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Tesla Recalls 2,700 Model X Cars, Highlighting Risk of Massive Model 3 Rollout (bgr.com) 157

An anonymous reader writes: Tesla has recalled 2,700 Model X cars due to a design flaw affecting the vehicle's third row of seats. Specifically, a faulty locking hinge on the last row of seats could potentially cause the seats to collapse forward during a crash. "Despite [15] prior successful tests and no reports of a third row seat slipping in any customer vehicles," Tesla said in an email to affected owners, "we have decided to conduct a voluntary recall as a precautionary measure and will be replacing all affected third row seat backs." Even though the Model X recall is small, it brings to mind the Model 3 and what possible manufacturing issues will pertain to it. BGR writes, "The current number of Model 3 reservations is absolutely staggering and Tesla will have no choice but to get as many Model 3s manufactured and out on the road as soon as humanly possible. So even in a best-case scenario where the rollout of the Model 3 goes swimmingly, Tesla will need to do all it can to ensure that the Model 3s rolling off the line in late 2018 and early 2019 are flawless." Recalling 2,700 vehicles is one thing, but a recall affecting the Model 3 could be a logistical and publicity nightmare.
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Tesla Recalls 2,700 Model X Cars, Highlighting Risk of Massive Model 3 Rollout

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  • Really...??? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 11, 2016 @11:06PM (#51889327)

    You know how many recalls companies like Honda or GM deal with in a year?? A b0rked third-row seat 'aint nuthin.

    • Re:Really...??? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by EEPROMS ( 889169 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @12:01AM (#51889521)
      i agree, I read an article 3 years ago when Toyota was having issues with recalls and they mentioned in England alone they have over 30 recalls a month 4-8 of them serious the rest to be fixed on the next service.
    • Re:Really...??? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by frovingslosh ( 582462 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @12:06AM (#51889543)
      I'm certainly not an Elon fan-boy, but I completely agree. Other manufacturers have recalls too, and much worse they don't have recalls when they should (think explosive airbags and faulty ignition switches). Tesla is doing the right thing here and they deserve an acknowledgement of that.
      • by Rei ( 128717 )

        That's one thing Tesla has been well respected by customers for, which is going above and beyond when it comes to upgrades and recalls. They kind of have to, though - critics are going to keep holding them to a higher standard because they're A) a new company, and B) selling a very different product.

    • That's exactly the point, though. The people arguing with me the other day said that Tesla was special, that the initial quality of the Model 3 will be higher than a product from one of the other automakers.

      Even if it's special, it's not THAT special. Buying a first-run of any product is risky - Tesla inclusive.

      • Not really.

        This Model X recall is pretty standard: found a flaw, bring car to dealer to have flawed component replaced at manufacturer's expense. It's a simple swap of one mechanical locking mechanism for another, non-shitty one.

        The Model 3 won't have this kind of problem because the Model X provides a source of lessons learned. The locking mechanism for the seats won't be flawed in the same way, and will be just as good (or better than) the Model X new seat locking mechanism. Similarly, all comparab

        • The Model 3 won't have this kind of problem because the Model X provides a source of lessons learned.

          "The Model X won't have this kind of problem because the Roadster and Model S provides a source of lessons learned."

          This is exactly what I'm talking about. I like Tesla - I really do. I like the cars, I like the focus of the company, and I like the customer relations. The quality seems to be at or above even Lexus levels. But the reality distortion field is strong with them. I feel like I'm trying to have conversations with otherwise rational people who have recently encountered a Jedi.

          • No, I am actually generalizing from a field I fucking studied.

            Have you ever seen the Red Cross work? When the Red Cross enters an area, it's a disaster. No shit. That's what the Red Cross does. In the course of fixing a disaster, a lot more shit goes wrong; this is pretty much the nature of entering a disaster. That includes logistics failures, procedural failures, and political failures. Along the way, the Red Cross documents everything that goes wrong; they review these documents and work out ways

            • Wow, you managed to type all that without addressing the problem that Tesla is now on their 3rd car and is still having birthing problems with it.

