Tesla Extends Range on Cars to Help Owners Avoid Hurricane Irma

[Megalith]

Tesla has temporarily unlocked the full battery capacity on 60 kWh Model S and Model X cars in Florida, giving them a full 75 kWh to help owners escape Hurricane Irma: while the company software-limits the battery capacities of some cars to upsell owners to pricier trim levels, they are clearly willing to lift that limit during a crisis.

A Tesla Model S 60 owner in Florida reached out to us with almost 40 more miles than in his usual full charge and a new ’75’ badge in his car software. While he didn’t ask for it nor knew why it changed, Tesla had temporarily unlocked the remaining 15 kWh of the car’s software-limited battery pack option to facilitate the owner’s evacuation. We reached to Tesla and a representative confirmed that the company has put in place the emergency measure to temporarily extend the range of the vehicles of Tesla owners in the path of Hurricane Irma.

 

[Dekoth-E-]

This is an unacceptable amount of control for a manufacturer to have on something I purchased. I think every owner of the lower model with the now confirmed same battery pack as the higher should rightfully be pissed.

 

[kirbyrj]

Typical elitist thinking...being benevolent to the common man in their time of need.

 

[DejaWiz]

This is an unacceptable amount of control for a manufacturer to have on something I purchased. I think every owner of the lower model with the now confirmed same battery pack as the higher should rightfully be pissed.

It's cheaper to put the same packs in all vehicles, than to have multiple part numbers being manufactured and juggled around. I'm with you though...it's a shitty practice to artificially limit those that don't have/want to spend even more on a very expensive car, while rewarding only those those that do/can spent extra money to have an artificial limit lifted.

 

[Deleted member 93354]

Tesla has temporarily unlocked the full battery capacity on 60 kWh Model S and Model X cars in Florida, giving them a full 75 kWh to help owners escape Hurricane Irma: while the company software-limits the battery capacities of some cars to upsell owners to pricier trim levels, they are clearly willing to lift that limit during a crisis.

A Tesla Model S 60 owner in Florida reached out to us with almost 40 more miles than in his usual full charge and a new ’75’ badge in his car software. While he didn’t ask for it nor knew why it changed, Tesla had temporarily unlocked the remaining 15 kWh of the car’s software-limited battery pack option to facilitate the owner’s evacuation. We reached to Tesla and a representative confirmed that the company has put in place the emergency measure to temporarily extend the range of the vehicles of Tesla owners in the path of Hurricane Irma.

So let me get this straight...

They charge $15,000 to flip a few bits inside a car to give you what is already there.

That has to be the worst value proposition ever.

 

[collegeboy69us]

So let me get this straight...

They charge $15,000 to flip a few bits inside a car to give you what is already there.

That has to be the worst value proposition ever.

Seems many people don't understand economies of scale. It's cheaper to built/test/certify ONE style of pack that can fill multiple roles than it is to have a part for each specific job. None of us knows the specific costs associated with Tesla cells, but that method they tried for a while economically speaking allows them to capture more of a dynamic market. Not everyone wants/needs a bigger battery but it's infinitely easier to flip a few bits than it is to retrofit or battery swap. As time marches on and each price level is maximized the price naturally comes down to satisfy the market willingness to pay.

15k? did you make that up? Because the latest price as of 7 months ago to upgrade was $7,000 according to Tesla. It's an option, nobody forced you to buy it, so you can't really get mad. Many industries work on a similar principal of producing one thing, and then cutting out or disabling this or that to satisfy lower tier markets. If intel were to master their production process and end up with perfect chips in every batch that will run full speed as an i7 series they would literally have to cut or disable features to satisfy i3 and i5 tiers, would they have a right to be mad because it's the exact same chip but disabled and cheaper?

Universal rule is you get what you pay for, the fact you can click a few buttons and get more should you deem it worthy is the 21st century advantage. What's the alternative universe? You buy a Model S60, and then realize 6 months later you really really need that extra range due to unforeseen circumstances, welp screw over the air upgrades, you get to trade in at an extreme loss and then go buy a whole new car! GM is guilty of this in multiple models, "oh you want the latest style entertainment software, too bad we don't offer upgrades so go buy a brand new car".

 

[Deleted member 93354]

15k? did you make that up? Because the latest price as of 7 months ago to upgrade was $7,000 according to Tesla. It's an option, nobody forced you to buy it, so you can't really get mad.

Even at $7k it's a rip off for something that's already there. And a software upgrade is not the same thing because resources we're invested to make the software better. This is a few bits.

