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: 2) by FakeBeldin on Thursday September 14 2017, @10:20AM
I don't.
If you can still buy the "full" product, or a "reduced" product for a reduced price, does it really matter if the "reduced" product is physically limited or only limited by software? You still get what you paid for.
Moreover, as others pointed out, the over-provisioning may actually help the quality of a software-"reduced" product to a physically "reduced" product (e.g. better battery life).
I think it becomes rotten once the full version is not for sale. But if it is, it's not rotten by the company. They're selling you what they promised, in a way that reduces costs for them (who knows, might even reduce costs for you). And if you want a better version, you can get that one too. Plus, the software-reduced version may have come with a positive side effect or two (e.g. effortless over-the-air upgrading instead of needing a physical swap at a garage, or better battery life).