So -- Tesla creates their own positive PR by crippling their hardware via software lockdown until an opportunity arises for them to look like the good guys by temporarily releasing the hand-cuffs.
I'm glad they're extending the range today, but it's not really positive PR IMHO. They're shining a spotlight on the fact that they're crippling the hardware, like you said.
When people bought the car, they knew that it was software limited.
Tesla is really one of the few companies that is trying to cleanup this world, in which we're forced to live in polluted large cities to have a good job. If the company thinks that software limiting for better market segmenting is more profitable for them, I'm all happy for them. All I wish for them is to scale up their manufacturing as planned, so that people can buy cheap electric cars instead of the dirty ones.
And/or potentially allowing the Lipoly battery to expend more charge than optimal for it's lifecycle. Increasing the recharge rate of the breaks to make them a bit more "touchy".
With electric vehicles, everything is a tradeoff.
Seems like a fair choice, but perhaps one that they should allow the drivers to choose...
What a world.