Thanks for the crystal clear signaling on what type of people are running the company so I can be sure to never consider buying a VW.
“I bought this car before Adolf became problematic.”
Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription
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Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription
#12Thanks for the crystal clear signaling on what type of people are running the company so I can be sure to never consider buying a VW.
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Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription
#13Now 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…
> The best part is, many won't care (when they should).
This is generally valid for current societies, not just specifically.
Conformism has infiltrated economics, so now the supply-demand mechanism is broken: the demand agents are not "informed and rational", as classical theory wanted, so the supply is degraded - spawning "shrinkflation" and "viliflation".
Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription
#14If capitalism were a thing, could someone market a newly made chip-free vehicle?
It's probably impossible to meet modern emissions, fuel economy, and safety standards without some computer control.
I haven't seen an analysis of whether regulations preclude those controls being open source and giving the car owner full access. Of course the owner could make the car noncompliant in that case, but the owner can do that on current and past cars using a wrench.
Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription
#15This 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 lives making a zero marginal cost product would understand the economics at work here.
Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription
#16If capitalism were a thing, could someone market a newly made chip-free vehicle?
It's my understanding that said vehicle would be illegal to sell in most jurisdictions, so it probably wouldn't be a very lucrative endeavor.
True, manufacturers must face very hard constraints in many territories (all new vechicles must have this and that).
But there is something wrong in the product planning if there are no vehicles outside the wave of "gadgetrification" ("Look, these come with holographic glove compartment. It's for your convenience. Yes, you pay for it").
Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription
#17Well 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.
Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription
#18Tesla already does this. Why no kickback there?
Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription
#19This 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…
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.
Re: Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription
#20Now 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…
> Now you are seeing the great electric car scam
Keep your anti-EV hatred in check for a second and note that nothing in here is EV only. They could just as well do this with a gasoline car, that engine is also electronically controlled.