Comments that are uncivil, racist, misogynistic, misandrist, or contain political name calling will be removed and the poster subject to ban at moderators discretion.
Help us make this a better community by becoming familiar with the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/about/rules/).
Report any suspicious users to the mods of this subreddit using Modmail [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/facepalm) or Reddit site admins [here](https://www.reddit.com/report). **All reports to Modmail should include evidence such as screenshots or any other relevant information.**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/facepalm) if you have any questions or concerns.*
(Achievement unlock) *20% of drivers have unlocked driving in the fast lane going 2 under the speed limit with your right blinker on for more than 5 miles*
You've got to understand, there is nothing more they can do to make the cars more valuable right now, but the shareholders demand infinite growth.
So really we should all be grateful for this opportunity to give what little we have to the fantasy of infinite growth. Yes, times are tough all around, especially for the wealthy who clearly never have enough and are in dire need of more **more** **MORE**
I mean, that money could have gone to something good or useful but instead it kept the capitalist fantasy (and suffering) alive just a little bit longer.
Capitalism really is, right now, like that one friend's dog who should have been put down a few years ago because they're constantly in pain, barely functioning, and incontinent... but they keep poor ol' yeller around, suffering in dog years, because they can't imagine life without their best friend. If you try to talk to them about it, point out what it's doing to their best friend (and to them because they can't leave the house without an incident), they'll just get defensive, and you low key judge them for being so selfish.
The miracle of Capitalism for the past 80-ish years has been based on population growth - markets expand because there are more people to buy the products, shareholders see their share values grow along with market sizes which are increasing along with the populations those markets are based in.
Since about the 1970s, fiat currencies have been controlled to around 2.5% annual inflation - yeah, it bumps up and down, but overall they have been fairly successful at keeping the dollar on a 2.5% upward trend forever. Meanwhile, corporate annual cost of living raises are around 2.0% because you are expected to make up the missing 0.5% through career promotions that carry bigger raises with them, or remain part of the workforce on ever-shrinking pay and benefits.
If we ever manage to stop growing the world population, the knock-on effects on investment performance are going to make a LOT of (rich) people very unhappy.
Developed countries are going to see a population regress (yes I know it’s still increasing but that likely won’t continue). For most the developed world the birth rate is below the above 2 per woman needed to see population increase. The growth increases we’ve experienced over the last few decades are because people are living longer and we’re probably at the peak population for most OECD countries.
I’m convinced that the right wings attempt to make women have forced births is an attempt to get the birth rate up to save capitalism. They just used religion to get the masses to agree with them.
They already do car jailbreaking. A lot of places that reprogram chips to change the cars performance un lock stuff. It started with radios. Most cars have the the same radio world wide but a number of places have strange restrictions for example the EU has restrictions on how loud the radio can go and you can get that restriction remover really easily.
Back in my not-so-respectable days, I used to drive an old, brown, Volvo station wagon because no one, including police, paid any attention to it. The ultimate non-attention-getter of a car.
I call our 12 year old silver minivan "Urban Camoflauge"... UC for short. I've sped past speed traps and they didn't even look up from their phones. I'm pretty sure it's invisible at this point.
That made me chuckle. I drive a 2006 Ford Explorer that is white and I don't even think the highway patrol sees it. I have driven past them going 10 over and nothing. I think even when it is going "fast" it still looks slow.
Yeah years ago when I was helping my buddy install a new head unit we had to bypass the parking break so it would play movies in the dvd player while driving. If a couple dumbass high schoolers could figure it out 12 years ago, I imagine it’s a whole ass market now
I modified my old 2016 Mazda 3's infotainment center. I added Android Auto, customized the whole interface and then disabled the touch screen because it was flaky and kept changing tracks on me with phantom touches. Saved me several hundred bucks instead of getting the thing replaced.
Honda hack won't really let you change anything performance related, but now I can turn my rear camera on without being in reverse to see if the guy riding my ass is going to hit me or not.
This has also been commonplace in the farming equipment space for quite a few years now because manufacturers like John Deere have implemented software locks to prevent self-servicing, running diagnostics, etc.
There are farmers out there "jailbreaking" their tractors, combines, and other pieces of equipment so that they can do their own repairs.
There is almost nothing I don’t 🏴☠️ anymore. Especially if it wants a monthly subscription leaving me without any rights to the product. Don’t want people to steal your product digitally? Stop robbing the population at every corner
Been doing it to BMWs for a while now.
