Posted on 02/06/2022 9:39:03 AM PST by yesthatjallen
How would you feel about paying $5 each month for the ability to lock and unlock your car from a distance through an app? What about a $25-per-month charge for advanced cruise control or $10 to access heated seats? What if those charges continued long after your car was paid off?
As vehicles become increasingly connected to the internet, car companies aim to rake in billions by having customers pay monthly or annual subscriptions to access certain features. Not content with the relatively low-margin business of building and selling cars, automakers are eager to pull down Silicon Valley-style profits. But unlike with Netflix, you won't be able to use your ex-girlfriend's uncle's login in your new BMW.
For automakers, the advantage of this model is clear. Not only do they get a stream of recurring revenue for years after an initial purchase, they can hope to maintain a longer-term relationship with the customer and build brand loyalty, said Kristin Kolodge, an analyst at JD Power.
This approach can also allow carmakers to streamline manufacturing by building cars to more uniform specifications, Mark Wakefield, who runs the automotive and industrial practice at the consulting firm AlixPartners, told Insider. Down the line, owners can add on the features they want à la carte.
It's all made possible by the advent of over-the-air software updates, which were pioneered by Tesla around a decade ago and are now entering the mainstream. Today's vehicles are more internet-connected and computerized than ever before, meaning car companies can reach deep inside a vehicle to add new capabilities and tweak things from a distance.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
EVERY report like this makes me happier that I own OLD IRON.
CSPAN had an interesting show about the World’s Fair of 1939.
The Fair lost money because it failed to meet its revenue projections.
The number one problem the Fair had—folks thought the food prices were too high.
Consumers can get very irritated and rebellious when they think they are getting ripped off...even on relatively small items.
"what's 5 bucks"..."what's $10 bucks"....
people throw away money all the time without blinking....
I guess if you're a rich govt worker or retiree with unending stream of income, you don't care about this....
we could afford this crap but I won't do it out of principle....
“It’s a choice, like anything. If you want the extras you’ll pay for them.”
NO! I WANT MY NANNY TO MAKE THE BAD MAN COMPANY GIVE ME THE FEATURE FOR FREE!
There will be chips to reverse this in a New York minute !
> , owners can add on the features they want à la carte.
Which means the “features” are there, but not enabled.
It sounds much like the idea Microsoft was tossing around about charging a $5 monthly fee for Windows updates and security updates.
And Sen. John Tester (D-MT) has introduced Agriculture Right to Repair Act, so there's that.
Take home printers for instance. Used to be you bought a printer and then purchased toner/ink as you needed it. Now for say $15/mo you get toner/ink cartridge sent to you automatically as your printer calls for it.
For some heavy users, the company may have to send you a cartridge every month or so and take a loss. But for the majority of others, a cartridge might be needed only once every year or so, allowing for hefty margins.
Overall, "printing-as-a-service" is very lucrative.
Many other examples abound such as Microsoft Office 365.
So I’m an auto shop and have to test the heated seats on a car being prepped for resale. I use my shop sw to enable the feature. You slip me a one time payment of $25 and I enable it for you too....
A subscription model makes sense in some cases where regular updates can be practical. A GPS software package, for example, can be updated periodically to provide new mapping, updated directories of businesses, etc. But a subscription service to maintain the functionality of HARDWARE like heated seats, AC, cruise control, etc. is idiotic.
Death by a thousand little fees.
“I have another dumb question: Can cars being sold today be disconnected from the internet permanently?”
If they can give you ‘features’ via Internet download, they can also download ‘issues’ forcing you to take your into the dealer, when the dealers are otherwise not busy.
It really does make sense to ‘cut the cord’ here, once people figure out how (perhaps shorting out the antenna, but not sure).
Question is would you be unlocking access to equipment already installed on your car which you did not pay for or access for options your purchased with the car? Also would you need a subscription to enjoy the option you already purchased when the car was new?
This is a mixed bag. Do I want to pay an extra $1000 for a feature I don’t want? If I’m driving the car for only 2 years $10/mn is cheaper. If I’m laid off and conserving cash I can turn off extra stuff and then reable after getting hired again. Way too many scenarios to know whether this is good/bad without knowong specific use and implementation cases.
Right now Fords free to lock/unlock/start from app. My understanding is GM you have to pay
For $40 you can by a heated seat pad that plugs into cigarette lighter... no monthly fee
Buy a base trim.
Problem solved for the most part.
Until one of the Important Wires gives out and the cost to replace or repair it is X thousand dollars and Y weeks' time.
People don't drive new cars because they want the latest rage; they drive them because they need a reliable car (for themselves or for their loved ones).
Whenever the subject of some intrusive piece of software in new cars comes up here in the fora, there's a reliable cohort of people who brag about driving a car that's twenty-plus years old, so that's not a concern of theirs.
But twenty-plus year old cars break, and they break because of wear and tear, often in places and on parts that we can't see. And if you yourself might be in a position to deal with a car that just died in the middle of nowhere, keep in mind that most people aren't; many have wives and daughters that they wouldn't think of putting at risk in that kind of a situation.
A minute later using such chips will be a felony. I suspect tampering with this coming technology will come at a hefty price.
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