Tesla Battery Gossip cut n paste
As Florida residents fled Hurricane Irma over the weekend, some Tesla owners got a little surprise from the auto maker to help them get out of the danger zone. On Saturday, Tesla began pushing a so...
Forum Discussion
A line is being crossed with this action and some others happening now. Farmers are finding that when a combine or tractor breaks down and they run to town to get a part, rush back to the field and replace the broken part - the machine will not work until a manufacturer's tech appears in the field to tell the machine's computer to accept the replacement. That will be $500, sir.
I'm not sure what to call this trend where owners are losing part of their ownership to manufacturers. We have grown used to paying the cost of making a car plus a reasonable markup, then being able to do whatever we like with it. Over the last decade cars have been made so owners find it increasingly difficult to do maintenance and repairs on vehicles they "own". If the trend continues having a car will be more like renting it while the manufacturer retains the ability to charge for an increasing number of things whose costs have already been collected from the customer at the time of "purchase".
In most countries electric cars are heavily subsidized. Are the governments just using tax money to save the planet or do they have something else in mind? In Canada the provincial governments most eager to subsidize essentially own the electric power grid. Their subsidies and promotions discourage people from going off grid. That suggests to me that they wish to control more than our household power use and add another means of collecting our hard earned money for their next move.
Those of us who grew up in the old ownership paradigm are going to be uncomfortable.
I'm not sure what to call this trend where owners are losing part of their ownership to manufacturers. We have grown used to paying the cost of making a car plus a reasonable markup, then being able to do whatever we like with it. Over the last decade cars have been made so owners find it increasingly difficult to do maintenance and repairs on vehicles they "own". If the trend continues having a car will be more like renting it while the manufacturer retains the ability to charge for an increasing number of things whose costs have already been collected from the customer at the time of "purchase".
In most countries electric cars are heavily subsidized. Are the governments just using tax money to save the planet or do they have something else in mind? In Canada the provincial governments most eager to subsidize essentially own the electric power grid. Their subsidies and promotions discourage people from going off grid. That suggests to me that they wish to control more than our household power use and add another means of collecting our hard earned money for their next move.
Those of us who grew up in the old ownership paradigm are going to be uncomfortable.
