[mkhpalm]

There are no licensed aftermarket parts makers for Tesla and you cannot buy parts from Tesla without being Tesla certified.

This is unusual and unique for auto manufacturers. And its the only thing like it other than other industries such as agriculture (e.g. John Deer). Normal federal laws require auto makers to produce or stock parts for a time period after manufacturer date. This is usually the reason you have licensed aftermarket parts from other makes. Its also the reason GM forced everybody to return all those EV1s since they didn't want to take the loss making those parts after the trial run. Federal law also requires standard interfaces for diagnostics and information such as OBD2. So both state or federal inspection can happen as well as automotive techs can keep the economy going when your vehicle breaks down far from a licensed dealer. The US isn't being weird here, almost every country has the same sorts of rules on the books.

Tesla has these "strange" and extremely unique exemptions from both. Not entirely sure how you get those since its extremely lucrative to have. GM would have probably let people keep their EV1s if they had them. You'd certainly see regular makes come to production with more popular concept cars and keep them true to the concept if they had them. Basically, every other make would love to do the same thing Tesla is doing right now. But for them, they have no choice but to play the uneven playing field if they want to enter the American market. So they have to remain more cautious and careful about what they do release into the wild.

You can "mod" anything but that is not buying new suspension components or even a windshields. And hacking it is no different than what farmers keep trying to do with their John Deer equipment. That is also why right-to-repair is such a big issue. What I can't understand is why nobody ever talks about Tesla there. They're probably the biggest offender.

[mancerayder]

> Tesla has these "strange" and extremely unique exemptions from both.

I'm curious why. I've heard that they're exempt from reporting reliability because of some legislative tie-in to emissions reporting. Is it similar to that?