 

[sirmonkey1985]

This is an unacceptable amount of control for a manufacturer to have on something I purchased. I think every owner of the lower model with the now confirmed same battery pack as the higher should rightfully be pissed.

ok going to start sending evil emails to AMD because my ryzen 1600 can't be unlocked to an 1800x.. seriously though who cares. they've never lied or said anything otherwise about all the cars having the larger battery packs installed.. it's smart business anyways.. make sure the products already there, buyer decides well it's there might as well pay the money to use it. boom tesla profits and it doesn't cost them extra having to now install the larger battery pack since it's already there. or well i guess i shouldn't say tesla profits because they are still losing money on every car they sell even if they pay the 7 grand, lol.

completely agree with what you said as well collegeboy69us.

 

[Koolthulu]

So let me get this straight...

They charge $15,000 to flip a few bits inside a car to give you what is already there.

That has to be the worst value proposition ever.

People on a computer hardware site complaining about artificially limiting a product to sell it at different price points.

 

[Dayaks]

This is an unacceptable amount of control for a manufacturer to have on something I purchased. I think every owner of the lower model with the now confirmed same battery pack as the higher should rightfully be pissed.

So let me get this straight...

They charge $15,000 to flip a few bits inside a car to give you what is already there.

That has to be the worst value proposition ever.

This is actually really really common and is done all over, especially in my field (automation.) It's also done a lot with PCs. We see it all the time with video cards.

For some reason it being a battery in a car everyone is all fired up now...

On the positive note restricting the battery extends life. Pretend that 7k is to help pay for the extra risk of discharging the battery deeper.

 

[Deleted member 93354]

This is actually really really common and is done all over, especially in my field (automation.) It's also done a lot with PCs. We see it all the time with video cards.

For some reason it being a battery in a car everyone is all fired up now...

On the positive note restricting the battery extends life. Pretend that 7k is to help pay for the extra risk of discharging the battery deeper.

Computers are not the same. Chips are binned based on performance. And the price difference is minimal.

Nothing personal but I would feel like a dumbass buying a Tesla like that. It would make me wonder what else the company will nickle and dime me for.

 

[Jehuty]

Computers are not the same. Chips are binned based on performance. And the price difference is minimal.

Nothing personal but I would feel like a dumbass buying a Tesla like that. It would make me wonder what else the company will nice and dime me for.

I would be with you except it's not the same because the price scale is not the same. You're looking at a car that, at minimum, cost $70,000 at the time. The price increase of $7k is merely 10%. We have seen chips that we have to mod to unlock, and the same chip that's unlocked retail has a cost that exceeds that 10% in some cases. If anything, Tesla is letting you have it for cheap. Plus the fact that they're doing this to help people out -- without even telling them nor seeking publicity for it -- strikes me as incredibly nice on their part.

 

[MMitch]

Almost every electronics that have options (Measurements instrument, cars, radio, GPS, Router, etc....) have software options... I don't see why the rant here...
It probably cost them the same (total) or even less to manufacture 1 packs then having 2 actual P/N of every components...

Would you prefer the same or even worse price to have the same options without the options to enable it later at a discounted price ? (ie: no install fee)

Get a hold on yourself guys... some of us even work to make such things happen... it reduce costs and P/N and at the same time help with reliability testing and such.
Also, they're really doing something nice here, that should be the main point for conversation... not the other way around.

 

[Deleted member 93354]

I would be with you except it's not the same because the price scale is not the same. You're looking at a car that, at minimum, cost $70,000 at the time. The price increase of $7k is merely 10%. We have seen chips that we have to mod to unlock, and the same chip that's unlocked retail has a cost that exceeds that 10% in some cases. If anything, Tesla is letting you have it for cheap. Plus the fact that they're doing this to help people out -- without even telling them nor seeking publicity for it -- strikes me as incredibly nice on their part.

You know I'm kind of funny. I am well off because I'm a cheapskate. I have the lowest package cable broadband and buy only used cars with cash. While neighbors are buying vettes on lease and putting in $100,000 pools they use maybe 10 times a year, I put all my extra away. And I know I make more than them.

I also shop at Walmart and Aldi's.

I won't buy it if the value isn't there. It's why I won't shop at Kohl's with their 50% off coupons. I realize this maximizes their return to catch the suckers who have to buy it now. But I refuse to be caught in that trap. It treats me like an idiot on the value proposition.

