NHTSA asks Tesla to recall 158,000 [now 135,000] vehicles for eMMC failure. Voluntary Recall issued

[dhanson865]

? Someone asked where they could see the TSB that someone else mentioned and I provided a link to it. Nowhere did I say that was a recall, or related to a recall; I was just directly answering someone's question.

In a completely different thread someone was trying to calculate the cost for the recall NHTSA requested, and mentioned people being passed a mileage limit and reduced their estimate based on that. And I mentioned that a recall doesn't have an age/mileage limit.

You did nothing wrong, it's just with all the talk about the recall and the possible confusion I wanted to compare/contrast for the other readers of the threads. I was tired and didn't word it the best way possible.

anyway I think it's significant that the TSB has mileage / time in it and Tesla hasn't officially responded to the recall request yet.

you did post in a thread called "NHTSA asks Tesla to recall 158,000 vehicles for touchscreen failures" and most of the posts before and after your post about the TSB were about a recall. The overall tone of the thread is as if the recall is a guaranteed thing that is coming. I felt that left a need for clarification.

Between your posts and mine we have clarified. Hope you didn't mind too much.

 

[Chaserr]

The TSB was an attempt by Tesla to avoid a recall and limit expenses. the NHTSAs response was a request for them to expand the "adjustment program" to recall and cover every MCU1 regardless of age or mileage and retroactively refund past repairs. Tesla has a week and a half to agree. If they don't the NHTSA issued what looks like veiled threats of punitive actions so we should see a recall pretty soon. The NHTSA laid out it's case clearly: they have never seen a more all encompassing 100% failure rate like this resisted from recall before and there are numerous safety problems that must be addressed with hardware fixes. I get the feeling this is a precursor to how they are dealing with other recalls on the pipeline. One of the NHTSA employees involved in the MCU recall has been in contact with owners here over the incoming battery recall so there is at least some internal overlap with their Tesla teams.

 

[viper2ko]

You did nothing wrong, it's just with all the talk about the recall and the possible confusion I wanted to compare/contrast for the other readers of the threads. I was tired and didn't word it the best way possible.

anyway I think it's significant that the TSB has mileage / time in it and Tesla hasn't officially responded to the recall request yet.

you did post in a thread called "NHTSA asks Tesla to recall 158,000 vehicles for touchscreen failures" and most of the posts before and after your post about the TSB were about a recall. The overall tone of the thread is as if the recall is a guaranteed thing that is coming. I felt that left a need for clarification.

Between your posts and mine we have clarified. Hope you didn't mind too much.

If Tesla rejects the recall boy would they look like assholes.

"You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain"

 

[P100D_Me]

It was always clear to me that the original MCU in our 2017 MS was not up to the tasks that it was being asked to perform.

But it was on the earlier software versions, with each major revision (eg, V9, V10) it got worse and worse to the point where the current software on MCU1 is pretty much beyond the point of no return as far as usability and function. The problem is that Tesla essentially forced all owners to the later software versions that run like crud, I am sure I remember stories on here of people being refused service work because they wouldn't update from older V7, V8 software.

 

[Cleo-n-Company]

That is factually inaccurate.

Of course it was. I heard they went from Cottonelle to Scott.

 

[jrwaters1]

You are right but that is a hard point to prove now. I think once we get the Beta FSD, they will have to do something about this to get it approved.

I

this option?

View attachment 628465

yes

 

[Bmac]

U.S. asks Tesla to recall 158,000 vehicles for touchscreen failures


Wow. I guess Tesla saw this coming and started offering the goodwill fix.

"NHTSA added that “during our review of the data, Tesla provided confirmation that all units will inevitably fail given the memory device’s finite storage capacity.”

Those who of us who upgraded to HW3 with a new touchscreen also received a email message several weeks ago, which I have archived for reference, that I will most likely be due a refund on part of the cost of the touchscreen replaced during the upgrade.

 

[Cleo-n-Company]

Those who of us who upgraded to HW3 with a new touchscreen also received a email message several weeks ago, which I have archived for reference, that I will most likely be due a refund on part of the cost of the touchscreen replaced during the upgrade.

"All units will inevitably fail."

I will say... this is one of the rare times where I applaud Tesla's honesty and disclosure.

