Elon Musk: Always A Douche

[viper37]

More "Elon Musk behaving badly" alleged news:

[HVC]

Not only is Elon a douche, tesla is doing douchey things too. Not content to let BMW be the main car company with the reputation to nickle and dime people by charging  to activate features, tesla goes one step further and deactives feature already present on used cars.

https://futurism.com/tesla-range-reduce-remote

[Syt]

Not only is Elon a douche, tesla is doing douchey things too. Not content to let BMW be the main car company with the reputation to nickle and dime people by charging  to activate features, tesla goes one step further and deactives feature already present on used cars.

https://futurism.com/tesla-range-reduce-remote

Seems like a rehash of games publishers tying online functionalities of their games to user accounts, so if someone sells a used copy of the game, the new buyer has to pay for a new online access.

[Valmy]

I can see why there might be some confusion as the battery system was upgraded beyond its nameplate capabilities. Of course:

The vehicle, which had been been sold twice before, originally came with a 60 kWh battery that was upgraded under warranty years later to a 90 kWh one by Tesla.

It was done by Tesla so hardly some unofficial modification that would kind of justify weird shit happening.

Also:

Futurism has reached out to Tesla for comment, but we're not holding our breath, as the company dissolved its PR department in 2020.

Tesla dissolved its PR department? For a company that is primarily powered by its celebrity owner, its cool factor, and consumer goodwill? Huh. That seems like a stupid move.

[HVC]

Article also mentions removing Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self Driving Capabilities on a other vehicle.

[Valmy]

Article also mentions removing Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self Driving Capabilities on a other vehicle.

That could be a mistake. The article they linked didn't go into much detail though, obviously, it is troubling you can buy a used car and the original manufacturer can fuck with it in some way.

[Jacob]

Interesting strategy, to deliberately lower the resale value of your product.

[Sheilbh]

Interesting strategy, to deliberately lower the resale value of your product.

I'm not sure how else it could work as we're moving towards more and more connected cars.

I did a little bit of work on this once (mainly based on the personal data stuff in the Europe/GDPR). For it to work, at least in that area, the car companies need to be collecting data which they can then analyse and use in ways that provides a useful service to users/owners. From a regulatory perspective they are on the hook for it - that's related to stuff like telematics and GDPR fines which could be a big issue.

But I imagine an ongoing liability risk with things like autopilot and self-driving is part of the issue. Not sure how that's managed but it seems like the more the "car" does (which relies on the programming of the manufacturer) the more exposed they are plus there will be costs in maintaining that software - so I can see, from their perspective, how a subscription model mitigates that to an extent (especially with things like patching etc - it's probably better/safer to switch off an unpatched service than let those models keep rolling around). And, like Microsoft and Apple etc, they will probably want to encourage people to upgrade regularly rather than lots of second hand - I imagine deprecating software will be part of that.

I think it's part of a wider trend away from "ownership" to some model of subscription/service as more and more things that we are used to owning rely on software that is being maintained by someone. But I think it's going to be shaky because it will push up against things people think they should "own" - and there are things where I absolutely do not want a connected device/system for exactly that reason.

[Zanza]

At the luxury and premium end of the market, you have leasing rates of 60+% already in markets like the US, so paying for a service does not seem out of the question. Also these customers apparently have no desire to own the car outright.

[The Minsky Moment]

Article also mentions removing Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self Driving Capabilities on a other vehicle.

Autopilot/self-driving is purely a software based feature.  That is, every Tesla car has the capability, but the vehicle owner has to pay for the software upgrade which is then uploaded.  Kind of like getting a DLC for a game.  So "removal" of the feature just means someone at Tesla HQ clicking a box.  It doesn't do anything to the actual car.

[HVC]

Lowering battery capacity is also just a checkbox (of sorts), the point being a car had it, was sold with it, and then that was removed.

To sheilbh's point, the original owner paid for it. Don't know what the life cost is, but 8k per vehicle seems pretty good.

I know there are nuances to situations like this, but these strike as wrong be it BMW charging you to activate seat warmers or Tesla deactivating previously functioning options.

[crazy canuck]

I had a similar problem with KIA - after my first year there was a software upgrade (which had to be done in the shop, not a remote function) which increased the range.  A couple years later there was another "upgrade" but the range was decreased.  I had to put it back into the shop to get that fixed.  And they tried to charge me for it.

[Zanza]

Autopilot/self-driving is purely a software based feature.  That is, every Tesla car has the capability

Actually no Tesla has the promised capability. 

[Zanza]

My car has services like showing gas prices on the navigation system, being able to pay gas without leaving the car, some navigation features, parking the car while not sitting in it, etc. that come with a annual fee if you want the feature.

[viper37]

 "Elon Musk admitted to his biographer that the reason the Hyperloop was announced—even tho he had no intention of pursuing it—was to try to disrupt the California high-speed rail project to get in the way of that actually succeeding."
https://twitter.com/brenttoderian/status/1557224539267817472
The titans of tech brought plenty of disruption to our broken transportation system but delivered little in the way of innovation.

And more details about the general douchiness of Elon Musk business behavior:
https://time.com/6203815/elon-musk-flaws-billionaire-visions/

He has a history of floating false solutions to the drawbacks of our over-reliance on cars that stifle efforts to give people other options. The Boring Company was supposed to solve traffic, not be the Las Vegas amusement ride it is now. As I've written in my book, Musk admitted to his biographer Ashlee Vance that Hyperloop was all about trying to get legislators to cancel plans for high-speed rail in California—even though he had no plans to build it.

(just 'cause I like to repeat it , but Berkut will accuse me of tabloid something something)