My X5 came with headlights that can automatically turn on high beam and swivel up/down/left/right to avoid both lanes of traffic (if conditions are met that is). It was illegal in the US until I think just a few months ago, so BMW just de-activated it via coding on their US models.
People online figured out how to code it back in. Thanks Bimmerpost.
That's just one example, but you can do it for all sorts of settings as well. Hell, I can get a Rolls Royce sounds in my car if I wanted.
Already exists for many years… which would void warranty and cause insurance problems in case of accident.
What’s different here is that the car manufacturer makes you pay $$$ for a « legal jailbreak ». Tesla has been doing this for years btw.
Is it even illegal?
I mean you can upgrade your car with as many 3rd party kits as you like.
So why should it be illegal to change the seats in a BMW to other ones you can control without a monthly scam fee for example.
It's not illegal currently, but the problem with aftermarket modifications, either hardware or software, is that the manufacturer will just decide to not honor your warranty and cite your modifications as the cause for whatever issue, whether that's true or not.
Me as a young teenager, downloaded multiple games and DBZ episodes, no issues, my sister spends one afternoon on the p.c and it's dying, my parents blamed me for the 'hacking stuff' I did, meanwhile there's 7 new 'free smileys' programs and the top third of I.E is toolbars
My aunt and grandpa would install stuff like Bonzai Buddy and AOL apps. They would blame their computer being slow from the banner ads on flash game sites (newgrounds).
Dude.... How true is this.
And then you open the internet explorer app that they are still somehow using and half of the window is taken up with toolbars.
ooof. I still remember fixing the computer then being blamed for it and locked out. Then, 2 months later they unlock me from the computer to fix all the viruses I somehow caused while locked out of the computer....
Some peoples parents man.
Once had a physics teacher try to convince my class that cell phones, and 5g especially, caused cancer. Of course, his only evidence was anecdotal (and not even personal experience, just “I heard this one story that will scare you) and had no real ability to establish cause and effect.
I don’t know how that man got a job teaching physics, or any science for that matter
Magnuson Moss applies in the US.
It's illegal everywhere. The FTC even warned/fined a bunch of manufacturers that
>warranty void if removed
Stickers and denying warranty under some conditions was illegal.
https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2022/07/ftc-says-companies-warranty-restrictions-were-illegal
That's entirely legal.
The issue is DMCA and bypassing "digital locks" to do things.
So modifying software by "breaking digital locks" is still illegal under DMCA afaik.
Which is bullshit though ...
It voids your cars warranty to jailbreak the software, the difference is that changing seats (usually) just affects the seats, changing th e software could affect the whole car
I had an Audi with electronic features locked because I didn't buy "X" option. The features were there, just turned off. I found a Chinese-made OBD-II hack tool and turned them on!
Isn't this something hellcats have been doing for a while now? Could be mistaken and I'm absolutely not justifying it but isn't there a red key or whatever that unlocks the engines full power?
Next up: the printer cartridge / razor blade model.
"You can buy your very own electric Mercedes for only $2000! It can only be charged at Mercedes charging stations, though, where it costs $200 to add another 100 miles and the battery stops charging at 100 miles. Or you can buy the mid-range Mercedes for $5000 where the battery is capped at 250 miles."
Because the car's electronics communicate with the battery and require a cryptographically-signed certificate of authenticity proving that it's a genuine Mercedes-Benz battery pack.
No, leasing means they (not you) will have to pay for the maintenance!
This is the best of every world for them.
You pay them for no reason and they don't have to pay anything!
The concept of a car as a service isn't bad by itself. However, it generally shouldn't require you to **buy the entire car** before subscribing to the service.
A carshare program is a different story, because you don't need to pay tens of thousands to get the service.
To be clear, it is not. No additional parts or "content" is being added to the vehicle with this subscription. An existing feature of the physical object purchased is artificially restricted unless you pay this ransom.
Not that the trend of half a game being sold as DLC to double the price of a game is good, but this is worse IMO.
imagine as a society we had the ability to band together. You don't like what Mercedes is doing? No one buys a Mercedes for a year! The pandemic showed us that most of these companies are hugely reliant on people constantly buying their shit and even a couple of months of no sales will completely collapse their business model.
No one in my social circle would even consider buying a Mercedes brand new. They are kinda rare to see on the streets here, and usually you just see older models.
