21–30 of 49 posts
The inability to receive future (prepaid) self-driving software updates on a Tesla if I remove the GSM interface to prevent corporate tracking my driving movement 24/7 is the main reason I am likely never going to buy a new one. This sort of rent-seeking is really terrible.
Tesla has made me believe that software 'eating' cars is the future because, by letting software take over capability from hardware, it allows for software updates to improve earlier models of cars, making them a better value long-term. The marginal cost of improving a car with a software update is essentially nil for the manufacturer.
With that low cost per unit to deploy a software update that improves the car, BMW choosing to hold it hostage and demanding a subscription fee is a bad look, even if it's efficient for them. Having the steering wheel already in the car with the necessary hardware (where the unit cost is for BMW) exposes it as being a feature cheap enough that they can throw the necessary hardware into every model.
Even if it made less economic sense, it would appear more valuable if you were able to go to a BMW dealership and have the steering wheel swapped out for one with heating enabled.
However, I think there’s potential in this idea to overall benefit the consumer.
The cost of options sometimes includes the fact that the carmaker has to provide a separate SKU. Does a heated seat cost a lot in raw materials? No, not at all, but a carmaker might have to lose time on the assembly line changing the line to build a different variant. Or the dealer might lose a sale if they don’t have the customer’s desired trim level in stock
Not only that, differentiating optional features are revolving more and more around software (e.g. autopilot).
As long as this doesn’t become confusing or excessively expensive for the customer, it could actually be a win-win.
Presumably, the base model could be cheaper, and the consumer could upgrade the car later. Or, the consumer could pay for subscription features when their job situation is good and cut them out down to basic transportation if it’s not so good.
The consumer would also not be stuck with options that they decide later that they don’t use often. Maybe they wouldn’t be stuck with entire options packages that they have to go with just to get the one thing they want.
The devil is always in the details, so it could go either way, it just depends how fair the pricing ends up being.
If you don’t think people will buy it, might I interest you in purchasing my new TV show for only $3 an episode? You’ll own it forever!
Having an optional subscription to enable the heated steering wheel or adaptive cruise control is bold (and probably a bad idea) because people want what they buy to be 'a good value.' Tesla has made me believe that software 'eating' cars is the future because, by letting software take over capability from hardware, it allows for software updates to improve earlier models of cars, making them a better value long-term…
So every car already had the hardware, obviously because it would be more expensive for Tesla to produce two variants of seat elements.
Hyundai charges a subscription fee for remote start built into their cars. First three years are free, paid subscription thereafter. You have to use their app to remote start. There's no button on the key fob.
This is interesting. It seems like everything is going subscription-based. It sort if makes sense in that software can be improved upon after sale and needs to be maintained, but on the other hand a single but fix can be sent to an arbitrarily large number of units, so with this model only the largest companies will be able to compete in features and price. With so many purchases to consider, and less and less time d…
This would be amazing, and I would subscribe. It sounds like Basic Income.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You will have to sign the nda before they will tell you
You're actually going to have to sign an NDA about not releasing the draconian, ahem, I mean brave, err... forward thinking... terms of my actual NDA. You see, I don't want you reusing those ideas without due compensation. It just wouldn't be fair.
Oh no... I D'd my own NDA.
Hyundai charges a subscription fee for remote start built into their cars. First three years are free, paid subscription thereafter. You have to use their app to remote start. There's no button on the key fob.
I know my Kia fob doesn't have a remote start _button_ on it, but if I press lock then trunk, it activates remote start. Perhaps that's an option on Hyundai fobs? After all, Kia is owned by Hyundai.
The inability to receive future (prepaid) self-driving software updates on a Tesla if I remove the GSM interface to prevent corporate tracking my driving movement 24/7 is the main reason I am likely never going to buy a new one. This sort of rent-seeking is really terrible.
Not that I don't think the trend is terrible, but isn't rent-seeking when you charge extra for something but make no discernible improvements?
Correspondingly, they remotely disable functionality in your vehicle if you stop paying them.
I'm not sure of a better example of rent seeking.
This is interesting. It seems like everything is going subscription-based. It sort if makes sense in that software can be improved upon after sale and needs to be maintained, but on the other hand a single but fix can be sent to an arbitrarily large number of units, so with this model only the largest companies will be able to compete in features and price. With so many purchases to consider, and less and less time d…
Oh and also from the article: > In some markets, BMW owners may also be able to pay for "authentic" BMW engine sounds that will come through the car stereo. In many BMW cars today, the engine sound is augmented inside the cabin with pre-recorded sounds from the stereo. These are tuned to match the engine speed and performance so they sound like actual sounds coming directly from the engine. This is done so that the c…