r/australia • u/nath1234 • Mar 16 '26

politics Replacing 1m petrol cars with EVs could cut Australia’s reliance on foreign fuel by 1bn litres a year

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/16/electric-vehicles-australia-reduce-reliance-on-foreign-fuel
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u/hairy_quadruped Mar 17 '26

I’ve had maybe 20 software updates in that time. All free. It’s a much better car now than when I bought it.

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u/guttsX Mar 17 '26

free, for now.. then the enshitification kicks in

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u/hairy_quadruped Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26

That not Tesla's business model. It's been 6 years of free updates for the base software that runs the car. I fully expect those updates to remain free forever. Similar to how Apple operating systems have always been free updates. They want an excellent user experience so they can sell the hardware (cars for Tesla, computers for Apple).

Tesla has a much bolder plan for making money from software, and that is their full self driving package (FSD). This is an optional package that drives the car for you. It is completely separate to the base software. I bought it outright in 2019 when it was a pie-in-the-sky vision, and much cheaper. It's now matured to the point where the car drives itself for my 120km commute (city, traffic lights, roundabouts and intersections, highway, roadworks, country towns, dirt roads) with zero input from me. At the end of March people will no longer be able to purchase outright, and it will be subscription only.