What If Certain Automobile Features Were Subscription Based?

Jalopnik posted an article about this a few days back. I hope this doesn't become the case and people boycott whomever thinks this is a good idea. This will turn cars into one giant subscription causing you to be nickel and dimed over everything. This could make inexpensive base model vehicles you purchase and xrive into the ground a thing of the past.
 
Thats a crappy way to increase their bottom line. I would search long and hard for a hack to beat the subscription, im sure there will be tons of that out there within a year or so.
 
It wouldn't be long until people figure out how to hack the ECU so that all the features are available to the owner.

I believe there are already hacks for Tesla cars, so if others start offering subscriptions or the ability to unlock additional features it will not be long until third parties are doing the same for free or for reduced prices.
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
This is a idea BMW is floating. It could be a trial balloon. Would you pay a monthly subscription price for heated seats? Adaptive Cruise?


https://www.autoguide.com/auto-news...d-seats-into-a-subscription-service.html


A subscription car is one reason why teslas value is so high.

Unified control lets you get there, where as a car with 10 disparate control systems can never really work under a sub.

True " self driving" will ultimately be subscription based.

UD
 
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1) They say movies are pirated from within the studios.....inside jobs

2) They say all these bank account information "hacks" are actually sabotage or espionage.....inside jobs

3) Will work arounds for these subscriptions come from hackers or be snuck out the back door and sold.....like inside jobs?

There'll be layers of security and verification. The poor get poorer and the rich become more insulated.
 
Originally Posted by UncleDave
Originally Posted by PimTac
This is a idea BMW is floating. It could be a trial balloon. Would you pay a monthly subscription price for heated seats? Adaptive Cruise?


https://www.autoguide.com/auto-news...d-seats-into-a-subscription-service.html


A subscription car is one reason why teslas value is so high.

Unified control lets you get there, where as a car with 10 disparate control systems can never really work under a sub.

True " self driving" will ultimately be subscription based.

UD





Maybe so but the subscription will be or transportation and not to use the goodies. From what I read the typical subscription vehicle will be a high roof box type. Don't expect Corinthian leather.
 
Originally Posted by Kira
1) They say movies are pirated from within the studios.....inside jobs

2) They say all these bank account information "hacks" are actually sabotage or espionage.....inside jobs

3) Will work arounds for these subscriptions come from hackers or be snuck out the back door and sold.....like inside jobs?

There'll be layers of security and verification. The poor get poorer and the rich become more insulated.




Kira the Conspiracist
 
This reminds me of Minolta's add-on cards for their autofocus film SLRs.

You paid money to get different settings that the camera itself could have been programmed to do anyway.

This isn't much different from allowing cruise control on a drive-by-wire vehicle.
 
The big problem that I see is that you cannot sell the car with these features even though you paid the monthly rate. Once you sell the features go away until the new owner subscribes.

The car manufacturer will get a lot of revenue from that adaptive cruise control. It reminds me of Ma Bell and how they rented phones. ( those of you who are young will have to look this up)
 
Maybe for Navigation to add new roads and corrections/improvements collected along the way …
Have to be very reasonable …

I'm already paying for OnStar and XM …
 
How much extra per month for a BMW to no break all the time? That would be a great feature!
 
Originally Posted by 4WD
Maybe for Navigation to add new roads and corrections/improvements collected along the way …
Have to be very reasonable …

I'm already paying for OnStar and XM …



Some nerds came up with open source maps, that update weekly, for popular Garmin and other brand GPSs

Governments do a lot of GIS work that's freely available. Shouldn't have to pay to upgrade, though if someone didn't want to DIY for whatever reason it could be a nominal fee.
 
in this case if i was the second owner or whatever.. I'd be disabling their call home, and hacking it.
no updates no problem.
 
I buy used at 5 yr old mark and let the first sucker pay for it all and lose their shirt on depreciation This model would not be as much of bargain as those features plummet in value via depreciation .
 
I would never pay a subscription for static features like heated seats, adaptive cruise and auto-high beams.

I would maybe consider paying for yearly OTA map updates to the NAV system. Navigation is a dynamic feature because you're paying for real-time information which changes.
 
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