back to article Tesla recalls every single Model S car in seatbelt safety probe

If you are fortunate (and rich) enough to own a Tesla Model S, then you'll have to take it in for a checkup, as the automaker has recalled all 90,000 cars because of a problem with the seatbelts. The recall comes after a single complaint from a European Tesla owner, who turned to speak to a back-seat passenger and found their …

  1. Neil Alexander

    Customer service done right.

    1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      Tesla potential safety problem with a seatbelt: voluntary recall.

      Other major manufacturers proven problems with hackable cars, braking systems and more: deny for years until the deaths of hundreds or thousands trigger a lawsuit and regulatory investigation.

      You know what? Fuck yeah, Tesla! Good show.

      1. Arctic fox
        Thumb Up

        @Trevor_Pott Re: "Other major manufacturers proven problems with hackable cars........."

        Yes, the Ford Pinto, aka "Towering Inferno On Wheels" comes to mind immediately.

    2. Arctic fox
      Headmaster

      @ Neil Alexander Re: "Customer service done right."

      Indeed. In fact my gut feeling is that Tesla's response (both comprehensive and rapid) will in fact not be a PR problem for the company at all. It may indeed do them active good in the eyes of their customers and the public in general. People are not generally totally unreasonable, they know that "shit happens". However, what they do want to see is a company taking them seriously. Tesla is clearly doing so in this case.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Why 80 lbs of force?

      What if the weak bit breaks at 160 lbs?

      'Crash Safety' for aircraft is more like 20g, so seat belts are good for well over two tonnes.

    4. Dapprman

      On the surface yes, but it's probably as much down to the litigation situation in the US and the blame game. After all Toyota were fined and sued for a lot over the 'sticky accelerator' yet US official testers failed to replicate the problem. Almost certainly all big businesses based or selling in the US must be aware of this,

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    > Tesla's stock price fell significantly as the recall was announced

    Jesus, trigger finger much?

    1. inmypjs Silver badge

      "Jesus, trigger finger much?"

      Tesla's market cap standing at a ridiculous $1/3 million for each of those 90,000 cars they have made is almost entirely based on sentiment and speculation so yes the slightest whiff of problem or bad publicity will cause a dive.

      Of course Tesla will recall them all, their idiot investors gave them $1/3 million to spend on each car if that is what it takes to fend off problems and bad publicity.

      1. fruitoftheloon
        Devil

        @inmypjs

        Inmypjs,

        Err did you note the actual impact on their share price?

        Can I invest in your fund, 'cos you sound like you really know about the real world and how investing works...?

        Second thought, nah.

        Cheers,

        Jay

    2. mark 177

      Just the usual investment wankers making money at any opportunity.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Just the usual investment wankers making money at any opportunity.

        What do you expect in a liquid secondary market? If you've got a better suggestion for financing companies than the principles of limited liability joint stock companies issuing tradeable shares, the world is at your feet.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    Hmm, so if you tug the belt and it breaks, it would be illegal to drive to the Tesla garage, right?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I can't find any hard and fast rules about driving with a broken seat belt but I would imagine as long as you were taking the car to be repaired it would be legal to drive (I found anecdotal evidence this was the case). After all you are allowed to take a car that has failed it's MOT to a garage for repairs / testing and you are allowed to take it to be scrapped, in both cases it could have a broken set belt. Either way assuming you were taking it to get serviced I think you'd have to be unlucky to get stopped and double unlucky to be stopped by someone who was having a bad enough day that they booked you after you explained the situation.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        You can only drive with no MOT if your car is pre-booked into the garage for an MOT.

        If you are taking it purely for repairs then it needs to go on a recovery truck.

        The only way you would be allowed to drive for repairs is if the car is also booked into the same garage for an MOT at the same time.

        Of course that is only a concern if a jobs worth copper stops you. The tesla owner (if they tested and broke it themselves) could just say that it just happened and they are on the way to the tesla garage. I would imagine the copper would let them get on with it.

        1. the spectacularly refined chap

          You can only drive with no MOT if your car is pre-booked into the garage for an MOT.

          If you are taking it purely for repairs then it needs to go on a recovery truck.

          The only way you would be allowed to drive for repairs is if the car is also booked into the same garage for an MOT at the same time.

          If it has failed an MOT you are still permitted a single trip to a point where it can be repaired. If memory serves that is actually more lenient than it is for testing case: that requires you to take it to the nearest test point for the class of vehicle. You can take it to any point of repair after the failure.

          1. Vic

            If it has failed an MOT you are still permitted a single trip to a point where it can be repaired.

            It's not quite that simple; from the gov.uk page,

            You must not drive the vehicle on the road if it fails the test, even if the MOT hasn’t run out, except to:
            • have the failed defects fixed
            • a pre-arranged MOT test appointment

            You can be fined up to £2,500, be banned from driving and get 3 penalty points for driving a vehicle in a dangerous condition.

