According to Electrek, some owners of Tesla vehicles have recently found that the cruising range of their cars has dropped by 20% after a software update. They took Tesla to court, alleging that Tesla deliberately interfered with the performance of the car through software updates and reduced battery life.
It is noticed that this is not the first time Tesla has faced such a lawsuit. As early as 2019, many Tesla owners said that after updating the software of the 2019.16.1 and 2019.16.2 versions, the cruising range of their cars was reduced by 12 to 30 miles, and the charging speed was also greatly affected. The affected vehicles are primarily Model S vehicles with 85 kWh battery packs that were discontinued in 2016. At that time, Tesla owners sued Tesla and won the lawsuit. Later, Tesla restored most of the battery capacity and compensated each owner $625.
This time, some Model S and Model X cars were affected, and when Tesla provided software updates, it did not inform car owners that it might lead to a decrease in battery life. Some owners who contacted Tesla’s service department said they were told the battery needed to be replaced. Since older models of these cars are out of warranty, Tesla charges as much as $15,000 if the battery needs to be replaced.
The biggest problem with this incident seems to be the communication problem on Tesla’s side again. Tesla never explained to the car owner what happened. Last time Tesla said that the battery capacity reduction was due to safety concerns, but did not say what the safety issue was or how they resolved it. The problem would be much simpler if the situation could be stated openly, but for now, it can only be resolved through the law.
