

Yes, Elon is a dick. But this is hardly novel. Car recalls related to wheel assembly issues are pretty common e.g. Mercedes and Toyota and plenty of others. In this case Tesla identified this strain based issue in preproduction testing but failed to apply the eco to production due to a management error and then discovered it in audits and then issued the recall. No accidents or even any definitive customer issues occurred from this. So now the customers just have to go in to the dealer for a fix, which is a pain but they still end up going in for service way less than with any ice. Hate Tesla all you want, but don’t fabricate garbage engineering outrage.



Most modern cars have a number recalls. My Kia telluride just had one about some bit of trim that might fall off and make a highway hazard. It’s not like they have to replace the whole car, it’s just a fix. I doubt there are many models that have zero recalls.
173 is a bit crazy for a car production line, but not so surprising considering how ugly and useless the thing is.