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When I bought my car, it had no Car Play or Android Auto. Upon some investigation I found out that both of them were installed on all the current models. It’s j
by ww520 2mo ago
When I bought my car, it had no Car Play or Android Auto. Upon some investigation I found out that both of them were installed on all the current models. It’s just disabled on the cars sold without the option. Some open source software for the car entertainment system flashed on the car was able to turn on the flags to enable various features including Car Play and Android Auto. So a happy story.
- ajkjk 2mo agoHappy for the individual, sad for society
- gruez 2mo ago>It’s just disabled on the cars sold without the option. So exactly like software licensing? Most apps nowadays don't even require a purchase to download. The download is free but you need to pay $4.99/month subscription to use, or $99.99 for a "lifetime subscription". The code's are all there. The author just doesn't want you to use it.
- Telaneo 2mo agoAhh, DRM-ed cars. I should have seen that one coming, really.
- jasonjayr 2mo agoThey saw the "You wouldn't download a car?" meme one too many times, and panicked.
- QuantumFunnel 2mo agoGeohot should focus his attention on jailbreaking cars now
- xethos 2mo agoYou're gonna love finding out who was behind the founding of Comma.AI, which adds self-driving to cars that shipped without it
- roysting 2mo agoThat’s not exactly the same. You don’t get to have a car for free with basic driving functionality and then pay for additional features once you realize the car is useful and the people do made it deserve to be paid for their work, which they were willing to meet you have for free in its basic form. This is something far more heinous, you bought a thing for a lot of money and just in order to extort even more money from you, they simply disable/lock away a feature that you technically already possess. A better analogy in software might be that you bought a video game for $60,000 and the only way to beat a lower level boss without spending 2,000 hours trying to, is to pay the developers another $5,000 for a super weapon.
- stringfood 2mo agothis reminds me of the old IBM tabulation machines that were sold in 2 different models at different prices, the cheaper one just had a metal tab inserted to limit the processing speed - you could remove the tab to unlock full speed
- prmph 2mo agoAs it should be. You'd prefer they get nothing for the effort they put into developing the software?
- acheron 2mo agoI’d prefer to pay up front to buy the product, the way everything was sold up until around 2012, and not have a “subscription” scam.
- prmph 2mo agoThe vendor of a piece of software decides how best they'd like to be paid. A subscriptions approach allows them to avoid demanding a big payment upfront, and allows them to continue improving the software without you having to pay substantial sums to get new licensed versions. It has pros and cons vs licensing, but is a legitimate monetization strategy. That the bits already exist on your machine is irrelevant. Your entitlement to use the bits is what is at issue here. Being already in possession of stolen goods does not entitle you to use them.
- vel0city 2mo agoIt's a car. There's already a big payment upfront. You're already shelling out $40,000+ on average in the US these days. Is that not already a big upfront payment?
- ninju 2mo agoEven hardware features (heated steering wheel, rain sensing wipers, etc...) are now behind software switches which the car maker can control based upon subscription or trim-level purchase. All the hardware pieces are installed at build time
- sunnybeetroot 2mo agoYou’re telling me it’s not cheaper for them to bundle the hardware but to disable it than not bundle the hardware?
- wildfireday2 2mo agoThe real cost is manufacturing with all the different options at different trim levels (combined with different paint jobs etc). Automakers have always made bank on options and trim. It is in fact cheaper for them to build all vehicles with the relatively cheap options and sell it as a subscription or add-on enabled by software. Engineering is in fact a large part of the option cost to begin with. The big task of the automakers is overcoming customer resistant to the “you will own nothing and be happy” model without feeling swindled being charged to use something they already own—or at least putting up with it and still paying. See Matt Walsh’s most recent monologue on this very topic.
- ButlerianJihad 2mo ago> heated steering wheel As a licensed driver who resides in the Sonoran Desert, can you even imagine the horrific visions that just flashed before my eyes? We often joke around here that wearing oven mitts is a good way to get our cars started in the late afternoons. It's not really a joke. I personally have several pairs of gloves, and I never fail to don those gloves when I go out, whether I am walking, riding an e-Scooter, or driving, because even as a pedestrian we must touch so many metal objects that bask all day in the direct sunlight. Heated steering wheels. What a world we live in today!
- manacit 2mo agoI scoffed at it, as someone that grew up in California and never lived anywhere cold. Man, when it's freezing outside, it's awesome. I wouldn't buy a car without it now.
- rlpb 2mo agoPlease could you share the name of the manufacturer, so the rest of us know who to be wary of?
- haunter 2mo agoVolkswagen Group for example. Most of their brands are like this, Volkswagen, Seat, Skoda. Carplay/Android Auto is in the head unit but you have to pay 200-300€ to unlock unless it’s part of the trim level you choose.
- rlpb 2mo agoThat's interesting, thanks. For me this feature is mandatory, and I won't risk buying a car (second hand usually) unless I see it working with my phone first. I drove 200 miles to buy a car once and walked* away because of this. The seller acted surprised. * drove