              Birthing problems are fundamental to new product development, and Tesla is not magic. They seem to be quite good, but they still will have rough edges when they attempt truly mass production and significant cost reduction for the very first time.

              Why the personal attack?

              • Wow, you managed to type all that without addressing the problem that Tesla is now on their 3rd car and is still having birthing problems with it.

                I never said there would be zero problems. How many of these new Model X cars have suffered the same problems that plagued the Roadster? How many of the problems that plagued the Model X do you expect to appear in the Model 3? Do you expect them to perform better or worse than their first and second generation?

                You talk like Tesla fucked up car 1, fucked up car 2 the same way, and will fuck up car 3 the same way; and they'll have to discover those same fuck-ups and fix them, again. The fact of the matt

                • Wow, quite the straw man you built up there. Why do you need me in the conversation?

                  Once again you lecture me on companies learning, and yet somehow deny that the first Model 3s will be of lower quality than later Model 3s. The only way that is possible is if the learning stops.

          • by mspohr ( 589790 )

            Interesting item from the SpaceX post launch press conference. They had just landed the booster successfully on the barge for the first time. Elon said they thought they had about a 60% chance of success. He said they had fixed all of the things which caused past failures but there were always potential new causes of failure.
            They can learn from the Model X and S but there can always be new things. I think Elon himself is realistic but many of his fans take it to extremes.

        • by mlts ( 1038732 )

          The Model 3 also will have more production runs, so economies of scale will start to come into play, and any bugs in one production run will get fixed in subsequent runs. It will be interesting to see how Tesla competes in this market because they are not just dealing with electric cars, but will be competing against Toyota for Camry and Prius sales, in markets where electric cars have historically never been in.

          Supercharger access will make or break things. There will have to be far more Superchargers th

      • Tesla is special. But that doesn't mean they're perfect. Everybody has recalls, this isn't a big deal. It's not like their motors or batteries are defective. It's a seat manufactured by a third-party vendor. Happens All. The. Time. Hopefully they'll learn and make their prototype testing more rigorous.
        • I'm sure that they'll learn. I'm sure their products will be high-quality. But I'm also sure that the first ones off the line won't be as nice as the last ones. I'm sure someone could pull out an example of declining quality over the life of the product, but I don't think that will be the case with Tesla. I do know that they are about to do two things that they've never attempted: true volume production and massive cost reduction. There will be a learning curve.

    • Re:Really...??? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by silentcoder ( 1241496 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @07:16AM (#51890637)

      Now consider the number of scandals in recent years from serious people-killing problems in cars where the companies knew about it and did not do a recall.
      Tessla is pushing itself as a market-creator, and a key part of their strategy is to over-engineer in the extreme. They want to prove the viability of electric cars and part of how they go about it is to build the best cars in the world by not sparing expenses or trying to maximize margins. This is exactly why every non-Tessla electric car is so much cheaper: there's no reason an electric car has to cost that much, you can do it much cheaper if you don't over-engineer to build the highest-quality, safest, vehicle in history.

      But when that's your strategy - a single person dying because of a bad seat that the company knew about would utterly destroy it. The risk to the company is far higher than the norm. To not do this recall would be crazy. GM and Toyota came out of their recent major scandals relatively unscathed, even a minor scandal would kill Tessla because Tessla is supposed to be the perfect car.

      It makes absolute strategic sense for Tessla to do recalls at the slightest hint of a risk - it doesn't for most car companies, and that's a good argument for regulations with serious teeth. If the fall-out from "your car killed hundreds of people due to a flaw you knew about and ignored" is guaranteed to be "you're entire turn-over for the last 5 years" then the incentives for GM or Toyota or Ford to do recalls would be about on par with Tessla's and scandals like that wouldn't happen again.

      • by mspohr ( 589790 )

        Tesla is extremely cautious. Their only prior recall was for a loose seat belt bolt. They found one car with a loose bolt and out of an abundance of caution, they had all of the other cars inspected. AFAIK only that first car had a loose bolt.

    • The car recall formula [youtu.be]

      (Sorry I only find this one with the infographics visuals. I didn't manage to find the original movie scene. I guess it's too long for Google/DMCA "fair use" criteria).

