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Tesla recalls 1.8 million cars because their hoods can open while driving (arstechnica.com)

submitted 4 months ago by ForgottenFlux to c/technology

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

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

[–] freddydunningkruger 33 points 4 months ago

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...

[–] Lev_Astov 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The problem is a sensor that detects if the latch is closed. How did an OTA fix this?
It hard to tell how big of a concern this was

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

They probably only used the sensor while unlatched, now they use it while supposedly latched too.

[–] aido 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Did you not even read the summary?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

"all those words I have to scroll past before commenting? No, why would I read any of that?".
-op

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I 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

[–] chiliedogg 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

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.