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

submitted 3 months ago by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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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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[–] gasgiant@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 months ago (13 children)

The comments read like a lot of people don't quite understand the issue.

The bonnet (hood if you insist) latch may not warn a driver if it isn't secured correctly. If it is secured correctly then it is fine. So it isn't going to suddenly open.

If the latch isn't shut correctly and then the sensor doesn't report this then the bonnet may open unexpectedly.

If they can use a software update to correct the reporting then that's it fixed.

There's no issue with the actual latching mechanism. It's just the sensor for reporting the latching state.

It may be that it currently works on a two value system. i.e a value for correctly latched and a value for not latched. If that's the case and isn't just not providing the second valve correctly then a simple software change to only use the latched value would fix this. As any other value or the absence of a value will report it at unlatched.

[–] aodhsishaj@lemmy.world 15 points 3 months ago (3 children)

It's a soft close latch, the frunk pulls the lid into the latching mechanism. The mechanism isn't doing it's job and needs to be replaced either with a properly adjusted soft close mechanism that grabs the lid, or with a non soft close standard latch that is very obvious to the user when it has not been properly closed.

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