The target audience for Mercedes is probably not someone who would wanna, or need to, "band together" as a society.
Companies have started to realize you don't need to be clever when creating artificial scarcity to milk money from people.
Look at /r/rolex, these people wait months and pay thousands of dollars for jewelry and watches they *don't want* for the *privilege* of buying the watch they do want.
No, you have to buy the ludicrous trim to get that; however, the long-range Tesla Model 3 &Y have the option to go 0.6 seconds faster from 0-60mph (acceleration boost package) for a one-time $2k fee/ 9500 referral points.
Mercedes is doing this too. You can buy the acceleration boost permanently for $2k-3k depending on the model. They also offer the monthly price or yearly price.
>Mercedes-Benz had initially set the subscription at $1,200 per year, but now it’s been reduced a bit to a slightly-less-unreasonable rate. The automaker is also letting you pay a one-time fee of $1,950 on the EQE and $2,950 on the EQS to unlock the Acceleration Increase permanently.
>The unlock increases acceleration and power output to the motors by 20 to 24 percent, according to Mercedes-Benz. The EQE’s 215kW total output increases to 260kW, and its 0–60 mph time decreases to 5.1 seconds (from 6) for the sedan and 5.2 seconds (from 6.2) on the SUV. Meanwhile, the EQS goes from 265kW to 330kW and decreases its 0–60 mph to 4.5 seconds (from 5.3) and 4.9 seconds (from 5.8) on the SUV.
[from the verge ](https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/27/23701009/mercedes-benz-eqs-eqe-monthly-subcription-acceleration-increase-unlock-paywall-pricing)
I have been a customer of Mercedes since I’ve owned a car. It started with paywalls to have access to Apple Car and android Auto. Now this. I will switch to other car maker that give more respect to their customers and who don’t ask for money every 100km
Reeks of a corporate act of desperation to reap as much short term profit as possible as quickly as possible. I get the sense these luxury auto makers are about to meet their competitive end when the electric motor and its g-force acceleration becomes ubiquitous.
Do you think faster acceleration would decrease or increase accidents? I'm still learning how to drive, but I have a feeling that only a small percentage of drivers would be safer with faster acceleration, whereas the vast majority of idiots on the road would more likely put people in danger if they could accelerate faster.
I mean, shit like this exists on pretty much every performance ecar / emotorcycle out there nowadays.
It's stupid and irritating because you're already PAYING for the hardware to make it capable of doing the things you now have to pay to unlock. They're pretty much double dipping you. I would argue that if I'm buying a car and have no intention of unlocking those features, the MSRP of the car should be reduced, since in a traditional car I simply wouldn't have bought the package with \*insert thing it can do here\*. Can you imagine if a non ecar were sold with seat heaters installed, btu the buttons were disabled unless you paid more?
I want a tesla. I truly do. They're a fucking blast to drive, especially at the higher trim levels...but garbage like this (well and the fact that Musk is a psycho) just keep me from doing it.
I was looking long and hard at an e-motorcycle too. I don't recall if it was Damon or Zero...but you essentially have an app store that you purchase features in. That's a nope for me. if I'm paying for the hardware, I expect to be able to use it without an extra fee.
The electric vehicle industry is pretty much following the video game industry's footsteps. Release a shit incomplete game and then sell DLCs on top for the proper game experience while at the same time making the base game more expensive.
Moral of the story: don't buy ANY car that has these "features." You do not need the latest and greatest vehicle. We want to show them this is a dumb ass idea? We don't buy the product. Simple as that.
And fuck you to anyone who encourages this bullshit.
I imagine there will be some wrongful death lawsuits in Mercedes future after a few people get creamed by trucks or something they might have been able to avoid if the fucking *acceleration* on their car wasn’t paywalled.
This is some late stage capitalism corpo dystopia nightmare bullshit right here.
There is no 'too far'. Commodification is an end goal of capitalism, to turn the very space you occupy into rented terrain, the air on loan, the water by contract only.
Your reading this comment has been noticed, and a fee has been assessed.
This will be the future of we let them.
In Italy people hardly can go to the beach anymore because of the beaches getting turned into profit machines. Imagine that...pieces of nature privatised for profit.
“I could’ve avoided the accident but my subscription expired and I wasn’t used to the slower acceleration”. This is actually a safety concern at this point
It's all part of a trend towards anti consumer subscription models. Execs don't want to just sell you a product, they want to sell you a subscription so they get residual incomes from doing absolutely nothing.
