For a long time, the focus of the global and Chinese media on the Beijing Winter Olympics has been so much that it has overlooked many major issues that should have been concerned. Tesla, which has always been very topical, has quietly created a lot of big news during this time, because the attraction of the Beijing Winter Olympics is too strong, so that Tesla is exempt from the hot search list, but these things themselves are very worthy of our deep thinking.
According to foreign media reports, Musk's Space satellite was affected by a geomagnetic storm on February 8, scrapping 40 satellites at a time. According to Musk and Space officials, these satellites cannot be removed from safe mode to carry out orbital lifting operations, so they will re-enter or have re-entered the atmosphere.
Officially, these satellites will have little impact on the space environment. But this proves at least one thing, and that is that these satellites are not technically mature. This time there is no impact on the space environment, which does not mean that there will be no future. But that's exactly musk's style, he looks like a Frankenstein, good at putting all kinds of untested technology into practice, starlink satellites, Tesla is like this.
This is certainly a spirit of exploration, but it will inevitably have a bad impact on others. Since this period of time, Tesla's safety problems have once again attracted strong attention from the outside world. While developing new technologies and practicing new ideas, I still hope that Tesla will have a more down-to-earth spirit. Cars may not be as tall as satellites, but it affects every household.
The largest recall in history
While celebrating the Spring Festival here in China, Tesla is also making big news in the United States. On February 3, local time in the United States, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued an announcement that Tesla is conducting safety recalls for more than 817,000 vehicles. This is the largest recall in Tesla's history, you know, after the rapid development of Tesla in 2021, the global sales volume is only 936,000 vehicles, which is equivalent to recalling most of the sales of the year.
The reason for the recall was because of buzzers, which Tesla found could not be activated when these vehicles were started and the driver did not fasten their seat belts, making it impossible to ring the bell. This may sound like a minor affair, and according to Musk, Tesla had not received a safety incident due to the defect before the recall.
However, Tesla in the rapid progress is often exposed to various quality problems, but the outside world has to pay attention to. According to statistics, this recall is already Tesla's ninth since October last year.
Taking the Chinese market as an example, in early December 2021, Tesla recalled 21,600 cars due to some Model Y knuckle quality problems; at the end of December 2021, Tesla recalled 19,700 imported Model S, 35,800 imported Model 3 and 144,200 domestic Model 3 in China due to problems such as trunk cover.
Last year's boiling Tesla brake failure incident, under Tesla's strong public relations gradually disappeared, but in just a few months recalled 9 times, which seems to show that even if Tesla's brakes are not a problem, its safety in other aspects is also worthy of outside attention, which is after all related to the owner's life.
Security performance still needs to be improved
Last year's Tesla brake failure was interpreted by Tesla fans as a malicious attack on Tesla, and even some people put the account on the heads of other domestic manufacturers in China. China's domestic new energy brand should not have the ability to run to the United States to "black" Tesla, but it is also questioned in the US market.
At the end of January 2022, at the strong request of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tesla announced a recall of all vehicles with "fully autonomous driving" capabilities, for a total of 53,822 vehicles. U.S. regulators believe the "rolling parking" feature included in the FSD systems of these models is a safety hazard when passing through intersections.
In addition, Tesla has recently encountered another problem in the United States. According to foreign media statistics, complaints about Tesla's "phantom brake" have soared sharply in the United States during this time, and US regulators have launched an investigation into Tesla. Phantom brake, ordinary consumers may not know much, it actually has another translation: ghost brake. To put it bluntly, U.S. regulators believe that Tesla's vehicles will brake sharply due to misjudgment, which can easily cause injuries to people in the car and rear-end collisions. If it is on the highway, it will bring huge safety hazards. According to some people in China, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is also estimated to have been bribed by Chinese competitors to investigate the "innocent" Tesla.
New technologies should not take human life as test objects
Many people still remember the 2018 Southern University of Science and Technology gene editing baby incident, involving Professor He Jiankui was sentenced to three years in prison. There is nothing wrong with his experiments, and it can even be said to be leading, but there are hard wounds in ethics that disregard life. Tesla's self-driving technology, which Tesla has always advocated, has the same problem.
The reason why the phantom brake incident during this time caused public outrage in the United States is because Tesla has just announced the deactivation of radar sensors, which can only be equipped with cameras to capture road information from the outside world. At present, there is a debate in the industry about the "visual system" represented by Tesla and the "laser system" represented by Huawei, and most of the models are both, and strive to ensure safety. In order to verify its visual radar technology, Tesla hastily deactivated the radar, which is obviously a bit irresponsible.
Current AI is still very immature, just as Musk's Starlink satellites are not mature, and they must consider the consequences, rather than forcibly promote them before the technology matures. Cars are closely related to people's safety, and its safety should not be regarded as a child's play at any time.
Summary: We welcome new technologies, and it is precisely because of the promotion of new technologies that we can enjoy a colorful modern life, but we do not need crazy "Frankensteins". Satellite launches fail, leaving only space debris or space junk; the safety performance of cars is not guaranteed, and the so-called "automatic driving" should be spurned in the case of immature conditions.