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Would this void the warranty? I assume if the vehicle malfunctioned in any way, or caused an accident, Tesla would say it was your fault for disconnecting.

Of course, one could make the argument that since they sometimes push out updates that have bugs, it's actually safer to drive the car with a static feature set that the driver is familiar with.




The Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act makes it illegal to void the warranty for modifying your vehicle.

They would need to prove that failure was a direct result of your modification.


It won’t void the warranty but most automaker shops won’t touch anything you’ve modified. So the warranty is pretty much void for said modified parts.

Toyota won’t touch my modified Tacoma suspension and I’m fine with it. They are more than willing to fix anything else.


It is unclear whether this voids the warranty. Tesla, like other manufacturers, leaves open the possibility of voiding a warranty for improper repairs, but I'm not aware of any cases in which Tesla has actually gone that route.

Also regarding your last point, OTA updates can also provide added safety. For example, there have been similar software issues with the anti-lock brakes for both Teslas and Toyotas. Tesla was able to fix that problem and push out the updates in a few days. Toyota also had a quick fix, but actually deploying the update to cars required a recall and for the update to be manually installed by a technician. That extra barrier to getting the update unquestionably resulted in unsafe cars being on the road much longer than if OTA updates were possible.


There is no doubt that some of the OTA updates increase vehicle safety. I was just pointing out that one could make an argument that it is not anti-safety to prevent updates from being applied. It's just a matter of what is more important: the new things being added, or having a better understanding of how the vehicle will consistently behave.




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