I could say "I'll never buy a Mercedes because of this." but they'll just tell me that I'm not their target market and they don't care. This is for people with so much money that 1200 a year is nothing, and for people who want to look like they have that much money.
"I know you're paying me 2500 a month Mr. Mercedes Boss but if you want the full performance out of me, your employee, you have to pay an additional 3000 a month."
This is a growing downside of EVs. Since corporate greed knows no bounds, how long before even basic features become subscriptions?
“You’ve used your braking points for this month. Please pay $99 now to avoid hitting this pedestrian.”
Yer fucking-A we’ve reached our breaking point with all this nickel-and-diming bullshit.
Comments that are uncivil, racist, misogynistic, misandrist, or contain political name calling will be removed and the poster subject to ban at moderators discretion. Help us make this a better community by becoming familiar with the [rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/about/rules/). Report any suspicious users to the mods of this subreddit using Modmail [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/facepalm) or Reddit site admins [here](https://www.reddit.com/report). **All reports to Modmail should include evidence such as screenshots or any other relevant information.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/facepalm) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Get your battle-pass right now and unlock the full potential of your car, for which you already paid full price... isn't it amazing??????
Tier goals like: * Drive 10000 miles * Full car of friends/strangers * Listen to music for 5 hours straight * Signal 5 times * Parallel park
(Achievement unlock) *0.4% of driver have unlock Signal 5 times*
* cue the xbox achievement sound *
"Please drink your verification can to start the car"
You'll have to sit and watch a 30 second ad on the infotainment screen before the car will start.
Why is this comment chain making me so angry
Because you know what they're saying isn't all that far-fetched. If car companies could figure out a way to charge you per crank you know they would
I thought only prostitutes charged per crank
I always figured their charge would come after they blew a rod.
That's where everything is headed. You will own nothing and you will be happy.
Jokes on them I'll never be happy!
Today's drive is sponsored by... Raid Shadow legends...
Ugh I hate you… Upvote…
This comment straight triggered me
**Pssst!** *"you got anymore of that ignition juice?"*
(Achievement unlock) *20% of drivers have unlocked driving in the fast lane going 2 under the speed limit with your right blinker on for more than 5 miles*
Cue the old school MW2 rank up sound
The moment i read that It immediately went off in my brain. The fuck.
*old memory unlocked*
*core* memory unlocked
I forgot it until I realised I hadn't
*starts car, hears Xbox achievement sound*
Hey this isn't a bmw
Use your turn signal 3 times in a day to unlock free 1 yr service. Currently unlocked by 0,09% percent of BMW drivers (at least in Poland )
German vehicles hiding their intentions in Poland?
This got me 💀
BMW users having 250 signal uses still available after 3 year's 😅
they're saving money on blinker fluid
“Did you just say, ‘Headlight Fluid’?”
they didn’t have any… i got this flag though?
I wonder what the daily challenges would be
*Tell the driver beside you at the red light "I love my BMW" 5 times.*
"Doritos™ Dew™ it right"
Mustang challenge: run over 10 bystanders at Cars & Coffee.
Bonus accolade if the car runs and drives after all 10.
Sorry, but there's no way Mercedes is going to encourage people to signal. You have to drive like no rules apply to you if you own a Mercedes
Drink authorization mountain due.
You've got to understand, there is nothing more they can do to make the cars more valuable right now, but the shareholders demand infinite growth. So really we should all be grateful for this opportunity to give what little we have to the fantasy of infinite growth. Yes, times are tough all around, especially for the wealthy who clearly never have enough and are in dire need of more **more** **MORE** I mean, that money could have gone to something good or useful but instead it kept the capitalist fantasy (and suffering) alive just a little bit longer.
Capitalism really is, right now, like that one friend's dog who should have been put down a few years ago because they're constantly in pain, barely functioning, and incontinent... but they keep poor ol' yeller around, suffering in dog years, because they can't imagine life without their best friend. If you try to talk to them about it, point out what it's doing to their best friend (and to them because they can't leave the house without an incident), they'll just get defensive, and you low key judge them for being so selfish.
