Subscription Software - It's Moving to Cars

[Paul F]

BMW is toying with the idea of owners paying a subscription for features. Things like heated steering wheel or braking assist would have a subscription fee. It is proposed that owners could sign up for features for a few months or years. How far will Adobe's subscription idea go?

[ahalpert]

Pretty soon you'll have to put a quarter in to start the engine

[DLD]

Cars-by-subscription programs have been around a while.

https://www.autoblog.com/car-subscription-services/

[Paul F]

This is different. You own the car and subscribe to features. If you fail to make a subscription payment for the heated seat, it stops working. When you sell the car, the new owner can decide what features they want to subscribe to.

[docmoore]

In 1975 I spent a year at Oxford University studying Theology ...

First Trimester I lived in a dorm room ... no heat but for a radiant grill in the wall ... needed 50P to start it up. Turns out mine was broken
and worked without the toll ... cold winter ... could see your breath in bed and in the shower. So I would flip the switch to heat the grill, climb back under the
covers and when the chair and clothes for the day next to the grill were warm ... rush to change and off to breakfast of cold coffee, stale toast and
mixed grill ....

Less than today's quarter but interesting take on economics ...

[docmoore]

This is different. You own the car and subscribe to features. If you fail to make a subscription payment for the heated seat, it stops working. When you sell the car, the new owner can decide what features they want to subscribe to.

Started with leasing the vehicle ... then security and satellite communication for nav and assistance ... just expanding the theme.

Truth is they will price themselves out of a large part of the market .... however the younger generation will not realize what autonomy they lose
to subscribe to the hive ...

[DLD]

Both BMW and Audi are either cancelling or pausing their respective vehicle subscription programs, Automotive News reports. This is yet another blow to what was once a growing and burgeoning group of automakers introducing pay-as-you-go vehicle subscription options in a number of cities across the U.S. Both Mercedes-Benz and Ford shut down their services last year, and Cadillac turned off the tap in 2018.

https://www.yahoo.com/autos/both-bmw...140000168.html

[filmguy123]

This sort of stuff is a conspiracy that’s not a theory, it just is. The perpetual move to keep consumers from owning anything is problematic and in some ways more than a little concerning.

There’s enough incentive there to get us interested, but the Overton window is shifting. What will prices on all our subscriptions be once we’re hooked and there’s no alternative?

Rent your home, your cars, your entertainment, your phone, everything. There are more obstacles than ever to building net worth, at least in any traditional sense, and the pace is quickening.

Though I’m not worried about BMW so much; I suspect the push to self driving electric cars that work like uber without humans will begin to replace vehicle ownership. With a subscription model available, of course.

[cyvideo]

... no heat but for a radiant grill in the wall ... needed 50P to start it up.
and work ... could see your breath in bed and in the shower. So I would flip the switch to heat the grill, climb back under the
covers and when the chair and clothes for the day next to the grill were warm ... rush to change and off to breakfast of cold coffee, stale toast and
mixed grill ....

Oooh! The memories. Mine were Bristol '65. But it was a "Florin" for gas... two Bob in the meter in the hall back then. Thanks for the memory jolt.

Chris Young

[mcbob]

Yep... all part of The Great Reset, aka global corporate communism. “You’ll own nothing, but be ‘happy.” Read more about the future chosen for us via the World Economic Forum.