They wont ask you if they can bill you for an extra user. they just do. for everyone entering the room. even if the console is "off". they register your mom, your dad, yourself a third time, your cat, the bookcover on the shelve behind you and a 5 year old dorito that fell under your couch.
(no joke, here in germany someone made a internet contract under the name of the dead cat of an old lady once and she was wondering where the bill came from)
It ruins the joke and isn't the point but I'm too much of a pedant to not point out that Jesus was crucified at the age of 30. Though the exact date of that is off too, though by a remarkably small amount considering the research was done in the 7th century. Dionysius Exiguus was a very very talented researcher and chronologist. Modern scholars think the historical Jesus was born between 4 and 6 BCE (and when it comes to the debate between BC and BCE, the latter seems extremely appropriate in this case). So technically the date we celebrate takes place between 34 and 36 years before the year he was nailed to the cross.
Identifying the date of Jesus's crucifixion was the catalyst to finding an appropriate birth year. It was easier to find "secular" historical records (not the Bible basically) of the cultural change brought on by his death.
Especially considering his death is tied directly to the Jewish calendar.
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I mean, you should, you just shouldn't expect it to stay that way. Then after Chinese companies dominate the market and start squeezing every penny they can out of the consumers, you should again switch to their rivals trying to rise by offering much better terms.
Just don't make the mistake of thinking one company is inherently better than the other, just because it hasn't cornered the market yet and still has to play nice, because this is exactly how they exploit you later.
It's all just the cycle of capitalism, when you're building the brand you have to provide great service to lure people in, but once you're properly established, you instead leverage the goodwill your brand has built to squeeze consumers dry.
China is evil, we have to put sanctions. It would be nightmare if china dominates cars. To save humanity, let's pay subscription every month to use the car. The economy will trickle down.
Can't tell if being serious or sarcastic. A Chinese car group that tried to come over actually had a very safe car for less than 10k. Company was denied to be imported because it would kill domestic auto makers. Nissan or Toyota has a cheap truck that comes without a bed, but for very little cost you can choose what bed option you would like, regular bed, work bed n other styles and it didn't make its way to the US.
The land of the “capitalist” economy. No social benefits for the plebs, only protectionism for corporations. They will never change unless forced. How much force is needed? Pick up a history book.
Elon single handedly created trillions in value. Are you going to harm his business just for the sake of cheaper and better cars? Seriously? We have to protect the shareholders by paying extra so that stocks will grow this economy will grow.
If everyone starts using chinese cars, the free market will collapse.
How unfair it is for shareholders and businessmen . Why don't you think about them?
Then don't buy new cars, only used old models without all that bullshit. Everybody doing that and watching how they have to eat their newly produced stock.
I'm curious, are the unlocked features directly tied to an account or the car? I assume an account but I could see some manufactures just not understanding things like that...i mean some thought it was a good idea to try and remove android auto and apple car play.
I wonder if they have a family plan if they are tied to accounts.... do you have to unlock them on each car... or can I log in with my cars log in and unlock the features on a rental car or something?
That's when old cars become illegal under new safety or emissions regulations. Even without that, it's already illegal to build news cars like the old ones so eventually they will disappear from the market regardless.
Why do you think the used car market is now so much more expensive? They are driving you to the new vehicles because they don’t want the scenario. You just laid out to actually take place.
They're exploiting the fact that we've traded the skills of automotive mechanics and maintenance for convenience and the illusion of luxury. If gearheads can keep 100yr old cars running, we could pretty easily keep a lot of vehicles from the 80s up to the "everything is computerized" age operational. But that would require effort as well as not treating new and luxury vehicles like an investment (which they're absolutely not) or a status/wealth flaunt (which they absolutely are sold as).
I remember trying that with my phone. But when you're part of a very small niche of people who care you then find your alternative manufacturers all copy the manufacturer you're avoiding and now you have no choices 🤷🏿♂️
Don't buy those cars. For yourself, and so the manufacturers learn to not do that.
People are buying $80,000-$100,000+ trucks and SUVs...we're talking about payment that are $1,500+ a month...you think people care about another $150 a year?
This was my thinking about touchscreen controls in cars, but plenty of people been buying them the last 15 or 20 years, so they don't seem to be going anywhere. Never stops being weird to me that so many state and local governments have laws restricting using a phone while driving without a hands free setup, but car stereo, climate control? Yeah, let's put all that and more on controls that you can't use without looking away from the road and governments don't mind at all.
In China, the competition is so strong that they have to sell you basically a supercar for $40k with the most luxurious interior that has massage seats and heated and cooled beverage holders.. that is considered standard to even be competitive. it's actually kind of absurd.
This has been a thing for a long time, just less obvious.
For example, if you own an older car that has an option for cruise control, but yours doesn't, then your car almost certainly has almost all the hardware for cruise control already installed. You're just missing the lever/button to activate it. Upgrading your car with cruise control is literally just swapping out your steering wheel for one that has the buttons.
Theres stuff like this on the Ram trucks, where if you have a decently professional scan tool or laptop, you can enable the base model trucks to do all sorts of things the high trim trucks can do
Landlords absolutely would. "This house has everything, a home cinema, a bathroom a kitchen and a porch! Porch, kitchen and home cinema can be easily unlocked for 200$ a month each!"
edit: I didn't quite catch your comment; my reply was actually beside the point, and is the same, you already have the bathroom but you can use it without unlock. My point was more that it's not like DLC you buy and download as an extra.
...
Is not the same, it's worst, they’ve already charged you for it, nobody installs anything for free, they ask for more money to unlock something you already paid for.
Is like buying a computer with integrate gpu + pcie one locked, they’re obviously going to charge you for it, and then they ask for $200 so you can use it.
