this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2025
236 points (98.0% liked)
Technology
70995 readers
3573 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
https://fdm.dk/nyheder/bilist/2025-01-populaer-tesla-model-dumper-med-et-brag-til-syn
English:
Original:
WTF! How has this been allowed to become an issue again? We solved this problem more than 50 years ago with better Sterring rack.
And the law demands ZERO play in the steering wheel!
I just saw a review recently with a reviewer complaining there was a bit to much play in the steering wheel.
This is probably some drive by wire shit, how is this even legal?
What a fucking travesty. My 18 year old Opel Vectra doesn't have that problem, and has never needed to have it fixed. A modern quality steering rack just works!!
Goddam this pisses me off! I'm furious they allow this shit to happen now. Every single one of them should be permanently recalled.
Tesla also has an insanely poor accident record, maybe there's a reason for that!
No, none of the model 3's use drive by wire, it's a classic steering column like other cars.
however there is a case running between Tesla and the FDM because the bushings that the steering wheel adjustment mechanism is mounted with has some play in it, which is supposedly what the inspections are rejecting them with as play in the steeringg column, even though there is not any play in the actual steering column itself. Shitty quality, absolutely, but not an inherent safety risk like play in the steering column.
So Tesla just can't make it properly like every other manufacturer can, and have done for 50 years!
Wow, that's kind of a worse look for Tesla.
That's probably because AFAIK there is zero play allowed in the steering wheel. It's not enough that the column is OK if the rest isn't.
Yeah I just joked with my wife that Musk probably told the engineers to cut the number of parts in the steering from 5 to 3.
Obviously simplified, since it's way more parts. In general it's true that fewer parts is better, but Musk is absolutely insane on the idea, to the degree that basic functionality suffers or is even completely removed.
I admit I was actually very impressed with Tesla early on, and the Tesla S, and I cheered for them. They helped make electric cars cool IMO. But I quickly began to notice things that I did not like at all. Like his insane promises on FSD when he discontinued cooperation with a company that actually knew what they were doing. His reaction was to spew bullshit about how Tesla was leading the field.
Also his complete disregard for conditions in the work place, both safety and regarding racism. And his claim that working for him was a "lifestyle" helping to change the world.
That last part was an enormous red flag! That this man is likely an insane megalomaniac.
I really really hope the Nazi salutes will backfire in a big way. But probably not.
Tesla started in July of 2003 and Musk showed up in February of 2004 with VC money, becoming employee number 4 IIRC. How many vehicles do you figure that Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, and Ian Write built in their garage before Elon showed up? Couple hundred maybe?
Musk has been involved since 9 months after Eberhard and Tarpenning started the company. He was involved with the design of the Roadster, which he and others won an award for in 2006. That was two years before he became the CEO.
Elon is a disappointment and has truly become another billionaire douchebag jackass but that's no reason to rewrite history. Practically speaking Elon has been involved with Tesla since the beginning.
The thing is, there isn't any play WRT turning of the steering wheel, it is only horizontal and lateral movement of it. The law doesn't specify this unequivocally, which is why they're arguing to figure out how to interpret it.
Yeah that's the goto argument for companies literally not meeting regulation, they try to make it into a matter of interpretation if they can.
If you have play in the movement vertically and horizontally, there will at least potentially/occasionally be similar play in the actual steering.
My god it sounds like an embarrassing issue to have IMO. Even the cheapest cars from traditional makers that cost about a third don't have that issue.
No, they are two completely independent mechanical systems. Failure of one does not have a causal link to failure in the other.
There is no way that makes sense. If you have vertical play in the mounting, that vertical play will also have an impact in your movement of the steering wheel. When if for instance you hold the wheel on the side with one hand. any turning movement begins with a vertical movement.
No, we did not. Every steering system that uses a mechanical column, like the Model 3, will eventually develop play. The bushings and u-joints are mechanical parts and wear over time. Even electric (drive by wire) steering can eventually develop play simply because the steering itself is mounted used a bearing or bushing assembly.
Here's an image of the steering assembly from an Opel Vectra.
You see those things at the very ends? Those are tie rods and they wear out. You see those black booted things on each side of the steering gear? Those are u-joint and they wear out and get loose.
There's the actual column, the part that goes between the steering wheel and the steering assembly. As you can see in this image it too has wear points that will eventually cause looseness. Specifically there is a bushing at both the top and bottom where the steering shaft goes through the column. If you have tilt steering, that column does, there's another wear point. If you have pull out / push in steering then there's another one.
MANY vehicles, including the Model 3, also have a u-joint in their column. You can see it in this image. That U-Joint is necessary because the location of the steering wheel often doesn't align with the steering box on the assembly. Here's an image of a column out of an Audi A6 and it has a u-joint on BOTH ends.
I'm not arguing that Tesla's are great, they definitely have QC problem, but the statement that this is a "solved problem" LET ALONE one that was solved in 1975 is absolutely untrue.
Not true, I own an 18 year Opel Vectra, no issues with play in the steering, and nothing was ever needed to be done to fix it, and no other old cars I've driven had it, and I haven't heard of it as a problem you should to check for before a safety check. The older cheaper worm gear steering racks ALWAYS had it, and it was regulated how much was allowed. but they've been obsolete for about 50 years maybe more now.
For a 4 year old car to have it is ridiculous.
My good person if I go to a search engine and type in "vectra loose steering" it returns results of people having problems with literally every mechanical bit that I pointed out to you; from tie rod ends (sometimes called track rod ends) to worn bushings in the column mounting hardware. The problem of "loose steering" exists even for your Make and Model.
It happens with nearly every vehicle manufacture. Here's an owner of a 2019 Honda Accord ST complaining about it in 2020 when their car was only a year old! Heck I just did a search for "BYD steering loose" and got results!
Now THAT I agree with. These problems really shouldn't be showing up in vehicles this new unless they have more than 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) on the odometer or they've been subjected to abnormal conditions. I'm not arguing that Tesla's are great, I'm pointing out (with evidence) that "loose steering" is not a solved problem and widely exists across all Makes and Models.
Tesla always had extremely poor quality control, it's just that everyone and their grandma just ignored it because back then Tesla was cool and new and back then most people didn't see that musk literally lies all the time about everything
Remember the full autonomous driving that every telsa has since 2016 that can drive the car across the entire US? Yeah...