Author Topic: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.  (Read 3848 times)

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Offline Homer J SimpsonTopic starter

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Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« on: December 12, 2021, 01:28:46 am »


Automakers beginning to charge monthly for car features.   :(

 
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Offline SiliconWizard

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2021, 01:35:31 am »
Ahah,  we weren't seeing this coming! :-DD
 

Offline Zeyneb

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2021, 01:55:20 am »
And I thought I was a happy camper in my little 90s hatchback.  ;)

Even though this guy implicitly call me an animal. I feel superior to those people who are dependent to the car dealer.
goto considered awesome!
 

Online MK14

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #3 on: December 12, 2021, 01:57:30 am »
If you prefer to read about it. This article (from around July 2021)  seems to go into a lot of details about it.

https://carbuzz.com/features/the-complete-guide-to-automotive-subscription-features

The problem(s) I have with it, are that, it sounds cheap/affordable, at say $8 a month, per feature. But if you have (perhaps) 5 such subscriptions, making it 5 x 8 = $40 per month, then consider a 10 year period, with a +50% price increase because of inflation/reasons, it could average perhaps $50 per month.

So, over 10 years (vehicle life, hopefully a fair bit longer in practice), it comes to 12-months x $50-average x 10-years = $6,000 extra, more if the subscriptions continue and the car lasts longer than 10 years.
Also, the $6,000+, is for things the car already had when you/they bought it, so this is NOT good for consumers, by the sound of it.
 
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Offline PaulAm

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #4 on: December 12, 2021, 02:48:46 am »
Actually, some of those features are  things you USED to have.

GM used to have a nifty remote start button on a key fob.  Sometime around 2018 they went to a smart phone app.  Everyone has a phone, right?  But if you want to use it you need a data connection with the car through their Onstar service, which is a monthly fee.

Like many items, cars are becoming software platforms designed to extract a continuing revenue stream from the user.  You only thought you owned it.
 

Offline Kim Christensen

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #5 on: December 12, 2021, 03:48:06 am »
I would simply not buy a car that required a "subscription" to any feature I personally deemed "essential"...
Nor should anyone else. Nip this crap in the bud people.

EDIT: So far, all of these subscriptions are things I don't care about anyway.
« Last Edit: December 12, 2021, 03:55:32 am by Kim Christensen »
 
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Offline VK3DRB

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #6 on: December 12, 2021, 11:31:25 am »
We already have "subscription" electric vehicles in Victoria, Australia. The knucklehead Labor state government has introduced a mandatory 2 cents per km tax to owners of electric vehicles, payable annually. The logic is the state government is losing tax on petrol and they see electric vehicle drivers are getting something for nothing. This government is addicted to high taxes and reckless spending. Their retarded electric vehicle incentive program has been touted by the media as the worst in the world. There is the threat the 2 cents per km electric vehicle tax will rise over time. So there are very few electric vehicles sold here. Most electric vehicle manufacturers simple don't bother with Australia, so the choice is very slim.

So it is like a subscription on your key FOB. Don't pay and you are off the road. Except the money is going to a reckless government rather than to a company that actually produces quality products.
 

Offline VK3DRB

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #7 on: December 12, 2021, 11:52:50 am »
You already have "subscription" keys from Honda, Toyota and others. They are designed to have you subscribe to replacing your remote as exorbitant prices, when they break.

GM keys here were ultrasonically welded so you cannot replace the battery. The Mitsubishi keys break at the key ring; they were so badly designed, once can only assume it was done on purpose. Honda and Toyota keys cost around $350 to replace, and are also of poor quality. The BOM cost is around $2; certainly no more than $3. Toyota and Honda make their keys so you cannot swap out the key shank. If I ever buy a new car again, I will demand two free keys, else the deal is off.

So if you have to pay $5 per month for a subscription for your FOB, it is roughly the same price at having to replace your crappy remote key. A FOB without a key might be more mechanically reliable than a remote key, hence the manufacturers get creative finding other ways to get money out of you.
 

Online wraper

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #8 on: December 12, 2021, 12:10:58 pm »
I hope they lose tenfold in market share loss of what they profit from those subscriptions.
 
