Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription

autoexpress.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 325 posts

Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription

#71

Post by afarah1 »

stego-tech wrote: post #31
CoastalCoder wrote: post #8

I recently bought a Honda, and yesterday they emailed me a survey focused on what subscription services I'd find useful at various price points. Unfortunately the survey gave me no opportunity to explain how much the basic concept of them continuing to be up my business post-purchase pisses me off.

Cars already have a recurring “subscription” in the form of fuel, maintenance, repairs, insurance, and cleaning. Unless more companies are pulling a Volvo and offering a comprehensive maintenance subscription that covers all the above via a monthly fee, then they can collectively FOAD. EDIT: I am keenly aware how cars work and don’t need eSplaining on them. I articulate my point better in a comment deeper in the thre…

Poor comparison, none of these are attached to the manufacturer, you can and usually do get these services from other companies of your choice. You don't need VW-Gas(TM) from VW-Station(TM) in your tank for the car to run.

Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription

#72

Post by DougN7 »

jmclnx wrote: post #17

Well VW just made my list of cars to avoid. Boy, that list is getting huge. I will probably be in my 2007 toyota for a long time to come.

Yeah, it breaks my heart because I love my 2012 Passat, but no way will I buy a car with a subscription like this, or for heated seats. Idiots.

Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription

#73

Post by _aavaa_ »

slt2021 wrote: post #39
_aavaa_ wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People do understand the economics: tomorrow the subscription costs 3x more, or they chose to stop supporting it when a new model comes out, or etc. The analogy to software is great though; nobody paying for software owns it, or even has the option to own it. This is not fully the case for physical things, and people are rightly angry about “owning” things without owning them.

just multiply the monthly payment by 12*6 (avg time to own a car) and imagine giving the full amount upfront to the dealer for the full horsepower. I dont understand why people balk at car subscription for some feature, but perfectly fine with leasing a car => which is basically a car subscription driven to its logical end? does it matter if you have to pay $700 to your bank for lease and separately $20 to VW for som…

> I dont understand why people balk at car subscription for some feature, but perfectly fine with leasing a car => which is basically a car subscription driven to its logical end?

Because that’s a choice with alternatives. This time they offer a “lifetime subscription”, not a purchase mind you! a subscription, next time they might not.

And since it’s a life subscription, does it transfer to the next owner? Or do they have to pay it again, a la Tesla? Will it get invalidated if I make a modification to the car?

Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription

#74

Post by protimewaster »

abcd_f wrote: post #50
IAmGraydon wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> On top of all that, they’re awful cars. They certainly aren't.

It depends on what you want in a car. If you're expecting reliability like VW was known for years ago, you may well feel like the newer ones are awful.

Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription

#75

Post by mcv »

Hilift wrote: post #29

The US has guaranteed this will become the norm with increased auto tariffs. An auto manufacturer can produce a car with significantly lower value for import to another country, and "features and services" can be enabled later for a fee.

Another possibility is that without the subscription, the car runs efficiently and meets all sorts of emission standards. But with the subscription, all that goes out the window, because it's got to deliver more power now. It might be a new loophole to get around emission standards.

Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription

#76

Post by mdp2021 »

abcd_f wrote: post #57
rvz wrote: post #2

Now you are seeing the great electric car scam - Selling you an under-powered electric car and to increase its power you must pay for a subscription to unlock it's full power capabilities. The best part is, many won't care (when they should). But these days, it is okay to get scammed isn't it? BMW tried selling a subscription on heated seats, but that failed. [0], So lets see how long this will last. [0] https://news…

BMW still sells a subscription to advanced headlight functions, live traffic info in their navigation and few other things. It's just now a packaged deal and they also opt you in by default into a three month trial. The car is also all but unusable without an online account, so there's that. Regrettably, despite of all the brouhaha with the heated seats, all this b/s never really went away.

> The car is also all but unusable without an online account

Please explain. What would make it almost unusable?

Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription

#77

Post by Esophagus4 »

slt2021 wrote: post #37
benji-york wrote: post #15

This makes sense to me. (Not that I would personally ever buy a car with that mechanism baked in.) They could either make two models (incurring the costs associated with having two different SKUs) and let people pay more for the one with more power or make one with intrinsically more power and let the people that don't want it pay less with it nerfed. I would have thought that people (like me) that have spent our liv…

a lot of medical devcies are basically a single SKU, but with various features turned on/off based on license (bill). same with cars, same parts with one SKU, but various features turned on/off allows car OEMs to make different price offerings at different prices to capture larger part of the demand curve

Same with a lot of software: the binaries / SaaS are the same, but your features are determined by your license key and what your subscription plan is.

Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription

#78

Post by mdp2021 »

slt2021 wrote: post #42

Great feature, this creates incentive among car enthusiasts to delve into IoT/embedded to hack these type of systems and unlock these subscriptions without paying. Car hacking will be normalized even more

> Car hacking will be normalized even more

We should be concerned of the increased possibility of malicious third-party hacking of other people's property.

And, I should not hack into my desk to open my drawers.

Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription

#79

Post by Kudos »

ExoticPearTree wrote: post #70
buran77 wrote: post #24

I'm sure that by having fewer parts in the logistics chain they can build a car cheaper. They then define models via software almost for free. And that would be great if the saving was passed to the consumer. Instead every saving is definitely captured by the manufacturer and the consumer gets to buy a car that definitely does everything but "computer says no". But the situation is objectively worse than today becaus…

Its a funny situation: they a put larger battery in the car, which makes the car heavier. Then they derate the battery to give you less mileage with the added “benefit” that you carry with you a deadweight that you can’t get rid of and contributes further to reduced mileage. And someone at VW looked at this and said: amazing idea. My single take from this is that batteries have become so cheap that you can put more i…

I'm confused, what do you mean by "derate the battery", and how would that cause some of the battery to be deadweight?

It sounds to me like they're just limiting the kW output of the pack.

Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription

#80

Post by jmpman »

I already have the option to pay for more HP on my Tesla model 3. Yes it’s not a subscription, but the capability already exists. It’s a software unlock. I’d prefer if I had the option to pay my the month. My wife already thinks the Model 3 accelerates too fast, but I’d want to try it for a month. No way is she going to support $2k, but she won’t notice $100 for a month.
Post reply on HN