> Perhaps they believe the product would be cheaper with abdicating the feature?
Or, perhaps, believe it would get updates? Software in cars tends to grow stale quickly, which is an annoyance if you plan to keep for more than a few years. My eight year old car, for example, has features (had features) that don't work properly anymore because the software didn't anticipate how the rest of the world would change around it and there isn't an update provided to restore it to the original working condition, let alone adding new features that would be nice to have.
Exactly, and cars aren't that hacker friendly. Underneath the design isn't that bad, can-bus makes sense, most modern cars have a good sort of internal network. But there is zero documentation to allow anything aftermarket to plug in later or software to be upgraded past what the manufacturer provides.
And car manufacturers are still very much in a mindset that you make a certain model-year, release it, and then forget about it while you work on the next ones. No upgrade path on software whatsoever.
I can think of one feature that I'd pick the subscription over the upfront cost: Tesla Full Self Driving (FSD). It's $12,000 or $200/month. Five years is the breakeven point, assuming that the prices stay the same (which is a bad assumption). $12k is a big chunk of change - could be around 10% of the car's value. There are also some question marks around whether the FSD is transferable to a new owner.
I've driven in a Tesla with FSD, and it's underwhelming. There's no guarantee that in five years, it will perform significantly better - maybe even require additional hardware or a newer car/platform.
In previous versions "Autopilot" as a name only implied self-driving to some customers, while it wasn't. Now they've gone a step further and branded advanced driver assist as FSD, which really isn't all that self driving at all.
To me, the only people who might not care about such limited-duration features are those looking for a 2-3 year lease. Maybe the manufacturers are trying to get everybody to lease but man, it just pisses me off. Wonder if the state/province's lemon laws can get involved when sh*t just stops working.
But based on our top-of-line 2019 RAV4 the computerization of the car is way more brittle and pointless than the traditional engineering. I expect to have a collection of dead stuff long before the car dies.
randomdata|3 years ago
Or, perhaps, believe it would get updates? Software in cars tends to grow stale quickly, which is an annoyance if you plan to keep for more than a few years. My eight year old car, for example, has features (had features) that don't work properly anymore because the software didn't anticipate how the rest of the world would change around it and there isn't an update provided to restore it to the original working condition, let alone adding new features that would be nice to have.
t0mas88|3 years ago
And car manufacturers are still very much in a mindset that you make a certain model-year, release it, and then forget about it while you work on the next ones. No upgrade path on software whatsoever.
jerlam|3 years ago
I've driven in a Tesla with FSD, and it's underwhelming. There's no guarantee that in five years, it will perform significantly better - maybe even require additional hardware or a newer car/platform.
t0mas88|3 years ago
In previous versions "Autopilot" as a name only implied self-driving to some customers, while it wasn't. Now they've gone a step further and branded advanced driver assist as FSD, which really isn't all that self driving at all.
jleyank|3 years ago
But based on our top-of-line 2019 RAV4 the computerization of the car is way more brittle and pointless than the traditional engineering. I expect to have a collection of dead stuff long before the car dies.
4oo4|3 years ago