
It should be a traditional recall though.
Yeah, but that's how it works according to the NHTSA.
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.
giving elon another $55b bonus should fix it
Do your thing, ma-gic man! Chanted the crowd as Elon in robes entered the golden restroom with his xPhone in the right and a ceremonial vial of coke in the left hand. It was followed by a series of thunder-like farts and sniffs.
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.
Patching the software isn't a "fix". Changing out the hood latch so it doesn't come open while driving is a fix.
"Warning: wheels falling off imminent! Please pull over!'
You have 3 seconds to comply. 3. 2. 1. Goodbye!
I’m guessing this is an issue because of the increased usage of the “frunk”.
Nearly every ICE can suffer the exact same issue.
Can? Maybe.
But it's far less likely to because you're not using it anywhere near as much. It's not reasonably expected use. Opening a storage compartment/froot/frunk is expected.
A 24 pin port on your PC motherboard that's rated for 100 insertions would be completely fine.
A USB-C cable wouldn't be.
The frunk issue is a good point, and that I hadn't considered - thank you!
Trying to solve a hardware problem with a software solution. Where have I seen that before?
Right? It's deformation of the hood latch. So a physical change. How long until the warning is permanent?
Thought you had made an Intel reference.
Is this a real recall or an OTA update?
I hate Tesla, but a lot of news outlets are like
TESLA RECALLS BAJILLION CARS And what they really mean is they released an OTA update to fix some extremely rare race condition.
The issue is still bad, but I feel like the news outlets are sensationalizing to the point of dishonesty sometimes.
To be clear I'm not sure I understand the actual underlying issue here, so idk how deserved the headline is, but whenever I see them, I'm immediately skeptical
The problem is with a shitty latch: the hood appears closed, but it's not.
The OTA Update doesn't fix the shitty mechanical latch - it still doesn't latch consistently. What it fixes is another poor design choice: evidently, the car has sensors that can tell if the hood was closed correctly or not, but this was never turned on/programmed? The OTA Updates this so now the car can warn you when the shitty latch fails.
Or who knows, maybe they initially turned off that sensor because it was going off all the time because of the latch...
Did you not even read the summary?
"all those words I have to scroll past before commenting? No, why would I read any of that?".
-opI did and it doesn't really give complete answers.
The latch is fine, but the sensor to detect when the driver didn't close the hood can break. I dont understand how an OTA can fix that, and idk how common the problem was, so I can't tell how sensational the headline is
The issue is a faulty latch that deforms and allows the hood to open, and their fix is to have a warning light when the hood opens.
They're not fixing the problem.
Reading it, the latch doesn't deform, the latch sensor deforms. It doesn't allow the closed hood to open, it fails to alert the driver that the hood wasn't closed.
But if the sensor is broken, idk how an OTA can detect that the hood is open.
Beyond any issues with the owner of the company, these cars have multiple dangerous issues.
You cannot treat a company that makes physical stuff that can endanger lives the same way you treat a software company that makes a leisure activity platform.
Iterative design for a purely software environment is way more forgiving than iterative design for physical hardware or even software that interacts with physical hardware. You can profoundly fuck up the backend for a website and take the whole thing down until you could roll back to last known good production, you won't kill anyone, but you'll make the line go down temporarily.
If you profoundly fuck up an iteration on an embedded vehicle system and don't catch it because you don't respect safety regulation or existing engineering norms you can and will kill people.
I wanted a Tesla as a teenager, I recently realized that they are getting so low I could in theory finacance a used one, but they are so much shit lmao, worse than a Kia
I'm a school bus driver and middle school boys go apeshit when they see a Tesla - which is unfortunately often because they're pretty common these days. They explode when they see a fucking cybertruck, which is fortunately still not often.
The good part about Teslas is how advanced their FSD is, plus their superchargers. The bad part is that they have terrible quality control, you're driving a touchscreen on wheels, and you're finding Elon
https://www.kbb.com/kia/recall/
Every manufacturer has recalls, like that fun Telluride one that lights the car on fire if you adjust the driver seat too much!
Kia’s are not great, but Tesla seems worse
I didn't like it when the first one came out and I was a teenager. But, to be honest, I was very pessimistic about the transition from late 00s to early 10s in everything around me. EDIT: Switched to Linux then too.
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."
Given that China is now an electric car superpower, this situation will not bode well for Tesla in that country.
I haven't met a techie that likes the idea of Chinese made BMS either. I suspect that when Chinese made EVs come over, they'll be a honeymoon period like what happened with Tesla before we start hearing about battery fires in people's garages. If you or anyone you know gets a Chinese(or any really) EV, store it outside or in a detached garage/carport.
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.
the problem can be fixed with an over-the-air software patch
I was about to make a bad joke about Tesla trying to fix a mechanical issue with a software patch but apparently Elon beat me to the punchline.
By April, it had identified the problem as deformation of the hood latch switchI mean that says the switch is faulty, sure there ALSO seems to be a problem with the sensor not providing the driver with a warning the frunk isn't latched, but you can't fix hardware with an over the air update
The only thing I can think of is if the sensor is a hall effect sensor that detects something (the switch?) being depressed by the hood. The sensitivity of the hall effect sensor might be tuneable. They may be able to reduce the sensitivity so it still detects a properly closed hood, but reports an improperly closed hood as open.
It's annoying that the report just says it's fixed in software without explaining how.
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.
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.
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.
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") + }
While that may "solve" the issue, it's still due to a faulty physical component. A software update is just a bandaid over the real problem.
Who knew Tommy Boy drove a Tesla?
Surely this was all worth the 47 billion
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 ;-)))
If I'm reading things correctly, this issue isn't the latch failing, it's that it's not properly closed after being opened, something that should be detected by software but isn't because of a deformation in the latch. Of course I have no idea if they are just lying.
it had identified the problem as deformation of the hood latch switch
Emphasis mine. It's not the latch, but the latch switch, which presumably is why it's able to be fixed in software.
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.
Tesla should recall all their cars because CEO is wearing a pointy hood
Fkn lol. How the fuck are these cars selling?
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.