Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month • Hacker News Board

Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#331

Post by lotsofpulp » Thu, May 04, 2023, 8:11 PM UTC

r00fus wrote: post #138

josefresco wrote: post #116

Reminds me of the old Celeron days 25+ years ago. The premise of paying different amounts for the same hardware always gets us hackers riled up.

Should rile up any rational consumer. Corporation can flex their market power to ensure you pay more for something they can provide for free.

Where do grocery stores and coupons fit into this?

Selling a book/media at a lower price in with a poorer populace?

A national park charging difference prices based on the visitor’s nationality (by the passport they have)?

Haggling in a market in a stereotypically poor country where different buyers get different prices based on their negotiations? A big company sales representative selling software licenses at difference prices to different clients?

Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#332

Post by PaulDavisThe1st » Thu, May 04, 2023, 8:11 PM UTC

dh2022 wrote: post #237

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corporations do not make (significant) sums of money on a button vs screen choice, and there's important evidence about the safety and ergonomics that favors buttons. Paying extortion to get more speed? That's just a cash cow.

You are missing the point. (So I will spell it out for you: consumers have more power than your comments indicate).

I will spell it out for you, since you were so kind to spell it out for me: consumers' power is limited by the interests of corporations. When a corporation can fix what is viewed by the consumer as a mistake without significant financial downsides, they frequently will (if the consensus is strong enough that it really was a mistake). However, they will not fix anything that causes them financial hardship unless forced to by the legal system.

Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#333

Post by cma » Thu, May 04, 2023, 8:12 PM UTC

ukd1 wrote: post #266

alistairSH wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but that doesn't mean a subscription is the consumer-friendly way to manage those costs. If a buyer wants 500hp instead of 300hp, there should be a 1-time fee assessed at the time that feature is unlocked (traditionally at purchase because it required a whole different engine; now via app/cloud/magic because it's all software). The only reason a subscription model should be foisted on the consumer is when the v…

In some ways, they do have costs - the on-going extra wear / load on everything in the vehicle, which presumably is covered by the warranty if you pay for this. That's not free, nor zero.

I'm sure when the warranty is up they offer it to everyone for free right?

Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#334

Post by matheusmoreira » Thu, May 04, 2023, 8:12 PM UTC

olyjohn wrote: post #290

gambiting wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people here think building a successful subscription based product is the absolute goal in life. To them Mercedes (and BMW and others) doing this isn't dumb - it's super smart and worth applauding. Otherwise you're just leaving money on the table /s.

You put the /s, but I don't think this comment is inaccurate in any way. Some people really have enthusiasm for nothing but making money. No hobbies, no interests, no friends, no other goals.

I'm very enthusiastic about making money too but I don't really want to sell my soul to make it happen.

Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#335

Post by matwood » Thu, May 04, 2023, 8:14 PM UTC

justsomehnguy wrote: post #302

matwood wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a number of pay for apps like Halide that make the iPhone camera more useful beyond what Apple provides using the same underlying hardware.

How is this relevant to the manufacturers extorting a subscription for the existing hardware? It's totaly up to you take to pay or not for Halide. Halide doesn't gut your iPhone cameras performance if you didn't pay them.

Who said anything about gutting the performance? This is about adding a performance package that is software based. In the, albeit poor, iPhone analogy the performance camera package happens to come from a different company.

Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#336

Post by vorpalhex » Thu, May 04, 2023, 8:14 PM UTC

boston_clone wrote: post #164

fwungy wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original phrase was coined by the World Economic Forum. What the critics leave out is that the WEF was saying that people would be happier not owning anything. >You will own nothing and you will be happy. Alternatively it could have a darker interpretation: you will be a slave and you will be happy, because that's all you're going to get. I suppose it depends if you look at the WEF as a benevolent institution loo…

Easily fact-checked: https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-wef-idUSKBN2AP2...

This isn't a related fact check.

It seems like it is, but read it closely. Reuters here is not debunking the phrase was said by a WEF politician, they are debunking that is is a goal of Agenda 30.

Nobody made that claim in the first place.

Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#337

Post by konschubert » Thu, May 04, 2023, 8:14 PM UTC

grumple wrote: post #319

konschubert wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is untrue in a competitive market

Markets which require billions of dollars to compete in are not truly competitive. They may be competitive in a regulatory sense, but not in a practical one. And these markets have huge amounts of regulation as well that limits competition on top of the financial limitations on competition.

The slim margins in the automotive sector would like to have a word with this argument.

Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#338

Post by gffrd » Thu, May 04, 2023, 8:15 PM UTC

electriclove wrote: post #178

jrockway wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this all the same thing as what airlines did after 9/11? You pay the fare and get a seat. Want it to not be a middle seat? That's $50. Want to carry on a bag? That's $50. Want to check a bag? That's $50. Want to check out the lounge before you depart? That's $50. Want some WiFi? That's $50. Want a snack? That's $50. Now your flight is $200 more than the quoted fare. (OK OK you can probably get WiFi and a snack…

People don’t love that about the airlines. People hate it.

… but they like saving money more than they hate it.

Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#339

Post by bena » Thu, May 04, 2023, 8:15 PM UTC

olyjohn wrote: post #290

gambiting wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people here think building a successful subscription based product is the absolute goal in life. To them Mercedes (and BMW and others) doing this isn't dumb - it's super smart and worth applauding. Otherwise you're just leaving money on the table /s.

You put the /s, but I don't think this comment is inaccurate in any way. Some people really have enthusiasm for nothing but making money. No hobbies, no interests, no friends, no other goals.

Some people heard "A fool and his money are soon parted" and thought, "If I could make everyone a fool..."

Re: Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

#340

Post by matheusmoreira » Thu, May 04, 2023, 8:16 PM UTC

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #126

beerpls wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for being a voice of righteousness in a sea of simps. It’s hard to tell on this site, are people really this devoted to corps or are they shills? Even with what you said there are still so many people defending this behavior. The world is full of weak and/or deceitful people.

>are people really this devoted to corps or are they shills? I think a lot of people defend this because they themselves work for tech companies who's products or services are also profitable due to some for of rent-seeking which ensure great profits and wages that wouldn't be possible otherwise because let's face it, the most profitable SW companies where the HN audience most likely works at, don't sell you a lifeti…

Software as a service is a continuous operation. Cars aren't. Not hypocritical at all. No one cares that they want to be as profitable as big techs. We want to own our damn cars. We want to accelerate as much as we want. It's that simple and requires no further justification.

We take issue with big techs locking down computers too. No problem with them running whatever they want on their servers but we want to run whatever we want on our computers too without their interference.