Tesla charging for speed updates now...

[Lord of Flies89]

Summary

 Tesla is starting to charge for that sweet software updates that give you a speed boost...damn...first it was seat heating now this.

 

Quotes

Quote

 "Tesla has reportedly started offering existing owners of its $49,990 Model Y compact SUV a software update that gives their vehicles quicker acceleration, reducing the time needed to reach 60 mph from 4.8 to 4.3 seconds."

 

My thoughts

 Cars as an service here we come...micro-transactions...loot boxes (look you got a new wallpaper to put up on your car screen). Hope they aren't getting ideas from EA...lol

 

Sources

 https://www.foxnews.com/auto/tesla-model-y-faster-2000

[TVwazhere]

$2000 for a tune? Ouch. 

[jollander]

I'm not sure I see the problem. Someone developed an update that improves the performance and is offering it for a price. 

 

If you don't care about the vroom vroom you don't get the update. If you like the extra .5 seconds for your vehicular peen, you pay and get to brag about it. Tesla gets more money for R&D which could potentially get you a type of update you do like.

 

How much would a .5 second 0-60mph speed boost cost if it was a petrol car? I'm honestly curious. 

[badreg]

4 minutes ago, jollander said:

How much would a .5 second 0-60mph speed boost cost if it was a petrol car? I'm honestly curious.

Any canned tune or piggyback device that costs in the neighborhood of $500-1000 will improve 0-60 times by 0.5s or more. However, an ECU flash voids warranties, whereas a factory tune would not.

[jollander]

1 minute ago, badreg said:

Any canned tune or piggyback device that costs in the neighborhood of $500-1000 will improve 0-60 times by 0.5s or more. However, an ECU flash voids warranties, whereas a factory tune would not.

Thanks! So a $2000 upgrade from the manufacturer itself doesn't seem so unreasonable in comparison.

[Trik'Stari]

I find it amusing that we concern ourselves with things like this, when most people can't figure out where the fucking gas pedal is in the first place.

 

Seriously. People these days seem to have this weird idea that they need to wait until the car in front of them has gone through the light, before they themselves start moving, be it a straight line or turn.

 

If you are going below 30mph, you do not need more than a car length of space between you and the car in front of you. I don't care what the government or some safety guide says, they're fucking wrong. If you can't stop on a dime at below 30mph you should not be driving.

 

God I have so much road rage. Sometimes I just wish I could install a train horn on my car and blow it at people that anger me.

 

For the record I've been driving like this for 16 years, and I've had one accident, which I was not at fault (although I did receive a speeding ticket for that accident).

 

Unless we're going to count deer that ran into me. Because deer are fucking stupid like that.

[airborne spoon]

As a Tesla owner (2014 P85D Model S) i gotta say the OTA updates and upgrade options its a pros and cons thing. The OTA updates are nice for fixing bugs and stuff but at the same time they installed an update that lowered my battery capacity and also lowered the charging speed both without my knowledge or consent check out this massive thread on TMC forum about that BS https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/sudden-loss-of-range-with-2019-16-x-software.154976/

But for some of the newer cars if someone buys a car and wants a upgrade in the future and tesla sells it why not make it available?

And a speed increase of that amount for $2k isn't that far off from a DIY upgrade in a normal ICE car.

[badreg]

1 minute ago, jollander said:

Thanks! So a $2000 upgrade from the manufacturer itself doesn't seem so unreasonable in comparison.

It's not at all. If you frequent car forums at all, you will find plenty of people who are willing to pay a hefty premium for an "inferior" (i.e. less power) tune that comes with a warranty over a better one that voids the powertrain warranty.

 

4.8s -> 4.3s amounts to roughly a 75hp/100lb-ft gain, and would bring the power numbers close to the next trim level up, so $2k is quite a bargain if it mattered to you. This is only a story because Tesla never used to charge for speed upgrades before.

[poochyena]

30 minutes ago, Lord of Flies89 said:

Cars as an service here we come

huh? You are paying for a software upgrade, thats has no connection to "cars as a service". Its no different than paying for an upgrade for any other software. Buying software isn't new or bad at all.

[RejZoR]

41 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

$2000 for a tune? Ouch. 

