I think that Tesla are in that "value engineering" phase where they have the confidence to remove stuff from the bill of materials to benefit themselves, and it doesn't make a major dent to their sales. We've lost passenger lumbar, USB data in the console, now USS.. there's probably other stuff I've forgotten.
From what I've seen elsewhere people who are critical of their cars not having USS, when pressed, say it wasn't enough for them to reject the car entirely because of a variety of reasons (not least of which aspirational value, the range/efficiency which is still better than competitors, etc). That is basically Tesla's ideal customer - someome who continues to buy their products in spite of things being systematically removed.
This is not unlike Apple's behaviour in recent years. They remove the charger from new phones ostensibly for "sustainability", but that's not going to stop people buying iPhones so it's a win-win for them - pure profit. Likewise people aren't going to stop buying Teslas because of lack of parking sensors, or at least it doesn't seem like it.
Tesla will carry on down this path until such time as they feel pressure from sales not meeting expectations. Customer opinions won't matter so long as they keep on buying the cars and putting up with this stuff.
From what I've seen elsewhere people who are critical of their cars not having USS, when pressed, say it wasn't enough for them to reject the car entirely because of a variety of reasons (not least of which aspirational value, the range/efficiency which is still better than competitors, etc). That is basically Tesla's ideal customer - someome who continues to buy their products in spite of things being systematically removed.
This is not unlike Apple's behaviour in recent years. They remove the charger from new phones ostensibly for "sustainability", but that's not going to stop people buying iPhones so it's a win-win for them - pure profit. Likewise people aren't going to stop buying Teslas because of lack of parking sensors, or at least it doesn't seem like it.
Tesla will carry on down this path until such time as they feel pressure from sales not meeting expectations. Customer opinions won't matter so long as they keep on buying the cars and putting up with this stuff.