You Might Rent Features & Options On Cars In the Future

[DamianTV]

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/01/21/230256/you-might-rent-features-options-on-cars-in-the-future


"These days, you go to a car dealership and you buy a car. If you want seat heaters, you might need to option for the cold weather package from the factory. Want the high-end stereo? You'll be likely be opting for some technology package which bundles in navigation. While some options are a la carte, most are bundled, and even when they are a la carte, they aren't cheap. What if in the future you could buy a car and unlock options later? Say the car came from the factory with heated seats, but you didn't pay for them. But later on, say in the middle of the freezing winter, you suddenly want them. What if you could simply pay a monthly fee during the winter months to have those heated seats work? Whether this model would benefit the consumer, the automakers, or both is yet to be seen. But automakers such as MINI are already talking about this type of a future. Is this the right road to be headed down, or are consumers going to just get screwed in the long run?"

Now for the Backlash...

[Spikender]

Sounds like the whole fiasco of DRM on video games where they had hidden content on the game discs and you would pay extra after you already bought the game to unlock.

That got shot down really fast, though I can only imagine where this is going to go. It seems like every new development in the world of automobiles is a net negative to the consumer. Hopefully Ford's ability to see who has committed a crime in one of their vehicles will also be an optional feature that you have to rent to have.

[DamianTV]

They dont give a shit about the Customer because were not Customers, where Consumers; a Resource for them to Harvest.

[Spikender]

They dont give a shit about the Customer because were not Customers, where Consumers; a Resource for them to Harvest.

Yep, which is why I stopped using that "customer" word a while back now. Consumer, consumer, consumer, because they just see us as people who consume, and they want to be the feeding tubes we affix to our faces when we do all that consuming.

[acptulsa]

Sounds like the whole fiasco of DRM on video games where they had hidden content on the game discs and you would pay extra after you already bought the game to unlock.

I can think of one big difference--those things don't add weight to a CD and it wouldn't consume more energy even if it did. In a vehicle, on the other hand, the hardware does add weight and does get in the mechanics' way at service time, and does affect mileage (among other things).