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

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

software is able to detect if the hood is open and, if so, will display a warning to the driver

Imagine you're on the highway, going fast, and a suddenly some really big red thing sits in front of your windshield, blocking all the view.

Surely you would have better things to do than looking for some warning text somewhere...

(For example, you would try to remember quickly what color your car is ;-)))

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If I'm reading things correctly, this issue isn't the latch failing, it's that it's not properly closed after being opened, something that should be detected by software but isn't because of a deformation in the latch. Of course I have no idea if they are just lying.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

it had identified the problem as deformation of the hood latch switch

Emphasis mine. It's not the latch, but the latch switch, which presumably is why it's able to be fixed in software.