“#Tesla blamed drivers for failures of parts it long knew were defective
Wheels falling off cars at speed. Suspensions collapsing on brand-new vehicles. Axles breaking under acceleration. Tens of thousands of customers told Tesla about a host of part failures on low-mileage cars. The automaker sought to blame drivers for vehicle ‘abuse,’ but Tesla documents show it had tracked the chronic ‘flaws’ and ‘failures’ for years.” https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tesla-musk-steering-suspension/
@GottaLaff How is this different than any other car maker? PS: Watch the movie Fight Club or read the book.
The parts talked about are also all stressed when accelerating and decelerating. I also find it interesting that most of the parts they were having issues with were made by others. In the past Tesla has had to take some parts manufacturing in house due to poor quality from suppliers.
@GottaLaff In one notable case, the manufacturer had recently been bought out, and the part quality plummeted. The buyer turned out to be linked to the oil industry.
@GottaLaff Acceleration and deceleration stress is different in an EV than an internal combustion engine car. This is due to regenerative braking. So half-shafts need to be designed different. Same for control links. To go into more detail requires much nerdity, and would leave 99.9% of the people behind. I've had my battles with non engineer managers over parts design.
@GottaLaff The rest of the auto industry plays the blame the customer game too, but it is the job of the car dealer to do that. Tesla is the dealer too.
Another big reason you see articles like this is both the oil industry and the big auto manufacturers don't want BEVs to succeed. BEVs require far fewer repair parts which is where traditional auto makers make their profits. The oil industry will loose over half it's sales if autos are all electric. That's $Billions a day in lost revenue.
@GottaLaff Plenty of incentives to dig up dirt on Tesla and Musk to try and slow the transition to battery EVs. PS: Hybrids have far higher repair rates than plain ICE and BEV vehicles. Yeah, it's a very disruptive change involving huge industries and lots of vested interests. PS: I warned Musk about this battle of the industries 22 years ago. The fossil fuel industry was already spending lots to keep alternative energy solutions from hitting the market or at least slowing them down a lot.
@Eka_FOOF_A Yes, I understand all of that and agree.
But my god, Tesla (and Musk, of course) has been awful on so many levels. The other car manufacturers have done nothing comparable, nor are their products as obviously defective as Teslas have been. I drive an i3, never saw reports of disasters a la Tesla. Never even needs service other than maintenance. Sometimes you have to call out the bad guys. I do that.
@GottaLaff You don't because they advertise.* It would threaten advertising dollars for whomever published it.
I know it because in the past I was deeply involved with design and reliability engineering. Typical calculations are will the breakage rate be too high and cause a recall, versus income from repair parts.
Tesla still mostly relies on word of mouth to sell all it's cars. They also do sell themselves rather well.
Shocking Reuters article about Tesla you post here.
1 quote:
Andrew Lundeen was driving when he rode over a speed bump and lost power steering
Lundeen said that a Tesla manager told him that a power-steering connector had corroded. The manager said the likely cause was a car wash, which he described as a known problem.
Lundeen paid $4,400 to replace steering rack and wiring harness.
“This is the only car that I’ve ever heard of where a car wash can damage the wiring,”
@GottaLaff Much like in Healthcare, where no matter what, it's always always always the nurse's fault. (We're not here to blame or punish anyone, but if we were, it'd be the RN)
Elon has included a Final Solution program in all his cars, as he had the rare presence of mind to know he would one day actually have to address customer service issues like a responsible adult.
He sends a radio signal out, all the Teslas crumple up into balls and whoosh into nothingness, like the house in Poltergeist, so no one can pin anything on him.
@skry That's what I thought you meant, but I got confused because I read it wrong and thought you were saying GM owned Tesla. I'm on no sleep. @Ferencz
@GottaLaff
It's clear Tesla are defrauding their customers by blaming them for manufacturing and design defects and making them pay for repairs that should be covered under warranty. It's also clear Tesla are covering up safety defects and not issuing necessary safety recalls, which is dangerous not just to Tesla owners, but to the general public who share the same roads.
Tesla need to be audited by the Departments of Transport in each country they are sold in. They should approach Tesla and ask them to provide records of all safety issues reported to Tesla from customers, service centres, warranty claims and product liability claims. Then ask them to provide details on what actions they have taken to address those issues and whether they have issued safety recalls for those issues.
The Departments of Transport should look at the raw data provided by Tesla in actual numbers (not let Tesla try to play down the severity by talking in terms of percentages), then consider that the failure rates will be much higher in the real world. For example, a crash or a fire may be paid out by an insurance company, without it being logged on any internal Tesla system.
@Isthmus@GottaLaff I've often thought we need a department in the government tasked with tracking ALL consumer issues with products. All issues must be reported and tracked for all products. The regulatory agencies can then use that data for regulatory purposes like, but not limited to, developing new regulations, recalls, etc.
“They install that waits until you aren’t looking and steers you into a wall feature at the factory along with the Tru Coat. But I’ll talk to my boss, see what I can do.”
(Walks into boss office)
“You going to the Gophers this weekend?”
“Oh you betcha.”
“Got an extra ticket?”
“You kidding?”
“Well we’ve never done this before but seeing as it’s special circumstances we can knock $100 off the drives you into a wall feature.”
@GottaLaff Tesla was the first EV company and it will be the first EV company to go out of business. So many better options out there now. Musk will drive it into the ground along with ‘X’.
@GottaLaff Does this surprise anyone? When you are a rabid unionbuster like Elon Musk is, this is what happens. Well-paid workers are productive workers.
@GottaLaff I've known friends who were totally enamored of Tesla and would have worked the streets at $25/john to buy one. Tesla is a cult like MAGA morons who will walk the streets to get money for trump.
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