I don’t think you can drive it when it’s offline, though. I guess it must allow a little emergency use, but i bet it’s hard to start it without it verifying itself.
It may be something like with MCI highway motor coaches – I’ve always fantasized about turning one into a fancy RV so I’ve read a fair bit about them. When they detect abnormal conditions that don’t actually prevent operation (for example, absence of DEF – Diesel Exhaust Fluid) they go into a degraded mode of operation where they don’t actually quit, but just limp along slowly with the sole purpose of getting to a service center.
And THAT is really saying something! 
It works just fine offline. It will start, drive, and do all kinds of 1990s car stuff while it is offline. Obviously you can’t do online things like live traffic or stream Spotify. The phone as a key stuff only requires Bluetooth, so both the car and phone can be offline and it still works. Really, the biggest annoyance of being offline is that it takes 1-2 minutes for the online map routing to time out and compute the route based on offline data.
The criticism is valid though. If Musk has a fit and disables people’s cars, who is going to come to our rescue? The CPSC, FTC, SCOTUS?
And for a bit of whataboutism, any other connected cars are also vulnerable to this type of attack. My 2000 Suburban would be, too, except the OnStar cellular module is analog only (hasn’t worked since 2008 or so).
I want to get a license plate that says FELMO, but I’m not sure if anyone will get it, and if it is easily understandable, then I’m sure the state will deny it.
It means “Friend of Elmo”, right? Just like “FOB” meant “Friend of Bill [Clinton]”. What’s the problem?
Oh, good to know. Thanks
A few years ago I read a couple articles that claimed Tesla was not allowing advanced features like autopilot to transfer to new owners without the new owner paying the license fees again to Tesla. I tried to google for those articles, and what I found today were nothing but reports of isolated cases of dispute whether the license fees were ever paid in the first place, not a consistent policy. But Tesla definitely has the power to just up and unilaterally decide to remotely downgrade your car without even talking to you.
Remember, according to Trump it is illegal to boycott Tesla. Therefore, anyone shopping for a car had better consider buying a Tesla, and only reject them for non-political, non-boycott related reasons. So if you don’t want to find yourself sued into owning a Tesla, you had better decide you don’t want one based only on the color, and don’t collude with anyone about this decision. It needs to be made just between you and your family. I recommend documenting this. Perhaps a text chain with your spouse, where you decide not to buy a Tesla because the seat belt is uncomfortable.
But the Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla
Yes, they can do this. And again with the whataboutism, so can other car manufacturers with their modern cars. As far as I know, purchased or included benefits on Tesla cars are usually tied to the car, not to the owner. For example, old Model S cars with free supercharging sell at a bit of a premium over ones that don’t have it.
What Tesla has done is modify these on cars that they receive as trade-ins, and then sell as used. So, for example, when used Teslas were in high demand, they might accept a trade-in with Full Self Driving (supervised), and then disable it, forcing the new owner to buy it again. The opposite also happened, add FSD to a used car they own to
Incidents have definitely happened where there has been fuckups in the transfer of ownership, where somehow an addon feature has not been activated for the new owner, but despite whining and accusations, all the ones I recall seeing have been mistakes.
As Echoreply stated, all manufacturers of modern cars have the power to downgrade the cars. They don’t downgrade customer’s cars because this would anger their customers.
They also have the power to upgrade the cars. Tesla does this. They’ve been doing it for years now. Owners are notified of an update which typically includes new features, and the owner can choose to accept the update or not. Usually the new features include buttons to disable or customize the new feature.
Moderating
Hey, just a reminder:
From the FAQ
Illegal activity. Do not post material that in our opinion encourages or facilitates activity that is illegal in the U.S. Discussion of whether an activity should or should not be illegal is permissible. We encourage people to abide by local U.S. law, which varies by jurisdiction. Please do not post suggestions or advice on how to evade local U.S. law.
just as a FYI, it should read SIEG Heil (in the title)
But that still leaves 6% who might!
Oh, good catch. I’ll fix that.
How many of those wouldn’t have purchased a Tesla anyway? 33% of German households don’t have cars at all. There are 58 cars for every 100 German people. Seems like a useless statistic to me.
Is that the same 6% that drink American beer?
Probably the same 6% who belong to clandestine banned political movements.
We’re slipping, folks. 173 posts before someone points out a typo in a word from a foreign language? We can do better ! 
Thanks. 