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.

  • helenslunch@feddit.nlEnglish
    33·
    3 months ago

    It literally states the program is due to a deformation of the switch, a physical issue.

    It also literally states that the software update will fix it. You can literally fix hardware issues with software. Could be as simple as recalibrating the switch, I don’t know.

    What guarantee do we have that it won’t continue deforming further after the fix?

    What guarantee do you have that replacement hardware would permanently solve the problems? There simply are no guarantees.

    Do you unironically trust Musk enough to not open your vehicles hood at 80mph?

    I don’t drive 80MPH. Regardless Musk is the CEO, not an engineer, and is not as involved in day to day operations as you think he is.

    Maybe they want to justify their $80k paperweight lmao.

    Mine cost ~$30k so I can’t speak to those folks.

    • OutsizedWalrus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      Sometimes you can.

      It’s common to use a Hall effect sensor for positioning. It gives off an analog value. You might be able adjust the signal threshold that you consider to be “open” or “closed” in software.

      Further, this is probably something that you just don’t spend a bunch of time engineering. Pick a value that’s well with your tolerance range and move onto harder problems. When a problem comes up, you can fine turn the range.