            [We'll ingore the horrific grammar in that]

            The upshot is that, although you might not be committing an offence by driving a car without an MOT, that doesn't mean you can drive anything; some cars are not in an appropriate condition to put on the road, even if you are just going somewhere to repair them...

            Vic,

          2. DaLo

            "If it has failed an MOT you are still permitted a single trip to a point where it can be repaired. If memory serves that is actually more lenient than it is for testing case: that requires you to take it to the nearest test point for the class of vehicle. You can take it to any point of repair after the failure."

            Not true. As long as the MOT is pre-booked you can take it to any MOT testing station. It has been reported that some people have driven hundreds of miles "to an MOT testing station". The police may stop you they may even try to charge you if they feel the distance was unreasonable, doesn't make it illegal though and if you went to court you would most likely win as there as the law is quite clear. Wither way if you aren't driving hundreds of mile no police will attempt to prosecute for taking to an MOT station even if it isn't the closest.

            With regards to taking a vehicle for repair - if your vehicle fails its MOT you can only drive it to a place to repair it or another MOT test station with a booked MOT. However there is regulation with regards to construction and use and an unroadworthy vehicle which may supercede that exemption. That exemption is only based upon the need for an MOT certificate but does not invalidate other legislation.

        2. Gordon JC Pearce

          "If you are taking it purely for repairs then it needs to go on a recovery truck."

          No, you are allowed to drive it from the MOT station to a garage for repairs.

          https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/after-the-test

          1. Vic

            you are allowed to drive it from the MOT station to a garage for repairs

            Read the link a little further - you may be allowed to drive it from the MOT station to a garage for repairs.

            Vic.

      2. NotBob

        Over here, we have something called a "fix-it ticket" In essence, the ticket is a warning to have your vehicle brought back into compliance. Once fixed, you go to a police station and an officer verifies that the problem is fixed. If you don't do all that within the given time frame (10 days?), it turns into a citation.

        1. Jon 37

          We have something similar in the UK, except that you get an MOT tester to check it was fixed & stamp it with an official stamp, then you post the ticket off to the police.

          (Or at least that's what happened to me ~10 years ago - now that MOT certificates are done on a computer, they may have been computerised that process too?)

          Of course, it's up to the police officer whether they just talk to you, give you a ticket with time to get it fixed, or just give you a ticket.

          1. mark 177

            I got a ticket for a noisy exhaust, even though I explained to the copper that I was taking it to a friend's house to help me fix it AND I had the new exhaust system in the boot.

            Jobsworth indeed!

            1. Sandtitz Silver badge

              "I got a ticket for a noisy exhaust, even though I explained to the copper that I was taking it to a friend's house to help me fix it AND I had the new exhaust system in the boot."

              Cops can give a ticket. You should be able to contest the ticket in a court at a later date.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "...on a par with his entrepreneurship."

    "...although his acting is hardly on a par with his entrepreneurship."

    Based on his general lack of profit making, maybe he should try acting.

    Or maybe he already is...

    1. James Hughes 1

      Re: "...on a par with his entrepreneurship."

      Hmmm. No profits. Just like Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, and most American car makers.

      On the other hand, Tesla has a good reputation generally, and actually makes a product, a product designed to sell to rich people in order that funds can be pushed to design and built a mass market electric car. Which will make a lot of money. So, short term profits now, or loads of money later. Musk's choice, but I suspect I know what the shareholders are doing.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The subtitle is wrong.

    Since it's a simple check, in some places Tesla has people doing the checks at Superchargers.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    You'd never get this recall nonsense with a German brand. Oh, wait...

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Very troubling

    ...that they can't determine the root cause of the failure yet Elon Musk's SpaceX operation desires to be a space taxi for astronauts? Consumer Reports said there were so many reported problems with the model S, which was clearly rushed to market due to Tesla being cash poor and burning through all of the IPO money yet not having Tesla's model III ready for sale some 2 years late. These are desperate times at Tesla as the shell game is pretty much over. Even with "creative accounting" Tesla admits to losing $4,000 on every model S sold. Do the math.

    1. James Hughes 1

      Re: Very troubling

      Troll icon for troll.

      What has SpaceX got to do with Tesla? They are completely different companies, albeit with the same CEO. Practically the definition of a strawman argument surely?

      Whilst there are some issues with Tesla's (which unlike other car, get fixed very quickly - see article) the general consensus from owners is that they would buy another one in a heartbeat. I regard that as a more relevant metric than consumer reports.

  8. unwarranted triumphalism

    Proof as if it were needed

    I always knew electric vehicles were unsafe.

    The best thing to do is ban all of them immediately.

  9. Stevie

    Bah!

    Ecellent! Musk took off and nuked the problem from orbit - it was the only way to be sure.

    Kudos to Project Tesla.

  10. nilfs2
    Facepalm

    Googles: "How to turn off updates on car?"

    Bloody updates!!! We didn't have enough with periodic updates on computers, now we have them on cars!.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like