Well, I read something very recently where car manufacturers are showing various add-on features such as remote starting from the key fob, adaptive dip-beams with matrix LED headlights will be by subscription, so if you fail to keep up the $50-100 monthly payment then you lose access to those features on the $80,000 car you’ve just bought. And probably those features wouldn’t pass across to anyone buying the car second-hand either.
BMW tried this little wheeze when they demanded £80 for access to Apple CarPlay, a feature that pretty much every other car manufacturer includes as a standard feature.
My job involves working with cars, and the obsession with touch-screen panels to operate practically every function in the car is a disaster waiting to happen - just attempting to adjust the heating and screen de-misting involves taking your eyes off the road to operate the system, as there’s no haptic feedback, no obvious raised surfaces to touch; I had exactly this problem this morning when I took a car out for a test drive fairly early and it was quite cold, I genuinely felt nervous trying to adjust the temperature, fan and direction while driving on a busy road with bends.
My own car I chose after driving literally hundreds of different vehicles over a period of a couple of years, and while it’s got an infotainment screen for satnav, radio, etc., it has actual, physical knobs for controlling fan and temperature, and station and volume for the radio, with steering wheel controls as well, so I can operate by touch without taking my eyes off the road; and it all works without needing a fucking subscription!
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