2024 Tesla Model Y leak points to paid range unlock alongside charge for front heated seats

The whole software-defined-vehicle craze seems to have the automotive industry in a bit of a panic. Some manufacturers, like BMW, are outright ditching paid software features and subscription models — perhaps due to public push-back. Others, like Audi, claim that consumers want more software subscriptions and on-demand features.

For its part, Tesla seems to be leaning into paid software unlocks and software subscriptions even more than it did previously. At least this appears to be the case if the Tesla teardown and software hacker known on social media as @greentheonly has it right.

The hacker recently posted on X (fka Twitter) that there was mention of a paid unlock for front heated seats in Tesla firmware update 2023.38.8. Tesla already charges a one-time fee of US$300 to unlock heated seating for the back seats of some of its cars. It's probably that Tesla will continue installing heated seat hardware in all of its vehicles going forward, but buyers may need to pay extra to unlock the feature.

In addition to the heated seats, the software update seems to indicate that the 2024 Model Y will be software limited to a range of 260 miles (418 km). This is the same range figure as the current Model Y, but it is normal to have a slightly bigger battery pack than the range target requires. However, this may be an indication that Tesla could offer a paid range unlock for the base Model Y in 2024, as it did previously with the Model S.

It's unclear whether Tesla will drop these previously-standard features in order to artificially lower the base price of the Model Y or try to increase profits by charging extra for the software-locked functionality.

Buy a Cable Shield Electric Vehicle Charger Cable Protector or read about the rise of Tesla in Walter Isaacson's biography of Elon Musk, both on Amazon.