Because they are over charging people for the same hardware. Everyone is receiving the same product except for the fact that the cheaper one is hamstrung by an unnecessary software change. If it wasn’t for that all these cars would be identical. If they can sell it cheaper then do so. If they can’t don’t. If you want to have different price tiers make a version with more actual features. How are you not seeing this as a bad thing?
So if Tesla develops new technology that allows them to produce cars cheaper, should they be required to lower the sale price of their vehicles?
No, they price them based off tons of factors. I understand that. What I’m saying is they’ve demonstrated that they can sell the vehicle at that cheaper price point so do it. If it only works because the people paying more are subsidizing the cheaper ones then the price should probably be somewhere in the middle. When they are selling two identical vehicles those should be the same price. What they are doing is the same as if they were selling a “headlights” version and “no headlights” version and accomplishing that by just smashing the headlights on the latter as they roll of the line. It’s dishonest, stupid, and wasteful.
They’re not destroying anything. The car can still be upgraded by either the current owner or the next one.
Ironically, you’re advocating for going through the effort of physically removing batteries to sell at a lower price. That’s closer to your headlight analogy. The car was designed to have a specific battery size, and the equipment is already built to make that size. It is not easy to physically alter the batteries at scale.
Why does that make it worse?
Because they are over charging people for the same hardware. Everyone is receiving the same product except for the fact that the cheaper one is hamstrung by an unnecessary software change. If it wasn’t for that all these cars would be identical. If they can sell it cheaper then do so. If they can’t don’t. If you want to have different price tiers make a version with more actual features. How are you not seeing this as a bad thing?
Because there is no inherent link between the cost of manufacturing a product and the price at which it’s sold.
So if Tesla develops new technology that allows them to produce cars cheaper, should they be required to lower the sale price of their vehicles?
No, they price them based off tons of factors. I understand that. What I’m saying is they’ve demonstrated that they can sell the vehicle at that cheaper price point so do it. If it only works because the people paying more are subsidizing the cheaper ones then the price should probably be somewhere in the middle. When they are selling two identical vehicles those should be the same price. What they are doing is the same as if they were selling a “headlights” version and “no headlights” version and accomplishing that by just smashing the headlights on the latter as they roll of the line. It’s dishonest, stupid, and wasteful.
They’re not destroying anything. The car can still be upgraded by either the current owner or the next one.
Ironically, you’re advocating for going through the effort of physically removing batteries to sell at a lower price. That’s closer to your headlight analogy. The car was designed to have a specific battery size, and the equipment is already built to make that size. It is not easy to physically alter the batteries at scale.