this is just market segmentation, which is almost always sensible from the company's standpoint, and shady from an intuitive pov because our intuition works in terms of repaying the company's cost to provide us with value, whereas segmentation works by extracting the maximum amount of money from the overall market.
Tesla’s Betting You’ll Pay $9,000 for a Software Upgrade
71–75 of 75 posts
Re: Tesla’s Betting You’ll Pay $9,000 for a Software Upgrade
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Even if the engine is the same they could be using the same binning process that is used in many other industries. If the same engine can run at higher RPM it could mean that it needs better tolerances to achieve it so they bin the better parts for those engines. Other things might also be slightly different like slightly different fuel injectors, seals etc. that can handle the more demanding workload. You can tune v…
No, that would require building the car to spec. The savings here is that the car is already built, and you see the blue car with the extra so-and-so, and they then chip it to what you paid for.
Having a blue car with extra so-and-so in every horse power engine would mean they'd have to stock that much more.
Re: Tesla’s Betting You’ll Pay $9,000 for a Software Upgrade
#73Does Tesla try to justify this practice anywhere? Buying a software for a superior navigation system I understand but hobbling the performance of a car seems pretty shady.
Would you prefer that they not sell the cheaper version at all, or would you prefer that they sell the cheaper version with a physically smaller battery that costs a lot more money to upgrade?
I'd prefer to not have to jailbreak a car.
If this is the future for electric car business models where we have software defined features, I'm going to disengage as an early adopter. I actually think they should not sell the cheaper version because it dilutes the brand and the software upgrade starts to make the brand give off an enterprise subscription stench.
Where does this business model end? Am I going to have to renew my battery algorithm subscription yearly or my car turns into a piece of locked out hardware? Maybe I have to pay regularly to download self-driving updates? Am I going to have to pay to support the infrastructure to receive updates long after my car ends its production run?
Re: Tesla’s Betting You’ll Pay $9,000 for a Software Upgrade
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
Would you prefer that they not sell the cheaper version at all, or would you prefer that they sell the cheaper version with a physically smaller battery that costs a lot more money to upgrade?
I'd prefer to not have to jailbreak a car. If this is the future for electric car business models where we have software defined features, I'm going to disengage as an early adopter. I actually think they should not sell the cheaper version because it dilutes the brand and the software upgrade starts to make the brand give off an enterprise subscription stench. Where does this business model end? Am I going to have t…
That's a slippery slope argument not supported by the facts.
You don't have to jailbreak. You can get the car fully unlocked from the factory. But it costs more.
So again, what would you prefer, not having the lower cost option, or having the lower cost option be hardware limited? Or is there some third option you want?
Re: Tesla’s Betting You’ll Pay $9,000 for a Software Upgrade
#75Soon Tesla will send you a text message as soon as your battery is low, trying to sell you a temporary boost so that you can get to the next charger safely. At least my mobile provider does that as soon as my data volume is almost used up.
I'm curious of the implications of intentionally crippling a critical product with software. For instance, if your life depended on your Tesla having enough battery to drive to the next charger, would Tesla be responsible for your death? After all, they could have saved you at virtually no cost; they intentionally forbade you to fully use a product you fully purchased, resulting in your death. Maybe someone else can…
> fully purchased
Did you? The remaining battery is essentially lent to you.