Tesla has updated its warranty for its already problematic media unit and touchscreen with a ridiculously shorter 2-year or 25,000-mile limit.
As we previously reported, Tesla had a problem with the embedded Multi-Media-Card memory (eMMC) in its original MCU (the central media unit with a touchscreen).
It is being overwritten to the point of failure and many early Tesla owners are having to replace it.
If it failed during Tesla’s 4-year limited warranty, Tesla would replace it with a new or refurbished unit, which also had a 4-year warranty or 50,000-mile warranty.
This week, Tesla updated the warranty on replacement MCUs and slashed the length of coverage in half, according to an update on its website:
“Touchscreen and Media Control Unit: 2 years or 25,000 miles, whichever comes first”
The updated warranty comes just a few weeks after it was announced that Tesla is under investigation by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) over the MCU issue.
Earlier this year, Tesla also started offering MCU2 upgrades for $2,500. Based on the language on Tesla’s website, it looks like this new MCU also falls under the new 2-year warranty.
Electrek’s Take
This is one of those situations where Tesla disappoints.
We all know that there’s a serious problem with the original MCU. Tesla did push an update that fixed the bug last year, but the issue likely still shorten the life of the original units prior to being fixed.
Of course, Tesla suffered from a lack of communication during the entire situation.
Now if you get a replacement for your defective MCU, it will only be under warranty for just 2 years or 25,000 miles. It doesn’t sound right to me since it had to be replaced due to a lagging defect and not actual normal wear.
On top of it, Tesla is updating the warranty just as it is starting to perform FSD computer upgrades to MCU1 vehicles and those owners are reporting issues with the MCU after upgrading the Autopilot computer.
This will likely push many of them to try to get a replacement MCU.
The move to pre-sale FSD with computer upgrades may seem smart at first, but it now looks like it’s backfiring a little and Tesla expects to be overwhelmed by MCU upgrades – leading to changing the warranty.
Hopefully, the NHTSA investigation can make sense of this whole mess.
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