this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2024
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lmao I wish. I'd fucking never support that kind of behaviour. I don't have a car, but my roomie has a VW Golf with subscriptionless heated seats.
I happen to have a pretty decent inside view into the whole "heated seats" bullshit too. See, I used to work for a company that did a lot of work for Stellantis. You literally can't fathom just how much administrative bullshit work goes into the customisation of packages and spec sheets. It's a constantly ongoing thing, thousands of man hours are wasted on it. Things change between markets, and in some markets it affect insurance levels and whatnot, so there's just so much underlying complexity beyond "oh I want a red car with heated seats." I've legit no idea how it came to be as complicated as it is, but it's mindfuckingly idiotic. When I left I believe Stellantis was working on replacing the system with their own, but I somehow doubt that it's an improvement.
They are saving incredible amounts of money by flat out removing options and having them unlocked through a subscription fee. Lots of work is removed just from an administrative view, nevermind the fact that the manufacturing chain gets streamlined and money is saved there too.
On top of that, you're paying for the seat, it's not like they're including features out of the kindness of their hearts, you're paying for all of the hardware, and then they're trying to pretend like they're doing you a favour by letting you "pay for it when you need it." It's 100% a scam, and the EU isn't going to do shit about it because among the perps are some of the most valuable German companies, and they happen to hold the German government by their balls.
The benefit of unified hardware and not having subscriptions can be easily combined: just replace subscriptions with a one-off charge for any feature. Warranty void if enabled not in a dealer shop. I think that would create much less noise than offering a monthly sub. Yes, I know, not great for the quarterly results, but then - so much less hate from your customers. And yes, touch screens in a car should wait until there is a full, proper self-driving capability in place.
The fact that a heated seat subscription idea didn't completely end the consumer market for the manufacturers attempting it shows us that too few people are awake to impact their income. The manufacturer will do whatever they want, including recording every possible thing they are able to inside the vehicle.
I am afraid you are right. Am driving a non-connected old car, and intend to buy a new one without that crap.
I do struggle to understand why the general population is so untroubled with this constant privacy breaching creep (a bit less worried with subs as when it comes to monies, people are a bit more alert). I have a lot of smart friends who click the "agree to everything you want from me" button everywhere, and they see no issue with it.
Sure, but you'd still be ripping people off. If your car has an option to unlock heated seats through microtransactions, you've already paid for heated seats.
The definition of rip off may vary. Still, that would be a saner marketing approach, in my view.
As I understand, all the businesses are trying to replicate the IT-born business model of subscription for features. It should not be a thing in the real world, and I hope these managers come to sense, the sooner the better.
The way I see it, if I have to pay extra for a feature I've paid for, then it's a rip-off. Like if I booked a hotel and then got told that I need to pay extra to have a bed, I'd be pretty miffed.
Say you have options to have regular seats or heated seats, as well as leather or fabric seats, that's essentially four options. By making all seats heated and locking the usage via software, you've cut the amount of options in half. That reduces complexity during assembly and ends up cutting costs. You're still going to charge the customer at least the full price of the seat, though. It's not like you're charging for
seat - heatinghoping that the difference would be covered by those that actually choose to subscribe.There's also the question of; what happens 10-15 years from now? Nintendo closed the store on the 3DS in March 2023. The console was released in February 2011. At what point will you no longer be able to use your heated seats because the manufacturer has stopped updating the API for your car, and you're no longer able to pay for it? How will that affect resell value?
I hate this sort of practise in smartphones and software. A car is order of magnitudes more expensive than a mobile game. If they want to apply mobile game tactics to vehicles, then the cost of the car should be comparable to a mobile game as well.
The car owner has every right to use every hardware capability physically present in the car, "enabled" or not. Manufacturers have no right to deny warranty claims based on owner modification, unless they can prove that said modification caused the failure.