So if Tesla tows my vehicle the warranty is voided? Seems like they need more precise terminology to distinguish between (presumably) flatbed towing vs. other kinds of towing. Sidenote for mods: Which of the 5 subforums should warranty & servicing topics be placed? Kind of surprised none of them fit.
Well it's saying that the warranty doesn't cover damage caused by towing, not that towing the car automatically voids the warranty. This is pretty standard. Obviously, I would expect that the Tesla Roadside Assistance program would take responsibility of your car, or else make you sign some waiver acknowledging that they won't be liable for your car.
If you put your car onto a flatbed you are not towing it. Towing is pulling something around by a connection. Towing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Tow - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary define tow - Bing DICTIONARY
Quite often, I see cars towed out of no-parking zones lifted by the front wheels with a dolly under the rear wheels. I can't understand why this would be a problem with Model S. The rear wheels wouldn't be spinning. Is there something about the car's structure or frame that would bend or can't for some other reason be tolerated? If so, that raises a whole bunch of other questions.
If you are there to put it in jack mode, I suspect it's ok. If they do it while you're not there, then they'll do serious damage to the car and potentially nearby humans due to the self-levelling.
Interesting. Does the self-leveling feature work even when the car is off and locked? I wonder if other ICE cars with air suspension have a problem with this type of dolly-towing as well... I've only owned one other car with air suspension (a GMC Envoy) and it only had it on the rear wheels. I had it dolly towed twice while I owned it, once because the air suspension failed and it was riding with the rear bumper about 3" off the road!
Several times they warn: don't mess around with lifting / towing type activities unless in Jack mode because of the auto-levelling. Lock/Unlock state of human entry seems irrelevant to the car state in this regard.