Tesla’s cars just got ‘recalled’ over a font

I have to admit, the reason behind the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)’s latest “recall” of Tesla vehicles is a little silly: “A visual warning indicator whose letters’ font size is smaller than ?-inch, as prescribed in FMVSS Nos. 105 and 135, could reduce the driver’s detection of it when illuminated, increasing the risk of a collision.”

Translated: A font on Tesla’s touchscreen display is too small.

According to the NHTSA, the tiny warning sign for the automaker’s brake system could impede people’s ability to see it. The international standard for that text is 3.2 millimeters, and anything less than that could pose a safety risk, they claim.

The recall, which impacts 2.2 million cars, including the Cybertruck, Model X, Model Y SUV, and Model S, is easily fixable. All it requires is a simple software update over the air (OTA). This recall is not a recall in earnest—no one needs to bring their car into the shop; it’s a two-line code patch that poses less real danger than an iPhone zero-day security bug.

But while it’s not the most dire of flubs (that award would go to Tesla’s many more serious issues), it’s yet another sign of the automaker’s well-established lack of attention to detail and poor design. 

Just too many little (and big) things

It’s a seemingly never-ending list at this point. I’ve lost count of Tesla’s recalls, and I just can’t be bothered to keep hitting “next page” on this website. From the start, Musk seemed to make arbitrary design and manufacturing decisions, like sourcing consumer-grade screens and electronics that couldn’t survive the extreme environmental conditions that automobiles go through (those screens, of course, failed, which prompted a real recall program that reached all the way to China and an investigation by the NHTSA and Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority.

Musk often points out that we should stop calling these small issues “recalls,” and in this case, I agree. Perhaps we should just call them “yet another nail in Tesla’s reputation,” or “yet another sign of what happens when you offer overpriced cars with bland design and crappy construction standards,” or just “yet another call to get your act together already, Elon.”