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Comment by cmurf | Hacker News Reader

So this misleading UI exists in U.S. versions of the app? But not in EU versions? Strongly suggested they know this is deceptive, or even fraud.

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No, the issue here is that the Tesla App now allows you to buy a software upgrade package by just tapping through a few screens and the $4k package is added to your cart by default. They don't offer refunds (unless you're internet famous). Practically all other apps require fingerprint or password/code for purchases. Tesla doesn't - and their default checkout basket has $4k worth of unrefundable stuff in it, which is hilarious bad.

The EU/US is a separate historical issue where Tesla states on its website the cost of the vehicle incorrectly - the cost includes the federal tax credit (which you can reasonably expect to get) and $8k in gas savings (which is just a made up number based on random assumptions about how, where, when you drive). Imagine if BMW told you the cost of your vehicle including the gas savings you'd make versus driving a hummer. In the EU lying about the price of a product is illegal, so Tesla display the real price in the EU without their bullshit "savings".

The screenshots show that the app requires clear authorization for purchasing the upgrade.

Either you use Apple Pay with a fingerprint, or you have to enter credit card details and press a button that says “Pay $4000”. This is impossible to do by accident.

I might have been miss informed, but I was told that it’s storing your credit card details so that if you’ve already made a credit card purchase from the Tesla app you could just hit The “Pay 4000” button on that final screen. And I couldn’t find anything in this thread that confirmed or denied that, though reading things on Twitter...

The credit card details are pulled from your account automatically and put into the form. I had to give Tesla my credit card number to place a deposit for my vehicle so I suspect nearly every Tesla owner has their credit card on their account unless they removed it after purchase. For owners who purchased without free unlimited supercharging, they probably want to leave the credit card on their account so they can use the supercharger network (the superchargers identify who you are when plugged into the car and the credit card on your account is billed after use, there is no payment mechanism on site). That’s why the “pay with credit card” “button” with no additional validation of user input in combination with a preloaded shopping cart with all options selected is dangerous in this instance. It is literally three misplaced clicks.

I think this could be solved by making the user input the expiration date of their credit card manually in the checkout screen. This is very common practice in ecommerce for this very reason. I also don’t understand why the pay with credit card button doesn’t look like a button. That’s just bad UX.

All that said I do think some of these reports have to be buyer’s remorse because I don’t understand how this extremely particular series of accidental inputs (pocket or otherwise) could have happened to as many people as are talking about it online. However, it does seem possible that Tesla could charge you up to 10K without your consent which should be fixed immediately.

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