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Amortizing the cost would be better, without telling the user. Just charge everyone the same and factor in the cost of the free upgrade to the users with HW2.5. It’s not like this isn’t how it’s done elsewhere. High margin buyers subsidize low margin buyers all the time.

[dcow]

Perhaps this is true. I suspect there's a strong preference to convert low margin buyers to high margin buyers, though. And as a high margin buyer it doesn't sit well with me knowing Tesla is subsidizing free HW upgrades out of my purchase price so it just feels like moving the problem around not actually solving it. That was my point, really. The money has to come from somewhere it seems Tesla wasn't as tactical as they could have been when considering the optics here. And the good thing is it's not hard to change and they have demonstrated history of correcting for price fluctuations in FSD costs, so there's fair hope they'll address any perceived gaps. Personally I think a 6 mo minimum subscription term or a "you get 6 months free with purchase of the hardware" promotion would be a great middle ground that lets purchasers attach long enough to fund the upgrade naturally.

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I don’t mean to be blunt, so please don’t take offense when I say this in response:

>And as a high margin buyer it doesn't sit well with me knowing Tesla is subsidizing free HW upgrades out of my purchase price so it just feels like moving the problem around not actually solving it.

You shouldn’t buy high margin products if you care what the company does with the high margin. The same goes for Apple products. Apple’s high margin goes to pay devs and for decades long R+D products, many of them will fail. It also goes to pay settlements when they fuck up. Them’s the breaks.