Featured Tesla Yanks Features After Sale

It isn't staying with the owner in general practice. In the case of a buyback or lemon law car, the buyer was refunded the purchase price. In the times when buyer with the lemon car opts for a replacement instead of the refund, then the software unlocked feature gets transferred to the new car, but this is likely the minority occurrence.

So these buy backs result in Tesla having a used car in which they got no payment for when it left them new. Leaving the unlocked features in place should make it easier to sell, and at a higher price. It just means accepting a used price for those features. So greed wins out, and they take those features off so they can hopefully sell them at retail to the next owner.

As for other used Teslas that end up in their possession, like trade ins, they are free to lock or unlock such features as they see fit. It isn't any different than another dealer changing the wheels, adding heated seats, or other change to the car. In the past, Tesla has added FSD to used cars to help sell them. There is no reports of Tesla messing with used cars that didn't pass through their hands.

In the case of the OT, the car was taken back under lemon law, and Tesla intended to remove the FSD. There was mistake on their part, and they removed it after they sold it instead of before. The right response is to apologize, and turn the FSD back on. Unfortunately, it took a popular auto news site to publish the story, and discussion spread across the internet, before they did so. Hopefully for Tesla and other wronged used buyers, this won't be the case in the future.

 

Well if it’d get him in Model 3. What number do I need to call? He is ~1,200 miles away.

Bob Wilson