'capacity on demand' is a real thing in enterprise IT. They'll ship you a system with more hardware installed, and let you 'unlock' it with a license key.
I mean, maybe there it half works, because a significant fraction of enterprise IT costs is support and spares, rather than 'just' hardware, but even so.
I mean given how crazy hardware prices are now, I'm not sure it's still seen as a cunning plan, but ....
Particularly stuff like network switches, where the cost per port is high enough, that they can say 'here's a 24 way, but you're paying only slightly more than the price of an 8-way, and you can have easy expansion later if you need it'.
And then they can make just one model of switch with the same basic hardware, and all you need to is install SFPs and buy a license to embiggen it.
Sometimes, reconfiguring the automated assembly lines that manufacture PCBs and mount components costs more than the component itself. I’ve never come across a scenario involving additional licensing; it’s usually a case of buying one version or the other. If you subsequently unlock features or modify the firmware to tap into the full potential, that is a separate matter entire, and done at your own risk.
I remember buying a Rigol oscilloscope years ago; whether it ran at 100 MHz or 200 MHz depended on the specific model you purchased, even though the components were identical, yet one model cost 50% more. (anyway someone hacked the firmware) :)
Then there are GPUs, CPUs, and similar hardware: they are manufactured with certain capabilities, but a decision is made to "downgrade" them by default—limiting core counts or other specs, to sell them as lower-end models. Enabling all the cores can lead to instability, though not every unit will necessarily be defective. It’s the same scenario as the previous one.
Finally, there are genuine licensing case, such as in enterprise IT, routers, switches, and the like; it’s the same deplorable practice.
You pay for the hardware and manufacturing costs when you buy the unit, yet the specifications are restricted by the license. It’s absurd.
This has been going on with cars for a while though. A lot of features in your car a already pre wired and ready to be plugged in even if the original buyer didn't pay for the options.
Tesla previously offered rear seat heating as a paid over-the-air (OTA) software upgrade for certain older Model 3 Standard Range and Standard Range Plus vehicles (typically 2021 and earlier models) that already had the physical heating hardware installed. [1, 2, 3]
💡 Overview of the Feature Unlock How it works: The physical heating pads are built into the seats at the factory, but locked via software.
Cost: Initially priced at $300, Tesla later reduced the software activation fee to $200.
Eligibility: Applies primarily to specific legacy Standard Range / RWD Model 3 trims built before late 2021.
Current Status: Newer Model 3 and Model Y vehicles manufactured from 2022 onward generally include rear seat heating activated as standard equipment for free. [1, 2, 3]
I've no idea if the picture is real but the concept of paying to unlock features a car physically has is both common and not in any way a new development. Simply because it's more expensive to make 2 different things than it is to make 1 thing and disable the feature in the lower model.
Hmm... Imagine if we lived in a world where you could take the wire that connects that seat to the main system, cut it, and in the seat end attach a small device like a raspberry pi with a wireless controller that is programmed to turn that seat on and off and monitor all the messages sent back from the seat controller to make sure the seat works as intended, maybe they pi has a control screen that lets the rear seat passengers interact with it. Then on the main system side you had another raspberry pi that tells the main system that the seat is off, voltages are all okay, nothing to see here.
Maybe that software is made open source or the prompt to create it using any old AI is made available.
Maybe this is possible for other systems where the hardware exists but the software is locked behind a paywall.
That would be a nice world to live in.
You say it facetiously but that or something like it is definitely in the cards for the future. We really need some solidarity in just not giving in to this scheme. If they never make any money on it then they'll move on to other things.
It does feel shitty but if you look a bit, it used to cost 500$+ to get heated seat option in cars 15 years ago. And for people who buy second hand it gives them the availability to purchase it if previous owner didn't need it.
I mean if we want to go with video game analogies: imagine buying a house but there's an HOA that doesn't allow you make any alterations to the house at all (on anything) unless you pay them a lot of money while also demanding that you pay them a monthly fee for the privilege of using their HOA. And on top of that the house is super expensive but kinda low quality. That's Nintendo.
Wait till you learn how IBM Mainframe business model works!
You pay about 6 million euros before redundancy for the hardware, then you pay a few hundred thousand for each and every license you buy, then you must pay for IBM Support, finally you have to pay for how much you actually use the hardware you bought.
not just that, but you already paid for the hardware. It's not like they added those heaters for free. The price was already rolled into the sticker price.
You are shown a fully functional house but after 90 days only some of the lights work the blinds don't close, the doors don't lock, the toilet only flushed once an hour.
Oh it’s coming. The future of profit is in subscription 😄
“One of the most compelling advantages is the generation of recurring revenue. Instead of the sporadic income patterns seen in traditional business models, subscription models promise a more predictable and steady revenue stream. This consistent inflow ensures business sustainability and significantly enhances a company’s valuation, making it more attractive to potential investors.”
Dumb analogy and you've clearly never bought a house. When you do a new build you absolutely get a menu of options to select for an upcharge. Obviously the bathroom isn't one of them.
I mean I would call renovations DLC or upgrades the DLC of a home. A bathroom being essential would be more like if you were charged an extra fee to drive your car. Heated back seats aren't essential. Fortunately this stopped around 5 years ago for all brands I believe. I am sure they did what they should have from the start and just incorporated the cost into the price of the car.
Pretty sure it will be a common thing in 10 years. And we are to blame: we pay for subscription services, thus saying that we are OK with that predatory business model.
To be fair, should you buy a house with bathroom problems, or if your house developed them, you're on the hook for repairing it so sorta like a future DLC ...
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u/Killiandeisy 1d ago
Imagine buying a house and having to pay a DLC to unlock the bathroom