Tesla recalls a million models over pinch-happy windows, Dodge pays tribute to the fans with the Challenger Black Ghost, and automotive suppliers are raising prices. All this and more in today’s issue of The Morning Dump.
Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday.
Tesla Recalls Models Over Pinching Windows
The quality control issues keep on coming for Tesla, and this latest one is rather weird. More than a million models have been recalled due to defective power windows. I’ll let the NHTSA recall report explain this one.
Affected vehicles may not meet certain automatic window reversal system requirements in FMVSS 118, Section 5 (automatic reversal systems). When closing in circumstances subject to FMVSS 118, Section 5, the window may exert more force than Section 5 permits before retracting. The window may also retract less than the distance required under Section 5.
If a window is closing and detects an obstruction, the condition may increase the risk of a pinching injury to the occupant.
While this may seem minor in the grand scheme of things, NHTSA says that this issue violates FMVSS 118, section five regarding automatic window reversal systems. Plus, it’s just nice to have an automatic window reversal feature just in case you accidentally hit the window switch while any object is poking through the window aperture so you don’t shatter the glass.
Vehicles affected include certain 2021 to 2022 Tesla Model S , Model X, and Model Y vehicles, along with certain Model 3 sedans made between 2017 and 2022. Total number vehicles affected? A whopping 1,096,762. Fortunately, like many software-controlled recalls on connected cars, the fix is reportedly just an over-the-air software update, but it’s really an issue that never should’ve happened in the first place.
The Dodge Challenger Black Ghost Is One For The Fans
Dodge has pulled the wraps off its sixth Last Call special edition model and this one’s really for the fans. Say hello to the Challenger Black Ghost. In case you aren’t aware of the original Black Ghost Challenger, it was a 1970 Challenger that made a name for itself in the Detroit street racing scene. Special-ordered with the 426 Hemi, Super Track Pak, R/T package, and SE package, it was known for showing up, vanquishing all-comers, then disappearing into the night, not to reappear for months. It’s now on the National Historic Vehicle Register, so it’s clearly cemented itself in American automotive culture.
The new Challenger Black Ghost takes the spirit of the original and modernizes it for the 21st century. Starting with the Hellcat Redeye Widebody, the Black Ghost turns up the wick to 807 horsepower, gains a 3:09:1 rear axle ratio, and adopts some visual cues from the original. The white tail stripe is on deck, as is special gator skin roof vinyl. A few extra chrome bits like the Challenger script grille emblem really pop against the black paint without appearing overwrought.
It’s nice to see Dodge not only honoring its own internal heritage in this last run of Challenger and Charger muscle cars, but also the heritage of Mopar fans. For the Mopar faithful who miss out on the Black Ghost, Dodge has one more Last Call special edition to show off, expected to be unveiled at the SEMA show in Las Vegas.
Automotive Suppliers Are Raising Prices To Stay Afloat
It was only a matter of time before inflation set in to every single part required to make a new vehicle. Reuters reports that automotive suppliers are raising prices, with some price hikes ranging from 7 percent to 20 percent.
“During the course of this year, more and more suppliers have gone in to their customers,” demanding higher pricing from automakers, said Andreas Weller, chief executive of aluminum parts maker Aludyne.
“They’ve been trying to hold everybody off, but eventually the dam breaks and then you’ve got to pay people,” he said of the automakers.
Quite right, automakers do have to pay suppliers so that workers at those suppliers can keep food on the table [Ed note: And, ahem, healthy margins for the owners – MH]. So what does this mean to the average car owner? Well, not only will your next new car get more expensive, the cost of replacement parts is also expected to rise. While this may seem like a minor sting in the grand scheme of things, sometimes a few extra dollars to fix a car can be the difference between someone having a job and not.
NTSB Wants Alcohol Detection Systems In Every New Car
Get ready for the possibility of another safety gizmo you never asked for. Automotive News reports that the NTSB wants to see alcohol-detection systems in every new car.
The NTSB is recommending that NHTSA require passive alcohol-detection systems, advanced driver-monitoring systems, or a combination of the two, on all new vehicles.
The agency also recommends incentivizing automakers and consumers to adopt intelligent speed adaptation systems that could prevent speed-related crashes.
“We have to remember that technology is only part of the solution,” [NTSB Chair Jennifer] Homendy said. “To save lives on our roads, we need to look more broadly at the entire transportation system, which includes everything that can prevent a crash.”
