[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
United States News Title: Rescindable Options Coronaphobia has taken away our freedom. Elon Musk takes back his options. At least, thats how he sees them. Whats bought isnt actually sold. That would mean a permanent transfer of possession of everything, from the wheels to the roofracks the person who bought having the right to sell and the person who buys later on assuming he did. Turns out not. People who buy used Teslas are discovering that they didnt get what they paid for because Elon took it back. Or rather, turned it off. Teslas arent just electric cars; they are electronic cars including expensive software options like Ludicrous Speed, Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self-Driving Capability. These arent physical options, like a wheel/tire package or an upgraded stereo but they are listed and purchased exactly like an optional wheel/tire package or upgraded stereo. They are line-items (or packages) on the window sticker. The traditional has been that once purchased, options become part of the car forever and included with each subsequent sale unless physically removed prior to the sale. Which the buyer, in that case, would notice and presumably be okay with. You go to see a used car and see someone took out the factory stereo. Theres a hole in the dash where it used to be. Youre either ok with this or youre not. Regardless, its understood that the seller cant remove the radio after the car is sold. Well, it used to be understood. But not anymore. Because Teslas are also connected cars which means software options can be enabled and disabled at the discretion and thus, the whim, of Tesla at any time and for whatever reason. And theres nothing you can do about it because if you try to disconnect the car from its invisible electronic tether, Elon will just disconnect the car. Cuing the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld: No car for you! Whats happening, apparently, is that Elon is disabling paid-for (by the original purchaser) software options when Teslas get sold on the used car market and then dunning the next owner for them. Its like discovering the used Corvette you bought last night from the guy down the street that came with the 20-inch wheel/tire package up on blocks the next morning, with a note from Chevy advising you that if youd like the wheels you thought youd just bought returned to wire-transfer them $8,000 (the cost of the Teslas Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self Driving options) . Except that would be obvious theft and whoever snatched the wheels would be subject to arrest and criminal prosecution. But Tesla per usual does the Moonwalk right past the rules everyone else plays by. More accurately, Elon plays by new rules. The rules of Coronad America where people arent so much laid-low by a virus but endlessly controlled by power-grabby corporations like Tesla, whose business model is based on the Company Town model. You never own anything, really. Youre just allowed to use it for awhile, under close supervision and with the ever-present threat that you wont be able to use it at all if you do something that the Company Towns Managers dont like. Managers like Musk, who sees himself as a member of a technocratic elite that will be In Charge from here on out. They know best and theyll let us know what that is. Take your cap off, bow and thank them very much. Its not just Tesla, either. John Deere is another such using the same technocratic-electronic methods. People who thought theyd bought a tractor have discovered they only got a license to use software. Any violation of the terms of service and their tractor goes inert. Deere, Tesla and soon, more regard the purchaser of their products not as owners but leasers, people who can be made to pay forever. And controlled not just forever but right now, at any time. You possess the physical vehicle but they own the code that makes it go. Or not. Your connected appliances work the same way, by the way. People ought to have gotten wise and nervous when news stories popped up about Tesla sending updates over the ether to cars it no longer owned a technicality altering how far the cars could be driven. More or less than advertised. There was the case of Tesla increasing the range of its cars italicized to emphasize the point during a hurricane, as a nice gesture to people trying to get out of harms way without their having to stop and wait while the harm caught up to them. And there is the more recent and not-so-nice case of Tesla reducing range to reduce the likelihood of a fire resulting from too much voltage or rather, from defective design (a whole nother story). People whose cars went x miles on Monday woke up on Tuesday to discover their Teslas went less miles. Without anyone from Tesla actually touching the car. This is how Tesla (and Deere and other connected companies) get to Moonwalk past the jailhouse where any used car dealer who snatched the wheels off a car he just sold or pulled the stereo or physically removed anything attached to the car at the time of sale/transfer would be cooling his heels if caught. But that was pre-Coronad America, where once you paid for something it was not only considered yours the law actually defended the proposition. Its no longer the case, of course. Because in Coronad America, we dont even own ourselves. Our owners tell us how much range well be allowed today and maybe theyll give us some more tomorrow. Or maybe not. It ought not to be surprising that Elon, et al are doing the same. . . . Got a question about cars, Libertarian politics or anything else? Click on the ask Eric link and send em in! Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread |
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|