Do the provisions of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, which basically say you can get your car serviced anywhere you want without voiding your manufacturers' warranty, not apply to Teslas?
I don't see how that law comes into effect in this situation unless they left something out of the article. It didn't say Tesla is preventing others from opening services centers, just that Tesla owns them all so far.
There's probably a non-trivial amount of model specific knowledge needed to repair a Tesla that can't be picked up at a general mechanics' school. Maybe when Tesla's sales volume increases there will be a higher demand for mechanics that Tesla couldn't fill and 3rd party shops will open.
Going to have to wait for an owner to challenge it, or repair shop which tries to obtain the necessary technical information to do so.
disclaimer, I work a major auto parts supplier, etc. It will be very very interesting to see if tries to circumvent this law, which I doubt he can. If anything shuts down his expansion it may be through this route. As in, they may force them to curtail selling until they can provide the independent support.
I think we are up for another fight on this topic very soon, but not only with Tesla. There are existing laws that force manufacturers to provide standardized maintenance interfaces, provide guidelines to shops etc., but increasingly cars are controlled by propietary computer systems.
And the whole thing takes a turn for the absurd when you consider electric cars. Sure, force manufacturers to provide documentation on how to replace a bumper.. but its purely naive to think you could have just any mechanic service a completely computer controlled high-voltage battery compartment.
There's probably a non-trivial amount of model specific knowledge needed to repair a Tesla that can't be picked up at a general mechanics' school. Maybe when Tesla's sales volume increases there will be a higher demand for mechanics that Tesla couldn't fill and 3rd party shops will open.