This isn’t going to work and I’ll tell you exactly why. The average car on American roads is 12.2 years old, and that’s only going to grow as consumer spending power shrinks and new cars grow more expensive. It’ll take more than a decade for this tech to really worm its way into vehicles and even then, habitual drunk drivers will seek out cars made before this tech is implemented. If NHTSA issues an affirmative ruling on putting alcohol-detection tech in new cars before the November 2024 deadline, all it’ll really amount to is driving up the cost of new cars.
The Flush
Whelp, time to drop the lid on today’s edition of The Morning Dump. Happy Thursday, everyone. To celebrate the impending arrival of the weekend, let’s play a game. This one’s a little bit chaotic and I have no idea what to expect, but we’re going to give it a shot. I call it “sight-unseen” and here’s how it works. You can have any one used car for free, but the first person to reply to your comment gets to alter its condition in some way to make it slightly worse. Maybe they’ll give it a rebuilt title, maybe they’ll swap in an automatic gearbox, maybe they’ll ensure it was initially ordered in a rather controversial color combination. Ready? Set? Game on.
Lead photo courtesy of Tesla, Inc.
I’m picturing drunks wearing snorkels and garden hoses to evade the booze detectors.
At least that’d make ‘em easy to spot
I read that headline as “punch people” rather than “pinch people” at first. I do like that Dodge is deciding to pay homage to one of the most known Challengers with the Black Ghost package. I can’t wait to see one in the news after being stolen to go do donuts while blocking traffic.
As for the used car, I guess I’ll go with a Mitsubishi FTO GP Version R (with a valid US title)
If the alcohol detection tech is as bad as the free breathalyzer I got to try out recently, this is doomed. It would read over the legal limit when I hadn’t had a drop to drink in days, and if I _had_ drunk something it would claim my BAC was high enough to put me in the hospital (to be clear I was not, in fact, in the hospital at the time ;-).
That Challenger would look good with some white wheels, and I normally don’t like white wheels.
The conspiracy theory peddlers have already taken the alcohol detection systems and run with them.
Did you know that the deep state is going to require remote kill switches in all new cars, and that they’ll use them to disable all cars the next time they force a lockdown to keep the people from learning the real truth and force them onto public transportation where the vaccine will be pumped into the A/C systems?
It’s true. I saw it on Nextdoor.
FFS…
OMG JOE BIDEN WANTS TO PUT ALCOHOL INTERLOCK DEVICES IN COVID VACCINES!!!
Sadly, that might be a real post somewhere.
1984 is when the government does things. Subscribe to my Patreon for more advanced political ideology.
So Dodge is commemorating street racing. Pretty despicable.
I can’t even update the nav in my car, which is a 2013. I doubt the alcohol thing would work. I’m not really against it, I just don’t see it happening.
///M5 wagon. (I already know about the V-10 issues)
It’s actually a Buick that someone glued M5 badges to
Oh, that’s cold. But, best yet: well done.
Whats Sat Nav?
It’s got torch’s would you rather box of human waste under the passenger seat, as a structural member somehow
Wow, I shouldn’t be surprised by the vitriol towards the alcohol mandate, but I still sort of am.
Firstly “some people will deliberately break the law so we shouldn’t bother” is a silly argument against any law. That is why laws have penalties and enforcement mechanisms. It will take time to reach critical mass, yes, but the same tired argument has been made against every safety feature ever. No one is coming to take your airbagless, seatbeltless shitbox to the crusher (except the tinworm I guess) and laying the blame for car cost increases at the feet of minor safety features is also a bit rich.
Secondly, the real benefit probably will not be directly getting hardened drunks off the road but intervening when someone accidentally has a bit too much at a BBQ or baseball game or whatever and either doesn’t realize or tries to white knuckle it home before going about their normally sober-enough life. Society at large has come down pretty decisively against out and out drunk driving, but I think still has a ways to go with buzzed driving
For my sight-unseen used car, I’ll take a v60 recharge, please
It was stolen from a mobster yesterday.
I’ll take my kids on a long weekend beach camping trip, and let them sleep in the folded down back. It’ll either be rendered unrecognizable or will be in a state where the mobster will gladly cut their losses
In Ontario police are able to lay an impaired charge at .05 so at least there is a penalty for buzzed driving here.
