On January 28, Tesla announced that it will recall some Model 3 vehicles because the trunk of these Model 3 may cause excessive wear of the trunk wiring harness during repeated opening and closing. Wear can cause the core of the coaxial cable to separate, making the reversing image non-functional.
The vehicles in this recall are some of the domestically produced Model 3s produced between October 14, 2019 and December 27, 2020.
This is actually a global problem, and for a long time, the trunk wiring harness of the Tesla Model 3 used the same design. On December 31, 2021, Tesla filed with the U.S. Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) showed that the company plans to recall 475,000 Model 3 and Model S electric vehicles, including 356309 Model 3 and 119009 Model S, which is close to the global delivery volume of 500,000 in 2020.
Reversing images are a very basic feature, and if that fails, it's really bad to use. Fortunately, most Teslas produced during this period had millimeter-wave radar, so that there was a loud noise when reversing. Some of the model 3 models produced in the follow-up production directly canceled the millimeter wave radar and directly used pure vision solutions for automatic driving.
If the reversing image is broken, relying only on the camera on the side of the Model 3, the driver cannot grasp the blind spot behind the car at all, and it is really inconvenient to reverse.
However, this is only a certain hidden danger of wire harness wear, does not mean that the camera will be damaged. Even if the rearview camera is damaged, it is unlikely that this failure will cause a safety problem. When driving forward, the user does not need the reverse image. Some old drivers do not need the reverse image when reversing, if the novice is not confident enough in parking, ask others to assist. Tesla stressed at the time that it had not found a single car accident caused by a glitch in the reversing image.
Although the image of the reversing car does not affect safety much, it does affect the driving experience. In the future, when Tesla produces vehicles, it will not only focus on production efficiency, but also pursue lean production to avoid such large-scale recalls.