Of course - it makes me feel even more shitty about my car's current situation - but still - I'm so used to the smoke-and-mirrors explanations coming out of Tesla...

 

[Droschke]

View attachment 628684

"All units will inevitably fail."

I will say... this is one of the rare times where I applaud Tesla's honesty and disclosure.

Of course - it makes me feel even more shitty about my car's current situation - but still - I'm so used to the smoke-and-mirrors explanations coming out of Tesla...

Smoke-and-mirroring an average owner? They can and they do.
Smoke-and-mirroring the NHTSA? A clumsy mistake.

 

[paulobear]

I have a 2017 MX. I wonder if they'll do the upgrade they owe me for FSD.

 

[Rockster]

This was designed in 2011. 8GB was pretty large, and Tesla was designing their first car. I can see how it happened. They had no idea how many cars they would sell with it.

This does not excuse how they are dealing with their earlier failures in 2021 however, while being the highest valued car company in the world by many multiples.

I think, too, that this might have been poor coordination between hardware people and software people, resulting in more logging happening than the hardware people anticipated.

 

[samkimiam]

My 2016.5 Model S 90d has 40k miles and have been dealing with the MCU blackout/ resets/ frozen screen for several months now. Dropped off at Buena Park service last Tuesday (3rd attempt) and was just told today that engineering says it's not a hardware issue but a RAM memory issue and daughterboard does not need to be replaced. Says MCU issues are related to navigation and to “limit using navigation until there is a remedy ” - Seriously? So they said the fix (for this week) is a factory reset of the MCU. What a joke!

When I mentioned the Nov service bulletin and NHTSA recall, the service advisor said that SB does not apply to all MCU resets (?) and that the recall was not official (yet). On previous service visits, they "cleared the home folder files" and said an "over-the-air update" would resolve it. Of course that only lasted about a week.

Below are the notes from my invoice. Guess I won't be getting a daughterboard replacement until the recall is official but not sure I wanna stick around much longer.

Concern: Customer states: MCU still freezes while driving. 12/20 ::: 7:07pm, 1/2 ::: 12:48am, 1/9 ::: 4:34pm screen froze again and Tesla app still shows location it froze at and will not update to current location.

Reviewed vehicle logs with provided time stamps and verified customer's concern. This is an known issue and tesla is currently investigate the root cause. No remedy as of now. This is not related to hardware, no hardware replacement is required. Recommend customer to limit using turn by turn active navigation with other media/bluetooth to minimize this concern until there is remedy for it. Please update your firmware to the latest whenever available and check back periodically to see if there is solution for this concern.

 

[GoCubsGo72]

My 2016.5 Model S 90d has 40k miles and have been dealing with the MCU blackout/ resets/ frozen screen for several months now. Dropped off at Buena Park service last Tuesday (3rd attempt) and was just told today that engineering says it's not a hardware issue but a RAM memory issue and daughterboard does not need to be replaced. Says MCU issues are related to navigation and to “limit using navigation until there is a remedy ” - Seriously? So they said the fix (for this week) is a factory reset of the MCU. What a joke!

When I mentioned the Nov service bulletin and NHTSA recall, the service advisor said that SB does not apply to all MCU resets (?) and that the recall was not official (yet). On previous service visits, they "cleared the home folder files" and said an "over-the-air update" would resolve it. Of course that only lasted about a week.

Below are the notes from my invoice. Guess I won't be getting a daughterboard replacement until the recall is official but not sure I wanna stick around much longer.

Concern: Customer states: MCU still freezes while driving. 12/20 ::: 7:07pm, 1/2 ::: 12:48am, 1/9 ::: 4:34pm screen froze again and Tesla app still shows location it froze at and will not update to current location.

Reviewed vehicle logs with provided time stamps and verified customer's concern. This is an known issue and tesla is currently investigate the root cause. No remedy as of now. This is not related to hardware, no hardware replacement is required. Recommend customer to limit using turn by turn active navigation with other media/bluetooth to minimize this concern until there is remedy for it. Please update your firmware to the latest whenever available and check back periodically to see if there is solution for this concern.

