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Comment by mikeash | Hacker News Reader

I just got the official e-mail. I thought this part was interesting:

"If you are concerned about the status of your seat belt prior to your scheduled inspection, you may be able to detect this condition by pulling very firmly on the lap portion of your seat belt with a force of at least 80 pounds. This procedure may detect an improperly attached seat belt but performing this procedure does not replace the need for an inspection by a Tesla technician."

It's cool that they're being so straightforward, but it's weird to see that sort of procedure so casually recommended to the end user.

Edit: I got my appointment scheduled for next week. Pretty quick and easy. I was afraid it might be a substantial wait, as the last time I needed a service appointment they were booked for a month. This inspection is only supposed to take 20 minutes, so maybe they're able to squeeze it in earlier because of that.

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It's nice to see a company treating people like adults again.

I find that pretty refreshing. I try to handle my responsibilities so maybe I don't have to rely on a corporation or the government to hold my hand. In that ideal scenario both the consumer and company can be sensible, limit pain, suffering, costs, lawsuits and so forth.

That said, in my experience the most common is the corporation not holding up to their side of the bargain. I recently had a recall on a GM vehicle I own, the car has been great. 110,000 miles and nothing extreme has happened. GM only got 90% of the way there though. I took it in for an ignition recall, they rekeyed my ignition to my driver's side door and now my keys won't work on my passenger side or trunk. They told me to pay for all new locks or take a hike. Or, they said I can use my keyless entry or carry two keys. I complain to GM corporate, they sided with the dealer as per their policy and also told me to take a hike. The correct thing to do would have been to key it to the VIN. But they wanted to make sure they didn't have to replace my driver's side door lock, since that's the one that's most likely to be worn down. Oh, and GM's own blog on the subject has a company official stating very clearly all your locks should work with your new key. I told GM corp that and even sent a link and showed them a screenshot of it. They ignored it.

We're thrifty but we have a slightly higher than average household income. I'm a developer, she's a teacher. GM won't get another dime from me or my wife, and I like to share my recall story with others. :)

Our next car is going to be a Tesla Model 3.

Didn't realize companies haven't been, went through a recall with a 95 Dodge Stratus back in the 90s where the rear seat belt shoulder mount was decided to be defective with regards to regulation. The disclosure sent even then went into detail about the problem and the resulting fix. In fact every recall I have seen with regards to safety is pretty explicit just so that fear isn't the reaction

I think the Tabata airbag fiasco is an exception.

>They ignored it.

why wouldnt they? you have no consumer protections in US, and even suing cost money, they know most people are sheep

"GM vehicle I own"

That was your first mistake.

    I try to handle my responsibilities so maybe I don't have to rely on a corporation or the government to hold my hand.

It's all about liability. Let's say another car has the issue and actually has an accident. Now who is at fault? Should Tesla have required a recall? Should they have had a different language? Is it your fault? Are you going to admit that when the insurance company doesn't want to pay?

I think it makes sense - you'd probably be driving the car in for the inspection, so it'd be nice to have some sort of confidence in your seatbelt for that drive.

It totally makes sense. "If you can pull out your seatbelt, please don't drive the car to inspection. Get it towed or something."

That is a very reasonable suggestion.

I love the rapid turn around on inspection but perhaps that's an indication of how serious they think this is? Or put another way, once you publicly identify a possible issue could you be sued if that person was injured if the earliest you could see them was a month?

It looks like they rolled out a self-service scheduling system just for this event. It didn't show up for me initially, but it's there now. They have appointments starting at 8AM tomorrow morning and every half hour throughout the day. They also say you can come in without one. Seems like they are taking this extremely seriously. Whether that's because it's an actual danger or because they just want to be cautious, I couldn't say.

I assume it's that they know they have a lot to lose. They've been fighting for trust since day one, and a badly handled recall could send them back to no man's land.

Pulling on the seatbelt doesn't seem complicated enough to call it a "procedure". Now maybe if they'd said "And inspect the retaining plate while applying the force, if the retaining place moves less than 1.5mm, then you car is not affected", well that would count as a procedure. It's just a quick way to give customers some peace of mind while they wait for an appointment.

That sounds like a classic engineers message - almost like its straight out of Musk's mouth. I dread to think how this is interpreted by someone with a less engineer-y mindset.

I doubt the average banker can do much with the phrase of "with a force of at least 80 pounds".

Sometimes I think companies should do dual PR releases. One that is mostly dataset/tech details and one that is fluffy PR.

Said banker could lift a couple bags of pet food, get a feel for that and check their belt. Perhaps they lift weights to stay fit, or their friends or family do.

Or, they simply take the car in, call their more technical friend, etc...

It's nice to see info clear enough for ordinary people to use. It is also nice to see that assumption of their potential to use the information out there too.

I don't think it's that extreme. Bankers don't know what pounds are, or don't know what pulling is?

I would assume that they are prioritizing the recall appointments

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