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Comment by sudo-i | Hacker News Reader

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sudo-i·

I mean... this is what Tesla does? All their cars come crippled if you don't pay them more money?

Maybe the only difference is Tesla let's you pay to upgrade and not buy a new Tesla to get some feature?

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How hard is it to jailbreak a Tesla?

Cars are expensive and have warranty. I wouldn't mess with that.

Besides, Tesla will know the moment you connect to the ethernet port.

It is a bit odd for a car though, you have to admit. Imagine buying an ICE car with a fuel tank that had an artificial limiter. Add 4 gallons to the tank for $x (120 miles). Would people accept that?

Having only one model would mean you can streamline everything since you’re always doing the same.

The cost of every car is the same in terms of hardware and Human Resources. Easier to work with.

If you ever decide to upgrade, you’ll just pay them. 0 effort on their part.

Repairs are also easier regardless of upgrades since there’s only one model.

If the car is resold, they can enable more features too.

If the actual functionality is dependent upon Tesla’s systems, sure. Otherwise you’re just enabling a jailbreak market. There’s even precedent for this with Malone tuning.

I cannot find it, but a few years back I saw a car hack whereby you could buy a basic model car and enable some premium trim features (I think it was underbody LEDs) via CAN bus hacking - the hardware was present in the basic model car but disabled.

So yes, people do accept this even if they don't realise they're accepting it.

People will accept that. Pair it with a trendy automotive themed name that ends with the suffix 'ly' and pass it off as "a different type of car company".

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