The German car-maker says its “optional power upgrade” is designed to give customers more choice.
This is despite a wider embrace of subscriptions in general…
I’m not sure this is the right conclusion. What seems like a “wider embrace of subscriptions” may be happening because subscriptions are becoming harder and harder to avoid. We don’t like them; they’re being forced on us. That’s an important difference.
I also think this is misusing the current statistics and drawing wrong conclusions.
Nobody is asking for these kind of subscription models.
Whag do you mean? Of course they are… everyone likes not reciving what they paid for to only have to pay a monthly charge for it… just look at what people pay monthly for… they will so enjoy this… /s
In France, people who have VW cars are not the best or brightest drivers. It could work.
1999: “Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this, the peak of your civilization.”
lol. 1999 was the best time for humanity; ridiculous!
2025: Oh shit…
“We marveled at our own magnificence as we gave birth to AI.”
That’s why I live my life as if it were still the 90s…oh shit, am I in the matrix already?
Okay, it’s high time for some serious regulatory intervention.
Yeah, we’ve got more choice now.
I’m glad I used my freedom of choice to buy a different make.
This is so distopian it sounds like a joke
How does this even work? It’s like they don’t realise they don’t own the car once it’s been sold. What’s to stop someone just hacking it and unlocking it?
It’s all proprietary code. But in theory you could unlock the full potential if not more. If you can recreate their software. Ideally then also open source it please.
It’s like they don’t realise they don’t own the car once it’s been sold.
They literally don’t. This is nothing less than a war on property rights.
What’s to stop someone just hacking it and unlocking it?
The DMCA Anti-Circumvention Clause makes it a felony.
Meet GPL. These fucking cars are running Linux.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tivoization
I wish Linux was enough to protect us from this shit, but it’s not.
So you need to pay to drain your batteries faster for more power which wears them down faster. So you’re paying to shorten the battery life of your car. Only dumb people who think “I wanna go faaaaaaast” will fall for that scam.
The intent is to provide
playersowners with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking differentheroeshorsepower.The future is a fucking farce.
Psych! You thought you were gonna get star trek style utopia, while we’ve been descending into fascist dystopia for several decades!?!
Woo! Techno-feudalism!
I’ve always admired the iconic vehicles VW has produced, but this assures I’ll never buy a VW.
This is grotesque. “More choice” is utter bollocks, they’re insulting our intelligence with this, or maybe they’re mocking us.
How about just let us get as much power as we can out of the car by pushing our foot down harder on the pedal.
This is a perfect example of “remove something, then sell it back to the customer”.
Exactly. I actually own the vw id3. And I’m furious about it. I paid like 45000 euros. And now I need to buy soon an additional subscription, for… to keep remote access available for enabling the airco via the app.
So it’s much more then just subscription for ‘increase power’.
The remote control is at least tolerable because VW does need to provide every car with cellular network connection and servers to make this happen.
Car power is completely different because it’s a one time change. If I’m their PR, I’ll do something like: VW has successfully tested new performance settings for VW ID.3 that helps to improve acceleration and driving. Upgrade is available at authorized workshops (of course with cost).
At this point, companies will do literally fucking anything, just to pad the numbers for the shareholder reports. The Volkswagen group can screw itself. When we start decent seeing vehicles at a decent price again, maybe we can resume this conversation. Everyone’s tired of plastic garbage for top dollar
When we start decent seeing vehicles at a decent price again
These exist, they’re just not in the USA. Look at what companies like BYD, MG, and Xiaomi are doing in practically every developed country except the USA. The entry-level BYD Dolphin EV is just under AU$30k (US$19k) in Australia, including taxes. Xiaomi have a sports car for around US$40k.
they aren’t even good cars anyway. they’re shit.
Depending on your jurisdiction, your local commerce regulator might have a different opinion of the legality of this than VW, especially when they’re taking away features you already paid for.
You’re not giving more choice if it relies on you purposefully taking away things. That’s called being predatory.
Sandwiches for sale! Can’t afford it? No problem! 30% discount. I’ll just cut it and toss one of the halves in the trash for you.