Penalties really do nothing to stop impaired driving though.
Seasoned drunk drivers feel entitled to do so because they believe their skill level is so much higher than those people who kill people. The truth is, the people that kill people are all seasoned drunk drivers who believe exactly the same thing.
When drunk, they are always able to remind themselves how good they are at drunk driving, but they are not always able to remember how many drinks they’ve just had.
Feel like there’s this inner child in Elon that wants to tweet: “Rub some dirt in it!”
I hope the very last of the Last Call Challengers will be a Sapporo edition, paying homage to the almost entirely forgotten second-generation Challenger (which was a rebadged Mitsubishi Galant). I want velour seats, down-sized brakes and 14″ wheels, and a Mitsubishi inline-4. Almost no one would genuinely want it, and yet as the very last in a limited production run, collectors would eat that shit up. It’d be an artistic statement on the state of the world of collectable cars.
I don’t hate this idea.
It’s important to remember that the alcohol detection thing isn’t some random desire of NTSB, but was part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill passed last year, which especially means that the people writing it had likely had no idea if it was possible or practical.
Yep. Somebody put that provision in there with absolutely no idea about implementation. Brethalyzers exist, but imagine having to blow into one in a rental car.
They call me stupid for holding onto my MGB, but in the future I’ll be able to go a booze cruise any time I want.
That Black Ghost is going to look super cool with those yellow lower trim protectors on the front or will they come up with a special edition of black one’s to blend in…. /s My brain hurts after typing that….
So many reasons to abandon the idea of the Booze Detector!
First off, it would be a new electronic system added to already over-complicated automotive electronics. Can we be assured that any failure of the device would still leave the car usable, or would the whole thing be bricked until repairs?
Second: what BAL would set it off? IIRC, various states have different minimums for “drunk driving;” which one will the nationally mandated device use? Or will it get OTA updates every time you cross a state line?
Finally, the government has interfered enough with automotive design and engineering. Far better, at least to me, if penalties for impaired driving are substantially increased.
Not going to put my most desirable ride up for judgment in Thomas’s question. This is too tough a room. And I already know what could/would go wrong….
I’ll take a 1980 Plymouth Horizon TC3, 1.6 automatic, that someone spray-painted pink. Do your worst.
I forgot to mention in the ad, but my MIL was found dead in it. In July.
It’s been converted to run on CNG, so, not only are you driving around with a pretty large bomb behind you, the former owner wanted 800 miles of range, so there’s no storage and only barely room for 2. And, CNG is less energy-dense than gasoline, so there’s even less power.
The Black Ghost is pretty sweet, just wish they had really gone all out and put the Hellephant 426 Supercharged Crate HEMI in that bad boy. I am sure it would be completely sold out in seconds and the price would be difficult to cover, but man what a way to go out on this Car for the true muscle cars.
Regarding the alcohol detection thing, what I want to know is how this is supposed to actually work. Are these going to be breathalyzer interlock things where you have to blow into a tube before you can start your car? Because that seems like an obvious non-starter, no pun intended. I can’t think how else they would do it, though. So, I guess automakers will start implementing “advanced driver monitoring systems” as an alternative, whatever the fuck that means? I dunno. I’d need to hear more. As presented here, the whole thing sounds awfully vague. Maybe there are more specifics out there somewhere.
The NTSB is making it clear (but not emphasizing) a *passive* system is what they have in mind, and I expect they’re thinking it could be implemented using already existing/incoming sensors with the extra code being amortized over millions of units.
The public thinks of the clunky, intrusive, breathalyzers wired to cars as a condition of their owners’ prior DUI convictions, which have seemingly had zero development to make them less clunky or intrusive since they first appeared ~ 30 years ago.
The NTSB is woefully innocent of the political realities of the day and of the need not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
This whole thing originated from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. I think the NTSB knows exactly how this will play, but they have to push it anyway.
I had noticed the “passive” language and that intrigues/concerns me. I can see how driver impairment tech can be implemented, they already have systems that can detect inattentive/drowsy drivers. Impaired driving is essentially a combination of that.
But passive BAC detection? I’m only aware of two methods to get that, breathalyzer and blood test. Having a driver’s seat that stabs your ass every time you sit down and then running a little minilab in the seat cushion is not very feasible. A passive breathalyzer would have to collect a lot of air from right in front of the driver’s mouth to collect enough air to make a BAC judgement. Don’t know how many people have ever been breathalyzed, but you have to blow pretty hard into a 1/4 inch or so tube to provide enough concentrated air for the analysis. Collecting that type of sample passively will be damn near impossible without passengers contributing.