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Offline rsjsouza

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #9 on: December 12, 2021, 12:17:30 pm »
"You will own nothing and be happy..."

This is yet another of those paradigm shifts intended to create a culture of "subscription for anything" that is intended to capture audiences that simply never knew anything different. Do this for enough years (i.e., decades) and you have a "new normal".

I also hope this stupidity goes down in flames.
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Offline Homer J SimpsonTopic starter

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #10 on: December 12, 2021, 01:21:09 pm »

 

Offline PKTKS

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #11 on: December 12, 2021, 01:44:46 pm »
(..)
I also hope this stupidity goes down in flames.

I sincerely hope they get smashed by a TRUCK ...
full of manure...

Paul
 

Offline brian_mk

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #12 on: December 12, 2021, 01:54:05 pm »
God help us all!
If it's anything like Adobe CC then every time there is an update, many cars will crash.
 
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Offline xrunner

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #13 on: December 12, 2021, 02:04:41 pm »
Good marketing tool for other manufacturers to their steal customers. Take the opposite stance and don't charge for these stoopid things. Steal Toyota's customers.  :box:
I told my friends I could teach them to be funny, but they all just laughed at me.
 
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Offline Refrigerator

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #14 on: December 12, 2021, 02:10:06 pm »
How hard would it be to hack something like this to work without the subscription? If possible at all.
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Offline Tom45

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #15 on: December 12, 2021, 02:18:05 pm »
There is the threat the 2 cents per km electric vehicle tax will rise over time.

Anyone that thinks that it wouldn't rise over time probably still believes in the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.
 

Online MK14

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #16 on: December 12, 2021, 05:12:52 pm »
God help us all!
If it's anything like Adobe CC then every time there is an update, many cars will crash.

Too late, already happened (or rather similar, probably a server update), see here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59357306

Quote
Tesla drivers say they have been locked out of their cars after an outage struck the carmaker's app.

Quote
Dozens of owners posted on social media about seeing an error message on the mobile app that was preventing them from connecting to their vehicles.

So many drivers couldn't get into their cars (Teslas), for an hour or so, because of server problems (possibly an update somewhere).
« Last Edit: December 12, 2021, 05:15:32 pm by MK14 »
 

Online wraper

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #17 on: December 12, 2021, 05:15:23 pm »
God help us all!
If it's anything like Adobe CC then every time there is an update, many cars will crash.

Too late, already happened (or rather similar, probably a server update), see here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59357306

Quote
Tesla drivers say they have been locked out of their cars after an outage struck the carmaker's app.
They couldn't open their car from a phone. Key cards and fobs still worked. If you are dumb enough to only bring a smartphone (even though it may discharge, break from falling, whatever), tough luck.
« Last Edit: December 12, 2021, 05:17:56 pm by wraper »
 

Online MK14

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #18 on: December 12, 2021, 05:16:52 pm »
They couldn't open their car from a phone. Key cards and fobs still worked.

Which in many cases, were many miles or hundreds of miles away, safely kept at home. Because they thought, they wouldn't need them.

Analogy:
Everyone should have a backup of all their data. But not everyone does, if their data suddenly disappears, many people would be caught out.
Hence (similarly), not all drivers will have read the user manual and/or have a spare key thing with them. So they got locked out of their cars.
« Last Edit: December 12, 2021, 05:19:17 pm by MK14 »
 

Offline SiliconWizard

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #19 on: December 12, 2021, 06:54:44 pm »
"You will own nothing and be happy..."

This is yet another of those paradigm shifts intended to create a culture of "subscription for anything" that is intended to capture audiences that simply never knew anything different. Do this for enough years (i.e., decades) and you have a "new normal".

Yes, this is something I think I've already mentioned... but in the end, this new trend slowly leads to abolition of private property (except for those that actually reap the benefits of this model), which is an horrible mix of communism and capitalism at its peak. The worst of both worlds.
 
