Cybermoose
Member
It was stated in this post that the update in question was optional.To my mind, having to replace a PC or a tablet after 5 or 6 years is quite a different situation from having to replace a car that cost $80,000 or more after a similar period of time. The PC is only a PC, and it can be recycled more or less easily and economically. Not so much the car. The car has thousands of components that are still working just fine (or can be more or less easily replaced or repaired) in addition to the computer parts that might have reached the end of their usable lives. If the firmware updates are making the situation worse, then it seems to me that Tesla should either make those optional after a certain period, OR should say that replacement of the computer hardware is mandatory if you want certain services such as firmware updates. Tesla has been clear that we must update our firmware but they have not been clear about the hardware side. As usual, communication and customer relations are at the bottom of Tesla's skill sets.
Also no one is saying that replacing the car is necessary, just the MCU hardware. Also even a computer doesn't NEED to be replaced after 5-6 years, if someone takes it to a computer shop or is good with computers themselves, they can likely replace 1-2 parts and their computer will be working fine again. I built computers for friends and updated them for years. A friend of mine had the same computer with just a few replaced parts over the time of about 10+ years.
If we look at almost anything that has a computer in it that recieves regular updates, it won't last more than 5 or so years before it starts to get slow. Smart home systems (depending on complexity), personal computers, tablets, phones, now car systems, and i'm sure tons of people have worked in factories where the old equipment runs very slow with the old computers.