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Some of Tesla's Model S recall checks are pretty lo-fi

Just a few days ago Tesla recalled every Model S it has ever made, more than 90,000 of them, over a potential seat belt issue that it discovered in a single car in Europe. A front seat belt was not properly connected to its outboard seat belt pretensioner in that problem car, so the company figured the safest thing to do would be to have every car checked. The company gave owners two options for doing so, either booking an online appointment with one of its service centers, or simply popping into a service center at will.

Model S owners and Tesla have gone even further, though. The recall letter to owners advised that they could check the belts themselves by pulling on the belt with at least 80 pounds of force. Since anyone with a decent grip can do that, Tesla has had employees at Supercharger stations testing belts when cars come in to charge. The customer gets certainty either way, and no one loses any time.

And since there's nothing technical about grabbing a cord and yanking on it, owners have also posted videos of their seat belt checks so anyone can see how to do it. You'll find one of those videos above from an owner who lives more than 1,000 miles from a service center, and a video of a Norwegian owner getting his car checked at a Supercharger in the video below.


Tesla Model S Information

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