Tesla is offering support to customers during Hurricane Florence

www.cnet.com...


Well that is mighty human of them to help out but what help will be offered?

The EV company is unlocking full battery capacity on its base model 60-series cars and allowing customers in the path of the hurricane to use the Supercharger network for free.

Well that is quite the dirty tactic... You bay a car but they use the software configuration to limit your battery usage. Perhaps that could have something to do with the struggles the company faces.

Tesla has built itself a reputation for doing right by its owners in disaster situations, and with Hurricane Florence ready to ruin the weekend for the Carolinas, the big T is stepping in to offer free Supercharger access and temporary battery capacity unlocks on base-model cars

I can not believe there are no moral guidelines that exist for a prestigious company such as tesla.

This is my number one reason why i would not buy into that business.

However perhaps my initial reaction is unwarranted and i am missing a valid reason to screw your customers and yourself with software.

And here I thought this post meant that Elon was going to be sending water bottles, rescue groups, and emergency kits to all the affected. You are right.. there are no moral guidelines !

This is one of the basic problems with electric cars. In a situation like this where there will be widespread power outages, people who own electric cars are likely to find themselves stranded.

And I've commented on the battery "unlock" before. I think it's a disgustingly unethical thing for Tesla to do to artificially sandbag their cars' battery life unless the customer pays tens of thousands of dollars more to unlock it.

originally posted by: howtonhawky
www.cnet.com...


Well that is mighty human of them to help out but what help will be offered?

The EV company is unlocking full battery capacity on its base model 60-series cars and allowing customers in the path of the hurricane to use the Supercharger network for free.

Well that is quite the dirty tactic... You bay a car but they use the software configuration to limit your battery usage. Perhaps that could have something to do with the struggles the company faces.

Tesla has built itself a reputation for doing right by its owners in disaster situations, and with Hurricane Florence ready to ruin the weekend for the Carolinas, the big T is stepping in to offer free Supercharger access and temporary battery capacity unlocks on base-model cars

I can not believe there are no moral guidelines that exist for a prestigious company such as tesla.

This is my number one reason why i would not buy into that business.

However perhaps my initial reaction is unwarranted and i am missing a valid reason to screw your customers and yourself with software.

LOL....so he is only helping those that bought his cars....nice.

I have never wanted a full EV car and it came from watching what happens when a ice storm stranded folks. Cant exactly just get a can of gas and fill up later....

I expect there will be plenty of Teslas that will need to be towed after this storm. I counted 9 in my small area on only 3 roads during our last ice. Bet those folks thought better of driving them during bad weather after that.

I guess if i had one i would want a luggage rack to hold my generator and gas tank.

a reply to: howtonhawky

do you honestly think that car companies don't alter the software of their computers so the car's can't burn pure ethanol or methanol instead of gasoline... cuz they do.

originally posted by: smkymcnugget420
a reply to: howtonhawky

do you honestly think that car companies don't alter the software of their computers so the car's can't burn pure ethanol or methanol instead of gasoline... cuz they do.

No i do not think that at all.

I think they garner support from big oil in many ways that benefit them in order to keep things as they are.

I thought that electric car companies would be above all that and at this point in their evolution it is senseless to hold back on performance since they are trying to gain their place in the market.

a reply to: howtonhawky

I have a fairly large stake in Tesla. Musk has been making a lot of people nervous lately and the stock isnt doing so hot recently. However I'm in it for the long haul. If the company fails i will lose a lot of money, but if the company succeeds it will be a nice lump to add to my retirement portfolio.

As far as the battery thing, I dont have a problem with it.

Limiting battery capacity actually makes Teslas more affordable.

The extra $9,000 that Tesla gets from its less price-sensitive customers is what allows it to charge a price for the lesser version of the car, the one that more cost-conscious consumers might purchase (though of course anyone purchasing a $60,000 Tesla is not poor). Perverse as it may seem, having a version of the car that gets less mileage actually makes it more accessible, which ultimately might make it better for the environment—assuming that Teslas are more environmentally friendly than the alternative car the Tesla buyer would have purchased.

