this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2023
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Wtf? They honestly shouldn’t be able to call a software update a “recall.” They’re literally two different things. Is this just a Tesla thing, or is this some sort of new trend?
Indeed, there was a time when they would just fix things without calling them "recalls".
Then, the government claimed that it was illegal for the company to update things like this — even over-the-air — without also calling them "recalls" and going through this exercise.
https://www.newsweek.com/tesla-faces-114m-fines-if-it-doesnt-tell-us-why-it-failed-issue-safety-recall-1638620
Because tesla has to comply with the regulations just like every other manufacturer, and that includes notification of recall issues and remedies. The use of the term 'recall' is of course outdated, but that is irrelevant. How the manufacturer remedies the defect has always been up to the manufacturer, as long as they comply with the regulatory process, most of which is simply documentation, like issuing recall notices.
VW should call them bug fixes
As another user said, it sounds like this is a NHTSA term:
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2023/RCLRPT-23V838-8276.PDF
Thanks. That sure seems like a lazy and wrongheaded move to call an update a recall, but I don’t know why I expected more competent logic from the US govt.
actionable defects are 'recalls'. How they are remedied is irrelevant.
That’s not really an accurate definition. A recall is a public call to RETURN a product that is defective. There is nothing being returned with a software update.
It is the terminology required by the NHTSA regulations. Those regulations were obviously written before software updates were relevant to automobile components. The public documentation of defects are ‘recall notices’ by regulation.
Yeah, I get that part, but it doesnt change the fact that using the word for a mandated update is lazy and wrongheaded on the part of the NHTSA. Rather than use a different and more correct word, they are just shoehorning it in and leading people to the wrong conclusion.
The press likes to call it a recall. Most of the time it's just an OTA update.
Yeah I was gonna say, isn't this literally just something that can be fixed with an OTA update?
I guess that's kind of the nice thing about modern technology, stuff like this doesn't require a full recall with manual work being done, it's literally just an update.
Not that I'd stick up for Musk, I think it's horrible what he's doing to destroy Twitter (although I do like the recent media tab grid view update, I wish it were optional so it could still have the list view available too), but I feel like this is kinda being unfair lol
edit: Apparently this is just the normal outdated technology that is used so it's not the media's fault, I guess that makes sense.