I consider this the same. Well I'm no idiot. There isn't value for me there. There isn't value with the base model or with the extended range. I've done the math. It never works out in your favor even if the battery pack last 300,000 miles with $4.00 gas

There's a reason 94% of Americans are considered in the unstable financial category. I'm not saying this with my nose in the air as I'm superior but I call out butt stupid when I see it.

 

[LMT MFA]

You people complaining are unaware that most car manufacturers do the same, but with HP limits on the same blocks?

The only difference is that Tesla enforces these differences so you can't "tune" it to a higher spec version. On the other hand, that connection also gives you free software updates.

A better comparison are CPUs, where functions or cores are disabled in hardware, whereas otherwise they'd be fully functional. As for binning, are you kidding me, as if those cut up chips would have any difficulty running those few hundred mhz faster, we saw this before they started to cut functionality off, and they started doing that for exactly that reason, to disable any possibility of a free upgrade.

If you're fine with one, but not the other, you should re-evaluate.

 

[griffinhart]

Imagine if your traditional new car had a 20 gallon tank, but you could only use 16 gallons before you ran out of gas, unless you paid thousands of dollars to "unlock" the extra 4 gallons. How would that fly?

Imagine if you purchased a new house, but you were not able to access one of the existing rooms unless you paid thousands. Would that be acceptable?

I personally had always assumed that the lower ranged models had a different/smaller battery pack. It's all software? I guess there truly is one born every second. Sorry, I know Tesla fans are quick to forgive anything they do, but this is ridiculous. But, how magnanimous of them to allow people to fully utilize their own property.

 

[griffinhart]

I would be with you except it's not the same because the price scale is not the same. You're looking at a car that, at minimum, cost $70,000 at the time. The price increase of $7k is merely 10%. We have seen chips that we have to mod to unlock, and the same chip that's unlocked retail has a cost that exceeds that 10% in some cases. If anything, Tesla is letting you have it for cheap. Plus the fact that they're doing this to help people out -- without even telling them nor seeking publicity for it -- strikes me as incredibly nice on their part.

Those modded chips were binned. That means that they were reliable enough at one speed, but there were flaws enough that didn't make them reliable enough to be consistently reliable at the expected higher speeds. Thats a lot different from taking intentionally limiting something unless you pay more for it.

 

[Jehuty]

You know I'm kind of funny. I am well off because I'm a cheapskate. I have the lowest package cable broadband and buy only used cars with cash. While neighbors are buying vettes on lease and putting in $100,000 pools they use maybe 10 times a year, I put all my extra away. And I know I make more than them.

I also shop at Walmart and Aldi's.

I won't buy it if the value isn't there. It's why I won't shop at Kohl's with their 50% off coupons. I realize this maximizes their return to catch the suckers who have to buy it now. But I refuse to be caught in that trap. It treats me like an idiot on the value proposition.

I consider this the same. Well I'm no idiot. There isn't value for me there. There isn't value with the base model or with the extended range. I've done the math. It never works out in your favor even if the battery pack last 300,000 miles with $4.00 gas

There's a reason 94% of Americans are considered in the unstable financial category. I'm not saying this with my nose in the air as I'm superior but I call out butt stupid when I see it.

I mean, that's just being frugal, and smart!! with your money. But I'm glad you brought the cable broadband package. It's essentially the same thing - you don't feel you need the greatest and latest to you're paying for a tier that while cheaper, won't let you use the full capabilities that it's able to provide. The Tesla owners were more than likely well informed that if they wanted to unlock the full potential of the battery it would cost them more money and chose not to. Just as how you chose not to get the highest tiered package available, even though it's there.

 

[Deleted member 245375]

On a forum of [H]ardware enthusiasts, I would think most of you folks would be looking at this situation almost like it's a way of overclocking something or perhaps unlocking a capability like a 4th core on those AMD triple core processors or just flashing a new video BIOS on a GPU and voila, you get the performance of the more expensive GPU using the same hardware for no additional cost - they're getting more than they paid for meaning owners of that car PAID for the 60 kWh capacity, they didn't pay for 75 kWh, so all this time they've been getting precisely what they paid for, they went into the actual purchase knowing full well ahead of time that 60 kWh rated cell is what the vehicle came with. Now they're finding out it's actually a 75 kWh cell and yes it's a tactical move on Tesla's part to get better press during this storm event but that's a given.

