A thought crossed my mind about a year ago, but I just dismissed it. Now that a corporate decision by Samsung just left my TV partially inoperable, it crossed my mind again.
Let me start with the analogies:
I have a 2009-ish HP laptop that was running Windows 7. It worked fine. Windows 10 comes around and I get this constant "want to upgrade?" message along with assurances that "your machine is ready" and "you can always go back". After upgrading, the fan won't stop going full speed. It is a driver issue, but HP no longer supports my model and they suggest I go back. After the rollback, the machine won't boot. No help from HP. Eventually I put Linux on it but I'm on my own.
Not so bad?
I had a French made handheld media player (can't remember the company). Worked great. The company went out of business. A few weeks later, I get a message on my machine that it can't contact the server and it won't function at all. Completely useless piece of equipment from that point on.
Now my Samsung TV... I paid extra for a model with a camera specifically so I could use Skype on it. That worked fine, until Samsung and Skype decide not to get along and they cancel the service, rendering my camera useless. That's my camera. I paid for it. Why does their decision get to waste my money?
Whatever, these are all minor. A car is different. And a Tesla is a different kind of car. There's a lot of dependence on the software... but how much? Losing the ability to use one's tens or hundreds of thousand dollar car is not minor.
I began to wonder, what happens if Tesla goes bankrupt tomorrow? Will the cars continue to work indefinitely, without being able to communicate with central servers? When we use software, we do not own it. We only license to use it. Tesla, being in many ways more of a software company than a car company (certainly by background, if nothing else), are we subject to that same regime?
I get that the cars wouldn't continue to get better with software upgrades, but could we possibly find ourselves in a situation where we suddenly have multi-tonne paperweights due to software license expiration/revocation?
I'm not trying to be an annoying downer doom-and-gloom guy, really. It was just a nagging question that I've never found an answer to and wondered if anyone had any insight.
Basically... I wonder if Tesla has considered - in the total design of their hardware/firmware/software - the ensured continuation of operation of their products beyond their own existence.
Let me start with the analogies:
I have a 2009-ish HP laptop that was running Windows 7. It worked fine. Windows 10 comes around and I get this constant "want to upgrade?" message along with assurances that "your machine is ready" and "you can always go back". After upgrading, the fan won't stop going full speed. It is a driver issue, but HP no longer supports my model and they suggest I go back. After the rollback, the machine won't boot. No help from HP. Eventually I put Linux on it but I'm on my own.
Not so bad?
I had a French made handheld media player (can't remember the company). Worked great. The company went out of business. A few weeks later, I get a message on my machine that it can't contact the server and it won't function at all. Completely useless piece of equipment from that point on.
Now my Samsung TV... I paid extra for a model with a camera specifically so I could use Skype on it. That worked fine, until Samsung and Skype decide not to get along and they cancel the service, rendering my camera useless. That's my camera. I paid for it. Why does their decision get to waste my money?
Whatever, these are all minor. A car is different. And a Tesla is a different kind of car. There's a lot of dependence on the software... but how much? Losing the ability to use one's tens or hundreds of thousand dollar car is not minor.
I began to wonder, what happens if Tesla goes bankrupt tomorrow? Will the cars continue to work indefinitely, without being able to communicate with central servers? When we use software, we do not own it. We only license to use it. Tesla, being in many ways more of a software company than a car company (certainly by background, if nothing else), are we subject to that same regime?
I get that the cars wouldn't continue to get better with software upgrades, but could we possibly find ourselves in a situation where we suddenly have multi-tonne paperweights due to software license expiration/revocation?
I'm not trying to be an annoying downer doom-and-gloom guy, really. It was just a nagging question that I've never found an answer to and wondered if anyone had any insight.
Basically... I wonder if Tesla has considered - in the total design of their hardware/firmware/software - the ensured continuation of operation of their products beyond their own existence.