I think the reason that "not for profit" comes up a lot is that private service centers don't make a profit off of warranty work. Because those centers are essentially losing money for every hour they work on warranty claims is time lost against for-profit repairs. This provides an incentive to traditional dealerships to minimize the amount of warranty work they accept over time.
Tesla (claims they) don't work that way. If true, warranty work should affect the bottom line as much as any other repair. The difference is where the money is coming from.
That said, there is still likely(*) someone tracking overall warranty work as the coffer for warranty repairs is a finite resource. Given that assumption(*), at some point someone has to make a determination on what is covered by Tesla vs. what is a customer financial responsibility. My suspicion(*), is that Tesla corporate does not actually require explicit authorization for each warranty repair. My guess(*), is that they accept the Service center recommendation at some level with an agreement on the conditions dictating the decision to cover under warranty. I'd bet(*), there are a number of tracked metrics that factor into an individual claims denial. Clearly(*), we don't know what these metrics are or else we wouldn't be having this discussion right now.
(*): DANGER! Opinion detected.
I have inquired, regarding this part of the discussion, of my own service rep who I'm on a first name basis with and who has helped me in the past.
I recall my experience with GM.
And also I recall what I've seen happen in insurance cases involving on track crashes and in fires due to nitrous kit malfunctions and mishaps the high occurred on track.
In the latter, I've seen one on track accident covered by the guy's insurance company and then he was promptly dropped.
I've also seen a case where the insurance company did not pay at all.
Refer back to my description of one of my on track incidents involving a failure.
GM ultimately covered it.
Part of what prompted that was the fact that I was a long term customer, had never filed a major warranty claim of the same sort to that time, etc.
It was a situation of case by case basis and I've heard of other manufacturers taking the same case by case approach in such situations. I don't know about Tesla, but it would not surprise me if they took a similar case by case approach in situations such as being discussed here.
To the letter of their warranty, GM didn't have to help me, but they did in that particular "case" and in them reviewing my history with them.
Others have reported similar experiences.
However with regard to what I was told regarding Tesla, suffice it to say, that which we already knew and which was stated during my inquiry.
In the event of a failure, they know what the car was doing, how it was driven,
He would not respond "yea" or "nay" as to if the location of the failure could be determined.
Of most importance, is that he made absolutely no guarantees whatsoever, made no indication whatsoever, made no statement whatsoever, that an on track mechanical failure would be covered under warranty.