I’ll take a 67 MGB in BRG
The possible negative changes to same boggle the mind!
With Lucas electrical components. OH! As You Wish.
The wiring is all original.
Second Gen Viper GTS
Sorry, I forgot to mention in the ad, I blew up the engine racing it and swapped in a GM v6
I hope it’s the Indy v6, nice.
The engine, an Iron Duke from an old LLV, has 500k miles on it
In 2002 it was featured on Pimp my Ride.
It has velour seats, chrome spinners and a waterfall that runs down the dashboard. (The previous owner’s name was Niagra)
That auto-retracting (or anti-pinch) window is actually a safety feature – back in the ’00’s I worked for a company that supplied window regulators and they were lobbying Congress to mandate that feature on all new cars because our technology was the most robust available at the time. Beyond the potential business benefits, there was one particular tragedy they used as an example of why the technology was needed where a child choked to death because they put their foot on the window switch while hanging out of a window and closed it on their neck. But the solution to that was push-pull power window switches which most carmakers now use. In this case, if you want to include auto-close windows in your vehicle, then it has to meet the requirements discussed in the quote above from the NHTSA. Fortunately they can correct that in an OTA update.
Yup. It’s a pretty worthwhile safety feature, if you ask me. Doesn’t cost much, stops kiddos from getting their fingers crushed. No brainer.
The push-pull switch is an interesting safety innovation when you think about it. Much harder to inadvertently close the window. I remember thinking it was a bit silly compared to the old style but it makes sense.
>NTSB Wants Alcohol Detection Systems In Every New Car
It’s nice to want things. Hell, I want a 2006 Ford GT. Neither of us is getting what we want though because this is bullshit. If that thing fails, I’m now locked out of my car and how am I supposed to get it to a dealer because there damn sure won’t be any legal aftermarket replacement options.
Yes, drunk driving is bad, Intoxicated manslaughter should be a capital offense, but this is asinine. It is the equivalent to putting restrictor plates on every new vehicle.
“Intoxicated manslaughter should be a capital offense”
Holy shit.
There’s probably something in between the current penalties and… execution.
Let’s just cut off their right foot.
And their penis
There are certain things I just cannot ever condone.
At first i wanted this to be the answer but no, it wouldnt stop them.
I wouldn’t make it capital, but murder is murder. Kill someone with your car? You still killed someone. Was it because you were driving recklessly? You should lose your license *on top* of a standard murder charge.
There’s a lot intertwined in the concept of “driving as a right” or “needing a car to survive” so it’s not a simple problem because of the infrastructure issues we face on a societal level, but if anything that’s an argument for figuring out how to tackle those problems at the same time.
Murder isn’t even just murder. We don’t have capital punishment for most types of murder! And manslaughter is definitely not murder, that’s why it’s called manslaughter.
If you’re charged with murder I don’t think you care much about losing your license. And you’re not supposed to be punished by being charged with a crime, that usually comes with being tried and found guilty.
None of this is to say there shouldn’t be a better system for dealing with vehicular manslaughter.
You’re just wrong. Murder is intentional.Manslaughter isnt
Why is this type of commentary allowed on this site? It seems like every couple of articles some part of the comments section devolves into fascist ramblings and/or Q Anon type fear mongering. I want to talk about cars, not listen to lunatics rant about who they think their government should kill….
Absolutely fucking rich that you equate “we should have severe penalties if you kill someone with your car while drunk” to “fascist ramblings”.
Wisconsin?
Getting pinched in a window seems pretty minor, unless it’s happened to you. Granted, mine wasn’t a hardware or software defect (a defect sitting in the driver’s seat), but getting your ear pinched sucks.
Regarding auto prices, I guess I’ll be one of “those guys” and hold onto my 10 year old, value-retaining vehicle, swing wrench to keep it on the road and make this not my problem. Sorry to the rest of you folks, though.
