This is outrageous and we need to stand up against it. You're merely avoiding the danger of uber-enshittification of hardware (now once software is enshittified enough), but this will crawl further and further. Meanwhile rating companies are lowering ratings of firms that DO NOT have 'subscription model' in their products, that's why we're intended to pay for enabling heating in car seats from now on.
The TV manufacturers know they can get a guaranteed $30-50/year spliff out of the platform vendors per unit for allowing the shitware in the first place and that these TVs will last long enough to get them a nice several hundred dollar subsidy on the TV.
I’m afraid there’s not going to be a great affordable path out of this hypersubsidized trap we’ve set the market into.
Consumers just keep putting up with it. TVs are not a necessity; it's not like electric bills or healthcare. There are more ways to consume content than ever before, and more content available than ever before. Not owning a TV in the 80s or 90s was something of a big deal. Now, it couldn't matter less. But people are still putting up with whatever crap manufacturers are putting out. It should be easy to vote with wallet (even that means simply not purchasing a TV) but consumers just keep buying this crap.
"But while BMW ultimately backed down over heated seats, the company still believes in the features-as-a-service model, and will continue to offer post-purchase upgrades through its ConnectedDrive platform. "
And then they will complain that Chinese company are simply crushing them... As a European, I have been buying only Asian cars for ages as I don't want to play their "add options" game, and I think that more and more people are tired of that.
The enshittification and lack of market understanding (or care) of the major European car brands is a topic by itself. They may be rightfully complaining right now but a lot of their woes are self inflicted.
I drive a Cupra (a Spanish brand, a spinoff of SEAT, owned by Volkswagen) and when I was driving my car out of the dealership I had to tell the salesman I was not interested in signing up for the free app they were trying to foist me. He was dumbfounded. The model was selling like hotcakes yet I was the first customer that had outright refused to sign up for their shitty app. They pulled off the inevitable switcheroo, it now costs a monthly fee and I don’t want to think about what insidious things they can do with it.
Chances are the dealer and manufacturer can still get telemetry data through the cellular modem built into the car. You will need to remove it to be reasonably sure that data isn't extracted.
The issue is that data is also shared with third parties, such as insurance companies and possibly the government. I could not, in good conscience, drive a car that spies on me and can be effectively controlled remotely.
Because it would be unpopular, not because it can't be done.
Rest assured, when the time is right and the average consumer complacent enough, they will require a subscription. Yes, I can see the future. Call me an Oracle. No, not that Oracle.
Over the past many decades, we're seeing standards slip and slip as our standards for goods are constantly challenged. What was unthinkable just 10 years ago is now business as usual.
If you told someone in 2005 they would have to upload their ID and scan their face to use a chat application, they would call you crazy. If you told someone in 2015 that Google Glass was gonna come back and this time people would like being recorded and would willingly give up their camera feed, they would think you're insane.