      - What car company are you working for ?
      - Major one

    • Auto companies have recalls for things like cars bursting into flames. A defective rear seat component is hardly a catastrophe.

    • by Shoten ( 260439 )

      You know how many recalls companies like Honda or GM deal with in a year?? A b0rked third-row seat 'aint nuthin.

      Also, this was probably not a design flaw. Given the specifics of the recall, I'm guessing it's a situation where the manufacturing tolerances slipped, or needed to be changed.

      As others are pointing out, this kind of thing happens all the time, to every car manufacturer. If a proactive recall against a subset of the Model 3 population would prove disastrous for Tesla, then they need to get out of the car industry...because it's going to happen.

    • Re:Really...??? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Matheus ( 586080 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @10:49AM (#51892407) Homepage

      Article clearly written by someone who doesn't understand what a "recall" is. These happen all the time to nearly if not every vehicle. Given how much these cars cost, I'm pretty sure Elon can afford the maybe couple million this recall will cost tops (and that's retail cost of the part... you *know they're not actually spending retail cost on the replacement parts and the labor is virtually nil to replace a seat)

      Spin being what it is this article could have easily been written to the headline "Tesla continues to ensure delivered vehicles are top-notch!" with similar content to the summary including that they are voluntarily recalling 2700 vehicle despite no known failures in the wild. Spending low 7 figures so they their customers can know they are safe to the best of Tesla's ability.

      Instead they are casting this in a negative light and spreading fear. I have no need to blow sunshine up Elon's ass but I really can't stand journalists who's only talent is playing off of people's fears.

  • by TurboStar ( 712836 ) on Monday April 11, 2016 @11:10PM (#51889341)

    Cars are recalled all the time. Or worse, they aren't recalled because it's cheaper to pay out for dead and maimed people. Why is this article about fear instead of praising Tesla for catching this before anyone got hurt?

    • Indeed. I've received a few service notices for my vehicle over the last several years where the company will fix some small problem if I bring it in to a dealership. It hasn't been anything as potentially serious as this issue, but this kind of thing happens all the time.

      If anything, this makes me more likely to buy a Tesla because I know that if there is a problem, they'll take care of it.
    • Because we have fools like Mark Whittington that are pushing things like this. Basically, they are trying to turn a positive into a negative.
      ME? We alerady own an MS, and they fix anything that goes wrong and is tesla's fault. I have to say that I wish that dealers were like Tesla. If so, they would not be losing their dealerships.
    • by blankinthefill ( 665181 ) <blachanc&gmail,com> on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @12:47AM (#51889647) Journal

      True story. A recall like this will NEVER be bad publicity when it's made as soon as the manufacturer realizes a problem exists and before anyone in the field has even seen anything. I've wanted a Tesla for awhile now, and if my current car can make it long enough, my next new car is going to be a Model 3... exactly BECAUSE of recalls like this. Tesla not only makes the safest cars on the road, but they have the safest organization as well. Clearly their management is more interested in making a safe car than turning a quick buck, and that's the kind of company that I want to do business with.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by zrobotics ( 760688 )
        I agree with you, but it is worth keeping in mind that when Japanese vehicles were first being introduced into this country they were built much better than their domestic counterparts. Granted, they were cheap econoboxes, but they were well built econoboxes. Now that they're established, the build quality of a Honda or Toyota isn't that much better than a Ford or Chevy. I'm sure Tesla has studied this, they know they need an excellent safety and reliability record if they wish to become a major player in t
        • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12, 2016 @03:03AM (#51889901)

          You do realise this is because the quality of japanese cars has forced american and european manufacturers to up the game, not because japanese car quality has gone down. Honda and Toyota still generally top the reliability and build quality charts.

        • by KGIII ( 973947 )

          No, they were horribly built. They were awful. I do mean awful.