On to the NTSB and alcohol detection devices in vehicles, well, I have thoughts. First off, cars are too expensive as is. Unless this translates to a healthy insurance premium reduction, that’s a non-starter for a lot of folks in terms of cost. That’s without even getting into the fact that it’s essentially punitive for all drivers regardless of infraction. Here’s my hot take, though. I don’t know exactly what the solution is, but something is needed to function via bluetooth connectivity for calls or SMS in cars these days, maybe even something more extreme. I don’t know how it is in your neck of the woods, but here in Bismarck, ND, we’ve had 3 rollover crashes and a few others of the regular variety attributed to driver distraction. To me, that’s ridiculous and unacceptable. Although we are all responsible for our safety as individuals and as a community, when folks can’t exercise common sense when they’re sober, that’s something to be looked into. Maybe the alcohol lobby isn’t as active in campaign contributions as cellphone companies.
With the same voice as the Beans and Franks scene from “There’s Something About Mary” I gotta ask, HOW DID YOU GET YOUR EAR PINCHED IN A WINDOW?!
I second this, but I’m not good at voices, so…
tell usEmbarrassing explanation further below in response to Tom’s inquiry of the same.
Do you have giant ears?
Surprisingly, pretty regular and not even spread out for flight. Disclaimer, I was a lot younger and a fair bit more dumb and gullible at this time. I was in the front passenger seat and had the window partially open for air movement on a summer day. A buddy did the ‘ol “hey look over there” gag with something pertaining to a beautiful young lady (again, I was younger then). The window was down enough that when I turned my head around, he was able to quickly close the electric window and pinch my ear partially on its way up. Suffice it to say, I was pretty pissed off. Not only did my ear hurt for awhile, but there was no beautiful young lady.
Seems like everyone is plagued by recalls right now across the industry. As much as I loathe Musk and the whacko Tesla stans, this seems fairly run of the mill. Be wary of buying a car right now…due to supply chain constraints there’s a whole lot that can go wrong…although the car I bought in June has been fine so far.
(Insert my usual all the MOPAR special edition stuff is a low-effort, cynical cash grab comment here)
Oh joy, regular people are going to keep getting priced out of new cars. We live under an economic system that’s tailor made to slowly but surely funnel all financial resources and commodities to the 1%, and it’s running like the well-oiled machine that it is. New cars are so expensive at this point that maybe what…only the top 25% or so of earners can afford to buy them? What a mess…and all of these manufacturers that offer horrible loans to subprime borrowers are making the problem even worse. Is normal people are ALWAYS the ones that wind up with the bill. That doesn’t seem good, does it?
Full disclosure: I’m 2.5 years into recovery from alcoholism and my views on this sort of thing are biased by my own hatred of alcohol and how it destroyed me and has harmed my family…where a tendency towards substance abuse is written into our genetic code and socially normalized by generations of hard drinkers. With that out of the way, I think this is amazing.
I have absolutely no sympathy for people that drink and drive. It’s an incredibly selfish, hubris soaked, dangerous decision…and when people show time and time again that they aren’t capable of being responsible enough to make decisions that are safe for those around them then it’s the government’s job to intervene. I’d love to see alcohol detection technology put into every car. If you’re a responsible person you have nothing to worry about…if you aren’t then you’re an asshole and I don’t mind Big Brother dishing out consequences until you stop being an asshole.
OH MAN this is going to be fun and I’ll toss one right over home plate for all of you…give me my absolute dream car, a 911 GT3.
Gran Turismo 3 hidden Porsche 911 will be unlocked for you, just give me your steam handle.
This is gonna hurt, but…
Flood title. In salt water.
Welllll seeing as that’s the only way I’d ever be able to dream of affording one, LET’S GO! I’m gonna hit Hoovie up
“due to supply chain constraints there’s a whole lot that can go wrong” well it is also partly because 2nd and 3rd tier suppliers are leveraged more so and they cannot provide the repeatable quality. they are trying their best to keep employees, so a lot seems to be getting the corners cut off to just get stuff out the door.
>If you’re a responsible person you have nothing to worry about
Yeah that mindset has always worked out for everyone.
I’ll take a Ferrari Dino.
Oh hey sorry I didn’t mention this in the ad but I had to swap in an Iron Duke. Yeah… Sorry…
So, Fiero Dino?
Id put a Vette Engine into it and Mud Tires.
Wow, I think this is the first car available from the factory with a vinyl roof since the 1996 Fleetwood, sort of surprising they didn’t do this earlier, since the Challenger’s roofline is actually well suited to the treatment