The German car-maker says its “optional power upgrade” is designed to give customers more choice.
I honestly wish this would immediately totally destroy the entire company.
We need an example for “what happens when you make basic features cost extra”.
This isn’t the first example, but the first I did hear was the heated seats (don’t remember the make, but I think it was BMW which I already hate conveniently) feature getting milked the same way.
I’m totally in favor of companies tiptoeing to see how much hostility they can get away with getting immediately liquidated and shut down faster than the CEO can finish chuckling to themselves after coming up with the idea. Their golden parachutes should turn into iron weights and they should be up shit’s creek, penniless and disqualified for any account in their name to ever receive a deposit. This kind of decision should be actually and literally lethal.
I’m not even kidding. I’m in favor of executing everyone involved in this whole chain of decisions, including any and all the “yes men” along the way. They’re too evil to be allowed to breathe my oxygen.
Fuck that noise.
What happens if the car goes out of range from the internet? Does the car just lose power the same way I can’t play Gamepass games offline?
I already bought the car with the hardware in it. I will do what I want with it.
My next car will be a 1995 Honda. I’m so tired of being tracked all the time.
You can bump 10 years ahead, my car doesn’t have tracking 😄
20 years ahead even. Most 2015 model year cars have modems that no longer have networks to connect to. (CDMA, WCDMA, etc.) Also, you can pull the modem fuse on modern cars.
That’s an interesting insight, thanks!
You can play GamePass Ultimate games offline, though.
No, I’m serious. I’m not arguing with you, I promise.
Oh I wasn’t aware. Each time I try to open a game before my Xbox connects to the internet, I get an error.
Connect to the Internet, download the games you want and then go into settings and take your console offline.
The initial setup requires some settings tweaks but after that it’s smooth sailing.
Also, VW can suck a fat one.
So… Volkswagen is the next target for hacking ?
This is way beyond “mildly infuriating”. Shit should be illegal, it’s terrible for progress and an epitome of greedy capitalist bullshit.
Agreed. Although that is true for 80% of the threads posted in this category.
Ah yes, selling me something that is already available but is just locked behind software. And then trying to frame that as somehow a good thing for customers. Just insulting.
Sadly, it’s been a good part of IBM’s business model for years. They call it Capacity on Demand.
Inactive processor cores and inactive memory units are resources that are included with your server, but are not available for use until you activate them.
I learned this when I moved into a corporate IT environment with Power servers. I couldn’t believe that some companies would pay a quarter of a million for a server that is intentionally stunted/limited unless you pay even more.
But cars are computers now. “Everything’s computer!”. So they will follow that subscription model.
Unfortunately, it was clear that everybody was going to follow suit after this:
The way the article frames it as “why pay for what you don’t need” is so bad.
Nah, you already paid for it, the part is physically in the motorcycle.
The real question should be: why are vehicle manufacturers inclusing features that they can’t afford to maintain after they have sold it to us? Maybe stop making everything internet-integrated. Nobody in their right mind should be forking over a subscription for something they just spent tens of thousands of dollars on.
features that they can’t afford to maintain
That logic might work for GPS service, but the example in the article is a bike where the battery’s discharge rate and capacity are limited by software, and those limits can be increased via software if you pay a subscription.
the eu almost not allowed this shit for bmw, now every brand is gonna go through
When buying isn’t owning …
Owning a car used to be nice. Heck, even the notion of living in a Capitalist country used to be nice.
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.
In France, people who have VW cars are not the best or brightest drivers. It could work.FTFY
VW are garbage, have been since, well, forever.
70’s VW factory replacement parts were so bad you’d get water pumps with incompletely drilled mount holes.
Today, the electrics do dumb things like combine the AC control with the power window controls in a box in the drivers door. You know, an area that will deal with moisture.
Drive down the road and note how often a VW has an entire taillight that doesn’t work.
Their electrics are shit. (Other brands have their own issues, American brands are only a little better, or worse, depending on the brand and model).
UK too. The VW is the new Audi.
You do know that it’s all part of the same Volkwagen Group? Also known as VAG.
Thanks.
They mean “…by management”.
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?
You wish!
Seriously. Why didn’t I take the blue pill?
You guys were offered a blue pill???
Yeah, but it was a weekly subscription fee, so I declined
You didn’t get the emails?
No. Just some weird guy in a trench coat behind a Giant Tiger offered me some white-ish looking pills. I woke up the next day with half my head shaved and my wallet was missing.
I forgot to check my spam folder
designed to give customers more choice.
They are surely going to feel a sense of pride and accomplishment.
Gonna go on youtube and let that Indian tech guy teach me how to jailbreak a Volkswagen.
Someone should compile a list of currently produced car makes and models that are free to modify and repair without software locks on them
I imagine it’s a pretty short list.
Be the change you want to see in the world. I look forward to your list!
Car companies are parasites. America was built on trains and the investments into car infrastructure have paralleled US declines. Its just not an effecient use of public resources to build highways between cities.