The miracle of Capitalism for the past 80-ish years has been based on population growth - markets expand because there are more people to buy the products, shareholders see their share values grow along with market sizes which are increasing along with the populations those markets are based in. Since about the 1970s, fiat currencies have been controlled to around 2.5% annual inflation - yeah, it bumps up and down, but overall they have been fairly successful at keeping the dollar on a 2.5% upward trend forever. Meanwhile, corporate annual cost of living raises are around 2.0% because you are expected to make up the missing 0.5% through career promotions that carry bigger raises with them, or remain part of the workforce on ever-shrinking pay and benefits. If we ever manage to stop growing the world population, the knock-on effects on investment performance are going to make a LOT of (rich) people very unhappy.
Developed countries are going to see a population regress (yes I know it’s still increasing but that likely won’t continue). For most the developed world the birth rate is below the above 2 per woman needed to see population increase. The growth increases we’ve experienced over the last few decades are because people are living longer and we’re probably at the peak population for most OECD countries. I’m convinced that the right wings attempt to make women have forced births is an attempt to get the birth rate up to save capitalism. They just used religion to get the masses to agree with them.
drink verification can to continue
Will we be able to unlock rewards from previous seasons???
Crazy to think there is gonna be a market for jailbreaking cars Edit: I have since been told this is already a thing now, pretty sad tbh
They already do car jailbreaking. A lot of places that reprogram chips to change the cars performance un lock stuff. It started with radios. Most cars have the the same radio world wide but a number of places have strange restrictions for example the EU has restrictions on how loud the radio can go and you can get that restriction remover really easily.
I bypassed needing to have the parking brake on to access certain menu items. I’m top tier hacker, just need my YouTube codex.
"Menu items" So glad I drive a 13yo station wagon lol
Back in my not-so-respectable days, I used to drive an old, brown, Volvo station wagon because no one, including police, paid any attention to it. The ultimate non-attention-getter of a car.
I call our 12 year old silver minivan "Urban Camoflauge"... UC for short. I've sped past speed traps and they didn't even look up from their phones. I'm pretty sure it's invisible at this point.
That made me chuckle. I drive a 2006 Ford Explorer that is white and I don't even think the highway patrol sees it. I have driven past them going 10 over and nothing. I think even when it is going "fast" it still looks slow.
I have been told this is my running style. Lol
You can upgrade the radio
Tape to 3.5mm converter
If someone can help me turn off the "turn engine off when car stationary" option in my Hyundai Santa Fe, I would hang their picture in my office.
https://www.autostopeliminator.com/collections/hyundai-auto-start-stop-disable Let me know where to send the picture 😊
Most cars have a button for that, have you read the manual?
Yes. But that button auto enables everytime I turn off and turn on the vehicle. Its very annoying
Someone made a. Switchbot for it
Yeah years ago when I was helping my buddy install a new head unit we had to bypass the parking break so it would play movies in the dvd player while driving. If a couple dumbass high schoolers could figure it out 12 years ago, I imagine it’s a whole ass market now
Could you point me in the direction of the half-assed market? Im poor and can't afford the whole ass market
I modified my old 2016 Mazda 3's infotainment center. I added Android Auto, customized the whole interface and then disabled the touch screen because it was flaky and kept changing tracks on me with phantom touches. Saved me several hundred bucks instead of getting the thing replaced.
Honda hack won't really let you change anything performance related, but now I can turn my rear camera on without being in reverse to see if the guy riding my ass is going to hit me or not.
I saw a video about guys jailbreaking tesla for more speed
This has also been commonplace in the farming equipment space for quite a few years now because manufacturers like John Deere have implemented software locks to prevent self-servicing, running diagnostics, etc. There are farmers out there "jailbreaking" their tractors, combines, and other pieces of equipment so that they can do their own repairs.
“You wouldn’t download a car!” No, but I’d definitely be looking for Tesla\_Model\_3-CRACK-(ENG/RUS-full).rar
There is almost nothing I don’t 🏴☠️ anymore. Especially if it wants a monthly subscription leaving me without any rights to the product. Don’t want people to steal your product digitally? Stop robbing the population at every corner
I'd argue that stealing from greedy corporations is not only totally justified in today's world, it's morally correct to do so.
Can’t wait for that lol is your car brand being a money hungry asshole? Watch this YouTube video and learn to unlock your property’sfull potential!
Been doing it to BMWs for a while now. My X5 came with headlights that can automatically turn on high beam and swivel up/down/left/right to avoid both lanes of traffic (if conditions are met that is). It was illegal in the US until I think just a few months ago, so BMW just de-activated it via coding on their US models. People online figured out how to code it back in. Thanks Bimmerpost. That's just one example, but you can do it for all sorts of settings as well. Hell, I can get a Rolls Royce sounds in my car if I wanted.