It's not even a tune. It's not like you can magically increase the electric motor capacity/volume or bolt a remote turbocharger on it. It's literally unlock of something that was there the entire time and now they are charging $2000 for it. It's literally an automotive ripping of content from final version and then selling it to consumers as a DLC. And people are dumb enough to pay 2k for it.

[airborne spoon]

2 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

It's not even a tune. It's not like you can magically increase the electric motor capacity/volume or bolt a remote turbocharger on it. It's literally unlock of something that was there the entire time and now they are charging $2000 for it. It's literally an automotive ripping of content from final version and then selling it to consumers as a DLC. And people are dumb enough to pay 2k for it.

So like buying a 3090 only to have the whatever they call the higher one come out later. Or updating the drivers for more performance? Its all the same but they found a way to charge for the driver update.

[Blademaster91]

What the heck? A $2000 software tune to unlock something the car was already completely capable of doing.

It's not like a internal combustion engine car that you have to adjust air/fuel ratios, and make sure the engine can handle it so that I can understand costs money.

Tesla is copying Apple not just in anti-consumer practices against repair, but overpriced software.

 

[airborne spoon]

1 minute ago, Blademaster91 said:

What the heck? A $2000 software tune to unlock something the car was already completely capable of doing.

It's not like a internal combustion engine car that you have to adjust air/fuel ratios, and make sure the engine can handle it so that I can understand costs money.

Tesla is copying Apple not just in anti-consumer practices against repair, but overpriced software.

 

An ICE car can always produce more power with something like an intake and exhaust mod and a tune. All tesla is selling is a tune. it will allow the battery to push more amps to the motor and the motor to be able to do more with that power.

[AnonymousGuy]

1 hour ago, Caroline said:

I've always said Tesla is the Apple of cars but everyone told me I was dumb. Well, who's dumb now?

Um...cool story bro but what exactly does Apple do that is related to DLC?

[Blademaster91]

12 minutes ago, airborne spoon said:

An ICE car can always produce more power with something like an intake and exhaust mod and a tune. All tesla is selling is a tune. it will allow the battery to push more amps to the motor and the motor to be able to do more with that power.

An intake and exhaust is physically modding the car, which I'm fine with because that is more than just a software patch. All tesla is doing here is increasing power to the motors which shouldn't cost $2000 to do on a car that starts at $50,000.

Selling software upgrades as a service is a really crappy thing to do, BMW tried it with Apple carplay, no one bough it so now it's included, and now they're doing it with the heated seats, the heated seats are already in the car so you're paying for a button to work. Companies doing this isn't a good thing when the feature in the car is there, next they'll probably start charging to use power mirrors or cruise control.

[RejZoR]

3 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

An intake, exhaust, is physically modding the car, which I'm fine with because that is more than just a software patch. All tesla is doing here is increasing power to the motors which shouldn't cost $2000 to do on a car that starts at $50,000.

Selling software upgrades as a service is a really crappy thing to do, BMW tried it with Apple carplay, no one bough it so now it's included, and now they're doing it with the heated seats, the heated seats are already in the car so you're paying for a button to work. Companies doing this isn't a good thing when the feature in the car is there, next they'll probably start charging to use power mirrors or cruise control.

No, modern engines have variable everything and you can literally modify bunch of stuff to alter performance specs. You can't just pump more amps and volts into electric motor, far outside its specs.

[Rune]

They've been doing this for years. Why is it a problem now?

[wanderingfool2]

13 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

Selling software upgrades as a service is a really crappy thing to do, BMW tried it with Apple carplay, no one bough it so now it's included, and now they're doing it with the heated seats, the heated seats are already in the car so you're paying for a button to work. Companies doing this isn't a good thing when the feature in the car is there, next they'll probably start charging to use power mirrors or cruise control.

Honestly this is tricky and I don't know how I feel about this.

 

For the added performance, I am inclined not to care (as it was about what was advertised).  Similar with heated seats, I can understand Tesla's approach (one SKU makes it a whole lot simpler, so it's easier to do a lockout instead...it also means if you decide to upgrade you don't have expensive "installs").  [A real world example being my current car, I wish I had heated seats, and wish I went with that option...but it's too expensive to add in after the fact now].

 

An analogy to this, I would say, is how cable companies use to run before digital.  The coax to the house actually received all the channels, and they would literally just put a filter in place to prevent you from getting the other channels.  While it's being delivered to your house, it doesn't it becomes yours.

