Bhz,
You continue to conflate engineering with business. I've done both and there is a difference.
You engineer a product to a spec then market that spec. Tesla is free to make all the engineering trade offs they like in the design process. Once they start to sell it, they should be held accountable to that spec (for everyone but you of course).
Ha! That is so old fashioned! Do you feel that way about Windows or your laptop or iphone too? Or the Office 360 or Netflix service you signed up for? Because that was how it worked with old-fashioned fixed model year cars and other durable goods -- pencils down, engineering trade-offs are made, and no more will be made and the product design is a fixed thing.
But that is not it works with more recent software and updated hardware. and Tesla now brought that flexibility to autos. More consumer products will be updated continuously. It is never pencils down. And bless them for that.
The engineering trade-offs will continue to be made. I suggest you get used to it and stop sounding the like old man yelling for the kids to get off his lawn. ("Don't change that thing that I am now used to!")
Without the MTTF data and wear rates and projections, it is pretty impossible for any of us outside of Tesla to intelligently critique their engineering trade-offs that they must make every time they roll out an update.
But if we look at the type of people doing this, we see that the people calling the shots are people who take pride in making the fastest 0-60 car ever -- and it is a frickin sedan hatchback! I'm not at all concerned about them not being aggressive enough. They are not at all conservative in that way and do not have any improper nanny attitude at all. They are the most aggressive automaker, probably most aggressive consumer product company ever.
Without any real evidence to contrary, I don't have any reason to doubt that they are making intelligent and well-informed trade-offs to give us the best balance of acceleration vs longevity vs safety.
And more importantly they have a fiduciary duty -- not to pacify your speed-racer preferences -- but to maximize long term value for shareholders. As one of only two US automakers to have never visited bankruptcy, they have to remain prudent. And certain types of use that could cause customer complaints because of breakage -- whether in or out of warranty -- should be reasonably avoided. It isn't just a short term financial decision. Like their emphasis on safety, it is long term way to preserve the value of the brand and the survival of the company.
A proper critique could be on their communication side -- they could certainly share more information about what the issues are, how they are making the decisions they are making, and how we can manage for ourselves the best way balance accel vs wear. They have done that to some extent with the p100d easter egg. That is a good practice that I expect to see more of.
