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.
This is so distopian it sounds like a joke
The manufacturers fee for speeding is higher than the fine the police gives you.
Yeah, we’ve got more choice now.
I’m glad I used my freedom of choice to buy a different make.
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’m still holding out hope for cyberpunk. At least it comes with skylines and cool back alley markets.
The intent is to provide
playersowners with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking differentheroeshorsepower.They came for the Gamers, but I did not speak out because I was not a Gamer.
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.
What’s to stop someone just hacking it and unlocking it?
I assume that they try to make that fairly difficult.
I mean, modern cars are Internet-connected, have cell radios. If the vendor can maintain access to the car and can provide the initial trusted hardware, they can make it pretty unpleasant to modify the thing.
You also don’t need a 100% solution to make it financially work. Just need to make the level of inconvenience high enough that the bulk of people won’t do it.
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.
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.
I will never buy a vw again, that is a fact.
Skip all of those brands. Škoda too.
Škoda are a massive offender, in my eyes. No one here drives their cars, except for taxis, because they were cheap, comfortable enough, and no one cares if you beat one up. Now, they position themselves as some kind of a mid-range luxury brand, but the quality does not speak for itself whatsoever
This company already has another scandal brewing, since 2005 they have been installing plastic engine parts, particularily the intake manifolds have been designed as a single use item to be replaced roughly every 3 years. Custom aluminum will run you $1000 for the part itself if you don’t want to keep swapping plastic, not to mention the ridiculous labour costs as well. Avoid!
Basically every car manufacturer pulls shit like this these days; good luck avoiding all of them.
If it’s specific to a certain model, that would be good info.
That said VW obviously sucks for pulling the stunt mentioned in the article, which applies to (all?) its electric models.
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.
I’ve always admired the iconic vehicles VW has produced, but this assures I’ll never buy a VW.
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.
German car industry has one foot in the grave. The German car industry lobbyist have successfully weakened or delayed many EU climate and sustainability initiatives. I fucking hope the German car industry collapses sooner than later and weaken Germany’s political power in the EU.
German car industry has one foot in the grave.
I think that all or close to it auto manufacturers have some form of subscription service now with monthly fees. It’s not something specific to German manufacturers.
randomly picks from this list of auto manufacturers
Buick.
https://www.buick.com/ownercenter/onstar/learn
OnStar One Super Cruise
for vehicles with Super Cruise
$64.99/mo.
Save up to 16% by choosing this plan
OnStar Connect Plus
-
In-Vehicle Wi-Fi® Hotspot
-
Music
-
Podcasts
-
Audiobooks
-
News
-
Video Streaming (if properly equipped)
-
Games (if properly equipped)
-
Internet Browser (if properly equipped)
Safety & Security
-
Stolen Vehicle Assistance
-
Safety Services
-
OnStar Guardian App
-
Roadside Assistance
Super Cruise
-
Hands-Free Driver Assistance Technology
-
Turn Signal Activated Lane Change
-
Automatic Lane Change (if properly equipped)
-
Hands-Free Trailering (if properly equipped)
Is that subscription for OnStar or Super Cruise? One is a service with legitimate ongoing operating costs; the other is not.
-
German car industry has one foot in the grave.
I wonder if that is true though. Sure, they lobby that way when they want government subsidies.
They might be late to the e-car game (but the above article applies to e-cars only anyhow).
But all that largely applies to most car industries across the globe, yet they do adapt, if slowly. Except those under totalitarian control, they adapt faster.
I have German heritage, as does my wife. I have lived in Germany. Looking at the Germany of today, I can’t wait to see its power collapse. They might (still) be the most unworthily arrogant people on the planet.
no, that would be Russians.
Cory Doctorow nailed it once again.