          What they were, was cheap to run and replace. There was an oil crisis, you probably don't know this because you're too young. However, no... In fact, Subaru had a commercial that showed they were finally good enough that you could kick the tires and that the vehicle wouldn't fall apart. Yeah, that bad. They made their quality improvements *after* they had the money to do so - money that they got from being dirt cheap. Note: They're no longer dir

      • by dj245 ( 732906 )

        True story. A recall like this will NEVER be bad publicity when it's made as soon as the manufacturer realizes a problem exists and before anyone in the field has even seen anything. I've wanted a Tesla for awhile now, and if my current car can make it long enough, my next new car is going to be a Model 3... exactly BECAUSE of recalls like this. Tesla not only makes the safest cars on the road, but they have the safest organization as well. Clearly their management is more interested in making a safe car than turning a quick buck, and that's the kind of company that I want to do business with.

        I think this may be more due to the fact that Tesla is a small company. This has 3 effects- their product line is small, their management structure is probably a lot more tighter and less compartmentalized, and their financials are not as strong.

        The small product line lets them devote more time and resources to each model.
        The tighter management structure better facilitates a larger portion of the management being involved and knowing what all the problems are.
        Their comparatively weaker financials (co

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Cars are recalled all the time. Or worse, they aren't recalled because it's cheaper to pay out for dead and maimed people. Why is this article about fear instead of praising Tesla for catching this before anyone got hurt?

      Good manufacturers care about repeat customers so they're proactive about recalls. Bad manufacturers wait until someone dies.

      This is why Toyota has more recalls than GM. It's not that GM cars are more reliable than Toyotas (or that GM cars are even reliable) its that Toyota would rather replace a seat belt buckle that has a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of failing under extreme circumstances like the vehicle being overloaded, the seatbelt being buckled improperly and the moons of Jupiter must also be in perfect

      • ...or, you could be full of shot. Toyota has bean counters and lawyers, too.https://www.google.com/url?q=http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/toyota-pay-12b-hiding-deadly-unintended-acceleration/story%3Fid%3D22972214&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwjGqL_Ih4nMAhWMGh4KHXZxDEEQFggbMAA&sig2=KfEpauQqINZ4LyceD6eclQ&usg=AFQjCNFecORiFoxGZ1gMYOyd66NyX34U-Q
    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      There is a genuine concern here. Check out this video by BjÃrn Nyland [youtu.be], an early buyer of the Model S. He has had pretty much the whole drive train replaced more than once, and numerous other issues. His story is not uncommon for buyers of early models.

      Newer models seem to be a lot more reliable. The question is if Tesla will have similar problems with early revisions or if they will be reliable from day one. The Model X actually suggests the latter, as opposed to what TFA implies, as it's not been anyt

      • So what? He got a lemon. Happens all the time with cars.
        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          It's not just his car, if you watch the video he talks about how the problems he had are notorious among Model S owners.

          • by dave420 ( 699308 )

            Does he qualify that claim with some supporting evidence, or is it more a hand-wavey claim?

            • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              You could head over to the Tesla forums of Speak EV, there are plenty of threads about these issues on there. Look, a well respected guy in the community with so many videos about the Model S that Tesla gave him a free Model X said something, and you could verify it with a quick google if you have doubts. Just demanding further proof is not some kind of cheat code for winning arguments.

          • If there is one lemon, it is likely that there will be three lemons, even from a company with the best quality control ever. And in today's Age of the Internet, it is likely that those three lemon owners will find each other, verify their confirmation biases, and get very noisy about how the product is a flop.

      • by mspohr ( 589790 )

        Tesla had a problem with not enough lubrication in the drive train gears for a few months production (late 2013). Those cars developed a noticeable "milling" noise in the gears. Tesla replaced the entire drive train in those cars since it is very easy to just drop out the entire assembly and bolt in a new one. The factory is better equipped to take apart the assembly and replace the faulty gears.

    • Why is this article about fear

      BeauHD and the new /.

    • by wbr1 ( 2538558 )
      For the same reason all the anti-EV pundits were crying about a couple of fires in accidents that were well contained and did not result in injury.

      For the same reason when ICE cars were new, you had people complaining that the gas tank was a bomb waiting to happen.

      Change is scary it is unpredictable. It is even worse when you have a vested interest in the status quo.

