Tesla Issues Its Largest Recall Ever Voluntarily Over Faulty Model S Steering (theverge.com)

Tesla announced today that it is recalling 123,000 Model S vehicles around the world over a power steering issue. The company said via an email that it was a proactive move and none of the company's other vehicles are affected. The Verge reports: The automaker said 123,000 Model S vehicles built before April 2016 were affected. No injuries or crashes have been reported in connection with the problem. In the email, Tesla said it had, "observed excessive corrosion in the power steering bolts," but that the problem was most prevalent in colder climates where road salt is used. "If the bolts fail, the driver is still able to steer the car, but increased force is required due to loss or reduction of power assist," Tesla wrote in the email to customers. "This primarily makes the car harder to drive at low speeds and for parallel parking, but does not materially affect control at high speed, where only small steering wheel force is needed." Tesla said owners do not need to stop driving their cars if they haven't experienced any problems. The company said it would inform Model S owners when a retrofit, which is estimated to take an hour to install, is ready in their area.

Comments

Impressed

[Excelcia]

I'm actually impressed. While I will never own a Tesla, unfortunately, because I won't own a car where the manufacturer can issue over-the-air updates that I cannot control and which materially affect the performance of the vehicle, this is actually perhaps the most responsible way I've seen a recall handled. In most cases, recalls are forced by the NHTSA. For the most part, auto manufacturers don't wait until the NHTSA actually orders a recall, but generally the writing is on the wall that they need to voluntarily recall or the NHTSA will step in. In this case, it wasn't even on the NHTSA's radar.

This might make me rethink my stance on Tesla.

Re:Impressed

[whoever57]

because I won't own a car where the manufacturer can issue over-the-air updates that I cannot control and which materially affect the performance of the vehicle,

You should buy a new car soon, then, because I suspect that in 5-10 years time, all cars will do OTA updates.

You'll have to ask the company that made the part:

[robbak]

You may have heard of them - they are known as BOSCH. They make the electrics and much of the mechanics of just about every car on the road.

Re:Rampant histeria will now ensue

[Bruce Perens]

Well, the thing is that Elon is pretty clear about his own mistakes. For example he made a film compilation of SpaceX crashes.

So, it's not really that he can do wrong. It's that he owns his mistakes in front of everybody else, and still dares to innovate, and wins reasonably often although sometimes it's after great effort (as in the film above).

He is also about the only big company CEO who will dare to post silly stuff. Like this. And the guy was five when Monty Python and the Holy Grail came out. So, it seems to me that he's going out of his way to convince people that he is a human rather than someone faultless.

So, why shouldn't people like him?