well, historically in the US, if I modify a car and have an incident, if the modification is found to be the cause the liability falls to me, the person who mod

well, historically in the US, if I modify a car and have an incident, if the modification is found to be the cause the liability falls to me, the person who modified it, not the manufacturer. One can say that Tesla is further still limiting liability by going to these measures, but if other manufacturers have not chosen to take such measures , even with the same practical liability and ability to do so, then one can surmise that Tesla is acting in a way that is against consumers who feel strongly about personal ownership and right-to-repair/right-to-modify. If car companies considered liability to be the penultimate measure of success they wouldn't sell 500+ horsepower sports cars. The risk is worth taking for a chance to capture the market sector. Same here -- Tesla might find this a good business decision, but a portion of their market will be inevitably lost on matters of personal principal. It's up to them whether or not that gamble is worth taking. Given that sports-cars and car modification in general seem to have been on a downward decline, they're probably correct to assume such postures; but i'm not a fan.