One of the comments on that article gives a reasonable possibility
I can absolutely see how this could happen. You don’t plan to go under when you build your car software, so you hardcode the url and keys needed to talk to it, and don’t code a mechanism to update those from the cloud. Then, on your server side, you’ve encrypted the private key in a vault, and the last person with access to that vault left months ago, so you can’t get in to it either to transfer it to the new company
The software had to be loaded somehow: even if it would take building new disks with the necessary (fixed) software and physically installing them.
But, yeah, I can also see how they built it in such a way that was so fragile.
I really hate this timeline…
Well, they’d definitely go bankrupt if customers could get a free refill on the nickel’s worth of soda they paid $5.50 for.
/s
I bet if someone developed a way to hack them, the ghost of Fisker would rise from the grave and sue them.
Aren’t fountain drinks loss leaders? And I’m not clear on how this works exactly. Does this mean the QR code is good for one fill? So that developed a number of unique QR codes and had the mass produced cups individually printed in order to make this work. So to save marginal amounts of money, they’re marginally adding to their printing costs.
Not even close. The way costs worked when I helped out at the college theaters, costs were ice was most expensive, followed by cup, followed by the soda. Total costs for us were somewhere around a dime a soda. So say costs went up an order of magnitude, they’re still making a couple of bucks per soda.
Yeah, I think the “loss leader” at the movie theatre, if there is one, is the movie itself. Or, rather, the movies in aggregate. Sure you have blockbusters that fill seats, but what about the other movies that go bust… overall, you break even on the films, maybe, and make money on the food and drink. Why else would they be so strict when it comes to cracking down on outside food and drink?
Yeah, I had the concept of a loss leader in my head wrong. Drink costs are marginal and it’s very easy to make a profit off of them.
IIRC it’s why popcorn is popular at all (inside movie theaters or elsewhere). The theaters pushed it since the early days; as you mentioned the films themselves were (maybe) a wash.
Putting this here…
…because changes in tech led to increasing sales for some…
…while the industry is doing this:
I mean, who wants to publish people who can write? That is so 1970s. Let’s instead give all the royalties, advances, and deserved support a writer needs to publish to established names, entrepreneurs who write self-help books about how to sell self-help books, or … Actually, that’s it.
I’m not sure I want to read what writers have to say about AI-generated ebooks. 
As a writer, I can tell you there aren’t many of us who have good things to say about the impact of AI. Even when it’s not being used it’s just made the industry worse for everyone.
It is even more complicated when you look at how soda companies have relationships with fast food companies. McDonalds used to get Coca-cola for free in exchange for buying Coke products. Now they pay for it, but Coke shares the cost of marketing McDonalds advertising that includes coke products.
My daughter is a TA, grading technical essays for the first time. She was amazed at the quality of writing. Her professor said pre AI, the kids would have ideas, but you could barely follow the logic.
I’m wondering who is excited about AI, other than the people selling it.
This reminds me of my child asking me if I was excited about their becoming a teenager. I replied, “yes, but it’s the kind of excited you feel when you’re driving down a hill towards a one lane bridge and realize you’re on black ice.”
That’s about my level of excitement with AI, and that’s from someone who is, modulo some algebra, in the field.
Not tech enshittification, but psychological:
I’ve always assumed when I’m doing the filling, lidding, and getting a straw, refills are free. With reasonable restrictions, like max 2 refills. My routine is to refill on the way out, so I’m getting ~1.75x for the price of 1.
I am OK with rules like max refills, but I doubt the cost of enforcement is worth the effort.
If I start seeing this where I “dine”, I’m gonna start being really clumsy with my drink. Cleanup’s gotta be more expensive than extra soda.
