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

Mercedes EVs can go faster for $60 a month

cnn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

511–520 of 555 posts

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

#511

Post by perryizgr8 »

ajross wrote: post #108
GiorgioG wrote: post #2

It won’t be my interest in saving the planet that stops me from buying cars, it’ll be bullshit like this. I want to own my car. I don’t want it to be connected (beyond acting as a hotspot) to the internet or to some central service. Have we not learned anything?

> I don’t want [my car] to be connected [...] to the internet Really? No remote access, security notifications, navigation facilities? No watching TV while charging? No OTA updates that obviate the need to take it to the dealership for routine fixes? No open source location analytic API? I mean, I'm sure there's some bad stuff that happens too. But this is very much throwing out the baby with the bathwater. I won't t…

> No remote access

What would that be useful for? If I am away from my car, I absolutely don't need to "access" it. It is not a home server or something like that.

> security notifications

What are those? Notify me that my car is being broken into? Maybe it is good-to-have, but far from crucial.

> navigation facilities

No thanks, I have a phone for that. I can connect it to my car's screen if needed.

> No watching TV while charging?

No, it just takes a couple of minutes to fill up. You should try one of these new-fangled internal combustion engine cars. They are amazing!

> No OTA updates that obviate the need to take it to the dealership for routine fixes?

What routine fixes? My car has never needed a software bugfix in the decade I have owned it.

> No open source location analytic API?

Huh??! Is this a satirical post I've fallen bait to?

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

#512

Post by perryizgr8 »

I think this produces more outrage than a one-time charge would. The reason is that there is no apparent ongoing cost to Mercedes to enable the full-spec performance of the car, yet they are charging a subscription fee. It would be much more palatable to me (probably most others) if you could pay some extra money at the start to let your car perform to it's rated capacity. I would be able to justify it in my mind as cost of the car.

Charge subscriptions where there is a real recurring cost to provide the feature or service, like say a remote assistance service that needs a SIM card plan.

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

#513

Post by fomine3 »

Generally I hate the idea of making everything into subscription, but maybe I like this. There's NO people really need such overkill performance, but BEVs might have such performance because of other reasons. Bigger battery for long range and powerful motors for AWD will make vehicle can go fast, but it's not practical and dangerous. Make it subscription and only speed badass people pay for this is looks good idea.

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

#514

Post by alpos »

fnimick wrote: post #43
alpos wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep trying to tell the socialists and communists out there that they can totally implement the way they want to live within any democratic capitalist system. Just make a corporation which all of your people are members of, give voting powers to all members to decide what stuff the corporation buys as well as how members get to use the things. Can even go as far as setting up an HOA or a town where the company is t…

Right, all you have to do is totally opt out of any modern society - no email, no phones, no internet, no media, no healthcare. It's easy!

Not totally opt out. That's a stupidly dismissive take on this idea. The point is that you would never get a wholesale light-switch style shift in any civilization anyway.

So just start now, incrementally, and see how far you can get before anyone stops you. You would ultimately be exiting the existing economy, but that's what you presumably wanted; to build a different kind of economy that you think will be more fair and equitable. And every single step you can take in that direction proves out whether your way is actually better.

All along the way, you have your collective company acting as a buffer against the capitalist system around you. You can't really exit totally without giving up modern life, so don't try to do that, as you point out, such a move wouldn't really be a desirable or viable way to get this job done. The next best move seems to me to be to just exit incrementally, as much as you like, one step at a time.

Why not do that?

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

#515

Post by alpos »

rootusrootus wrote: post #83
alpos wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep trying to tell the socialists and communists out there that they can totally implement the way they want to live within any democratic capitalist system. Just make a corporation which all of your people are members of, give voting powers to all members to decide what stuff the corporation buys as well as how members get to use the things. Can even go as far as setting up an HOA or a town where the company is t…

> the socialists and communists out there How many do you know? As far as I can tell, in the US you could fit all of these folks in a single medium size stadium. And it probably wouldn't be full.

That sounds about right, I try to engage with people on this topic as much as I can without annoying any of them too much. That basically looks like asking them why they don't group up and prove their point instead of individually raging against the machine all the time.

IRL I know two or three people who like to lean this direction from time to time, but even those people seem to be just ranting against the remaining issues present under the version of capitalism we have now rather than truly wanting a completely different system.

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

#516

Post by alpos »

foobarbecue wrote: post #31
alpos wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep trying to tell the socialists and communists out there that they can totally implement the way they want to live within any democratic capitalist system. Just make a corporation which all of your people are members of, give voting powers to all members to decide what stuff the corporation buys as well as how members get to use the things. Can even go as far as setting up an HOA or a town where the company is t…

Yes, communes are a thing. Shrug.

I've seen and read up on how some of the communes have gone, but I haven't seen any that made a serious attempt to run a company that way. By using the existing structures as a buffer, as I am proposing, a group could actually make the commune thing work without giving up any modern conveniences.

