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Comment by nrjames | Hacker News Reader

Here's the actual Tesla announcement:

https://www.tesla.com/blog/update-our-vehicle-lineup

"Given the popularity of the Standard Plus relative to the Standard, we have made the decision to simplify our production operations to better optimize cost, minimize complexity and streamline operations. As a result, Model 3 Standard will now be a software-limited version of the Standard Plus, and we are taking it off the online ordering menu, which just means that to get it, customers will need to call us or visit any one of the several hundred Tesla stores. Deliveries of Model 3 Standard will begin this weekend."

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The next paragraph is interesting too:

"Its range will be limited by 10%, and several features will be disabled via software (including our onboard music streaming service, navigation with live traffic visualization, and heated seats). Similar to other software-limited vehicles produced in the past, Standard customers will have the option to upgrade to a Standard Plus at any time. Similarly, anyone who has already bought Standard Plus and wants to convert to Standard is welcome to do so, and we will provide a refund for the difference in cost."

It's pretty confident to offer both upgrade and downgrade options between the two.

The downgrade offer is only for those who had already ordered. Not that you can downgrade at any time. It makes sense to offer this as your choice might have been influenced by the "permanency" of the decision.

Software disabled heated seats?

When the "switch" is on a display, software can do anything.

Sounds familiar: https://techcrunch.com/2013/04/01/tesla-kills-the-entry-leve...

I don't understand. Will they be selling the standard then ? The quote and headline don't seem to match. And no, I haven't read the link.

edit: I did read the link and I still don't understand.

Confusing indeed. Are they just trying to make it harder to buy the cheapest model? That's the only thing that makes sense to me.

They use the cheapest model to try to lure customers in and upsell them. That is why it is not available online. They don't want to sell the SR; they are likely losing money on it.

I thought they were saying they're going to stop selling the current standard one, and the new "standard" will be the software limited plus, and that it will only be available at a store and not online.

As far as I know they never delivered any of the Standard Range cars with cloth seats, and this sound like they don't plan to for the forseeable future.

They were originally going to sell a physically different Standard Range model. Manually adjusting cloth seats, fewer speakers, a more basic center console, etc.

The update is that they won't be making a physically distinct Standard Range model, it will be physically the same as the $39k model with software limitations.

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