Tesla now monitors how often you adjust your seat position

The full headline is really this, but is too long for HN: Tesla now monitors how often you adjust your seat position and will disable controls for ‘chronic abusers’

This is exactly why many people won't buy cars that automatically upgrade the software when the manufacturers want. Without some sort of regulation, manufacturers can arbitrarily adjust the features of the product to the detriment of the consumer and the benefit of themselves.

All totally fine except it's in the context of an involuntary OTA update with unknown content. But we've decided that manufacturers have an incorruptible right to tinker with goods they've sold you after the fact. As usual the conflict between compliance and consent is coopted by the true product owners to gaslight (and ultimately to fleece) you, as you find you've become the mere licensee of your vehicle, which is not so much an object as a piece of embodied IP. The way your car works is a trade secret, don't ya know.. and today's value add is next year's rootkit.

If the tesla software were open, it'd be trivial to make this feature optional.

I know boycotts don't work.. so somebody (Cory Doctorow?) Wake me up when they start making an OSS car.

This is an anti "kids breaking shit" feature.

Performance throttling the motor in response to continual use, or better cooling is probably a better move than nanny software.

Maybe allow the driver to disable whatever set of things should be disabled to prevent kid based damage, with a single child-proofing function/button?

The pattern of arbitrary behavior control, surveillance, and dumbing down of tech is insulting.

Why don't they use higher quality motors that don't overheat? Never heard of a car with such an issue.