This Fake Tesla Birthday Hoax Was So Convincing It Sparked Real Outrage

- A Tesla owner decided to play a prank on fellow owners by posting a fake birthday email.
- In it, βTeslaβ says itβll give the owner an extra horsepower boost for thirty days.
- Those in the comment section unleashed their frustration with features hidden behind paywalls.
Tesla fans get really excited when new features, trials, or beta programs arrive. Thatβs probably why very few people realized that a post on Reddit was just a prank by an overeager owner. They reported a birthday reward email supposedly from Tesla offering a 30-day horsepower boost. It turns out that before realizing it was a hoax, many took the chance to bash the US EV maker and other brands for paywall-blocked features.
More: Rivian Will Make You Pay For Extra Power And Range Your EV Already Has
Posted on Redditβs Tesla Model 3 forum, the main feature was an image. It appeared to be an email directly from Tesla. βHappy Birthday! We are delighted to offer you an exclusive birthday gift: +50 Extra Horsepower,β it said. βYour Tesla has been upgraded with an additional 50 horsepower, effective for the next 30 days.β
A Convincing Fake
At first glance, it looks legitimate. The script looks realistic, the grammar is fine, and it appears to come from no-reply@Tesla.com. That was more than enough to fool several people. The top comments are full of people assuming itβs real. Some ask about future programs based on the idea, others joke about changing their birthday in the Tesla app, and others comment on their excitement about it.
At the same time, it left some fans feeling disillusioned and annoyed. Several made comments to that effect. ββ¦is it just me that thinks thatβs absolutely ridiculous? If I have the hardware, why would I pay to use the hardware? Thatβs like buying a computer with 16gb of ram, only having 12, and then getting an email βunlockingβ the other 4gb for 30 days.
βJustβ¦ stupid. Either sell me the car without the extra horsepower (so, without the hardware that makes it possible)β¦ or let me use all the horsepower it can produce. This is justβ¦ awful,β said one. After another commented on how cool it was that you could download extra horsepower, another responded, βYou mean mildly infuriated itβs locked behind a paywall.β
A Familiar Practice
Of course, in this case, the birthday gift wasnβt real, but itβs not as if Tesla doesnβt offer similar products. As of this writing, buyers can unlock features that the hardware they own is already capable of, like additional range or speed.
Notably, Tesla is far from the only brand to offer this sort of thing. Several brands offer similar βsubscription servicesβ, from extra power to adaptive suspension. Unless buyers unite to condemn this type of practice, itβll probably never end.
