It's not quite as bad as it seems. The first high speed stop CR did produced the expected and acceptable result. But when they repeated the test they started to get poor results. Under normal driving conditions you don't often repeatedly slam on the brakes from 60mph. Now this isn't a complete absolution of Tesla under the circumstances but it does go some way to explaining how this software bug got into the wild when it shouldn't have.

That’s still pretty bad, honestly. All it took was repeated testing to trigger the issue? That indicates that either Tesla’s testing was woefully insufficient here or that they took a late change to braking behavior without a proper re-testing regimen.

I can actually understand the latter possibility, but it’s still a giant screw up.

Yes I agree with you. I expect they made a code change in order to stress test a different component of the braking system and then forgot to revert that change.

If so, it's a big screw up for this kind of product development. But still, it's much better than "these brakes have a design flaw and can never work properly and we don't know how to make cars".

It was a very particular brake test, multiple stops going from 60 to 0. apparently they did some things to not being so aggressively stopping repeatedly. stopping once you'd stop much faster.

>> break tests

brake tests

The big automakers collectively ship defective vehicles by the millions as a matter of routine business and have been doing so for as long as there has been an automobile business. They're going to continue doing so. You'll regularly get pieces of mail from companies like Nissan, Ford or Hyundai, telling you to bring your vehicle in, years after they sold it, to fix mistakes.

Most of the other automakers will just leave you rolling around in a defective 3400 lbs pile of metal for years until they get to a fix or finally figure out there's a problem.

Tesla was able to quickly improve its product with a software update and without inconveniencing its customers. It's a superior solution.

Tesla has recalls as well, like this recent one for a faulty power steering component:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/29/tesla-recalls-123000-model-s...

Rarely are recalls for serious defects (those are usually caught before a model is sold), but they are overall a good thing for safety and long term reliability.