I don't even know what to say about this... but I feel that it has some long term investing relevance:
Why American Farmers Are Hacking Their Tractors With Ukrainian Firmware - Motherboard
It seems unwise for any company to pursue the John Deere path. Something to watch out for.
This is interesting. My first reaction is that the manufacturer maintaining control over their product after it's sold isn't right. My next reaction, considering the forums where this is posted, is that it sounds awfully similar to how Tesla behaves. I haven't thought much about it, and I'd argue that there is a big and important difference between what JD is doing and what Tesla has been doing.
More thinking has me thinking, there is still a big difference, and maybe it's not as big of a difference as a I first thought.
I don't have a conclusion or know what I think yet for Tesla. For JD, if I were in the market for a tractor, the software restriction they're doing would take them off my list. And might take me completely out of the market if that's becoming the norm all around. And if I really needed a tractor, it'd probably put me in the market for something really old
I appreciate the posted article and the additional thinking. The only thing I can say with confidence about Tesla, is that the significant black cloud I can see on Tesla's horizon is how they're doing service / support today. I take my car to tire dealerships for tire replacements, and I'll happily change wiper blades myself. Other than that, it's all Tesla all the time. At Roadster scale that doesn't really bother me (call it 10^3 scale). At 10^5 or 10^6 annual scale, this looks like a mess. Even if the average Tesla needs 1/10th of the maintenance work of a comparable ICE.
A different issue - not one I've particularly worried about nor am I worried about now (but which could change) - is how Tesla handles the data being collected from it's S/X (and future 3) fleet. If that data is anonymized on receipt so that they lose the ability to track it back to an individual car and or driver, then I'm particularly happy about that. If the data isn't anonymized, then Tesla is also doubling as a person tracker (in the form of the car being driven), and subject to a stream of warrants / discovery. How Tesla responds to the use of that data could become a business building problem.
For me, nothing changes yet. But I'll be keeping an eye out in this space and hope Tesla continues proving me right. Service and how the company uses collected data are two opportunities to prove me wrong, and for me today, represent the best opportunities I can identify that would lead me to close my long term buy-and-hold position.
