Petition NHTSA OTA software recall vs hardware recall language

[redantpile]

FYI if you want to sign.

If you are not familiar with this issue, the media sends out stories about recalls(OTA) making it sound as if thousands/millions of vehicles need to be repaired because of a recall. So you might think that the company will have to spend whatever millions of dollars to fix it, which hurts the company brand. This of course is not true for an OTA update.

https://www.change.org/p/nhtsa-don-t-call-ota-software-updates-recalls?source_location=psf_petitions

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[mkg3]

Done.

 

[Dark-Fx]

NHTSA has no control over how a manufacturer chooses to remedy a safety issue. They could decide to buy back and crush all the vehicles.

 

[mkg3]

Since there is a line of communication between the NHTSA and mfg, involved in the recall action, when the notice is issued by NHTSA to categorize the action.

My sense is that people are getting used to differentiating OTA update versus physical recall; however, it makes sense to make it clear. The software patch/update to fix an issue is not the same as physical replacement of hardware parts in terms of speed and cost of the remedy to the mfg and the inconvenience to the owner having to take the vehicle into the dealer/service center.

Vast majority of the people driving associate recall with physical action, not OTA update (except EV drivers, especially Tesla owners since they have experienced it multiple times and now assumes all recalls are OTA patch).

Personally, I don't care how NHTSA differentiate it, as long as they make it clear what the remedy action really is. The media characterization always makes the so called recall into a major action, when in fact is a simple OTA update. It is misleading to characterize it as the same as a physical recall.

 

[solaskaze]

NHTSA has no control over how a manufacturer chooses to remedy a safety issue. They could decide to buy back and crush all the vehicles.

Exactly: Recall suggests a mandatory action -- as in "to recall", which, back in the 80's, was to bring the vehicle back no matter what ... to an issue, where what we want is an "alert?" or "notice?" or loud word that suggests that the NHSTA demands a fix, and nothing about how.

While they are at it, they should distinguish between an IMMEDIATE demand for fix (as in: each and every car is known to have the problem), vs. a "please go to service center when you are ready and have the inspect widget #43b for potential YYY", which happens a lot.

Now: Why am I being so pedantic in the early morning?

 

[DuoRivians]

I’ll settle for emailed or otherwise electronically distributed alerts of any recalls. Getting a physical mailed letter for them seems unnecessary.

 

[RivianRunner]

I’ll settle for emailed or otherwise electronically distributed alerts of any recalls. Getting a physical mailed letter for them seems unnecessary.

^^This^^.

My family has three Model 3s. After they had already been updated by the OTA update (to make the ABS and two other icons slightly bigger) we received three paper letters, all identical, telling us we didn't need to do anything. It was a waste of time for me to open, read and recycle them, a waste of time for the postman to deliver them, and a waste of time, money fuel, ink and wood fiber to print and deliver them.

Last year Tesla petitioned the NHTSA to update the way they dealt with this type of OTA software update recall, but their request was denied. I think NHTSA needs to hear from more members of the public. It only takes a minute.

 

[sub]

I would vote to move things in the opposite direction. The NHTSA should implement changes to make it even more painful for manufacturers who deliver products with defective software.

Although I agree that the term "recall" is a slightly inaccurate way to describe fixing a software bug, any change that forgives software defects even more than they do now is a step in the wrong direction.

I say this as a software developer. We should be held to the same standards as any other professional. We aren't. If digital engineers scrutinized each component to the same degree that physical engineers did, software would be 1000x more reliable.

Just look at the recent Tesla font-size recall. Can you imagine any of the legacy auto manufactures putting a physical indicator lamp into production without first having someone check if it was the proper size? The fix may be easy, but these companies deserve to get a huge pile of bad press for these sloppy errors.

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