Tesla Took What I Paid For<br>An open complaint to Tesla<br>Tesla Took What I Paid For<br>I paid €6,200 + VAT for the Full Self-Driving package on a car I own outright. Tesla switched it off remotely — then refused warranty service. My car still says the package is “Included.”<br>€6,200 + VAT paid for FSDDisabled remotely 8 Apr 2026 Car still lists it “Included”Warranty service refused~800 owners affected<br>By Bartosz Hernas, owner of a 2025 Tesla Model Y·VIN XP7YGCEK9SB621959

What this is really about<br>Forget, for a moment, whether what I did was right. Forget whether using FSD was legal. Neither is the point.<br>What matters is this: Tesla didn’t like that I modified a car I own outright — so it reached in and remotely bricked part of it. Not just the feature some people assume is illegal (it isn’t, on private roads) — but fully legal safety features the car shipped with from new, part of the very €6,200 + VAT package I had paid for.<br>This is not the Kindle store. It is not Steam. It is a car — a physical thing I bought and own — sold to me with a list of features, every one of which Tesla can switch off from a server. (Ask anyone who remembers the old “Winter Package.”) Break Tesla’s terms and, in effect, the car drives itself back to the factory. No refund. Tens of thousands of euros, gone.<br>Tesla stays silent — but it behaves as though I never bought a car at all. As though I only ever licensed the right to use one. So the real question isn’t about me. It’s about everyone who drives:<br>Do we own our cars — or do we only own a licence to use them?<br>Should a manufacturer be able to disable functions you paid for, on its own whim ?<br>If you speed once, do you accept losing engine power — or top speed — the day a carmaker decides to get zealous about it?

The 30-second version<br>I bought a 2025 Model Y as its first and only owner, with Full Self-Driving Capability for €6,200 + VAT. It worked for months.<br>On 8 April, Tesla sent a remote configuration update that told my car the package had never been purchased . I lost features I had paid for and relied on — including stop-sign and traffic-light recognition.<br>The reason given: an “unauthorized third-party device.” The only devices I used are standard CANBUS diagnostic tools that modify nothing. I have since removed them.<br>Two Tesla service centres confirmed the car is under warranty and the features don’t work — yet both refused to fix it .<br>FSD is now legal where my car is registered. I finally could use what I paid for. Tesla is preventing me — and won’t answer a single one of my questions.

01What I bought<br>In Tesla’s ordering system, the Full Self-Driving Capability package was listed at €6,200 (net, pre-VAT). I paid it. The screenshot below is exactly what I bought.<br>Tesla.com ordering system. Full Self-Driving Capability — €6,200 — “Includes Enhanced Autopilot, plus Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control.”That last line matters. Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control was a genuine safety feature for me: it stops the car automatically at red lights and stop signs. To this day, the official Tesla mobile app still lists the Full Self-Driving Capability package as included with my vehicle.

02It worked — for months<br>After delivery I used the package’s advertised features throughout Europe. Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control operated alongside Autopilot, fully and reliably. The car ran without issue for months.<br>I own the car outright — I do not lease it from Tesla. I take the view that I am entitled to modify a car I own, the same way I might fit custom wheels, a body kit, or new suspension, without the manufacturer penalising me for it.<br>The “modifications,” in full<br>I used two CANBUS diagnostic devices — “Commander” by enhauto.com and a device called “Cybertool.” Neither modifies the car or its software. They connect only to the standard CANBUS diagnostic port — the same interface manufacturers provide for diagnostics — and send commands the vehicle already supports.<br>For example, Commander makes the interior LEDs turn blue when Autopilot is engaged. The car reads a supported signal, sends a supported command, and the colour changes. If the car didn’t support that command, nothing would happen. No PCB altered. No component changed. No original part modified. Tesla itself states publicly that the vehicle software is immutable by third parties.<br>Cybertool works the same way. Just as Commander tells the car to turn its interior LEDs blue, Cybertool sent the car a command it already supported — to switch on the Full Self-Driving package in regions where Tesla had not yet enabled it. It unlocked nothing new: it simply turned on the feature my car was built for and I had already paid for . The car either supports a command or it doesn’t; mine did, because the package was licensed to it.<br>This is the same category of action as Commander disabling the reversing-gear chime — something Commander openly does, even though that chime is mandatory in the EU. And to be completely fair: Full Self-Driving is not...