 

With that said, there is the slippery slope argument, and it is a worry...but at least right now I think it's reasonable.

[jasonc_01]

1 hour ago, TVwazhere said:

$2000 for a tune? Ouch. 

Late model Mopars are $2000-$3000 for a tune. Ecu must be hard modded to even use a tuner, plus the cost of the tuner and a tune. 

[TetraSky]

Really pushing the whole cars as a service there.

 

Even if it was $5, it would be $5 more than what I'd be willing to pay for half a second. It wouldn't even be perceptible during normal city use.

So considering it's $2000, for a software update, nope...

(Not like I have a Tesla anyway... Or can afford one. I like Tesla because they are actually pushing other car manufacturers to actually start innovating instead of releasing the same shit every year... The dream of self driving cars is probably closer with Tesla existing, than not. But I hate Tesla for this sort of shit they are doing, along with rights to repair)

[DeScruff]

Anyone remember back in... 2011? When Intel tried charging $50 to 'unlock' more capabilities for their CPUs?
Hated the idea of software locks then, hate them still today.
Like the conspiracy side of me constantly tickles with the idea of "Did they purposely lock performance back, and planned to sell it to you later."
Then the whole its somehow cheaper to put something in everyone's machine, and only have a small percentage of people actually pay for it. (That just reminds me too much of scummy Free-To-Play games, and the term "Whales")

Just wondering though: How does a software update even increase performance of a car?
Like was it something as dumb as upping an artificial limiter on the motor? (Which I'm not saying that is inherently nefarious, there can be legit reasons for limiters such as dealing with safety, heat, whatever.)

I just hope we don't get into a future where "Software update makes the car more efficient and greener! +100 highway miles! ... $5000 for the update"

[poochyena]

6 hours ago, TetraSky said:

Even if it was $5, it would be $5 more than what I'd be willing to pay for half a second.

and thats the great thing about capitalism, you can, just, not buy it.

[Master Disaster]

8 hours ago, AnonymousGuy said:

Um...cool story bro but what exactly does Apple do that is related to DLC?

You want some dongles with your dongles? Well then you're gonna need a dongle.

[badreg]

2 hours ago, DeScruff said:

How does a software update even increase performance of a car?

Not sure how it works with an EV, but all modern ICE cars are controlled through software, and power output is controlled with engine maps. An engine map is basically a table that controls the amount of fuel injected and ignition timing at a given engine load. Forced induction engines can also run higher boost to increase the amount of air going through the engine. Change the map, and the engine output will change. This can be compared to how CPU and GPU boost tables work.

 

The downside of burning fuel faster is increased heat and wear, which requires a beefier cooling system and reduces the lifespan of the drivetrain. Most modern cars come out of the factory with a lot of "overclocking" headroom, so a simple software flash can unlock a significant amount of power. However, it comes at the cost of reliability, so manufacturers void warranties when an ECU is flashed.

 

Even if we discount R&D costs, it is not "free" for Tesla to offer an update that increases power output. They are taking on the risk of increased warranty repairs on a higher power output compared to a more conservative one.

[Curufinwe_wins]

Yeah, I really don't see this different as offering a tuned engine map that's more than bottom barrel, lowest common demoninator (as car companies basically have to do).

 

Like here is the thing... these 2k upgrades get you half way to the performance spec, which is a 10k upgrade from the factory. It isn't like Porsche designed 4 different motors for the Taycan and similar, and they charge like 100k more for their top performance tweak.

 

0.5 s in these situations is more than you'll get with much more than that money aftermarket, outside of ecu mods/hacks. Speaking of which, this isn't that different from bios modding either. AMD routinely didn't actually laser off binned down chips so people have occassionally been able to hack them to make it accessible. Intel and Nvidia normally do perm disable the binned down parts. 

 

I get the angst about people saying they are paying for stuff that's already there... but like that's literally just how cars are already with tunes and performance tiers. And this is half the boost at 1/5th the price of the jump to the performance model.

 

Bitch at tesla for the actual issues like some mentioned here removing features and similar by OTAs... this isn't one of them.

 

 

Edit: the Taycan Turbo to the Turbo S is the same exact motor arrangement. 0.4 seconds faster for 35k. Enjoy.