Greed
-
Paying extra subscription fees for services that require ongoing external support (e.g., external servers, external call/dispatch centers) that requires money for ongoing operation, that I can understand. If it's just paying to use the things that are already built into the car and those things can function without external support, I do not see the economic justification for it.
-
While I absolutely abhor the idea, there is a part of me that understands the appeal for the carmaker. Imagine if they only had to build 1 essential trim? Every car would be the premium, driving the build cost down across the board. On top of that, you would have more choices over the actual features you want. This could actually drive costs down.
-
Hackers in 1,2,...
-
Don't think they can't get around that?
-
And the people whose car was remotely bricked
Didn't that happen with Tesla? People unable to unlock their cars with their "phones" because of a software glitch?
As much as I like keyless unlock, start, etc., having a physical key that does those things is a nice thing.
My Audi has "Audi Connect" which gives me traffic info, route guidance, etc. It's (I think) $450 a year.
I have a phone that does those things as well.