Teslas Control Over Their Vehicles

SOURCE: WIKI

The economic principle I’m exploring is "Because of scarcity, people choose. All choices have an opportunity cost." The article, "Tesla Boosts Car Battery Power During Irma, Raising Questions of Control” written by Tiffany Hsu in September 2017 demonstrates the economic principle that all choices have an opportunity. Specifically, How does Tesla go about controlling their vehicles over the air, through software updates and what is possible with this technology. 

 My research question to help me study the economic principle is “ What Is Tesla's control over their cars and the batteries.” The article published in The New York Times titled “Tesla Boosts Car Battery Power During Irma, Raising Questions of Control” demonstrates this economic principle by showing how Tesla can have some control over their vehicles over the air.

 During Hurricane Irma in Florida many residents had to evacuate quickly. There were lines and lines of cars to fill up for gas at the gas stations, but for the people who own Teslas it was a bit harder. Teslas run off battery power and take about an hour to get a full charge on the superchargers. If your trying to escape out of town waiting an hour for your car to charge isn’t the most ideal situation. During the Hurricane Tesla was able to give their vehicles an extra 30 miles of range over the air. They were able to do this because their cars had a battery capacity of 75 kilowatts , but they used software to limit the car's battery to 60 kilowatts.

 Tesla has since stopped limiting their cars battery capacity through software. This does show that Tesla can change almost anything to their cars with something as simple as an update. All of their vehicles have a touch screen display that house all of the cars functionality. They can make changes to their autopilot system, which allows the car to semi drive by itself. Tesla's cars will get better with time and consumers will be able to own Teslas longer than most other cars, because of the company being able to send updates at any time.

 In my next blog post I will research the question: How does Tesla deal with Battery Heat in their Cars.