Sounds like a distinction without a difference.
Might wanna get your hearing checked if it sounds like that to you
The customer pays now for a service (whether separate or an add-on) with no idea when they will actually get their service
Well-- no.
They pay for a capability add on for their car.
They are told- an advance- the specific features they will get immediately on purchase.
They are also told -in advance- one other feature they will get in the future, and with note that when they get that feature is dependent on some things Tesla may or may not control.
Again it's pretty clear if you actually bother to read it, and it's a distinction with a pretty large difference.
whether beta or production.
Again, you are only promised production stuff. not-wide-release test software is
never something you are promised or owed.
It's weird you keep insisting they're the same then ALSO claim:
I don't feel people are entitled to beta. Never said so.
See also-
Paying $15,000 for the opportunity to apply for a beta program for which you *may* or *may not* be chosen is my point.
Then your point makes no sense. And again seems to contradict your earlier claim you never said anyone was paying for the beta or entitled to it.
You ARE NOT paying 15k for that. You are paying 15k for the things you are actually told you will get during the purchase. None of which has anything to do with the beta.
A fool and his/her money are soon parted. A smart buyer would simply wait for that day where FSD is in production
It IS in production. With a specific list of available features. And has been for years.
There's FUTURE features too, which they tell you specifically you don't get right away- and don't suggest- at all- that you are buying early access to unfinished ones.
Customers paid money in 2017 and 5 years later they got nothing for it.
This is outright false.
They received all the in production features, as well as for older buyers various HW upgrades (driving computers, cameras in some cases, etc)