captaindyson

1 hour ago, weeblord said:

I don't really think what Tesla is doing will be viable for the company, but at the same time I totally get why Tesla is doing this. If they allowed Autopilot on resold cars, dealers could just buy new Teslas and sell them in their own environment.

But how would they turn a profit? Nobody would buy from a dealer if they can get it for the price the dealer bought it at direct from Tesla.

And on the many points people have noted about leasing cars - that is all well and good if that was what was happening. If you leased a car direct from Tesla and when the time was up you gave it back then tesla resold or re-leased it without the software upgrades (appropriately advertised of course) then that is their prerogative. But in this case they don't own the car (as they would in a lease), ownership was transferred to the dealer with the advertisement including the autopilot.

It would be like buying a house and then a few days later someone comes along and removes all your windows and doors because you did not pay the builder of the house for them!

So it seems Tesla are trying to set a questionable president with regards to what a used market is entitled to with products they buy.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/6/21127243/tesla-model-s-autopilot-disabled-remotely-used-car-update

To summarise, a used car dealer bought a model S from a Tesla run auction with autopilot as an advertised feature and proceeded to sell it to a buyer with the same features advertised. Teslas however decided (and ran an audit to enact) that if you have not paid Tesla directly for the feature then you are not entitled to it and so disabled the feature while it was with the dealer and hence the buyer missed out.

This takes the issues of automatic software updates to a whole new level and i have to wonder if it is even legal? Does anyone know if the autopilot functionality is "sold as a service"?

I think the article sums it up pretty well with:

Quote

Even with a technology product like a laptop or smartphone, updates generally can’t be forcibly rolled back without the consent of the owner — unless the device has special IT software installed. In those cases, the company generally owns the device or has the owner sign a legal agreement anyhow.

And even setting aside all of the anti-consumer points that this raises, it just hurts the electric car market as it increases depreciation of the cars and hence makes the economic choice to buy one harder due to it costing more in real terms.