More and more car manufacturers these days are becoming interested in the recurring revenue model, with Volkswagen’s ID.3 BEV being the latest to have an optional ‘motor power upgrade’ that you can pay for either monthly or with a ‘lifetime’ payment.
As the BBC reports, this option is now available in the UK, with customers offered the option to pay £16.50 per month or £165 annually, or opt to shell out £649 for what is reportedly a ‘car lifetime’ subscription.
It appears that this subscription service has been in the works for a while already, with it being offered first last year in countries like Denmark, following which it appears to be rolled out in other countries too. The software unlock changes the maximum motor output from 150 kW to 170 kW, which some users report as being noticeable.
Regardless of whether you find this to be a good deal, the concept of Car-As-A-Service (CAAS) has becoming increasingly prevalent, with the BBC article referencing BMW’s heated seats subscription and Mercedes’ acceleration subscription. Considering that all the hardware is already in the car that you purportedly purchased, this is sure to rub people the wrong way, not to mention that from a car tuning perspective this seems to suggest that third-party tuners don’t need to apply.
Thanks to [Robert Piston] for the tip.
Really – people are hacking cars as long as cars are a thing. How hard can it be to buy the cheapest model and bypass all the subscription nonsense with modified software? Probably harder than Rigol oscilloscope, but i bet not impossible. Game console manufacturers are at war with hackers for a long time now and so far they always lost.
True, but bricking a console one thing. Bricking a car is a whole otherer story.
WHEN dear HAD, when will we get an edit function?
This,
And an ability to login so user credentials don’t have to be entered every time a post is made.
Please?
I disagree with both of you.
However, I DO want for replies to go to the place your are replying.
And that used to work, so that it so often doesn’t work anymore must be an ‘improvement’ then.
Well but console is just single board with CPU and stuff. Car is much more so you will most likely never brick “car” just some of it’s many subsystems, replacement of which is always much cheaper the the whole car.
The thing with a car beyond the crazy expense if you do bork it in a way you can’t recover is the warranty and liability if you have any problems with your very expensive box on wheels – actually putting your hacked car on the road, even if the hack amounts to nothing more than a stock manufacturer configuration enabled just without paying them for it could be legally problematic for you if anything ever happens.
Also many of these vehicles if not all of them will come with over the air updates, if your car isn’t stock you could either miss out on the update that stops thieves trivially stealling your car, or worse have the update logic still in place and try to work but brick the vehicle because it wasn’t in a stock state…
The solution here has to be buy and maintain older cars, build your own, or go looking for a company that still respects the customer and buy that one, even if the vehicle is otherwise less impressive.
In the EU, Euro 7 standards will require tamper proofing of vehicle software and confirmation by vehicle inspectors so you’re unlikely to get away with running your hacked vehicle on the road unless you can put it back into a stock state for the inspection.
VW is champion is this (dieselgate)
CAAS looks like something created by mobsters on a CAR-tel meeting.
On the bright side, this means there’s more things for us to hack for free upgrades, a bit like a Siglent/Rigol scope.
I still absolutely hate it though.
On test equipment it makes some sense – a huge amount of the cost of them is the calibration and certification they will perform, selling the same hardware without that cheaper is just logical for all involved. If you can’t afford or don’t need the calibrated platform you can still have decent hardware, and should you push it beyond the level it was sold as handling any errors are your problem.
The stuff they are doing this rent seeking on in cars however really does not – maybe you could justify an extra cost to the 100% identical hardware platform if they were unlocking a really higher wear and tear super aggressive sport mode that actually would cost the company more as they are offering 30 years of ‘free’ servicing and battery replacement on their EV’s or something – likely going to be taking you for a ride pricewise still, but at least then there is some justification and service for the price.
Again stupid governments are lagging. This is fraud. They sell you car for the higher price and then limit it? It is extortion. Age of greedy clowns. I hope they bankrupt. They and everybody with same ideas.
It’s not fraud – they advertise a lower performance level and offer you a way to upgrade it to a different level. Doing it as a subscription is kinda scummy but you’re free to choose a different car (for now anyway, until other manufacturers decide this is a great idea).
Consumer electronics does this all the time. One PCB may be used for multiple models or even the same populated parts on the PCB with the only difference being firmware.
When “consumer electronics” do this there’s at least the possibility that there are additional quality checks or better quality components, or better matched components being used. If they can subscribe or buy the “upgrade” at any time it only means that there’s no reason for there to be a difference between the two tiers. Seems like a foot shot to me.
I’d guess this is a feature that’s enabled and disabled via GSM rather than something you take to a garage to get updated, else you’d just pay once, I’d hope it was enabled at the garage with a timer feature, of course I’d hope it didn’t exist at all. If it is wirelessly controlled, the worry would be that the manufacturer would choose to charge for features on a whim. Maybe the government might limit your speed or the police might just choose to lock you in your car and disable the engine rather than chase you. If someone gained access to the manufacturer’s computer system or broke the car’s security, they could limit a large portion of road users causing traffic jams across the entire country.
^ THIS ^ This is an avenue for future control by a state/bad actor. Rest assured – somebody will find a way to break the system, and use it for either nefarious or other untoward purposes, and the aforementioned state actors already have the backdoor. Think COVID lockdown, but you really cant go anywhere because your car has been disabled!
“which some users report as being noticeable” — so the same phenomenon as people claiming their overpriced Monster cables were worth the money because they don’t want to admit they were ripped off?
Rent-seeking European manufacturers struggling to remain profitable seem to be hell bent on losing the last shred of their business to cheap Chinese manufacturers. If a strong EU-China automotive tariff is implemented then expect CaaS to go away, but car prices will increase as well.
Long past time for someone to develop and open-source car.
Can’t EU do something about this CaaS BS?
Subscription based engine performance, with a motor that “starts” with the push of a button. Flip-flopping mirrors that are more likely to fail then normal mirrors more costly to replace and show object that are closer than the appear. A vehicle of which every iteration of the model contains more plastic that bends when you touch it, unless it’s very cold, then it just breaks. Hidden camera’s behind the company logo that constantly amaze/annoy the driver behind it at every traffic stop because it’s flipping the logo up/down to enable a clear view for the camera. Crazy blinding headlights of which one shuts of when taking a corner. Look silly and nobody knows the true advantage of this. Fancy rims (or caps) that are just a tienie wienie wider than the tire so that eventually you’ll scrape them against the edge of the pavement during parking leaving a very visible scratch that’s unfixable. Nice and comfy adjustable seats, hard top, safety glass everywhere. Disc brakes on all the wheels. Windshield wipers, with an interval, adjustable. You can even wet your windows to clean them with those wipers when it doesn’t rain and some models even have this for the rear window as well.
And all in a shiny white package so that you’ll see all the dirt all year round even if you just returned from the car wash. All those fancy features nobody really needs and makes a car less feel like a car.
As you might understand, I’m not ready yet to give up my model T yet, I just adjust very slowly to any form of automotive progress.
I despise subscription anything. Subscriptions are death by a thousand cuts. Anything I can’t purchase directly is a hard sell.
so youll opt to shell out the £649