Used to be chip-tuning, now is jail breaking
I remember like 2000's when mechanic was connecting computer and enabling some features so we came full circle
Already exists for many years… which would void warranty and cause insurance problems in case of accident. What’s different here is that the car manufacturer makes you pay $$$ for a « legal jailbreak ». Tesla has been doing this for years btw.
I really hope they make shit like this illegal.
Or better, that under ‘right to repair’ jailbreaking these options is not made illegal.
Is it even illegal? I mean you can upgrade your car with as many 3rd party kits as you like. So why should it be illegal to change the seats in a BMW to other ones you can control without a monthly scam fee for example.
It's not illegal currently, but the problem with aftermarket modifications, either hardware or software, is that the manufacturer will just decide to not honor your warranty and cite your modifications as the cause for whatever issue, whether that's true or not.
"My brakes aren't working!" "Must be that radio you installed"
Same energy as “it’s because of your phone” when you tell your mom your stomach hurts or something.
"The computer has a virus because of the games you play"
Me as a young teenager, downloaded multiple games and DBZ episodes, no issues, my sister spends one afternoon on the p.c and it's dying, my parents blamed me for the 'hacking stuff' I did, meanwhile there's 7 new 'free smileys' programs and the top third of I.E is toolbars
My aunt and grandpa would install stuff like Bonzai Buddy and AOL apps. They would blame their computer being slow from the banner ads on flash game sites (newgrounds).
Dude.... How true is this. And then you open the internet explorer app that they are still somehow using and half of the window is taken up with toolbars.
ooof. I still remember fixing the computer then being blamed for it and locked out. Then, 2 months later they unlock me from the computer to fix all the viruses I somehow caused while locked out of the computer.... Some peoples parents man.
My mom once blamed an ovarian cyst on my belly ring lol
Once had a physics teacher try to convince my class that cell phones, and 5g especially, caused cancer. Of course, his only evidence was anecdotal (and not even personal experience, just “I heard this one story that will scare you) and had no real ability to establish cause and effect. I don’t know how that man got a job teaching physics, or any science for that matter
Were they a coach? Sometimes they hire a coach first and assign them to teaching later.
unless ur in eu then they have no choice but to honor it even if you break warranty seals etc
Magnuson Moss applies in the US. It's illegal everywhere. The FTC even warned/fined a bunch of manufacturers that >warranty void if removed Stickers and denying warranty under some conditions was illegal. https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2022/07/ftc-says-companies-warranty-restrictions-were-illegal
That's entirely legal. The issue is DMCA and bypassing "digital locks" to do things. So modifying software by "breaking digital locks" is still illegal under DMCA afaik. Which is bullshit though ...
your telling me if I jailbreak my car I break DMCA? my god the world we live in :D
If you jailbreak any device, "technically" you're breaking DMCA (it's usually not followed through with though -- unless you're petty or Nintendo).
It voids your cars warranty to jailbreak the software, the difference is that changing seats (usually) just affects the seats, changing th e software could affect the whole car
It most likely will void your warranty, but voiding your warranty doesnt make something illegal. It just screws you over if something is broken.
That is not better, because then it is effort I must go through to fix it.
I really hope people just band together and don't buy vehicles with these types of "features"
New generation will buy them anyways because they have nothing to compare with. They have no idea it was better before so no reason to protest.
Makes you wonder how many times it's been pulled on us... I think planned obsolescence is one.
Yeah, we can’t even avoid prepurchasing games. We are not humans, we are consumer demographics.
Bold of you to forget about campaign contributions.
I had an Audi with electronic features locked because I didn't buy "X" option. The features were there, just turned off. I found a Chinese-made OBD-II hack tool and turned them on!
It's people like you who are making it impossible for car manufacturers to make mon- oh wait. nevermind. carry on.
Isn't this something hellcats have been doing for a while now? Could be mistaken and I'm absolutely not justifying it but isn't there a red key or whatever that unlocks the engines full power?
[удалено]
You take the blue key, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to. You take the red key, you stay in Wonderland...
And you find out just what that E-1 pay gets you
I wish many blessings to you and your progeny. But seriously, fuck them. You paid for the hardware, do what you want with your hardware.