In some respects it's no different than Apple replacing an iPhone that blew or burned up (happened a few times) or literally stopped a bullet from killing the owner of the phone (which has happened twice IIRC) to counteract the negative press that spreads because of such events.

Yes, they do have an excessive amount of control over the cars after purchase by pushing firmware/OS updates to the vehicles directly and the owners more often than not aren't even aware of it but, in this case I'll give Tesla a pass since if it helps even a single person avoid potential injury or loss by getting them that little bit extra to escape the weather situation, I got no beef with that.

I'll give a few points to Tesla for doing it because it's good thing IMO, but make no mistake: t's a marketing move more than anything altruistic, I assure you.

 

[griffinhart]

Almost every electronics that have options (Measurements instrument, cars, radio, GPS, Router, etc....) have software options... I don't see why the rant here...
It probably cost them the same (total) or even less to manufacture 1 packs then having 2 actual P/N of every components...

Can you provide an example? While I have seem things with different, more limited versions of software and abilities, it has also been accompanied by lower specs or missing hardware as well. For example, one Garmin GPS unit may not have traffic allerts, but it won't come with the hardware to receive them. The only car that does anything like this, as far as I'm aware, is Tesla. This isn't quite the same as going to a 3rd party to have your car computer tuned for more horsepower or removing the rev limiter.

 

[Ultima99]

This is America, we run an economy based on capitalism where businesses aren't just allowed to seek profit, but it is required or they go under.

As long as the products they sell meet the promised specifications then everything is good and you have nothing to complain about.

 

[ChadD]

This is pretty shitty of tesla... still there is some irony about us calling them evil as we seem to eat up all the artificial product segmenting we put up with. Ok granted many of us take matters into our own hands and unlock our lower priced gear... still ya tesla is douchy.

 

[collegeboy69us]

Even at $7k it's a rip off for something that's already there. And a software upgrade is not the same thing because resources we're invested to make the software better. This is a few bits.

Economies of scale can accomplish some amazing things. Check this out: https://electrek.co/2017/02/18/tesla-battery-cost-gigafactory-model-3/

35% reduction in production cost from the first factory, estimates say right at $125/kWh of juice. So basically it only costs tesla $2k to put in those extra cells, I'd be willing to bet it's actually less or will soon be less. With the (optional) purchase of $7k that right there pays for the materials cost of three cars in one shot. You can be sure there's an entire department that has all the solid numbers, estimates, costs, and probability of someone purchasing it at varying price levels. They have a very good idea of how much they will bring in at each price level for the upgrade.

And the cost of cells will keep going down, it's win win all around because say someone sells their tesla without ever upgrading, tesla can flip a switch and suddenly that "old" S60 now is a 75 and able to still compete range wise with offerings that might be years newer.

Would I pay 7k? probably not, I don't need that much range and don't have money falling out of my ass for such things, but it's awesome to have options and to know maybe a year or two down the line the price drops to $4k or something. At the end of the day a customer is getting excatly what they paid for on the spec sheet, with the option to upgrade later if they feel it's worth it. Having more options and more choices is never a bad thing.

 

[mnewxcv]

Am I the only one uncomfortable with their ability to do these changes remotely without any notification? The car belongs to tesla apparently, not you.

 

[collegeboy69us]

This is pretty shitty of tesla... still there is some irony about us calling them evil as we seem to eat up all the artificial product segmenting we put up with. Ok granted many of us take matters into our own hands and unlock our lower priced gear... still ya tesla is douchy.

/s
Yup - totally douchey of them to offer options and choices to customers. I mean it's way better to just built the same thing 5 different ways for way more cost and tell the customer to go buy an entire new car should they ever want more range or features.

Seriously though -- if you build a piece of software and know there are multiple tiers of price points and willingness to pay among customers, if the difference between features is only a few bits of computer code, would you just give away the super premium version for an economy price? Knowing that you would be missing out on a huge chunk of revenue?

Tesla is a company just like any other, there's nothing wrong with them making a profit on stuff people want. They sell X product for X dollars, whether it's worth it is entirely your choice. It's sad and hilarious that people get up in arms over the issue, if you paid for a 60kwh battery, and got exactly that there's nothing to complain about. This method can extend the life of a car as well as it can be clicked over to a 75 kw battery and put up for resale, theoretically eliminating the need for manufacturing a completely new car for a buyer.

Never mind the side benefit of, if you never partake in the upgrade and keep your software locked battery, your charging speeds are faster due to the software limit at 80% of actual capacity (and the physics involved in charging a Li-Ion battery), your degradation is reduced even more over time since you are never charging to a true 100%.

