[Pontiac]

I was an early adopter of Garmin GPS.

It made sense to me to have to pay for updates to the maps downloaded to the devise. They were necessary to remove errors, update for new roads be placed in service and add features.

Garmin eventually changed to life time free updates as competition entered the market.

Paying subscription fees for hardware that you for which you have already paid makes no sense to me.

I don’t see this as a lasting business model. People simply do not have the disposable income to pay for this kind of thing.

[EVO X]

As I mentioned in a previous post, my car has the option to subscribe to a red light camera database. I don’t need it, but maybe someone that lives in an area with lots of cameras might subscribe. The car has a 4 year subscription to map updates and that is about it. Lane departure warnings, etc are built into the car. There aren’t subscriptions to operate the car safely..

[T.B. Yoits]

...pay for updates to the maps downloaded to the devise. They were necessary to remove errors, update for new roads be placed in service and add features. Garmin eventually changed to life time free updates as competition entered the market.

These navigation companies get paid not just in the units sold but by advertisers on their platform. The voice directions now include "Turn left at [business name]".

These companies intend to implement the newspaper model: get paid by advertisers and get paid by subscribers.