The economist Alex Tabarrok of the blog Marginal Revolution points out that this is common for firms in research heavy industries. “A familiar example is software companies that offer a discounted or ‘student’ version of the product with fewer features,” write Tabarrok. “Since the software firm’s costs are mostly sunk R&D costs, the firm can make money selling a low-price version so long as doing so doesn’t cannibalize its high-willingness-to-pay customers…”

Tesla, whose CEO Elon Musk has described the company’s car as a “sophisticated computer on wheels,” is much more like a software firm than other auto makers. It makes sense that they follow a similar pricing strategy.

SOURCE

Does anyone know how they unlock the battery's full capacity? Does it have to be done physically in the car or is it something they can do remotely?

a reply to: howtonhawky

By the way Tesla did this before back in 2016 with hurricane Irma.

a reply to: ArMaP

They do it remotely.

Along with monitoring your every move.

a reply to: Alien Abduct

So they create green house gasses for profit.

I am sure they will be fine but they could do better.imo

Is it really any different from other car companies selling you the same engine with different bhp depending on what you pay?

The only difference seems to be ease with which Tesla car update it.

a reply to: howtonhawky

Something is just off with Tesla lately. This guy/company wants to be seen as a hero, or something and just the reverse is happening.

If you want to do good, just do it, no need to "advertise" your goodness.

originally posted by: AndyFromMichigan
This is one of the basic problems with electric cars. In a situation like this where there will be widespread power outages, people who own electric cars are likely to find themselves stranded.

Woudn't it be the opposite of that?

One of the benefits of an electric car is in areas of high stop-and-go traffic, such as rush hour in big cities. If an electric car sits still and doesn't move (radios and a/c off), it uses no power. If a gas car does that, it constantly burns fuel. Sure, you can turn your gas car on and off all the time as you move and also drain the battery in the process.

An electric car, even in rush hours traffic every day, will give you pretty much 200 miles if it says 200 miles. On a gas car, it all depends on how long you spend idling.

As long as people were smart and plugged in their car in the garage anticipating this hurricane, they should be able to get very far, even in crazy traffic and frequent stops.


Edit to add: Unless I misunderstood and you're implying the area affected will be so large, a couple of hundred miles will not be far enough and all power in between will be off. In that case, yeah, they're screwed.

I really dislike products that have functionality arbitrarily disabled for profit using software. It's a disgusting practice and I can't believe.people not only accept this but act like you're crazy if you speak out against such things. Try mentioning anything about the way modern video game consoles or phones do this on any tech site and watch people flip their # on you. I made a comment about this on this same story about this on a different site and people were fairly unimpressed.

I loathe entirely the idea that these cars are software limited on range. I dnt have words to describe how I feel about them being able to unlock them remotely.

Can't wait to get my hands on a junker to repurpose the hardware in a proper manner.

"I'm Elon, buy my car-shaped golfcart"

If E cars go mainstream, real car manufacturers will smoke Tesla.

Unlock a de-tune for a price?

I'd logchain waterski that thing through the dealership with my truck.

a reply to: howtonhawky

Maybe he ended up building that single person submarine after all? Perhaps he'll be sending in a whole fleet of them?

originally posted by: Kharron
One of the benefits of an electric car is in areas of high stop-and-go traffic, such as rush hour in big cities. If an electric car sits still and doesn't move (radios and a/c off), it uses no power. If a gas car does that, it constantly burns fuel. Sure, you can turn your gas car on and off all the time as you move and also drain the battery in the process.

An electric car, even in rush hours traffic every day, will give you pretty much 200 miles if it says 200 miles. On a gas car, it all depends on how long you spend idling.

I'm not sure this is correct. Stop-start traffic is still more draining on an electric car due to the additional load the motor is under when accelerating. And when they're stationary, they're still using power in dash lights, running lights, multiple on-board computers, the enormous touch-panel dash, etc.