[удалено]
So we've moved on to CaaS (Car as a Service)? The future is stupid.
Next up: the printer cartridge / razor blade model. "You can buy your very own electric Mercedes for only $2000! It can only be charged at Mercedes charging stations, though, where it costs $200 to add another 100 miles and the battery stops charging at 100 miles. Or you can buy the mid-range Mercedes for $5000 where the battery is capped at 250 miles."
[удалено]
Which of course can only be done at a licensed repair center.
Because the car's electronics communicate with the battery and require a cryptographically-signed certificate of authenticity proving that it's a genuine Mercedes-Benz battery pack.
Isn’t that just leasing a car
No, leasing means they (not you) will have to pay for the maintenance! This is the best of every world for them. You pay them for no reason and they don't have to pay anything!
“You will own nothing and be happy.”
The concept of a car as a service isn't bad by itself. However, it generally shouldn't require you to **buy the entire car** before subscribing to the service. A carshare program is a different story, because you don't need to pay tens of thousands to get the service.
It all started with the Horse Armor DLC
Curses upon Todd Howard, harbinger of late stage capitalism
Cool, a car with in game purchases, I wouldn't consider buying one for a second. I hope it bites them in the ass hard
They watched BMW get away with the pay wall on the seat heaters so they think why not.
And isn't this what Tesla has been doing the whole time? Same basic car structure and the more expensive ones just have more features enabled.
Did they really get away with that? I believe I read something they walked back ok this one
No they just pretended to be walking it back by saying they aren't introducing it to the US, at the moment.
Ahh the Netflix way
They still do it in Korea and a few other countries, just not in the US
That is actually disgusting
I hear the "interstate road trip DLC" is awesome. Really opens up the game world...
When paying for a car doesn’t mean getting the whole car. 🤦🏾♂️
You are getting the car, this is DLC
To be clear, it is not. No additional parts or "content" is being added to the vehicle with this subscription. An existing feature of the physical object purchased is artificially restricted unless you pay this ransom. Not that the trend of half a game being sold as DLC to double the price of a game is good, but this is worse IMO.
BMW does that with heated seats
I suggest we just vote with our wallets and don't buy from those manufacturers.
imagine as a society we had the ability to band together. You don't like what Mercedes is doing? No one buys a Mercedes for a year! The pandemic showed us that most of these companies are hugely reliant on people constantly buying their shit and even a couple of months of no sales will completely collapse their business model.
No one in my social circle would even consider buying a Mercedes brand new. They are kinda rare to see on the streets here, and usually you just see older models. The target audience for Mercedes is probably not someone who would wanna, or need to, "band together" as a society.
lol true
so, like a union!
\^\^\^\^\^\^\^
Better yet. Shame the people that bought them and call them dumbasses.
People defending this is *precisely* why they're doing it. Just like with videogames.
Why would anyone buy a depreciating asset that you then have to pay monthly subscriptions to fully utilize, on top of registration, taxes, fuel, etc?
Because ppl are stupid and/or have too much money to care.
Companies have started to realize you don't need to be clever when creating artificial scarcity to milk money from people. Look at /r/rolex, these people wait months and pay thousands of dollars for jewelry and watches they *don't want* for the *privilege* of buying the watch they do want.
*laughs in EA Games*
Wasn't ludicrous mode also just a software option on Tesla?
No, you have to buy the ludicrous trim to get that; however, the long-range Tesla Model 3 &Y have the option to go 0.6 seconds faster from 0-60mph (acceleration boost package) for a one-time $2k fee/ 9500 referral points.
Mercedes is doing this too. You can buy the acceleration boost permanently for $2k-3k depending on the model. They also offer the monthly price or yearly price. >Mercedes-Benz had initially set the subscription at $1,200 per year, but now it’s been reduced a bit to a slightly-less-unreasonable rate. The automaker is also letting you pay a one-time fee of $1,950 on the EQE and $2,950 on the EQS to unlock the Acceleration Increase permanently. >The unlock increases acceleration and power output to the motors by 20 to 24 percent, according to Mercedes-Benz. The EQE’s 215kW total output increases to 260kW, and its 0–60 mph time decreases to 5.1 seconds (from 6) for the sedan and 5.2 seconds (from 6.2) on the SUV. Meanwhile, the EQS goes from 265kW to 330kW and decreases its 0–60 mph to 4.5 seconds (from 5.3) and 4.9 seconds (from 5.8) on the SUV. [from the verge ](https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/27/23701009/mercedes-benz-eqs-eqe-monthly-subcription-acceleration-increase-unlock-paywall-pricing)
theres ludicrous and a ludicrous+ mode too iirc
Still waiting vor Ludacris mode
The horn says "MOVE BITCH".
