On May 15th, according to Electrek, some Tesla car owners recently discovered that their cars experienced a significant 20% decrease in range after a software update. They have filed a lawsuit against Tesla, accusing the company of intentionally interfering with the performance of their cars and reducing the battery’s range through software updates.
This is not the first time that Tesla has faced such a lawsuit. As early as 2019, many Tesla owners claimed that after updating the software to versions 2019.16.1 and 2019.16.2, their car’s mileage decreased by 12 to 30 miles and charging speed was greatly affected. The affected vehicles were mainly the Model S cars with 85 kWh battery packs that were discontinued in 2016. At that time, Tesla owners sued Tesla and won the lawsuit. Subsequently, Tesla restored most of the battery capacity and compensated each owner with $625.
This time, some Model S and Model X cars are affected, and Tesla did not inform owners that software updates could cause a decrease in battery life. Some owners who contacted Tesla’s service department said that Tesla told them they needed to replace the battery. Since these cars’ old models have exceeded the warranty period, if a battery replacement is necessary, Tesla will charge up to $15,000.
The biggest problem with this incident seems to be a communication problem on Tesla’s side. Tesla never explains to owners what happened. Last time, Tesla said that the reduction in battery capacity was for safety reasons, but did not explain the specific safety issues or how they solved the problem. If they could explain the situation publicly, the problem would be much simpler, but now it can only be resolved through legal means.
