Tesla hit by lawsuit claiming thousands of owners lost battery capacity after software update

submitted by magnora7 from reuters.com

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[–]Tom_Bombadil 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Cell phone batteries last much longer if they aren't overcharged or undercharged. Over/under charging reduces the number of charging cycles.
Your phone will last much longer (many years) if you kept the charger legit between 25% - 80%. B Tesla batteries are large arrays of connected cell phone batteries, so this software change makes sense from a technical perspective.
Software implementation of this change could also create the appearance of a smaller change capacity.

The physical capacity hasn't really changed, but the battery would prematurely appear to be low on charge.

This is analogous to having a fuel meter appear empty, when there is an extra gallon of fuel in the tank.

Toyota currently does this with their gas vehicles, but for different reasons.

Tesla will probably win this lawsuit, so buy Tesla if the stock dips significant over this.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

An unannounced software change that alters the historical travel distance on a single charge is unlikely to be a suit that Tesla will win. Car owners were not given a choice, while the software "update" lowered the capacity to mask a possible impending failure under warranty.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I think you are misunderstanding my point. The charging capacity of the battery probably hasn't actually changed.

The software that displays the charge has changed to reflect a lower available distance.

Toyota vehicles will indicate that there are 0 miles left in a gas tank, but continue to drive for 12 additional miles while indicating that the tank was empty. This happened to me years ago.

I have a friend that owned a Pontiac, and when the gas meter reads empty, then the car sputters to a stop. Also happened to me.

If the 0 miles left indicator shows up, there may still be miles of charge left on the battery.
However, consuming power at this critically low battery charge can/wlll permanently reduce the Max remaining life on the battery.

Charging the battery before going to this critical low will extend the life of the battery.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

You made a good point.