Tesla has remotely disabled driver assistance features on a used Model S after it was sold to a customer. The company now claims that the owner of the car’did not pay’ for the features and therefore is not eligible to use them.

Software software software updates can be used as part of the package when the car was sold to its owner. It’s a peculiar situation that raises questions about the nature of over-the-air software updates.

Tesla can update its vehicles remotely. The model S and other Tesla vehicles can apparently lose key features. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The dealer bought the car a month earlier from a Tesla auction. Both’enhanced autopilot’ and’full self driving mode’ features intact. Jalopnik says the car’s owner is Alec.

When Alec picked up the car on December 20th, he did not have access to all its advertised features. Unbeknownst to the dealer, Tesla had independently conducted a software’audit’ of the car after selling it.

After contacting Tesla customer support, Alec was given the bad news. After contacting the company, Alec received the news:’Thank you’.

Tesla has identified instances of customers being incorrectly programmed for autopilot versions that they did not pay for. Since, there was an audit done to correct these instances. We apologized for the confusion.

The value of the self-driving features that were supposed to remain active in the Model S comes out to about $ 8,000. Tesla now says Alec has to pay the company for the features to get them re-enabled.

Even with a technology product like a laptop, updates generally ca n’t be forcibly rolled back without the consent of the owner. In those cases, the company generally owns the device or has the owner sign a legal agreement anyhow.