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Online MK14

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #20 on: December 12, 2021, 07:03:33 pm »
Yes, this is something I think I've already mentioned... but in the end, this new trend slowly leads to abolition of private property (except for those that actually reap the benefits of this model), which is an horrible mix of communism and capitalism at its peak. The worst of both worlds.

I wonder what will happen, in the following, horrible/pessimistic situation ?

One of more relatively vital functions, are under subscription. Then in the coming future, management changes their mind and/or new management or even the entire car company gets taken over by a much less pleasant company.

Which then proceeds to massively increase the subscriptions, to rather over-priced levels.

E.g. The subscriptions are operated/owned (farmed out), to another company. Who then gets taken over by, let's say Microsoft.

tl;dr
 :-- :-- :-- with car functionality subscriptions  :-- :-- :--
 

Offline james_s

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #21 on: December 12, 2021, 07:08:55 pm »
They couldn't open their car from a phone. Key cards and fobs still worked. If you are dumb enough to only bring a smartphone (even though it may discharge, break from falling, whatever), tough luck.

My dad did exactly that. He dropped and broke his phone and then realized the RFID cards were stored at home  :palm:

Call me old fashioned but I prefer a plain old metal key. Pulling a key out of my pocket and inserting it in a lock just never seemed like much of a burden to me.

Also I have a severe allergy to subscriptions and recurring payments and I keep it to the absolute minimum. If it is something like my mobile and utilities where I am continually consuming something then obviously a recurring payment is the only feasible option but I refuse to use anything that requires a subscription just to keep it working when there is no good reason for it to rely on external infrastructure. I don't care if it's only a dollar a month, I won't do it.
« Last Edit: December 12, 2021, 07:11:46 pm by james_s »
 
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Online MK14

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #22 on: December 12, 2021, 07:16:32 pm »
Call me old fashioned but I prefer a plain old metal key. Pulling a key out of my pocket and inserting it in a lock just never seemed like much of a burden to me.

That can still go horribly wrong.
Many decades ago, cars typically didn't have central locking. But some cars (typically Japanese ones), had the feature, whereby (details possibly wrong, as it was a very long time ago) you could hold the outer door handle up, push the inner door lock stick up golf tee like button, and slam the drivers door locked. Without it automatically unlocking itself. Which was easier than having to lock it from the outside with the keys.

Which meant you could accidentally lock your car, with the ignition keys still in the ignition. Which was problematic. Meaning you had to walk or take public transport or something, to get the spare key.
« Last Edit: December 12, 2021, 07:18:12 pm by MK14 »
 

Offline james_s

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #23 on: December 12, 2021, 07:20:29 pm »
That can still go horribly wrong.
Many decades ago, cars typically didn't have central locking. But some cars (typically Japanese ones), had the feature, whereby (details possibly wrong, as it was a very long time ago) you could hold the outer door handle up, push the inner door lock stick up golf tee like button, and slam the drivers door locked. Without it automatically unlocking itself. Which was easier than having to lock it from the outside with the keys.

Which meant you could accidentally lock your car, with the ignition keys still in the ignition. Which was problematic.

Sure, if you actively try to do something stupid you can put yourself in a bad situation. I have exactly that setup in my cars, central locking with a key. It prevents you from locking the driver's door while the door is open but you can still do it with one of the other doors. For that reason I *always* lock it with the key and in ~25 years of driving cars I have never locked the keys inside.

I knew someone in high school who locked his keys in his car, with the engine running, and the stereo cranked up loud, parked in a staff parking spot.  :palm: :-DD
 
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Online rstofer

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Re: Subscription based options and features comming to new cars.
« Reply #24 on: December 12, 2021, 11:47:13 pm »
You already have "subscription" keys from Honda, Toyota and others. They are designed to have you subscribe to replacing your remote as exorbitant prices, when they break.

GM keys here were ultrasonically welded so you cannot replace the battery.

The fob for my Chevy Bolt is not welded, I have replaced the battery a couple of times over the past 5 years (I WAS using Amazon batteries).

The fob also contains a physical key should the car or fob battery die.  In addition, there is an RFID reader in the glove compartment that will sense the fob and allow the car to start even if the fob battery is dead.

No complaints from me!
 


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