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Tesla remotely extends the range of some cars to help with Irma
As Floridians in the path of Hurricane Irma rushed to evacuate last week, Tesla pushed out a software update that made it a bit easier for certain Model S and Model X owners to get out of the state.
Tesla sometimes sells cars with more hardware battery capacity than is initially available for use by customers, offering the additional capacity as a subsequent software update. For example, Tesla has sold Model S cars rated 60D—the 60 stands for 60kWh of energy storage—that actually have 75kWh batteries. Owners of these vehicles can pay Tesla $9,000 to unlock the extra 15kWh of storage capacity.
But last week, Tesla decided to temporarily make this extra capacity available even to Floridians who hadn't paid for the upgrade to ensure they had enough range to get out of Florida ahead of Hurricane Irma. A Tesla spokesperson confirmed the change to Electrek. The extra 15kWh should give the vehicles an additional 30 to 40 miles of range.
Pay to unlock the full potential of your battery.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Tuesday September 12 2017, @11:37PM (6 children)
This is totally unacceptable! I will sue!
It is absolutely preposterous that those cheap people who skimped on $9000 could be getting as much escape-from-death or race-me-to-supercharger range as me who paid the full $80k price!
They should get stuck 20 miles back, with all the run-out-of-gas plebs! At least until I'm done supercharging!
F U, paid for mine!
(do I need the /s ?)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by takyon on Tuesday September 12 2017, @11:39PM (5 children)
The range increase is temporary. Welcome to vehicular DRM.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 13 2017, @12:11AM (3 children)
Presumably the range increase can only be received while its connected and charging overnight. What would it take to charge the vehicle but not let it contact Tesla's servers?
I mean, you'd lose any upcoming updates, but you could keep your free range upgrade longer.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by frojack on Wednesday September 13 2017, @01:08AM (2 children)
Not entirely.
Tesla just transmits a command over its telemetry link to the cars which allows the battery to drain lower than usual.
They could probably also increase the total charge if they wanted to but that overcharge damages batteries more than an occasional deep discharge. That part of course wouldn't become available until next charge, but the deeper discharge is available instantly.
(Not that 40 miles is all that much).
By over provisioning these batteries Tesla protects them from deep discharge and extends battery life.
You can get the same tech on laptops from Dell and HP these days. They won't fully charge and they won't fully discharge unless you make a settings change.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday September 13 2017, @01:17AM (1 child)
That's what I was thinking -- it's a pretty good deal actually if you _don't_ pay the extra $9k because you get a battery that performs closer to "new" for a longer period.
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Wednesday September 13 2017, @05:48PM
(Score: 2) by SanityCheck on Wednesday September 13 2017, @03:45AM
"Updating your BRAKES DLC, please wait.