Some Hilarious Responses To Tesla’s Latest Software “Recall”

It seems that some mainstream news outlets got a bit nutty with Tesla’s latest move in China.

I already wrote a piece for CleanTechnica on the so-called “recall,” but others have added a lot of good context and comparisons since then that seemed worth highlighting.

Imagine that every time your social media apps need a software update that there’s a news outlet about that brand having a “recall.”

However, that doesn’t matter to those who eat clickbait for breakfast. The truth is that Tesla had a potential issue that it voluntarily fixed. The fiction was an idea of thousands of Tesla owners giving their cars back to Tesla to fix an Autopilot issue that could kill them or something in that regard.

I mean, yeah, if you’re not paying attention, you could do something that endangered your life. But this is more like adding an extra lock on a door than realizing you left the door wide open all night.

To repeat: this was a voluntary update that Tesla decided to make just to be extra cautious, it was a simple software update (like you get on your phone), and it seems that no actual accident triggered the update.

Ray4Tesla shared some more screenshots of what’s happening in China. Some in the Chinese mainstream media, along with Tesla’s detractors, seemed like they were trying to make the recall sound worse than what it is. They claimed that the recall was forced by regulators. It was not.

In the screenshots, Ray provided the original document and a translated version. Ray highlighted this part:

“Adhering to the attitude of being responsible to consumers, we took the initiative to file a recall plan with the State Administration for Market Regulation. Users can complete the recall through remote car upgrades (OTA) without going to the store.”

Ray even noted that a new term has been coined — “soft recall.” In my opinion, they just want to use the word recall so badly because it generates clicks. But at least this headline does imply that there’s not a giant crisis to worry about.

Ray also shared the first demonstration of the completed OTA “recall” in China. It literally took a few seconds, as you can see in the video. Simply push down the right lever once and you’ll hear the audible sound. This alerts you that the vehicle is in TACC mode. Lift it up to turn TACC off with an audible alert. Imagine, this simple update had the mainstream media in a bit of a tizzy.