There’s a detail in the recall news that caught my eye.

The remedy will remove dependency on the driver seat occupancy sensor from the software and only rely on driver seat belt buckle and ignition status to activate the seat belt reminder signals, the NHTSA said.

Tesla is being forced to remove driver seat occupancy sensor code, in order to ensure proper driver seat seatbelt use.

Sounds suspicious, because this says a sensor meant to provide safety is being disabled by safety regulators for… safety.

Backwards?

It suggests something about Tesla management designing their sensor code that… hmmm how did safety inspectors put it… “failed to comply with the federal safety requirements“.

Why would Tesla ever do that, and how? What was the management design decision that made a safety sensor unsafe, interfering with other safety sensors even?

It’s the literal worst engineering possible, a social harm, like Tesla designing an occupancy detector for fire that lets people die in a fire. No, worse, like an occupancy sensor design that overrides and disables the sprinkler system, a “safety” decision ensuring death by fire.

Were Tesla drivers complaining they couldnt sleep while using Autopilot when a seatbelt alarm kept waking them and reminding them they were about to kill and be killed? Tesla cars have an almost unbelievable amount of complaints about safety.

NHTSA records for just one 2023 Tesla model, for example, show owners are livid about ongoing software integrity breaches.

Who is really responsible for so much backwards and harmful Tesla “safety” software being pushed to public roads?