The German car-maker says its “optional power upgrade” is designed to give customers more choice.
I honestly wish this would immediately totally destroy the entire company.
We need an example for “what happens when you make basic features cost extra”.
This isn’t the first example, but the first I did hear was the heated seats (don’t remember the make, but I think it was BMW which I already hate conveniently) feature getting milked the same way.
I’m totally in favor of companies tiptoeing to see how much hostility they can get away with getting immediately liquidated and shut down faster than the CEO can finish chuckling to themselves after coming up with the idea. Their golden parachutes should turn into iron weights and they should be up shit’s creek, penniless and disqualified for any account in their name to ever receive a deposit. This kind of decision should be actually and literally lethal.
I’m not even kidding. I’m in favor of executing everyone involved in this whole chain of decisions, including any and all the “yes men” along the way. They’re too evil to be allowed to breathe my oxygen.
the eu almost not allowed this shit for bmw, now every brand is gonna go through
So… Volkswagen is the next target for hacking ?
Thank goodness, my John Deere side hustle was slowing down.
Unfortunately, it was clear that everybody was going to follow suit after this:
The way the article frames it as “why pay for what you don’t need” is so bad.
Nah, you already paid for it, the part is physically in the motorcycle.
The real question should be: why are vehicle manufacturers inclusing features that they can’t afford to maintain after they have sold it to us? Maybe stop making everything internet-integrated. Nobody in their right mind should be forking over a subscription for something they just spent tens of thousands of dollars on.
features that they can’t afford to maintain
That logic might work for GPS service, but the example in the article is a bike where the battery’s discharge rate and capacity are limited by software, and those limits can be increased via software if you pay a subscription.
Fuck that noise.
What happens if the car goes out of range from the internet? Does the car just lose power the same way I can’t play Gamepass games offline?
I already bought the car with the hardware in it. I will do what I want with it.
My next car will be a 1995 Honda. I’m so tired of being tracked all the time.
You can play GamePass Ultimate games offline, though.
No, I’m serious. I’m not arguing with you, I promise.
Oh I wasn’t aware. Each time I try to open a game before my Xbox connects to the internet, I get an error.
Connect to the Internet, download the games you want and then go into settings and take your console offline.
The initial setup requires some settings tweaks but after that it’s smooth sailing.
Also, VW can suck a fat one.
You can bump 10 years ahead, my car doesn’t have tracking 😄
20 years ahead even. Most 2015 model year cars have modems that no longer have networks to connect to. (CDMA, WCDMA, etc.) Also, you can pull the modem fuse on modern cars.
That’s an interesting insight, thanks!
This is way beyond “mildly infuriating”. Shit should be illegal, it’s terrible for progress and an epitome of greedy capitalist bullshit.
Agreed. Although that is true for 80% of the threads posted in this category.
I wonder how this is going to effect stock prices. On one hand it’s bad, but on the other hand shareholders might not care that it’s bad.
Will probably make the price go up. The whole reason why they do this crap is to get more money out of the consumer.
Ah yes, selling me something that is already available but is just locked behind software. And then trying to frame that as somehow a good thing for customers. Just insulting.
Sadly, it’s been a good part of IBM’s business model for years. They call it Capacity on Demand.
Inactive processor cores and inactive memory units are resources that are included with your server, but are not available for use until you activate them.
I learned this when I moved into a corporate IT environment with Power servers. I couldn’t believe that some companies would pay a quarter of a million for a server that is intentionally stunted/limited unless you pay even more.
But cars are computers now. “Everything’s computer!”. So they will follow that subscription model.
I couldn’t believe that some companies would pay a quarter of a million for a server that is intentionally stunted/limited unless you pay even more.
Well, there is a reason AMD has been kicking ass in the server space lately. Mostly because Intel sat on their ass for a decade, but IBM scalping customers certainly provided a larger opening for AMD.
Officially never buying a VW, BMW, Tesla, Or Mercedes. Who else tried this shit? Toyota, right?
My Subaru had a paid app that included the remote start option. Fuck them all gently with a chainsaw. I paid for the fucking car, I want the whole fucking thing.
Kia has a subscription service for the ability to set remote start options. They can get fucked, too.
I dunno if Toyota ever paywalled performance, but they definitely paywall features. My '15 Lexus requires a subscription service to use remote start. Its app based and relies on the car’s 2g cellular card so it doesn’t even work anymore.
My '24 Chevy does this, too. Lock, unlock and remote start apparently route through OnStar, so using those requires an OnStar subscription.
Yeah mine requires the Toyota Safety Connect or some such, I’m pretty sure it’s just their implementation of OnStar.
Ford just gives you this for free. But inevitably my 5g cellular connection will age out on my 2019 Mustang. No coats for all of the added features. Ford gets a pass by my book.
I have three cars: '24 Chevy Bolt, a '24 Ford Edge, and a '79 Corvette. Unfortunately, for some unfathomable reason, the Corvette doesn’t have an associated app or even any remote connectivity. However, as you observed, the Ford does; as I mentioned, so does the Bolt.
The Chevy app I mostly use to make sure it’s plugged in before I go to bed. My Ford mostly stays outside of my garage, so the app primarily serves to start it remotely, letting the climate control run for a few minutes before I come out. (I also occasionally use it to honk because it amuses me, but I live in the middle of nowhere and am not bothering anyone other than maybe my wife.)
Back before the world was what it is today, I used to have a used '19 Tesla Model 3 (I replaced it with the Bolt). There were good things and bad things about it, but disregarding any social issues for the purpose of this comment, the app was better-functioning than that of any car I’ve purchased since. I was grandfathered into everything, so nothing was paywalled, and most of the stuff worked most of the time, unlike the Ford or Chevy apps which usually require multiple tries and sometimes chastise me for trying multiple times.
And since I’m writing about cars, I will say that the absolute best (for personal enjoyment, not external considerations) vehicle I’ve ever owned was a 2014 Ford Flex, Titanium Trim. There was no app because 2014, but goddamn if I didn’t love that car.
Dunno. My Corolla doesn’t have any features locked out that I am aware of. It certainly hasn’t tried to upsell me any “upgrades”.
When buying isn’t owning …
designed to give customers more choice.
They are surely going to feel a sense of pride and accomplishment.
Someone should compile a list of currently produced car makes and models that are free to modify and repair without software locks on them
I imagine it’s a pretty short list.
Be the change you want to see in the world. I look forward to your list!
Gonna go on youtube and let that Indian tech guy teach me how to jailbreak a Volkswagen.
My favorite stereotypes are the race/STEM expert ones.
South Asia - programming, IT.
East Asia - Math
East Europe - Electrical Engineering
West Europe - High precision engineering and chemistry
At least as far as YouTube tutorials go, it’s basically cannon.
Those guys have saved my ass countless times.
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Car companies are parasites. America was built on trains and the investments into car infrastructure have paralleled US declines. Its just not an effecient use of public resources to build highways between cities.
You can get a lifetime subscription now, next year ‘we have reviewed customer choices and will be discontinuing the lifetime subscription’, so they can continue to milk their customers
Just a life time subscription as this. See attachment.
TomTom did this too. You paid them a life time fee and then they decided you had to start paying an additional fee every month.