This is exactly the same issue we have had and heard for months the same thing from Tesla. This makes no sense. Our screen is 100% unusable. It’s been this way for a year and Tesla is doing nothing about it.

 

[Wratran]

I got the same response from Tesla. They did remote test and said emmc is healthy...blame on software issue...fix coming soon...blah blah...they won’t repair it until MCU is dead

 

[GoCubsGo72]

I got the same response from Tesla. They did remote test and said emmc is healthy...blame on software issue...fix coming soon...blah blah...they won’t repair it until MCU is dead

Glad to know there’s at least 2 others out there — wonder if there are others? Or, is this part of what the NHTSA is addressing with Tesla?

 

[paulobear]

I think, too, that this might have been poor coordination between hardware people and software people, resulting in more logging happening than the hardware people anticipated.

As a SW engineer with 30 years embedded medical device experience (similarly regulated industry), it's a total failure on the SW engineering side to not account for legacy devices on which your new SW will run.

 

[brkaus]

Glad to know there’s at least 2 others out there — wonder if there are others? Or, is this part of what the NHTSA is addressing with Tesla?

I would have to assume (hope?) that NHTSA would be addressing the symptoms which would include software problems.

I would also hope that Tesla would see properly addressing the software issues is critical to getting the issue out from under the spotlight with NHTSA.

Reading here, it sounds like in some cases replacing the board has helped. But not in all cases.

 

[aerodyne]

My 2016.5 Model S 90d has 40k miles and have been dealing with the MCU blackout/ resets/ frozen screen for several months now. Dropped off at Buena Park service last Tuesday (3rd attempt) and was just told today that engineering says it's not a hardware issue but a RAM memory issue and daughterboard does not need to be replaced. Says MCU issues are related to navigation and to “limit using navigation until there is a remedy ” - Seriously? So they said the fix (for this week) is a factory reset of the MCU. What a joke!

When I mentioned the Nov service bulletin and NHTSA recall, the service advisor said that SB does not apply to all MCU resets (?) and that the recall was not official (yet). On previous service visits, they "cleared the home folder files" and said an "over-the-air update" would resolve it. Of course that only lasted about a week.

Below are the notes from my invoice. Guess I won't be getting a daughterboard replacement until the recall is official but not sure I wanna stick around much longer.

Concern: Customer states: MCU still freezes while driving. 12/20 ::: 7:07pm, 1/2 ::: 12:48am, 1/9 ::: 4:34pm screen froze again and Tesla app still shows location it froze at and will not update to current location.

Reviewed vehicle logs with provided time stamps and verified customer's concern. This is an known issue and tesla is currently investigate the root cause. No remedy as of now. This is not related to hardware, no hardware replacement is required. Recommend customer to limit using turn by turn active navigation with other media/bluetooth to minimize this concern until there is remedy for it. Please update your firmware to the latest whenever available and check back periodically to see if there is solution for this concern.

You are getting the run around. None of the work done is in accordance with official Tesla Guidance, i.e., the service bulletin.

If they are seeing the problem, the only approved solution is daughterboard replacement.

 

[aerodyne]

You know, I'll give it a try next time. I never use voice commands because they never worked for me, but it's worth a try as a quicker thing than rebooting the screen. Lucky I don't have pano roof, so there is no risk that "turn HVAC vents to windshield" will open the pano to vent position, flooding the car while I reboot the screen.

I have the panic roof, and voice commands for same "are not available at this time"

Your leather interior is safe...

 

[stopcrazypp]

I got the same response from Tesla. They did remote test and said emmc is healthy...blame on software issue...fix coming soon...blah blah...they won’t repair it until MCU is dead

I don't want to throw cold water, but just want to warn people expecting the recall to just be straight replacements with no questions asked: note that Tesla may end up doing the same thing for the recall (eMMC test to determine health and then only replace if deemed unhealthy and the source of the issue). They still have time to respond to NHTSA and they have not officially said what they would be doing yet.

If you look at the Tanaka recall, given there is an expectation that the service/parts chain would not be able to handle immediate recall of all airbags at once (even only the ones with owners that responded), there was a priority system of the most impacted/at risk ones first. A similar schedule may happen here that will drag things out.

NHTSA Releases End-of-Year Update on Takata Air Bag Recalls