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Tesla’s Betting You’ll Pay $9,000 for a Software Upgrade

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Re: Tesla’s Betting You’ll Pay $9,000 for a Software Upgrade

#31

Post by athrun »

tcoppi wrote: post #23
DanielStraight wrote: post #12

Maybe this is just pointless pedantry but... This isn't a software upgrade. It's an on/off switch. There's a difference. A software upgrade implies some new code which cost real money to develop is being made available. That's not the case here. As others mentioned, manufacturers do this already for cost reasons (reducing variation) on other software, but in that case it's legitimately a software upgrade because the…

Sure there is, nVidia and ATI/AMD have done pretty much exactly this sort of segmentation of many consumer->pro video cards in drivers practically forever.

And IBM has done this for a long time with its mainframes & zSeries. You can pay a fee to switch additional processors on.

Re: Tesla’s Betting You’ll Pay $9,000 for a Software Upgrade

#32

Post by andykellr »

dismal2 wrote: post #21
andykellr wrote: post #16

I don't get the controversy. You may have a 75 kWh in your car, but you didn't pay for it. You paid for a 60 kWh so that is what you get to use. Tesla has merely optimized the logistics a the battery upgrade, pre-delivering it and pre-installing it, doing 99% of the work at no charge. When you pay for it, they can make the upgrade as easy as an in-app purchase.

Is there supposed to be a /s at the end? Isn't the price kind of arbitrary? Would you accept this with any other product? Like buying a cheaper house because some of the rooms are walled off, or a hard drive that has a few GB of unremovable data, until you pay more.

Well, let's say I don't have any children, but I think I might have 2-3 in the next 5-10 years. I would definitely buy a small house with a nice master at a lower price that I can instantly upgrade later, especially if I don't actually see the walled off rooms and the footprint of my house just somehow magically changes in software. It sounds awesome and I would definitely sign up for that.

Re: Tesla’s Betting You’ll Pay $9,000 for a Software Upgrade

#33

Post by adaml_623 »

ericfrederich wrote: post #28

Funny. This company likes to get brownie points for being environmental. We all know that those batteries are not guilt-free when it comes to the environment. They're wasting our earth's precious resources by putting extra capacity which may never be used ;-)

I think the environmental aspect is a key point.

Re: Tesla’s Betting You’ll Pay $9,000 for a Software Upgrade

#34

Post by knorker »

dismal2 wrote: post #18
fhood wrote: post #5

This is nothing new. Many car manufacturers have premium features already built in to the car but disabled in the software (because its cheaper to build fewer variants). Volkswagen charges a premium for remote window control despite all cars being manufactured to support the feature.

this is very different, the closes comparison i could think of is bmw selling a 320i and 328i which both have basically the same engine running different amounts of turbo pressure, but EVEN THERE the engine internals have the be quite a bit different.

My understanding is that your claim is no true. Sure, some horse power upgrades are hardware within the model, but some are just bit flips in software.

Do you have a source for your claim?

Re: Tesla’s Betting You’ll Pay $9,000 for a Software Upgrade

#35

Post by mikeash »

fencepost wrote: post #15

Hm, do the batteries used by Tesla have the same kind of "extended lifespan if rarely fully charged" issues that apply to the kind of cells used in most laptops? If so, then I'd be curious about whether this is implemented as a cap on the battery charge - I might actually prefer the lower capacity if it means my batteries last years longer.

Yes to all. However, unlike most consumer electronics, Teslas allow you to manually set the maximum charge it will take at any given time. I usually keep mine at 90%, for example, and only charge to 100% for long trips.

If you take the 75 option, you could keep the charge limiter set to 80% for normal use and achieve the same effect as keeping a software-limited 60 at 100%, but with the option to bump it up when you need more.

Re: Tesla’s Betting You’ll Pay $9,000 for a Software Upgrade

#36

Post by gravypod »

rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #10
gravypod wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the reason for me that closed source software [that does dubious things] is doomed to fail. As users find out about things like this, and as it starts effecting them more and more, there will be an aura of distrust. Currently, I'd say programmers or IT-related people are the only ones that care about this. But as soon as the consumer sees they need to pay 9k for something they already have? Closed source soft…

Echoes of the utopian infancy of the Internet. Only the tech community significantly cares about this stuff, most people couldn't be bothered with how the software is made as long as it works. Just like in previous generations of technology and capitalism, there will always be enough people who grumble and pull out their wallets to keep the profits flowing.

When people have to fork over 9k, I'd bet they will start caring.

Re: Tesla’s Betting You’ll Pay $9,000 for a Software Upgrade

#37

Post by dubcanada »

DanielStraight wrote: post #12

Maybe this is just pointless pedantry but... This isn't a software upgrade. It's an on/off switch. There's a difference. A software upgrade implies some new code which cost real money to develop is being made available. That's not the case here. As others mentioned, manufacturers do this already for cost reasons (reducing variation) on other software, but in that case it's legitimately a software upgrade because the…

Lots of people do this, it's often more expensive to make different versions of things then is it just to software cap something. So they make the same version for multiple price points and have variations of software cap in place.

CPUs for example are clocked at a set speed when they reach the consumer, they can always go higher without any negative impact (infact most are underclocked). It's basically a software switch that turns your 3.2 Ghz CPU into a 3.4 Ghz CPU.

You buy a SAAS product they have multiple levels, it's just a software switch that says you can X package or Y package. This is slightly different because the features may be more resource intensive or something else, but basically it's the same.

Re: Tesla’s Betting You’ll Pay $9,000 for a Software Upgrade

#39

Post by dismal2 »

knorker wrote: post #29

Just like every other car manufacturer? My understanding is that you choose which car to buy, and then you pay them thousands to flip a bit to enable extra horse power, on the same hardware. Or you get some shady garage to chip it for you.

this isn't true. you can barely get any additional power out of naturally aspirated engine with software tuning, and sure you can do this for a short while on turbo engines but good luck running it reliably without spending money on various other modifications like cooling, engine internals, etc. manufacturers tune for a combination of gas milage, longevity, and to meet emissions regulations.

Re: Tesla’s Betting You’ll Pay $9,000 for a Software Upgrade

#40

Post by imtringued »

ericfrederich wrote: post #28

Funny. This company likes to get brownie points for being environmental. We all know that those batteries are not guilt-free when it comes to the environment. They're wasting our earth's precious resources by putting extra capacity which may never be used ;-)

It results in lower depth of discharge which might result in the battery lasting far longer than the higher capacity one.
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