Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday February 12 2020, @11:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the fine-print-giveth-and-small-print-taketh-away dept.

People Are Jailbreaking Used Teslas to Get the Features They Expect:

People have certain expectations when they buy a car. For example, they expect it to work for years afterwards needing only basic maintenance. They also expect that the purchase price includes ownership of not only the physical car itself but all the software that runs it.

Tesla doesn't agree.

Last week, Jalopnik ran an article about a person who bought a used Tesla from a dealer—who in turn bought it at auction directly from Tesla under California's lemon law buyback program—advertised as having Autopilot, the company's Advanced Driver Assistance System. The entire Autopilot package, which the car had when the dealer bought it, costs an extra $8,000. Then, Tesla remotely removed the software because "Full-Self Driving was not a feature that you had paid for." Tesla said if the customer wanted Autopilot back, he'd have to fork over the $8,000.

Tesla clawing back software upgrades from used cars is not a new practice for the company. "Tesla as a policy has been doing this for years on salvage cars," said Phil Sadow, an independent Tesla repair professional. One former employee, who used to work in an official Tesla service center and asked to remain anonymous because he still works with Tesla in another capacity, said he was told to put the software features back if people complained to avoid bad publicity. He left about a year ago.

But that doesn't mean Tesla owners are helpless. Sadow and others have ways to push back against Tesla by jailbreaking the cars and getting the features owners feel are rightfully theirs.

"As far as I am concerned removing a paid-for feature, regardless of the state of the car, is theft," Sadow said. "It's as if a bunch of guys show up in a van and take your upgraded 20" wheels. Just because it's software, it's no different."


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday February 14 2020, @02:26AM (3 children)

    by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Friday February 14 2020, @02:26AM (#958019) Journal
    Old home thermostats had no problems controlling electrical heating systems running at 220/240v and 25a. Aviation circuits run at 480v to save weight. The switches were purely mechanical. So are circuit breakers in my power box. Mechanical switches can control 10kvolt circuits running 100 - 400 amps. What do you think people did before the transistor was invented?
    --
    SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday February 14 2020, @02:48AM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 14 2020, @02:48AM (#958028) Journal

    What do you think people did before the transistor was invented?

    Wasted energy because they had it from a thermal engine that generated other on the spot.
    A thing that no longer exists when everything you have as an energy source is a battery.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday February 14 2020, @03:19AM (1 child)

      by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Friday February 14 2020, @03:19AM (#958041) Journal
      In other words you can't admit you were wrong about 10a power and are deflecting. And electric cars are also wasting resources in comparison to public transit - even diesel hybrid buses are greener than individual electric cars: and of course pedal power and walking are even greener. And so are golf carts, even the 12v lead-acid battery powered ones.
      --
      SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday February 14 2020, @03:22AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 14 2020, @03:22AM (#958044) Journal

        In other words you can't admit you were wrong about 10a power and are deflecting.

        Sure, whatever you say.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford