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Will Tesla disable my supercharging?

Would you take the Tesla on this trip?


  • Total voters
    51
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No, that's not how supercharging works. There is a 3v pilot signal and no more, you can lick an exposed supercharger cable safely. The 3v is what pops open your charge door, it's well documented in many places here on the forums if you want to learn about the safety mechanisms built into your car, it might help alleviate any phobias you entertain.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: croman
If you're worried about hypotheticals like that, every car carries the same risk, ICE or EV they can all be damaged. It's an unrealistic thing to live your life in fear of.
That's why we have safe certifications. And these things aren't so much hypotheticals, people with damaged and/or incorrectly fixed home wiring star home fires every day. This is just Tesla's home and they don't accept DYI fixed devices connecting to it unless certified.
 
No, that's not how supercharging works. There is a 3v pilot signal and no more, you can lick an exposed supercharger cable safely. The 3v is what pops open your charge door, it's well documented in many places here on the forums if you want to learn about the safety mechanisms built into your car, it might help alleviate any phobias you entertain.
I know how it works. Compare this two scenarios:
  1. Take a knife and keep shaving the metal hose until you get to the gasoline leak. Plug I and start fueling.
  2. Take a knife a d start shaving the supercharger cable (not handle) until you expose the 400V wire. Plug in and start charging.
Which damaged cable or hose would you rather touch?
 
Homes are less advanced than superchargers and superchargers are never installed by random uncertified homeowners. All manufacturers accept DIY repairs without removing the fuel tank of customer cars.... except Tesla. Tesla will eventually have to align with right to repair laws, but for now this is easily the most hostile thing tesla does to its owners. Worse still, it sounds like the shorts are convincing long time owners that superchargers are dangerous killers that will slaughter people at any moment. It's never happened, gasoline is far more dangerous and you've filled up your gas tank next to salvage titled cars that didn't blow up the entire neighborhood many times before. Superchargers are SAFER than ICE gas stations, not more dangerous like you've been led to believe.

I'd still touch the supercharger. But look at the point you're trying to make here - the supercharger cable has nothing whatsoever to do with the car. You're attempting to tell people here that supercharger stalls are able to instantly kill anyone regardless of whether their car is brand new, 1 year old in perfect shape, or salvage. Nothing in your imagined fear scenario has anything to do with a car, you're afraid of something you don't understand because some seeking alpha troll got it in your head that charging your car is dangerous.

Cables fray internally all of the time; the charger detects this and shuts itself off until Tesla sends for a repair crew. You've probably experienced a bad cable at some point, you didn't die or explode your car, you just used another stall.
 
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Update:

Supercharged my way through without a hiccup. Even supercharged at Tesla’s first and IMO coolest supercharging station in Hawthorne.

Case closed. Tesla dont give a f***.
 

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I know how it works. Compare this two scenarios:
  1. Take a knife and keep shaving the metal hose until you get to the gasoline leak. Plug I and start fueling.
  2. Take a knife a d start shaving the supercharger cable (not handle) until you expose the 400V wire. Plug in and start charging.
Which damaged cable or hose would you rather touch?


Compare these two scenarios:

1. do something stupid and unrealistic with gas
2. do something stupid and unrealistic with electricity

Which makes you seem out of touch with reality? An intelligent person knows how each one works, knows how gravity works, and knows how other physical things in our universe work. And they can use them properly. The smart people who designed both made them safe enough for public use and you would have to be a dummy doing something stupid and unrealistic in order to hurt yourself. Period.
 
Compare these two scenarios:

1. do something stupid and unrealistic with gas
2. do something stupid and unrealistic with electricity

Which makes you seem out of touch with reality? An intelligent person knows how each one works, knows how gravity works, and knows how other physical things in our universe work. And they can use them properly. The smart people who designed both made them safe enough for public use and you would have to be a dummy doing something stupid and unrealistic in order to hurt yourself. Period.
We live in an era where bleach sold in stores needs to come with a warning "Do not drink", coffee has printed "Hot!" on it and hairdryers remind you to not throw them into a bathtub full of water. People do stupid and unrealistic things every day. Take all the warnings off of the products, wait a decade or two, then maybe Darwin's law will kick in and people will get smarter.

My father watched a mechanic come to fix a machine in a factory. He grabbed an extension cord for a welder he found somewhere nearby. The foreman said "Don't use it, it's broken, electrician needs to come to fix it before it can be used". There was also a big orange tag on it saying it's broken. The mechanic was like you, he thought he knew everything, he took some electrical tape and taped the end plug because the cover was broken and slipping off and exposing wires. He told the foreman he has however many years of experience and he knows what he's doing (he didn't tell the foreman "don't worry about hypotheticals" but close enough). Well, he fixed the machine, and as he went to unplug the welder the electrical tape slipped off, he got a shock of his life. Someone quickly disconnected power and they managed to revive him, but after being a vegetable in a hospital for a while, his wife unplugged him, then tried to sue the company. Lucky for the company (not for the wife or their kids), they had witnesses and the work order for the electrician was already in the system before the guy was electrocuted himself.

Bottom line is this, the supercharger network belongs to Tesla and they can set whatever conditions they want for using it. Maybe allowing junkyard Teslas would raise their liability insurance, or maybe they just assessed the risk themselves (rather than insurance actuaries) and don't want to expose themselves to it. It doesn't matter. Supercharing is a service and it comes with terms you have to abide by. One of them is after a serious accident the car has to be re-certified before being allowed to connect to the network. No different than FAA requiring re-certification for fixed airplanes.
 
...Tesla dont give a f***.
We are about to find out if Tesla cares since you have told them...
  1. You are a greater Los Angeles male born December 15th.
  2. The vehicle you have had for 10,000 miles had an accident that salvaged the title 15,000 miles ago.
  3. You were at the Hawthorne supercharger over the 2018 Memorial weekend holiday.
  4. You have owned two Teslas.
I certainly could care less as they do not have my VIN #.

Someone inside Tesla who can half form a SQL query can associate your VIN in two minutes. If they didn't want to get back at you for uploading their service manual, or for supercharging on a salvaged title they might just want to for continually poking them with a stick. I wouldn't push your luck.
 
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We are about to find out if Tesla cares since you have told them...
  1. You are a greater Los Angeles male born December 15th.
  2. The vehicle have have for 10,000 miles had an accident that salvaged the title 15,000 miles ago
  3. You were at the Hawthorne supercharger over the 2018 Memorial weekend holiday
  4. You have owned two Teslas (Tesla cripple model S stranding family)
Someone inside Tesla who can half form a SQL query can associate your VIN in two minutes. If they didn't want to get back at you for uploading their service manual, or for supercharging on a salvaged title they might just want to for continually poking them with a stick. I wouldn't push your luck.

Yes, Tesla has shown it can be very petty (like Elon canceling that one investor's Model 3 reservation)
 
We live in an era where bleach sold in stores needs to come with a warning "Do not drink", coffee has printed "Hot!" on it and hairdryers remind you to not throw them into a bathtub full of water. People do stupid and unrealistic things every day. Take all the warnings off of the products, wait a decade or two, then maybe Darwin's law will kick in and people will get smarter.

My father watched a mechanic come to fix a machine in a factory. He grabbed an extension cord for a welder he found somewhere nearby. The foreman said "Don't use it, it's broken, electrician needs to come to fix it before it can be used". There was also a big orange tag on it saying it's broken. The mechanic was like you, he thought he knew everything, he took some electrical tape and taped the end plug because the cover was broken and slipping off and exposing wires. He told the foreman he has however many years of experience and he knows what he's doing (he didn't tell the foreman "don't worry about hypotheticals" but close enough). Well, he fixed the machine, and as he went to unplug the welder the electrical tape slipped off, he got a shock of his life. Someone quickly disconnected power and they managed to revive him, but after being a vegetable in a hospital for a while, his wife unplugged him, then tried to sue the company. Lucky for the company (not for the wife or their kids), they had witnesses and the work order for the electrician was already in the system before the guy was electrocuted himself.

Bottom line is this, the supercharger network belongs to Tesla and they can set whatever conditions they want for using it. Maybe allowing junkyard Teslas would raise their liability insurance, or maybe they just assessed the risk themselves (rather than insurance actuaries) and don't want to expose themselves to it. It doesn't matter. Supercharing is a service and it comes with terms you have to abide by. One of them is after a serious accident the car has to be re-certified before being allowed to connect to the network. No different than FAA requiring re-certification for fixed airplanes.
Maybe south of the border you live in an era like that. In BC people aren’t as litigious - they take personal responsibility more seriously. Sorry if I overestimated the situation. I only lived there for ten years and it’s easy to revert to normal life/thinking again.
 
Maybe south of the border you live in an era like that. In BC people aren’t as litigious - they take personal responsibility more seriously. Sorry if I overestimated the situation. I only lived there for ten years and it’s easy to revert to normal life/thinking again.
The accident actually happened on your side of the border, in Ontario, Canada. And yes, you can sue in Canada, though I agree with you the society in general is less litigious, partially limited by laws like no-fault insurance.

PS> IIRC bleach in Ontario has "Do not drink" style warnings in both English and in French, as does hot coffee at McDonald's. Maybe BC is different, I've only spent all of 4 days there total to-date.
 
Tesla needs to get their business plan up to date and support all car owners. It proves we love the cars. We will rebuild one. The guys there are stupid , embrace ever owner, love them , treat them like best customers. Get them all the parts and help. You should think "dang, these folks really love the car"",
Please Elon, help everyone, dont treat them bad. Embrace them and their mechanical abilities.
 
We are about to find out if Tesla cares since you have told them...
  1. You are a greater Los Angeles male born December 15th.
  2. The vehicle you have had for 10,000 miles had an accident that salvaged the title 15,000 miles ago.
  3. You were at the Hawthorne supercharger over the 2018 Memorial weekend holiday.
  4. You have owned two Teslas.


Someone inside Tesla who can half form a SQL query can associate your VIN in two minutes. If they didn't want to get back at you for uploading their service manual, or for supercharging on a salvaged title they might just want to for continually poking them with a stick. I wouldn't push your luck.

Still doesnt scare me. Even if they shut it off, it takes a guy 1-2 hours to root it and then it back on. Just costs a little, still cheaper than Tesla’s inspection fees. And worst case ill get the car inspected by Tesla if I absolutely must — but for now, free supercharging for life and a service manual will go a long ways.
 
Tesla needs to get their business plan up to date and support all car owners. It proves we love the cars. We will rebuild one. The guys there are stupid , embrace ever owner, love them , treat them like best customers. Get them all the parts and help. You should think "dang, these folks really love the car"",
Please Elon, help everyone, dont treat them bad. Embrace them and their mechanical abilities.
Did you read the part where owners of salvage vehicles can have their car inspected and re-certified for use?
 
Good attitude. If nothing else, Tesla's attitude toward owners like you only serves to normalize rooted cars. When you have to root just to keep features you've already paid for, many people might as well go all the way and add features they never paid for since they've already done the work or written the check. It sounds like that's what Tesla wants and with lower budget cars beginning to flood showrooms it's only a matter of time before people start adding autopilot to their model 3 for free since services for legitimate work on cars tesla won't support also happen to allow the free addition of software features. If I was tesla I'd be avoiding pushing more people into that ecosystem rather than helping it grow but that's just me.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: whitex and MP3Mike
Did you read the part where owners of salvage vehicles can have their car inspected and re-certified for use?


No other automaker in the world requires an owner to “recertifify”, at the owner’s expense, a vehicle that has been repaired so that major features on the car continue to work.


I would even argue to some extent that because mobile/app and supercharger access are such an integral part of a Tesla, that they don’t even have the right to restrict access to these networks as they see fit. They must offer fair and reasonable access to all owners, regardless of if they bought the car from Tesla, from a 3rd party, or from a scrapyard.


I’m not by any means saying they must give away these services for free (except on cars that free supercharging was included on, for example). But they cannot discriminate against certain users or prevent certain users from accessing these services while allowing others to use them. That’s not ok.


If they want to require “recertification” before allowing salvage titled cars back on the supercharging network, they must at the very least make this policy crystal clear, public, and transparent. Including having the ability for anyone to look up the status of a given VIN RE supercharging, and making the recertification cost public and reasonable (I would consider less than $500 reasonable). No owner or prospective owner should have to play a “lottery” to see if their car might at some future date get blocked from the network. That’s crazy.


