Tesla Boosts Car Battery Power During Irma,

Tesla boosted the range of their cars in Florida to help owners evacuate. Tesla can wirelessly upgrade their cars without the owners knowledge.

They also restrict the cars range based on how much you pay for the car.


"Owners of certain Model S sedans and Model X S.U.V.s noticed that the battery capacity of their electric cars had increased, giving them as much as 40 extra miles of range to outrun the deluge."

That sounds great at first until you realize they are holding out on the performance of the car.


"Some, though, said the company was kneecapping vehicle range under normal circumstances in pursuit of profit. Others were concerned that the magnanimous move overshadowed the troubling extent to which Tesla can command customers’ cars."

"The company began producing cars this way to streamline manufacturing; it could produce the same type of battery but provide different price points, charging customers up to $9,500 for an upgrade to full capacity."

Basically they limit the performance of their batteries based on the price of the car.
Two cars with the same battery pack have different ranges.

"Mr. Forman, who lives in Broward County, Fla., had flown to St. Louis for work on Friday when he checked his Tesla app and saw that his car, plugged in at home, had reached 242 miles of range and was still charging. He had never seen the vehicle exceed 215 miles."


I'm sure other manufacturers do the exact same thing but tesla just got caught.

This also raises the issue of manufacturers controlling their products forever. We will see licencing of products in order to use them in the future. Software companies already do this.
We will own the vehicles but will pay a fee to use the software required to run the systems.

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a reply to: Bluntone22

Not to mention if it can be wirelessly boosted, it can be wirelessly cut back. Maybe not by Tesla, but we've all seen companies get hacked.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Is this for real? Shocking!

Once this is mainstream news the cars will be hacked.

a reply to: Bluntone22


Wow, that is great they did that, but how shady is that? Same exact product, and way different price. Thanks OP, interesting!!

a reply to: CriticalStinker

Damn, I hadn't even considered them being hacked.
Pull all the safeguards and watch the cars all melt.

Charles Pogue supposedly developed a 200 mpg carburettor back in the 1930's but theres no money in that is there.I draw the line at cars that drive themselves no way in hell will I ever own a vehicle that tptb are totally in control of.

a reply to: chadderson


I am sure that Tesla has a firewall, and if you tamper with your car battery, it will probably void the warranty, or break the lease.

a reply to: khnum

I never bought the 200mpg story.
There is only so much potential energy in a gallon of gas.
I can believe they are restricting it some but not that much.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Well at least internal combustion engine manufacturers cant cheat they tell you the mpg and gas tank size so you can figure out the range and the cost.....wonder what the real range on those batteries is?

Wait,
they all have the same batteries, and they're just software limited?

I can't wait to get my hands on one of these from a scrap yard, and take the useful components to retrofit my '85 toyota, leaving behind the computer.

This going to hurt Tesla. Now it's common knowledge that they sandbag the cars' range unless you pay an extra $10,000. Silicon Valley ethics at its finest.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: khnum

I never bought the 200mpg story.
There is only so much potential energy in a gallon of gas.
I can believe they are restricting it some but not that much.

I remember a 1985 CRX HF got almost 60 MPG. And today, in the age of global warming, we cannot get a car over 50 mpg (for the most part)

Somehow, restrictions are happening, and in a time when MPG would help fight against the horrors of AGW.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
Tesla boosted the range of their cars in Florida to help owners evacuate. Tesla can wirelessly upgrade their cars without the owners knowledge.

They also restrict the cars range based on how much you pay for the car.


"Owners of certain Model S sedans and Model X S.U.V.s noticed that the battery capacity of their electric cars had increased, giving them as much as 40 extra miles of range to outrun the deluge."

That sounds great at first until you realize they are holding out on the performance of the car.


"Some, though, said the company was kneecapping vehicle range under normal circumstances in pursuit of profit. Others were concerned that the magnanimous move overshadowed the troubling extent to which Tesla can command customers’ cars."

"The company began producing cars this way to streamline manufacturing; it could produce the same type of battery but provide different price points, charging customers up to $9,500 for an upgrade to full capacity."

Basically they limit the performance of their batteries based on the price of the car.
Two cars with the same battery pack have different ranges.

"Mr. Forman, who lives in Broward County, Fla., had flown to St. Louis for work on Friday when he checked his Tesla app and saw that his car, plugged in at home, had reached 242 miles of range and was still charging. He had never seen the vehicle exceed 215 miles."


I'm sure other manufacturers do the exact same thing but tesla just got caught.

This also raises the issue of manufacturers controlling their products forever. We will see licencing of products in order to use them in the future. Software companies already do this.
We will own the vehicles but will pay a fee to use the software required to run the systems.

mobile.nytimes.com... er&action=click&contentCollection=Business+Day&pgtype=article&referer=https://www.facebook.com/

I don't understand why this is an issue? Electric cars are not like gas engines. You can get more or less power simply from a software change. It makes zero sense to have two or three different battery packs from a manufacturing stand point when you can adjust range with software.

Telsa increased range of vehicles that had not paid for the increased range to be a good corporate citizen. These owners were trying to evacuate a natural disaster, so they did it to help them go further.

The only thing nefarious about this is that it shows that consumers can lose control over their cars to an unknown entity. I can think of all kinds of conspiracy scenarios where your car is turned off without your permission or other issues, but that is an entirely different topic.

a reply to: kurthall

Doesnt mean much.... doesnt mean much at all...

You're speaking to a first generation CPU tweaker.

Human perseverance always trumps that which stands in its way. Unless hes using AI... thats a different, and new story.

originally posted by: AndyFromMichigan
This going to hurt Tesla. Now it's common knowledge that they sandbag the cars' range unless you pay an extra $10,000. Silicon Valley ethics at its finest.

It only helps if someone figures out a hack. It isn't sandbagging, it is efficient manufacturing. If you want the full range, you have to pay for it.

It is no different from a car stereo in a car that has Sirius XM, but you can't access it because you haven't paid for it. The car manufacturer isn't going to make two different stereos when the can make one stereo and limit access through software.

a reply to: Edumakated

The problem is, Tesla owners are being denied the full range of their vehicles, simply because of software limitations. It's an unethical way to squeeze Tesla owners for more money.

a reply to: Edumakated

I would be a little pissed to find out that I paid 6k for a software tweek.
But my biggest problem was the other scenarios I mentioned.

originally posted by: AndyFromMichigan
a reply to: Edumakated

The problem is, Tesla owners are being denied the full range of their vehicles, simply because of software limitations. It's an unethical way to squeeze Tesla owners for more money.

They aren't being denied full range, YOU DID NOT PAY FOR IT.

Many Nvidia graphics cards are built the same, but throttled back to reflect the difference in price.

Hack removes firmware crippling from NVIDIA graphics card

If hardware manufacturers want to keep their firmware crippling a secret, perhaps they shouldn’t mess with Linux users? We figure if you’re using Linux you’re quite a bit more likely than the average Windows user to crack something open and see what’s hidden inside. And so we get to the story of how [Gnif] figured out that the NVIDIA GTX690 can be hacked to perform like the Quadro K5000. The thing is, the latter costs nearly $800 more than the former!

a reply to: Edumakated

Oh come now,
Sirius is a paid service like cable or satellite.
I doubt tesla informed buyers the car batteries were the same.