As with most electronics, the most likely times for failure are shortly after manufacture and years later after use. Failures in the middle are generally rare, hence the warranty.
There are components where quality testing can only give a pass/fail so there’s no way to know that it barely passed until it fails shortly after.
This isn’t unique to Tesla, or even EVs. This happens with nearly all electronics. Many things can be tested more thoroughly and have lower quality limits set above what’s actually required, but some stuff just can’t be tested like that ahead of time.
And there’s always just real life. They could have driven it home and parked near to a packrat who decided that a wiring harness looked like a good snack overnight. The car can’t tell that a rat ate the wiring, it will just give generic errors for whatever isn’t working right. Is that likely? No, but it is possible, and not something we would be able to tell from screenshots of the generic error screen telling the driver to schedule service.
This happens to nearly all complex systems. It’s called the Bathtub Curve: infant mortality at the beginning of an item’s life, and after a relatively problem-free interval, a steady increase in problems that accelerates once it’s past its planned-obsolescence point.
As with most electronics, the most likely times for failure are shortly after manufacture and years later after use. Failures in the middle are generally rare, hence the warranty.
There are components where quality testing can only give a pass/fail so there’s no way to know that it barely passed until it fails shortly after.
This isn’t unique to Tesla, or even EVs. This happens with nearly all electronics. Many things can be tested more thoroughly and have lower quality limits set above what’s actually required, but some stuff just can’t be tested like that ahead of time.
And there’s always just real life. They could have driven it home and parked near to a packrat who decided that a wiring harness looked like a good snack overnight. The car can’t tell that a rat ate the wiring, it will just give generic errors for whatever isn’t working right. Is that likely? No, but it is possible, and not something we would be able to tell from screenshots of the generic error screen telling the driver to schedule service.
This happens to nearly all complex systems. It’s called the Bathtub Curve: infant mortality at the beginning of an item’s life, and after a relatively problem-free interval, a steady increase in problems that accelerates once it’s past its planned-obsolescence point.