Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

You Might Rent Features & Options On Cars In the Future

Posted by Soulskill on from the transportation-as-a-service dept.

cartechboy writes "These days, you go to a car dealership and you buy a car. If you want seat heaters, you might need to option for the cold weather package from the factory. Want the high-end stereo? You'll be likely be opting for some technology package which bundles in navigation. While some options are a la carte, most are bundled, and even when they are a la carte, they aren't cheap. What if in the future you could buy a car and unlock options later? Say the car came from the factory with heated seats, but you didn't pay for them. But later on, say in the middle of the freezing winter, you suddenly want them. What if you could simply pay a monthly fee during the winter months to have those heated seats work? Whether this model would benefit the consumer, the automakers, or both is yet to be seen. But automakers such as MINI are already talking about this type of a future. Is this the right road to be headed down, or are consumers going to just get screwed in the long run?"

11 of 437 comments (clear)

  1. All I Have To Say Is by rhook · · Score: 5, Insightful

    FUCK, THAT, SHIT!

    1. Re:All I Have To Say Is by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, this is great! Lots of companies have tried this and someone always figures out a way to enable the extra options for free. I have a DSLR camera, an oscilloscope, a TV, a phone, sat nav and several other devices that have been hacked to enable extra features that the manufacturer wants to charge for.

      Now I'll be able to buy the base model and get the high spec version with a simple software hack!

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:All I Have To Say Is by nickittynickname · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The car will now require an always on connection to work.

    3. Re:All I Have To Say Is by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They'll keep the whole "You're not allowed to drive without insurance", and add in "Your insurance is cancelled if you modifiy your car".

      Uh, I'm not sure where you're from, but the insurer of my car and the dealer I bought it from have nothing to do with each other.

      Why would the insurer care? About the only reason would be that they might want more money because the car is more valuable.

    4. Re:All I Have To Say Is by Zynder · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There is no way whatsoever that they would tie safety systems to a pay per use feature. You're just jerking your knee cause when it comes to automated technology, that is the "fashionable" thing to do these days.

    5. Re:All I Have To Say Is by mellon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yup. The funny thing about this plan is that it reveals a truth that isn't really in the best interest of the car companies: their car is actually worth quite a bit less than they are charging you for it. They are giving you a car with all the features, but charging you the price of none of them, instead holding them hostage in hopes of future payments. Any fool can see that this means that the price they were charged for the car was much more than they should have had to pay. I predict this strategy will backfire big time.

    6. Re: All I Have To Say Is by ultranova · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's for fleet buyers and leasing companies.

      No, it's for people who want to see society become completely rent-based. You can't buy anything, thus you don't own anything, and so can't accumulate wealth and rise through the ranks. Stay in your place, peon!

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

    7. Re: All I Have To Say Is by gtall · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is closely connected to the annuity based economy. Every company and its brother's dog wants a straw into your wallet that sips a bit every month. It started with "registering" your appliance. Then it progressed to yearly maintenance agreements so you could pay them for stuff that should have worked correctly out of the box but mysteriously doesn't, think of it as paying for them laying off their quality control department. It's not gotten so bad that I purchased a dimmer switch from one of the home remodeling centers, you may know them as what we saber-toothed called "hardware stores" back in the day, and the home center wanted to sell me a maintenance agreement for $10...on a $20 item.

      Up next, with the rise of "consumers" shopping brick and mortar stores for a price and then going on line to get it, we'll soon be charged for merely walking into the stores to finger the merchandise (say that last in Bugs Bunny's Bronx-Brooklyn accent), and we will have acquiesced to another iniquity, albeit one which we helped to promote.

  2. Already done to some extent by AaronW · · Score: 4, Insightful

    With the Tesla model S the supercharger feature is optional with the 60KWh battery and can be enabled at any time by an over-the-air update but is a $2,000 feature, presumably to help offset the cost of electricity and building out the Supercharger network. The hardware is installed in every car.

    --
    This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
    1. Re:Already done to some extent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That actually makes sense though - you're paying for the ability to use the network, not the hardware in the car.

      This would be enabling features that exist in the car and have no external dependencies, which is patent nonsense.

  3. Great, Just What I Wanted by CrazyDuke · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...a used car that is governed to 25 MPH and can only make left turns because basic functionality has to be enabled via $50,000 DLC that was only included with the initial purchase.

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced influence is indistinguishable from control.