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submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by Washedupcynic@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

The lead plaintiff in the case, Nyree Hinton, bought a used Model Y with less than 37,000 miles (59,546 km) on the odometer. Within six months, it had pushed past the 50,000-mile (80,467 km) mark, at which point the car's bumper-to-bumper warranty expired. (Like virtually all EVs, Tesla powertrains have a separate warranty that lasts much longer.)

For this six-month period, Hinton says his Model Y odometer gained 13,228 miles (21,288 km). By comparison, averages of his three previous vehicles showed that with the same commute, he was only driving 6,086 miles (9,794 km) per 6 months.

Edit: I just want to point out that I just learned that changing your tires to ones of a different diameter can also affect how your spedometer clocks. So yeah, this issue is full of nuance and plausible things as to why this could not be true.

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[-] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Good thing we have the CFPB to register and punish companies for shady practices like th...oh, nevermind.

[-] easily3667@lemmus.org 0 points 1 week ago
[-] lb_o@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Or intentionally?

[-] invertedspear@lemm.ee 1 points 2 weeks ago

Really needs to back this up with some corroborating evidence like Google maps location timeline or something. I don’t trust Tesla, but I also know when I switched to EV I started making excuses to drive everywhere. Practically free miles and great acceleration made driving a joy again. Also my wife and I would often swap vehicles if she had some errand across town to save on gas. Combined that out way more miles in my EV than I had been putting on the previous gas car.

If all this guy did is commute, then he likely has a case, but I really question that.

[-] zlatko@programming.dev 1 points 1 week ago

Well, true, but tyres wouldn't make it a double distance, it's not that simple. The case isn't clear, if course, but the claim says that the odometer tried to reduce the range after it got out of the warranty period.

Not saying anything about the merit of the case, just the the claim itself sounds interesting and that if true, you can't wave it away with "you changed tyres".

[-] Wimster@lemmy.wtf 1 points 2 weeks ago

In the past, Tesla lawyers even initiated lawsuits against customers who dared to criticize the quality of their cars or services. Such cases are documented and therefore not fake news. Last week, moreover, DOGE dismantled the department responsible for safety control and approval of new cars entering the market. Tesla experienced too many problems with this department in the past and now, through DOGE, took the opportunity to simply dismantle it. Moral of the story... buy a Tesla, a “safe” decision.

[-] mannycalavera@feddit.uk 0 points 2 weeks ago

It's far more likely that the odometer in Teslas are just poor quality crap like the rest of the car.

[-] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

We already know they knowingly lied about battery range, the capabilities of self driving, and a ton of other fraudulent practices. Tesla is doing it intentionally is more likely than poor build quality.

[-] JeremyHuntQW12@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

In fact I believe the odometer reading is calculated from the electricty consumption, not from a meter in the gearbox. So if the range reading is inaccurate (and they are) it would throw out the mileage as well.

Should be super easy to prove too… Take an assortment of Teslas to a 1 mile stretch of road, drive it up and down 20 times, measure the mileage before and after.

Not necessarily, the incorrect readings may only occur at certain speeds or conditions.

[-] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago

That would make no sense. There has to be something spinning connected to something rolling in the ground.

All the AC motors have some kind of encoder to control rotation (and can easily be used to count rotations as well). But if Xitter and Doge have taught us anything, it’s that the programmers for Musks companies more not be very competent.

[-] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago
[-] knightly@pawb.social 0 points 2 weeks ago

When accused of crimes, deflect by admitting to even bigger crimes.

[-] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago
[-] Archer@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

I have the worst fucking attorneys

[-] VanillaFrosty@lemmy.world -1 points 2 weeks ago

Double it and give it to the next defendant!

[-] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

Sure, but if you apply hanlon's razor whenever it's applicable, you're right more often.

"never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

[-] cheese_greater@lemmy.world -1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It can definitely be both. Trump is exhibit A. Its never enough for them to get what they want, it has to hurt the other person or party on the other end of any interaction. They are thoroughly malicious and stupid

[-] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 weeks ago

That's 70 miles a day, for anyone who doesn't want to do the math. I don't know where Hinton lives, but that's almost two laps around all of the highways surrounding the city I live in. That's 2 hours of driving on surface roads, not including stop lights and stop signs.

I wonder how much money Tesla has saved by breaking the law this way?

[-] AntY@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

Or about 11 swedish miles per day.

[-] vandsjov@feddit.dk 0 points 1 week ago
[-] AntY@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

The unity mile, of course. It’s 10,688.54 m.

[-] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 week ago

A odometer is a smell sensor, no?

[-] jaemo@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

They don't install those in new cars, you need one made in the ol'factory.

[-] jj4211@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

How silly, it's obvious that would be an odormeter. An odometer is about something else entirely.

[-] sexy_peach@feddit.org 0 points 2 weeks ago

For this six-month period, Hinton says his Model Y odometer gained 13,228 miles (21,288 km). By comparison, averages of his three previous vehicles showed that with the same commute, he was only driving 6,086 miles (9,794 km) per 6 months.

That's 2x. Seems too obvious to be happening on all teslas

[-] Auntievenim@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

The important bit in the article was that he had bought it used. I'm sure its not a standard feature for brand new Tesla, but I would absolutely believe that some kind of fuckery to keep pre-owned buyers from taking advantage of the warranty is SOP. It's counting double the miles, there's no possible way for that to happen on accident unless the odometer is completely independent of the cars systems.

I'm pretty sure old odometers literally spun according to the wheels turning as you drove. If Tesla is "calculating" mileage then they would absolutely be able to just inject commands to ignore the correct algorithm and make it hit 50k as fast as possible. I'm sure most of the people they did this to weren't keen eyed enough to notice.

Certainly not all Tesla, just the ones they think they can get away with. 38k miles is not very far from 50k, they assumed he would be a rube and just suck it up when they told him his warranty was invalid.

[-] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee -1 points 2 weeks ago

I really doubt it, a lot of people would notice their odometer doing twice the work it should be doing.

I think the most likely explanation is someone wrote down the wrong value.

this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2025
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