Agreed — I thought about this carefully and I'd have no problem with a rental-type agreement for a car of a piece of machinery, as long as we all agree that it'

Agreed — I thought about this carefully and I'd have no problem with a rental-type agreement for a car of a piece of machinery, as long as we all agree that it's a rental (and the pricing reflects it). Tesla is another example of a company walking a thin line. I'd be OK with their software updates to the car, and I'd actually rather take this further: I am not into car repair and I just want to use the vehicle for transportation, so a rental/lease agreement is fine with me. The same problem exists with many other devices that we seemingly "own". Phones are a good example: they are rapidly becoming computing devices that we "buy", but don't really own, as we can't use them without the software, which is "licensed". Again, not a huge problem for me in the case of a phone, but let's be clear that I don't really "own" much more than a decorated doorstop/brick. I really pay an upfront rental fee with the expectation of using the device for about 2-3 years.