Tesla Temporarily Boosts Battery Capacity For Hurricane Irma (sfgate.com)

Slashdot reader mikeebbbd noticed this in the AP's Florida hurricane coverage: Electric car maker Tesla says it has temporarily increased the battery capacity of some of its cars to help drivers escaping Hurricane Irma. The electric car maker said the battery boost was applied to Model S and X cars in the Southeast. Some drivers only buy 60 or 70 kilowatt hours of battery capacity, but a software change will give them access to 75 kilowatt hours of battery life until Saturday. Depending on the model, that could let drivers travel about 40 more miles before they would need to recharge their cars.

Tesla said it made the change after a customer asked the company for help evacuating. The company said it's possible it will make similar changes in response to similar events in the future.

Comments

When did this crap become normal?

[gurps_npc]

Software limitations purely for the purpose of profit are evil. No if's, and's or butts.

The entire point of capitalism is to convince the manufacturer to provide the most product for the cheapest price.

Here we have a situation where the company can sell a better product for the same price but instead chooses to screw their customers. I understand the concept of variable pricing, the general idea is to convince each consumer to pay the most they are willing to pay for the same product.

But you are supposed to do this via overpriced addons, coupons, marketing and sales. Basically, you REWARD the customer, rather than punish them. That's how capitalism is supposed to work.

What Tesla is doing is Mercantlism. Using a government provided monopoly (you can't legally replace the limiting software) to charge more money.

This is disgusting and Tesla should not get any credit at all for temporarily being non-disgusting during a crisis. Especially when they return to the old system after the crisis is over.

I used to think Tesla was getting screwed by Texas and other states. Now I think they deserve it.

Re: Uh huh...

[Barsteward]

"Why should customers be forced to have an artificially crippled product, dragging around extra dead weight of artificially disabled battery cells?" to prolong battery life.