It's somewhat similar to what Amish people do, and they do quite well at it in terms of sustainably living as they wish even though no one else around them does. They pull that off by trading the things they do want to make for the things the surrounding society has that they actually want.

It's totally possible to do a socialist version of that where everyone lives in modern houses with modern conveniences, share whatever stuff you all actually want to be building yourselves, but when you have to buy or vote on something, do so through the company and as a block. Mormons have largely gotten away with block voting over the decades, and still do, so we also have existing evidence that that works too.

The details are, of course, up to whoever is trying this out, but the overall thing I'm pointing to, that I don't think anyone has given a real go at, is that using a company as a buffer against capitalism. No one has to live without, but individuals in the community also don't have to go play the capitalist game every day just to get what they want or need.

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

#517

Post by bluGill »

wcarron wrote: post #309
bluGill wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't even want the GPS: my phone already has maps that are better than what is in the car: they update in real time for current traffic.

Sure, even that's a luxury, but cars already have a display for audio, and it makes sense to have an in-built nav system (would be great if you could simply select the mapping/nav software from a list like a: goog, b: apple, c: OSM, and have it only do directions). This reduces the need for a 2nd, handheld or mounted device which has the potential for increased distraction. Navigation is a core function of travel, wh…

A bluetooth standard for navigation (turn left in 500 meters on adams street.) functions would be nice. The only thing I find my car nav does well is put that turn indication next to the speedometer so if I don't hear/understand the directions I can see it at a glance.

Of course my only car with nav is 11 years old, maybe there are other features of more modern systems worth having. I doubt it, but I have to allow for the possibility. The real key here is the car is 11 years old - if you only buy new cars you may fail to realize how bad features such as nav age. When my car was new 3g cell networks were the fast service (4g existed but it was in the early roll out phase), and thus what I would expect my car to have: now 3g is gone - so even if my car had a NAV subscription it couldn't get OTA updates.

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

#518

Post by bluGill »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #502
anon291 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Suburbs can support great public transit, and it would be cheaper than cars for everyone. While I agree... there is no way Americans will forgo cars. Americans love our rural and public and wild lands too much to not be able to simply visit at moment's notice. Having lived in Europe, I understand how this works there. Europeans don't have the same relationship with nature that Americans often do. The ones that do u…

The other problem (that Europeans often don't understand) is just how big America is. Texas alone is twice as big as the UK and Ireland combined. My point is that covering America with train tracks would cost $trillions. Yes, there was a time when we built something on that scale: The interstate highway system. But those days are long over. American politics is now far too gridlocked to build a public bathroom, much…

Don't let big become an excuse. Sure the US is too big to go NYC->LA via train. However DC->Boston is still a great route to run a train, a high speed train on that route should decimate plane and car travel on the route. Connecting everything east of the Mississippi via train (and possibly just a little west) makes perfect sense. There is also a great north-south route along the west coast.

Yes building those trains would cost a lot. It shouldn't be trillions (that it will be is a problem we should fix!). Lets not be defeatist: lets demand better of our politicians. We have good ideas of where things are going wrong, but politicians see transit as a way to throw money at union labor and consultants (democrats); or a complete waste (the Republicans). Both sides need to do better.

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

#519

Post by alpos »

rootusrootus wrote: post #79
alpos wrote: post #4

Possibly the stupidest day-one DLC play we've ever seen. >"Customers might see that as “a bit of a cheat,” Because it is a cheat. There is exactly zero chance this doesn't get bypassed and unlocked for free with the quickness. Better still though, just don't buy stuff from people willing nickel and dime you like that. Pay real money for real things that you actually own. You will be happier this way.

> There is exactly zero chance this doesn't get bypassed and unlocked for free with the quickness That's a big claim. There are comparable third-party unlocks to get the performance upgrade for a Tesla, but nobody is doing it for free. They still want about half what Tesla charges. The difference being that Tesla will still warranty the car if you buy it from them.

IIRC, the code for at least some of those unlocks is available open source. And usually hacks or jailbreaks have a tendency to trend in that direction even when the hackers are charging for it initially. Someone eventually decides to share their code and methods, for the fame or to do a talk, if for no other reason.

The reason I think it will happen fairly quickly in cases like this is that hackers also tend to be more "challenge accepted" as culture whenever the offending restrictive software is particularly obviously stupid or egregious.

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

#520

Post by nicenewtemp84 »

RobotToaster wrote: post #327
nicenewtemp84 wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought simp stood for "someone idolizing mediocre pu__y", a slur for guys commiting and caring too much about lower tier women. Doesn't really seem to fit a discussion about people agreeing with a corporation.

It's short for simpleton.

It might be, but that doesnt explain why it's #1 usage is towards guys being lame in hopes of getting women. If it was just simpleton, it makes no sense.
Post reply on HN