Tesla owner peeks into firmware, discovers minor secret, gets spanked by Tesla

[deckeda]

http://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/03/man-...owngraded/

1) Found a graphic that hints at a battery update/upgrade coming
2) Publicly bragged
3) Got his car's firmware downgraded
4) Essentially "forgives" Tesla after it all blows over

Aside from the guy coming off like a tool, how does a Tesla car not know they can remotely admin firmware?

[Lux Interior]

Who came off like a tool?

[Paul F.]

What, like Tesla has made it a SECRET that they're trying very very hard to improve battery technology by large percentages?
Next thing you're going to tell me is that SpaceX is trying to land Falcon 9 first stages for re-use.

[space-time]

why do these companies put code for unreleased products on their OS or Firmware? I recall when people found new version of iPhone or Mac models in iOS/OS X. Why can't they delete any trace of these unreleased models before making golden master of those OS?

[RAMd®d]

I recall when people found new version of iPhone or Mac models in iOS/OS X. Why can't they delete any trace of these unreleased models before making golden master of those OS?

It "happened" enough times to Apple that I figured it had to be deliberate on Apple's part.

I have to believe that somewhere in Apple R&D HQ that some Supe says "Ok, go through and check for stuff we might have missed, and scrub the GM".

Maybe the Error 53 guy has been transferred to making icons.

[Lux Interior]

space-time wrote:
why do these companies put code for unreleased products on their OS or Firmware?

It's just an incremental increase in capacity, not really an unreleased product.

It's about as much of a surprise as an increase in clock speed for CPUs.

[Black]

deckeda wrote:
Aside from the guy coming off like a tool, how does a Tesla car not know they can remotely admin firmware?

Nobody said it was a Smart Car.

[vision63]

Check the Tesla engineer that wasn't happy with the bonus situation.

[davester]

Nothing to see here. We don't even know if they actually remotely downgraded his firmware. It's just one guy's story.

[Bimwad]

space-time wrote:
why do these companies put code for unreleased products on their OS or Firmware? I recall when people found new version of iPhone or Mac models in iOS/OS X. Why can't they delete any trace of these unreleased models before making golden master of those OS?

Because it's a waste of time and resources for little to no benefit. The engineers' task is to build products, not worry about the marketing implications of their work in progress.

99% of users aren't going to be poking around stuff like this, and even when it is uncovered, it may have little material impact on the business. Great for rumor sites and forum fodder, but not much else.

Apple succeeds in spite of its secrecy and internal compartmentalization, but for most, the risks are greater than the rewards.