    • Yup. I don't think I've ever owned a car that hasn't had a recall notice. It's a fair point, though, that Tesla is a young, relatively small company that may have more difficulty handling the financial impact of a large-scale recall than some of the more established players. But when I say that, I'm thinking of something more like VW's diesel issues rather than the more mundane type of thing we typically see.

  • F.U.D. (Score:5, Informative)

    by quintessencesluglord ( 652360 ) on Monday April 11, 2016 @11:14PM (#51889359)

    Apparently the author isn't aware of the thousands of recalls other manufacturers make, and is further unaware several owners forgo getting service since the recalls are often for minor issues that don't really affect them.

    If anything, Telsa taking the extra steps to prevent a potential problem should relieve Model 3 purchasers that Tesla stands behind their products.

    • by OhPlz ( 168413 )

      It's a problem when it affects enough of the vehicles you've sold. Toyota didn't have a fun time with the recalls over floor mats and pedals. Their service centers ran extended hours for months and they had car rental agencies handling loaners because the dealers didn't have enough. I imagine Tesla is in an odd position since they do direct sales, they don't have dealerships all over to handle these recalls.

      • Toyota also had a bit of a media blitz with nightly reports on how your Prius was trying kill you, dramatic recreations of how a car that does 0-60 in over 13 seconds could accelerate uncontrollably (narf!), and a general concern that maybe hybrid technology wasn't as safe as burning dinosaurs. I suppose an all points bulletin to remove the floor mats until your next oil change would have been anticlimactic given the drama.

        And while near 200,000 pre-orders seems like a big deal now, it is small potatoes com

      • Toyota's REAL problem was that they tried hard to not take responsibility for their product.
        • by OhPlz ( 168413 )

          No. The feds pushed all that drama to try and motivate people to buy from the failing US car makers. If you want to talk about failing to take responsibility, look at GM and the faulty ignition switch that ended up killing people.

    • Apparently the author isn't aware of the thousands of recalls other manufacturers make, and is further unaware several owners forgo getting service since the recalls are often for minor issues that don't really affect them.

      As much as you and other posters are trying to make this about the other car manufacturers, it's not about them. Others are trying to spin this into "how wonderful Tesla is for standing behind their cars". It's not about that either. Both groups are missing the point entirely.

      If Ford i

      • Tesla has dozens of service stations around the country, and partners with existing local shops. In cases like this, it's even possible that a Tesla technician will be sent to your home or wherever to handle the problem; they already offer on-site service for an additional fee, so they are equipped to do it.

        I think they've considered service coverage and have a plan to handle it.
        =Smidge=

        • by jeremyp ( 130771 )

          If you have to recall 300,000 cars and you have got "dozens of service stations", what impact do you think a recall would have on those service stations? I count 71 in the USA [teslamotors.com]. Each one has to deal with 4,225 recalls on average. How long do you think it's going to take? How much is it going to cost? Don't forget to include parts and labour. The Tesla of today would not be able to cope with such a vast recall.

          Of course, the model 3 isn't due to appear for more than two years, so Tesla has some time to expand

        • It's almost like you didn't read what I wrote. You certainly failed to comprehend it.

      • You make it sound like a dealer network is the only way to solve this problem, and that Tesla hasn't thought this through and has a solution. Neither are the case.

        • You make it sound like a dealer network is the only way to solve this problem

          Is there a different way than a network of dealers and service centers? Feel free to contribute your ideas.

          that Tesla hasn't thought this through and has a solution.

          You have information to this end? Feel free to share it.

          Neither are the case.

          Basically, you seem to have nothing to support your case save blind optimism. Thanks for playing, but you don't even get a used copy of the home game with half the pieces mis

          • Is there a different way than a network of dealers and service centers? Feel free to contribute your ideas.

            You really are quite lacking in imagination. Not that you need much imagination given that it what Tesla already do. Outsource to service centres. You don't have to have dealer networks selling cars in order to have local service centres servicing cars.

            • In other words - your "solution" is the one I already mentioned, a network of dealers and service centers.

              Go the fuck back to kindergarten and get back to me when you have at least the reading comprehension of a wad of chewed bubblegum.