Tesla also needs to seriously step up its game when it comes to supporting independent and self-repair efforts. Tesla is absolutely terrible when it comes to complying with right to repair laws and providing parts and diagnostic tools to owners and independent shops.


They go so far as to require a VIN # to purchase (even basic) parts, and from what I hear ban/block salvage VINs from even purchasing. They also seem to put a limit on the number of parts a given user can order. These tactics all add up to a mafia-like monopoly, where only Tesla and their cronies (“certified shops”) can work on Tesla’s, which ultimately hurts us all in the long wrong and means repair costs will continue to be artificially high, repair times will continue to increase, and insurance rates on Tesla’s will continue to increase into the stratosphere.


I absolutely hate car dealerships... but when it comes to parts, service and support, the model is clearly MUCH more consumer friendly. Tesla still has a chance to get this right. But to do that, they need to open up the diagnostic tools and device manuals to everyone for a reasonable cost, let anyone that wants to order any parts they want to, and get their parts supply chain in order so it is actually possible to, knowing a car’s VIN, order the correct parts and get them in a reasonable amount of time (max 2 weeks).
 
Can you guys all stop with the misinformation? I've rebuilt over 10 Tesla cars and they all have supercharging enabled, LTE working, and still receive updates. Depending on the service center, they will service your car as long as you pay.

To OP, if you are really this worried, have your car rooted and it can be re-enabled remotely if Tesla ever does disable it.
What does rooted mean? Is that just another way to say “jailbroken” your Tesla?
 
No other automaker in the world requires an owner to “recertifify”, at the owner’s expense, a vehicle that has been repaired so that major features on the car continue to work.


I would even argue to some extent that because mobile/app and supercharger access are such an integral part of a Tesla, that they don’t even have the right to restrict access to these networks as they see fit. They must offer fair and reasonable access to all owners, regardless of if they bought the car from Tesla, from a 3rd party, or from a scrapyard.


I’m not by any means saying they must give away these services for free (except on cars that free supercharging was included on, for example). But they cannot discriminate against certain users or prevent certain users from accessing these services while allowing others to use them. That’s not ok.


If they want to require “recertification” before allowing salvage titled cars back on the supercharging network, they must at the very least make this policy crystal clear, public, and transparent. Including having the ability for anyone to look up the status of a given VIN RE supercharging, and making the recertification cost public and reasonable (I would consider less than $500 reasonable). No owner or prospective owner should have to play a “lottery” to see if their car might at some future date get blocked from the network. That’s crazy.


Tesla also needs to seriously step up its game when it comes to supporting independent and self-repair efforts. Tesla is absolutely terrible when it comes to complying with right to repair laws and providing parts and diagnostic tools to owners and independent shops.


They go so far as to require a VIN # to purchase (even basic) parts, and from what I hear ban/block salvage VINs from even purchasing. They also seem to put a limit on the number of parts a given user can order. These tactics all add up to a mafia-like monopoly, where only Tesla and their cronies (“certified shops”) can work on Tesla’s, which ultimately hurts us all in the long wrong and means repair costs will continue to be artificially high, repair times will continue to increase, and insurance rates on Tesla’s will continue to increase into the stratosphere.


I absolutely hate car dealerships... but when it comes to parts, service and support, the model is clearly MUCH more consumer friendly. Tesla still has a chance to get this right. But to do that, they need to open up the diagnostic tools and device manuals to everyone for a reasonable cost, let anyone that wants to order any parts they want to, and get their parts supply chain in order so it is actually possible to, knowing a car’s VIN, order the correct parts and get them in a reasonable amount of time (max 2 weeks).

Although I agree in principle with what you said, I think it worth pointing out that Tesla usually turns a blind eye to salvage cars. They just let them be. It's only if something looks really sketchy that they tend to do this, or somebody make some strange problems. The point being that when you make hard and fast rules it's hard for Tesla to get around them. Like it is right now the vast majority of people who have repaired cars have supercharger access, get repair parts when they need them, and even get service from Tesla when they need it. if we start making the rules to specific that might all go away. I guess what I'm saying is, let's just let it ride for a few years, until Tesla is not the only game in town. Then the lawyers will have someone else to chase and it'll all work out okay.