 

[Wierdo]

Another advantage of having a larger cell in an EV - beside the mass production savings angle and charge speed gains - is that they have more wear leveling, a big free plus.

Currently it's expected that you get about half a million miles before hitting 80 percent. Who knows what the extra capacity adds to that.

https://electrek.co/2016/11/01/tesla-battery-degradation/

The next step is a 1 million-mile battery pack. Considering Tesla is aiming for its drive unit to last 1 million miles, it would make sense to have the same goal for the battery pack.

Of course, it would take 80 years for an average driver to travel 1 million miles

So can't really say you're not getting anything out of it, and without paying a dime in return. A nice compliment to million mile motor durability to better match their infinity miles drivetrain warranty.

https://www.tesla.com/blog/creating-world’s-best-service-and-warranty-program-0

Really, hard to complain about this when you compare to its competition, but people will still do so cause it's a startup with no "brand loyalty" built up with the old geezers and luddites lol.

 

[Verge]

Tesla is a company just like any other,

Actually it's not. Most all other companies make money... tesla looses a ton of it.


But hey, when the taxpayers give you 5 billion, you can afford to screw up quite a bit.

 

[ChadD]

/s
Yup - totally douchey of them to offer options and choices to customers. I mean it's way better to just built the same thing 5 different ways for way more cost and tell the customer to go buy an entire new car should they ever want more range or features.

Seriously though -- if you build a piece of software and know there are multiple tiers of price points and willingness to pay among customers, if the difference between features is only a few bits of computer code, would you just give away the super premium version for an economy price? Knowing that you would be missing out on a huge chunk of revenue?

Tesla is a company just like any other, there's nothing wrong with them making a profit on stuff people want. They sell X product for X dollars, whether it's worth it is entirely your choice. It's sad and hilarious that people get up in arms over the issue, if you paid for a 60kwh battery, and got exactly that there's nothing to complain about. This method can extend the life of a car as well as it can be clicked over to a 75 kw battery and put up for resale, theoretically eliminating the need for manufacturing a completely new car for a buyer.

Never mind the side benefit of, if you never partake in the upgrade and keep your software locked battery, your charging speeds are faster due to the software limit at 80% of actual capacity (and the physics involved in charging a Li-Ion battery), your degradation is reduced even more over time since you are never charging to a true 100%.

Don't get me wrong I understand why they do it. I was simply pointing out that most of us around here deal with companies like Intel and AMD that do the exact same thing. Like the chip industry though I would also not doubt there is a bit more to the tesla story. I wonder if Tesla doesn't bin batteries at the factory, with the best packs going into their top end models.

 

[DPI]

This is an unacceptable amount of control for a manufacturer to have on something I purchased. I think every owner of the lower model with the now confirmed same battery pack as the higher should rightfully be pissed.

Key words: you purchased. Unless the purchase was done under duress with the dealer's gun to the buyer's head, then the buyer was offered a spec list and said "yes".

Tesla could've also just kept quiet on this and avoided the crybaby backlash. They did the right thing.

People also aren't getting less battery, just an over provisioned one that will last longer. If anything it's the people buying the more expensive tiers that are making it possible for the lower price points to exist, otherwise it would be the same high buy-in for everyone.

 

[Verge]

Key words: you purchased. Unless the purchase was done under duress with the dealer's gun to the buyer's head, then the buyer was offered a spec list and said "yes".

Tesla could've also just kept quiet on this and avoided the crybaby backlash.

People also aren't getting less battery, just an over provisioned one that will last longer. If anything it's the people buying the more expensive tiers that are making it possible for the lower price points to exist, otherwise it would be the same high buy-in for everyone.

This is musk trying to generate headlines.

Every time the stock starts pointing down... you can count on Elon to hype up something.

 

[MMitch]

Can you provide an example? While I have seem things with different, more limited versions of software and abilities, it has also been accompanied by lower specs or missing hardware as well. For example, one Garmin GPS unit may not have traffic allerts, but it won't come with the hardware to receive them. The only car that does anything like this, as far as I'm aware, is Tesla. This isn't quite the same as going to a 3rd party to have your car computer tuned for more horsepower or removing the rev limiter.

