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Featured Tesla Yanks Features After Sale

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by kenmce, Feb 8, 2020.

  1. mikefocke

    mikefocke Prius v Three 2012, Avalon 2011

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    I believe Tesla has already said it is only in the case that the car is returned to Tesla in a buyback or lemon law case that they remove the option. If the sale is private to private never touching Tesla's hands, no removal. Read one of the Tesla forum's threads.
     
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  2. Dimitrij

    Dimitrij Active Member

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    CEO's engage in a permanent war of attrition with everyone and everything. This is a kind of war where survival is victory, as you can't really "defeat" either the customers or the shareholders or, for that matter, the key employees.
     
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    if tesla has this in small print, the buyer is ool
     
  4. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    All Model 3s (and current Teslas) are sold with the Full Self Driving hardware. You want to use it, pay for the software. If not, no problem as no one cares.

    This was a unique, one time event, not even a reproducible problem: "Lemon Law" trade-in either replaced or paid back to original owner. The auction buyer got an 'over promised' but inaccurate Monroney sticker.

    This is a bunch of 'sound and fury' signifying nothing. Based on my understanding, without the hardware, the car is just a silly shell and the Jalopnik author is trying to 'scare' the ignorant. . . . Guess we've never seen that before?

    Bob Wilson
     
  5. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    Which is fine, as they had refunded the money back to the original buyer. But Tesla had sold this car at auction with the feature still active, and advertised as such. The dealer placed their bid on the knowledge that the car had FSD. Tesla got paid for FSD in this case.
     
  6. mikefocke

    mikefocke Prius v Three 2012, Avalon 2011

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    I haven't seen any documentation detailing what representation was made by Tesla to the auction participants. Of course th hardware was there and the "software" feature was still enabled after the auction. But what the bid amount was based on ???
     
  7. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    That's what makes the most sense... Of course this particular situation in this thread implies that it's not just a Lemon law case or buyback but also if a dealership tries to buy a car at auction from Tesla and then tries to resell it... Because Tesla clearly sold the full feature auto pilot with the car at auction. It's only when the dealer completed the re-selling that the option was deleted. And with what dealership have tried to do to Tesla in the past, it looks like payback time.
     
  8. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    Most Tesla's, up to 2018 where purchased with free unlimited supercharging. Some of these have been totaled, then the damages repaired . Many a pre-2019 'salvaged' Tesla titled car was purchased with the VIN still reading, 'no-charge' when those cars hooked up to a supercharger. Eventually, Tesla's database catches up to them. Sometimes that will happen in a few weeks, sometimes it's a few months. But then - the supercharging feature becomes completely disabled via an OTA update. Tesla's rationale is that they need to guarantee that the car is fit in their opinion. So, you spend a couple thousand to have them certify your car, then you're good to go. $2,000 is a typical amount that the new/salvaged tesla owner may accrue in electricity value.
    Coincidence?

    It actually wouldn't bother me, because now your car uses a great Network, and you got to use their certification process which will have a certain value if that owner sells the salvage car sometime down the road.
    .
     
  9. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    This is such a unicorn, even without a full explanation from Tesla, it doesn’t concern me
     
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  10. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    The Jalopnk link had the auction disclosure statement.
    [​IMG]
    No mention of FSD, or the possibility of any software features being removed.

    As the dealer possibly withholding info; Tesla has been supplied with these documents, so should be able to provide the missing paper work showing they disclosed this.
    It's an auction, bids aren't itemized. An informed bidder would base their bid upon the known values of cars of that type and equipment level. It had FSD at the auction, The OP article has a photo of the car's screen showing that it was so.
    Worry over damage, safety, and publicity are valid concerns for keeping salvaged cars off the Superchargers, but how well has Tesla informed the public about this practice? This is the first I've heard about it.
    Dealer contacted Jalopnik, and reported another he sold Tesla had the Ludicrous package removed for same 'wasn't paid for' reason.

    I'm fine with removing such software upgrades from returned cars, but do so before you resell them. I know things involving Tesla get hyper-reported, but this and the FSD being easily purchased through the app by accident are because Tesla was being sloppy. If this truly an unicorn, eating the cost of letting the buyers keep the features they thought they were buying is a small one for PR.
     
  11. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    Again, one dealer, maybe two used cars, without more info, I’m good.

    But we can agree to disagree
     
  12. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    You sure know how to take the fun out of wild speculation!
     
  13. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    The OP contains a link to a Tesla forum discussing this. Tesla does remove features from used cars they sell. Supposedly, this this general practice disclosed somewhere. The nature of large organization internal communications and OTA means that the removal can happen after the car has left Tesla's possession. This appears to be more than a two off.

    Tesla needs to get better at resolving things when this happens, because there is good news.
    "All, once again - Thank you all for your support and sympathy!
    A couple of hours ago I have got a call from Elon! Just joking! It was a customer experience rep, she apologized for my troubles, told me that Tesla has restored all missed options cited a miscommunication and it was not intentionally!
    I am out of town and away from my car till tomorrow and once back will confirm if at least EAP was restored. I will report back."
    Tesla YANKED FSD option without notice - Class Action lawsuit? Any Lawyers here?[Pending Resolution] | Page 22 | Tesla Motors Club

    Improve their response to such complaints, and those posts won't be buried on page 22.
     
  14. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    That's what I was saying. As for not hearing about free supercharging pre-2019 getting zapped OTA - here you go.
    Free Unlimited Supercharging Removed Without Notice? | Tesla

    Now you've heard of it

    .
     
  15. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    does tesla need to get better, or do people need to chill?
     
  16. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    Tesla has done well with word of mouth advertising, but that shouldn't how a company gets important info out to the public.

    With Tesla not following normal model years in feature terms, and the possibility of removing features by update, they really should support a VIN search site to makes it easier learning what used cars have.
    They need to get better regardless of whether people need to chill, because they are under a microscope.

    When cars losing features to software updates becomes as note worthy as lost access to books, music, and other media, then they can go hog wild.
     
  17. kenmce

    kenmce High Voltage Member

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    Lets say the week after you bought your PiP, Toyota sent out guys with wrenches and a dealer master key, pulled that muscular 4.4 kWh lithium-ion traction battery, replaced it with a little nickel-metal hydride battery and went away, all without speaking to you.

    Would you still be chill?
     
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  18. noonm

    noonm Senior Member

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    I'm not sure than makes it any better if it still ends up in the used car market. Even though they are software, rather than hardware, I still feel that the upgrade should stay with the car rather than the owner.
     
  19. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i didn't mean the buyer, i meant the media and spectators

    buyer can complain all they want, but if it isn't illegal, looks like they're stuck with a teeny weeny battery
     
  20. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    meantime, tesla stock up 23 points today