    • by LWATCDR ( 28044 )

      Tesla is the new Apple.
      Model S is no longer on Consumer reports recommended because of reliability issues no one cares.
      Chevy Bolt will ship before the Model 3 will probably be cheaper and has a 200 mile range and no one cares.
      Tesla Model 3 will not ship for at least a year but people are handing Tesla money long before the car ships.

  • by pushing-robot ( 1037830 ) on Monday April 11, 2016 @11:17PM (#51889369)

    What sort of dangerous idiots fix a potential problem pre-emptively out of an abundance of caution?

    Tesla must learn to do the right thing by its customers: cover up defects until the wrongful death lawsuits start rolling in.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Not everybody want to do business according to the traditional US "screw the customer as best as possible" "capitalist" model. Some may want the dual satisfaction of delivering a good product and still making quite a bit of money off it. And no, that is not socialism, not screwing over your customer is a very, very capitalist thing to do, it just requires the ability to think strategically.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      The company is still being run by the founder and the visionary leader. That is the source of this problem. Just wait till it goes public and institutional share holding crosses the threshold.

      Then the MBAs will move in. They will pay themselves first, raid the cash reserves, cash out the good will. Define short term is tomorrow and long term as this quarter. Once they move in, they will make sure profits are made in their tenure and the wrongful death law suits come after their stock options have vested a

      • You're assuming that will happen - there's no actual law that says it has to.
        The company I work for was founded in the 1970s by a visionary in his field with a view to a certain way of doing business. That way of doing business was a key competitive edge, and a fundamental part of it is that the company must be privately owned, not publicly traded - so that the company's incentives will align with those of customers and not shareholders.
        He not only wrote that into the company charter, he made it part of the

      • See also: Paypal
      • by KGIII ( 973947 )

        Tesla went public years ago. Not many years but, still, years.

        In other words, shares were once $24 each. Well, they were when I got 'em. You might wanna get in now and just not be too greedy and bail before it goes bad. Then again, it might not go bad. Either way, there's a number that will be crossed and that's when I'll sell. It has gotten pretty close to that number but it hasn't crossed it just yet. I expect that number to be crossed when the release date for the Model 3 hits. Actually, I expect it to h

  • A company acts responsibility without using Fight Club's recall formula? [youtu.be] Before dozens of people end up dead, like the Ford Exploder, Firestone edition, or GM who thought lives were too expensive to spend another fifty cents per ignition? Get a life, dooshbag.

  • Car recalls go like, you get a letter in the mail or do the research yourself and then make an appointment at the dealership for no charge repair. If they notice anything amiss they may say something, but that's about the worst thing that can happen.

    I'm surprised someone would make such a big deal of tesla doing this when every single car company has the same problem. Of course they know its much better for PR to fix the damn cars, especially as of late.

    The point is a recall is trivial from a customers pers

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Tesla is threatening a lot of conservative, inflexible and greedy companies, that are used to be able to screw over their customers with nothing much happening to them as a result. These are obviously investing a lot of money into "reporting" that bad-mouths Tesla.

  • The big difference between Tesla and all of the other car makers, is that Tesla/Musk will not only solve the problem, but go back and fix the broken ones, WITHOUT the feds telling them to.
    OTOH, MB, VW, Ford, GM, Toyota, Honda, etc work hard to cheat at everything.
    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      And that may just be one of the reasons behind the large number of pre-orders for the Model 3. Customers are generally not very bright, but if screwed over repeatedly, they begin to notice and start to look for alternatives.

      • And what are those.. the Chevy bolt? All the other EVs look like complete crap and would be embarrassing to drive. I don't want to go to far into depth but a lot of car styling is predicated on companies not wanting to cannibalize their marque cars....so they give them crappy 'inspirational' styling.
        • by gweihir ( 88907 )

          I think you misunderstand what I am saying. I am saying the Tesla is the alternative and hence the large number of pre-orders for the Model 3.

  • "Reasonable" quality is entirely fine and you can always get that with solid engineering. This also means that Tesla is _not_ going to push these out as fast as possible, they are going to make sure best practices are followed and a certain amount of over-engineering and over-testing is happening. There is no sane reason for this alarmist nonsense.

