Tesla Identified As Most Recalled Car Brand, Mercedes & Toyota Least::iSeeCars used NHTSA’s list of recalls from 2014-2023 to learn which of today’s cars are expected to have the most recalls over an expected 30-year lifespan.
Tesla Identified As Most Recalled Car Brand, Mercedes & Toyota Least::iSeeCars used NHTSA’s list of recalls from 2014-2023 to learn which of today’s cars are expected to have the most recalls over an expected 30-year lifespan.
I have mixed feelings about recalls. On the surface, it sounds terrible that you have to bring your car in because something is wrong. Yeah, it is super annoying, but on the flip side a recall means the carmaker admits to finding an issue with your car and is willing to repair it. In the past, carmakers would just kind of gloss over things that were found to be defective and hope that it wasn’t a big enough problem to demand them do anything.
So no one wants a lot of recalls, obviously, but having no recalls always means that you are on the hook when something breaks because the carmaker doesn’t think it is a problem with their design.
The article points out that a lot of these recalls for Tesla are OTA updates that don’t require you to bring the car in. It’s basically transparent to you as the owner of the vehicle.
Yes… but would Tesla be so open about “yeah this update was about a safety flaw in the cars control software”. Since that is what OP was saying on my reading. Yeah the OTA might fix the things, but all you might get from unscrupulous car maker is “we did feature improvements on the drive train algorhitmics”. Said improvement being “we removed feature called critical bug from the software”. However the last part they wouldn’t tell you. Well now they have to.
Since the Recall is not about the database really or the name. It is about the underlying law and regulation, that demands car makers to notify safety authorities upon finding a safety flaw or issue with their vehicle and to not lie about it. Withholding such discovery under recall laws is illegal and to make a point companies have been punished under that statute. So not like it is a solution looking for problem. Oh there was a problem. It is only natural. No maker wants to admit bad stuff about their product, if they can avoid it. However safety recall notice regulations says “own up immediately upon finding an issue or face penalties.”
Again this isn’t about “Tesla bad”. Since most of the “you hid safety flaws” is the big old legacy conglomerates. However for this system to work no one is above the law. Everyone has to own up to their safety issues, including Tesla. Might they also be equally open without the law? Well we would need alternate universe to find out. Since Tesla has operated all it’s existence under safety notice laws. So we don’t know how they would behave, if they had a choice. Given example of legacy auto… probably not so well. big business gonna big business.