For obvious reason, some example can't be told no OEM would go out and willingly say hey... if you give us x$ we will give you this codeword to remove the SW lock...
It's far more common than you think... especially on highly custom and expensive stuff... Yes I don't think they would do that on a 10$ watch but a 70000$ car ? Why not... if that means reduce cost and better reliability. It also gives more choices to consumer. Yes they could at this point give it to everyone and charge the higher price and remove the low cost one but they would sell less.

 

[MMitch]

Am I the only one uncomfortable with their ability to do these changes remotely without any notification? The car belongs to tesla apparently, not you.

I bet they would put that on SW rights... but I get your point. This opens up a discussion on the actual security around it given the last IoT fiasco...
It's also probably a useful feature (phone home) if you want to have a driverless car...

Makes me wonder how much data FORD is collecting on my new car... the FORD Sync feature is probably always ON even if not synced and logs about anything...

 

[Archaea]

So let all teslas have the same battery life if the batteries are all the same and instead up the bills and whistles on the more costly models.

 

[jfreund]

Tesla has day 1 DLC.

 

[mord]

It's cheaper to put the same packs in all vehicles, than to have multiple part numbers being manufactured and juggled around. I'm with you though...it's a shitty practice to artificially limit those that don't have/want to spend even more on a very expensive car, while rewarding only those those that do/can spent extra money to have an artificial limit lifted.

Like everyone that buys a game should get all the doc free because it was already coded and sold to people that can pay more?

I get there is a slight difference in real doc verses preloaded dlc, but in this case, it really is dlc.

 

[Wierdo]

Like everyone that buys a game should get all the doc free because it was already coded and sold to people that can pay more?

I get there is a slight difference in real doc verses preloaded dlc, but in this case, it really is dlc.

The fact that they did this for a limited time makes me think they perhaps had a certain surplus of larger battery packs at a transitional point in their manufacturing upgrades, but their orders for the smaller pack models was high so they decided to just use what they had available before bigger packs became available and they risked obsoleting their existing inventory.

I don't believe they have models with size unlocks at the moment, but who knows if this situation comes up again.

One of the positive side effects of this was owners of such vehicles got a major upgrade discount later so ended up getting a higher tier car for cheaper than what was on offer at the time, a win win for everybody involved really.

 

[TorxT3D]

nvidia been doing this forever

 

[Spidey329]

This is pretty shitty of tesla... still there is some irony about us calling them evil as we seem to eat up all the artificial product segmenting we put up with. Ok granted many of us take matters into our own hands and unlock our lower priced gear... still ya tesla is douchy.

The fact that they did this for a limited time makes me think they perhaps had a certain surplus of larger battery packs at a transitional point in their manufacturing upgrades, but their orders for the smaller pack models was high so they decided to just use what they had available before bigger packs became available and they risked obsoleting their existing inventory.

I don't believe they have models with size unlocks at the moment, but who knows if this situation comes up again.

One of the positive side effects of this was owners of such vehicles got a major upgrade discount later so ended up getting a higher tier car for cheaper than what was on offer at the time, a win win for everybody involved really.

This is an unacceptable amount of control for a manufacturer to have on something I purchased. I think every owner of the lower model with the now confirmed same battery pack as the higher should rightfully be pissed.

They shouldn't be pissed. This is extra locked capacity done to protect the battery pack with a reserve capacity, allowing it to charge to 85% capacity (yet software display the 100% of the advertised amount). 75kWh cars likely have 90kWh packs and so fourth. They do this because it can quadruple (if done right) the pack life going from 300 charge cycles to 1200+ charge cycles. It saves them money in the long run.

If you want the full capacity unlocked you'll be paying for expensive battery replacements as charging to 100% capacity will cause the pack to not only fail quicker but degrade in capacity.

Cellphones/laptops/electronics don't use this method because the 300 charge cycles is acceptable (hence why phone batteries get gradually less time) and gives the consumer a reason to "upgrade."

 

[Seventyfive]

Even at $7k it's a rip off for something that's already there. And a software upgrade is not the same thing because resources we're invested to make the software better. This is a few bits.

you know this has been ATI's MO for like, every videocard they've ever made... lol

 

[Aireoth]

This is such a tempest in a teapot, what is possibly wrong with charging for a product? Either the market will accept the price or reject it. Those people chose not to pay for the range, they should not get the range, regardless of it physically being possible or not. this is literally how everything you buy works, the only thing making people bitch is that the company installed a component that is technically capable of greater performance because it was cheaper for them to do that and limit the car, than make a special part just for them and sell it at 3 or 4k less.

There are a lot of things wrong with capitalism, but this is not one of them, no matter what your opinion is.