    I do have to say that the non-understanding of sound engineering practices in /. stories is on the raise and in the process of reaching astonishing heights.

  • Tesla are not exempt from the norms of car production. They might extensively test their cars but there will always be problems which are not fixed before release and there will be problems discovered after release due to accidents, servicing and repairs. Virtually every new vehicle suffers faults, most of which are rectified as production matures. Those people who buy too early get to enjoy all of them and only the most serious ones will trigger a recall or a repair during servicing.

    That's why it is sens

    • The Model 3 won't run the same risks because they have all the organizational knowledge gained by all the mistakes and prototypes of the Model X to work from. Even the things that work in the Model X but that they've seen are sub-optimal in practice tell them how to do better in the Model 3.

      • by DrXym ( 126579 )
        Nonsense. By that logic every car manufacturer should produce cars which operate flawlessly. After all they have the organizational knowledge of not just a couple of models but HUNDREDS of them. Even major manufacturers with established reputations still regularly issue recalls for serious safety issues and still carry out less serious but important repairs during the course of servicing & repair.
        • That happens less on tried-and-true platforms, like GM's D platform with the EcoTec engine, than it does with new and experimental platforms. This is why the Chevrolet Cobalt is a solid car, why so many GMCs are solid cars, why the Mazda 3 is such a fantastic car, why many Fords are great, and so forth; and yet a new model of Audi will come out sometimes and have ridiculous problems like the brakes decide to up and fail, or the Prius of all things would accelerate out-of-control in its first production ru

    • lol. Why would somebody plunk down money for an M3? Because if there IS a problem, Tesla fixes them. FAST.
      Other car companies have to be forced into it. And look at all the idiots that bought VW, BMW, Audi, Porsche, etc with their diesels. What are those cars worth? A fraction of what was paid. And what are those companies doing to make right their criminal behavior? They fired some programmers blaming this on them, even though it was obviously ordered from the top down. But what about the car value? Wha
      • by DrXym ( 126579 )
        Someone needs to look up what a non sequitur is. Just because some other cars experienced issues, it does not follow that it is wise to place money on a car which doesn't exist and won't exist for several more years.
  • Hardly a massive insight.
    If Tesla sell more cars, then they'll have to recall more cars in any future recall.
    Yup.

    Why is this news?

  • Just like the other Tesla models they are going to trickle into the market and hopefully the worst recall items will be discovered early on.
    • Look at the Roadster. It took them 5 years to build 2400 of them. Basically, that was about getting the drive train and some of their coding figured out.
      Then came the model S. It has been in production for 5 years. It took them until last year to get up to 50K cars / year.
      Now, the MX started in Sept. and in 6 months, now produce at the same rate as MS was just 5 months ago. THey are expected to be at a rate of 100K cars / year by end of 2016.
      Now, why was MX able to scale up like that? Because Tesla has n
  • So, basically what we’re hearing is that although there are zero reported cases of this hinge failing, Tesla is recalling them and replacing the weak component.

    Sounds like they’re being super proactive and cautious. If I had the money to order a Model 3, I’d plunk it down right now.

    Mind you, I haven’t been in an accident in 24 years. The next time it happens is more likely to be someone else’s fault than my own. I’m not the best driver in the world, but I’m prett

  • The recall itself is pretty boring. They're doing the right thing by proactively fixing a problem they found.

    What I found interesting from the article I read yesterday is that the bad part in question was one of the few that wasn't made by Tesla. Just like the bad strut that caused the SpaceX launch to fail was one of the few parts not made by SpaceX.

    Musk's aversion to using third-party parts seems to be well-placed.

  • Tesla is in control of their entire chain. Their cars do come at a little bit of a premium. There is very little on the cars that can actually go wrong. For the most part Tesla would prefer if their customers brought their cars in twice a year.

    By having a "recall" it limits their liability. The vest majority of owners will choose to ignore it until two or three years down the road. The X is a premium car at the moment that will only sell so many units. Tesla has field techs that will actually drive to you a

  • Call it an upgrade instead. The word recall implies something was mandated by a government or standards group. Since this is free and an improvement over the previous design just call it an upgrade.

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