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raincom | on: Tesla recalls 380k vehicles in US over power steering assist issue
Unlike Tesla, all other manufacturers ask car owners to bring their cars to local dealerships to update firmware or even do any mechanical changes. That's what "recall" is in the auto industry: schedule an appointment; take a day off; drop off a car; come back home (either uber/lyft or dealer provided cab); wait for a call from the dealership; then, pick up your car after everything is fixed according to recall.

Compare the above with Tesla's "over-the-air" software updates for recall. So much better, even if one doesn't like Tesla vehicles or Musk.

kube-system | parent | next
That is not true. Other automakers also have OTA updates, even e.g. Chevy trucks [0]. And some safety fixes can be mailed to customers to DIY. I did one on my Honda -- there was a typo in the owners manual on a safety critical statement. Honda mailed me a sticker and told me where to place it.

0: https://www.gm-trucks.com/gm-recall-brake-warning-light-fail...

mindslight | parent | next
Every time there is yet another "recall" that turns out to be an automatic software update, I shudder at the idea of putting my life directly in the hands of "move fast and break everything" web culture.

Continuously updating software is a terrible dynamic, especially for things that you want to be tools that just work. It discourages companies from doing QA/reliability engineering in lieu of a culture where could-have-been-foreseen bugs can just be discovered and fixed later. It makes it so that "owners" cannot trust their machines/systems to just keep working predictably, and have to accept whatever third party whims may dictate at a moment's notice. And generally such schemes result in hostile software that works against users - eg surveillance that serves the interests of the manufacturer.

mbreese | parent
For most software-related recalls, the most hassle I ever had was a service tech telling me that they updated my firmware during an oil change. So, in practice, it really was never that much of a hassle.

That's admittedly not much of an option for Teslas...

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