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Unpatchable AMD Chip Flaw Unlocks Paid Tesla Feature Upgrades
(www.tomshardware.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Almost every car company does something similar and has as long as they've had on board computers.
VW/Audi/Porche are all the same company and generally share the same electronics. A lot of gauges and features are considered "premium" so they just disable them for VW branded vehicles. There's also regional feature lockouts; IIRC North American VW's can't have their fog-lights and headlights on at the same time but you can enable it through VAGCOM.