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.
Recall, an official recall, is a safety issue notice really. Its a legally defined thing in motor vehicle code. If manufacturer finds a defect, issue or feature affecting driving safety they have to notify safety authorities and get a recall issued. It doesn’t have to have anything to do with, whether the product goes back to service garage or not.
Important point: Not every Tesla OTA update triggers a NHTSA (or other national road safety agency) official recall. Tesla has updated their cars plenty without recall notice. Only safety related issues get recall issued along with the OTA update.
Thus it is meaningfully, that they have so many software related (and thus OTA fixed) safety recalls. Each of those times is Hey, NHTSA, gonna have to admit, our software has a safety oopsie on it. Here is the paperwork, could you please issue us the official recall campaign number. Yeah software team already developed fix for it, it’s all in the paperwork. We issue recall notice for drivers to check for the OTA to have gone through properly, that is all they need to do.
No maker wants to have safety recalls. It’s bad PR. Makers have been fined plenty times for failing to properly inform agencies. One of the most famous is the Takata airbags. Where Takata got fined millions by first knowing and not telling their airbags had extra spicy unstable propellant exploding way too violently. Plus after firstly admitting to it lying to for example NHTSA about the vast extend of the problem.
So it matters, that even on “just a software issue” recalls are issued. The main point is public is properly informed. Lot of time it’s resolved without great calamity. However this was exactly the lesson learned. Don’t let makers hide issued, make them admit immediately so public knows and can take appropriate mitigation, before someone gets hurt. Also makes makers fix things quickly. Otherwise other priorities might override, since What they don’t know can’t hurt our reputation, like this is marginal issue. We can take little more time with this. Oh it takes 6 months to design fix with that small team. No worries. After all, no one knows. We have time. Except during that slow roll someone bumps into that “marginal issue” and gets hurt. Having to publicly admit immediately puts fire under their hind quarters. “Whole design department, stop what you are doing. We have safety recall issue. It went just public. Everyday company sits without being able to say No worries, we have solution we take flack. This is now priority number 1. This must be resolved yesterday, says the company board. Whatever parts or equipment you need, order it. Whomever you need to call, call them.”
Legally they have to “declare” a recall, even when they can fix it with a couple of lines of code and an OTA. Recall doesn’t mean what you would expect it to me, it means “something the manufacturer needs to fix for safety reasons”.
Hence why 98% of Tesla recalls are OTA (not actual stat, I’d have to look it up but it’s definitely in the 90s)
I don’t know if it’s maybe a judicial thing or something or if they are technically required to do an official recall registered in some system, even if they can actually solve it OTA.
I would suspect the rules around required recalls are not really updated to reflect the extended amount of issues that a vertical system integrator like Tesla can solve OTA.
I’m not complaining about you, I appreciate your answer and am sorry about the confusion lol
I was complaining about the law and whomever made the statistics and wrote the article pretending that completely different things are the same, didn’t mean to shoot the messenger!
Doesn’t OTA fixes by definition mean no recall?
Recall, an official recall, is a safety issue notice really. Its a legally defined thing in motor vehicle code. If manufacturer finds a defect, issue or feature affecting driving safety they have to notify safety authorities and get a recall issued. It doesn’t have to have anything to do with, whether the product goes back to service garage or not.
Important point: Not every Tesla OTA update triggers a NHTSA (or other national road safety agency) official recall. Tesla has updated their cars plenty without recall notice. Only safety related issues get recall issued along with the OTA update.
Thus it is meaningfully, that they have so many software related (and thus OTA fixed) safety recalls. Each of those times is Hey, NHTSA, gonna have to admit, our software has a safety oopsie on it. Here is the paperwork, could you please issue us the official recall campaign number. Yeah software team already developed fix for it, it’s all in the paperwork. We issue recall notice for drivers to check for the OTA to have gone through properly, that is all they need to do.
No maker wants to have safety recalls. It’s bad PR. Makers have been fined plenty times for failing to properly inform agencies. One of the most famous is the Takata airbags. Where Takata got fined millions by first knowing and not telling their airbags had extra spicy unstable propellant exploding way too violently. Plus after firstly admitting to it lying to for example NHTSA about the vast extend of the problem.
So it matters, that even on “just a software issue” recalls are issued. The main point is public is properly informed. Lot of time it’s resolved without great calamity. However this was exactly the lesson learned. Don’t let makers hide issued, make them admit immediately so public knows and can take appropriate mitigation, before someone gets hurt. Also makes makers fix things quickly. Otherwise other priorities might override, since What they don’t know can’t hurt our reputation, like this is marginal issue. We can take little more time with this. Oh it takes 6 months to design fix with that small team. No worries. After all, no one knows. We have time. Except during that slow roll someone bumps into that “marginal issue” and gets hurt. Having to publicly admit immediately puts fire under their hind quarters. “Whole design department, stop what you are doing. We have safety recall issue. It went just public. Everyday company sits without being able to say No worries, we have solution we take flack. This is now priority number 1. This must be resolved yesterday, says the company board. Whatever parts or equipment you need, order it. Whomever you need to call, call them.”
No, they are for some reasons called recalls. Didn’t Tesla recall their entire fleet this spring? It was solved by OTA updates.
Why recall them if the issue can be taken care of over the air? That IS what OTA stands for, right?
Legally they have to “declare” a recall, even when they can fix it with a couple of lines of code and an OTA. Recall doesn’t mean what you would expect it to me, it means “something the manufacturer needs to fix for safety reasons”.
Hence why 98% of Tesla recalls are OTA (not actual stat, I’d have to look it up but it’s definitely in the 90s)
That’s just misleading then. Should really change that to match reality.
I don’t know if it’s maybe a judicial thing or something or if they are technically required to do an official recall registered in some system, even if they can actually solve it OTA.
I would suspect the rules around required recalls are not really updated to reflect the extended amount of issues that a vertical system integrator like Tesla can solve OTA.
Ah, it’s one of those cases where de jure isn’t the same reality as de facto and the hack journalist pretends otherwise? Gotcha.
I’m officially joining team “fuck Musk and his shoddily built rolling ipads, but that’s bullshit bordering on journalistic malpractice”, I guess 🤷
I don’t have any agenda, I just tried answering your question.
I’m not complaining about you, I appreciate your answer and am sorry about the confusion lol
I was complaining about the law and whomever made the statistics and wrote the article pretending that completely different things are the same, didn’t mean to shoot the messenger!