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If Tesla doesn't come up with a diplomatic way of allowing third-party repair they will be the company that forces regulators to add regulation. It's one thing

If Tesla doesn't come up with a diplomatic way of allowing third-party repair they will be the company that forces regulators to add regulation. It's one thing to be out of a personal computing device due to vendor policy but when enough people get burned by a bricked car then all hell will break loose.

ardy42 6y ago
> It's one thing to be out of a personal computing device due to vendor policy IMHO, the only reason people tolerate that is because the culture was habituated to it in the 90s/00s, when personal computers were improving so quickly that you'd likely want to replace yours even if it wasn't broken. Cars are so expensive and the culture has been habituated to them having increasing life and reliability that I don't think a car company could pull off shortening their usable lifespan without burning their reputation. Until full self-driving capability gets to a deployable state, I don't really see any technological advancement that could ease people into a faster refresh cycle.
- mastax 6y ago
  Ironically, that was when computers would come with schematics and repair manuals.
  - mr_toad 6y ago
    That was partly because it was cheaper to upgrade some old parts than buy a whole new machine. You could squeeze an extra couple of years out of a machine with a CPU or GPU upgrade. Replacing broken parts was less common. No one really expected to just maintain the machine to the same specs for several years.
- throwawayboise 6y ago
  I think we'll see leasing pushed harder and harder. The car will be a monthly payment (which is already the case for a lot of people, whether they lease or buy) and after 5 or 7 years it's simply replaced with the current version, and the old one reclaimed/recycled. That gets manufacturers off the hook for having to support old cars with repair parts and services (the latter being especially important for manufacturers like Tesla that don't have dealerships). Fisker is pushing this "ownership" model with their new EV.

ardy42 6y ago

> It's one thing to be out of a personal computing device due to vendor policy IMHO, the only reason people tolerate that is because the culture was habituated to it in the 90s/00s, when personal computers were improving so quickly that you'd likely want to replace yours even if it wasn't broken. Cars are so expensive and the culture has been habituated to them having increasing life and reliability that I don't think a car company could pull off shortening their usable lifespan without burning their reputation. Until full self-driving capability gets to a deployable state, I don't really see any technological advancement that could ease people into a faster refresh cycle.

mastax 6y ago
Ironically, that was when computers would come with schematics and repair manuals.
- mr_toad 6y ago
  That was partly because it was cheaper to upgrade some old parts than buy a whole new machine. You could squeeze an extra couple of years out of a machine with a CPU or GPU upgrade. Replacing broken parts was less common. No one really expected to just maintain the machine to the same specs for several years.
throwawayboise 6y ago
I think we'll see leasing pushed harder and harder. The car will be a monthly payment (which is already the case for a lot of people, whether they lease or buy) and after 5 or 7 years it's simply replaced with the current version, and the old one reclaimed/recycled. That gets manufacturers off the hook for having to support old cars with repair parts and services (the latter being especially important for manufacturers like Tesla that don't have dealerships). Fisker is pushing this "ownership" model with their new EV.