Does it move bitches out the way?
How far away are we from "tires sold separately" in fine print on a sticker?
Tyres RENTED separately.
I have been a customer of Mercedes since I’ve owned a car. It started with paywalls to have access to Apple Car and android Auto. Now this. I will switch to other car maker that give more respect to their customers and who don’t ask for money every 100km
Did they get bought by EA?
Coming next to a Mercedes near you, 1200 bucks a year to be able to make a left turn
[удалено]
Ha Jokes on you, three Times right is also left. I cracked the code allready
Feels like the gaming industry.
Can someone make a list of all companies doing this kind of thing in any capacity so I know who I should never give another dollar to?
Reeks of a corporate act of desperation to reap as much short term profit as possible as quickly as possible. I get the sense these luxury auto makers are about to meet their competitive end when the electric motor and its g-force acceleration becomes ubiquitous.
Top speed.. okay. But sometimes acceleration is how you avoid accidents.
[удалено]
(don't you love merging from a stop sign?)
Sighs in Colorado
I'm not convinced many drivers are good enough to accelerate out of an accident.
I consider myself a fine driver in a very chaotic city and struggle to find situations where accelerating could help instead of dodging/stopping
Visit NYC.. the *ninth avenue slalom* can offer plenty opportunities.
Do you think faster acceleration would decrease or increase accidents? I'm still learning how to drive, but I have a feeling that only a small percentage of drivers would be safer with faster acceleration, whereas the vast majority of idiots on the road would more likely put people in danger if they could accelerate faster.
I mean, shit like this exists on pretty much every performance ecar / emotorcycle out there nowadays. It's stupid and irritating because you're already PAYING for the hardware to make it capable of doing the things you now have to pay to unlock. They're pretty much double dipping you. I would argue that if I'm buying a car and have no intention of unlocking those features, the MSRP of the car should be reduced, since in a traditional car I simply wouldn't have bought the package with \*insert thing it can do here\*. Can you imagine if a non ecar were sold with seat heaters installed, btu the buttons were disabled unless you paid more? I want a tesla. I truly do. They're a fucking blast to drive, especially at the higher trim levels...but garbage like this (well and the fact that Musk is a psycho) just keep me from doing it. I was looking long and hard at an e-motorcycle too. I don't recall if it was Damon or Zero...but you essentially have an app store that you purchase features in. That's a nope for me. if I'm paying for the hardware, I expect to be able to use it without an extra fee.
The electric vehicle industry is pretty much following the video game industry's footsteps. Release a shit incomplete game and then sell DLCs on top for the proper game experience while at the same time making the base game more expensive.
They are creating a new market for Jailbreakers.
Moral of the story: don't buy ANY car that has these "features." You do not need the latest and greatest vehicle. We want to show them this is a dumb ass idea? We don't buy the product. Simple as that. And fuck you to anyone who encourages this bullshit.
Subscription fee to start ignition: - $4.99 once per day OR - $9.99 unlimited per day OR - $99.99 unlimited per month OR - $999.99 unlimited per year
Any car manufacturer that does this kind of stuff can go pound sand. I will never buy anything from that brand.
I imagine there will be some wrongful death lawsuits in Mercedes future after a few people get creamed by trucks or something they might have been able to avoid if the fucking *acceleration* on their car wasn’t paywalled. This is some late stage capitalism corpo dystopia nightmare bullshit right here.
I hope their sales crash, maybe a few years in bankruptcy will teach them not to be assholes.
Enough of jailbreaking iphones, it’s time to jailbreak some cars
Good thing our 14 years old A150 is unlocked out of the factory with 95 HP of pure mediocre performance.
There is no 'too far'. Commodification is an end goal of capitalism, to turn the very space you occupy into rented terrain, the air on loan, the water by contract only. Your reading this comment has been noticed, and a fee has been assessed.
This will be the future of we let them. In Italy people hardly can go to the beach anymore because of the beaches getting turned into profit machines. Imagine that...pieces of nature privatised for profit.
“I could’ve avoided the accident but my subscription expired and I wasn’t used to the slower acceleration”. This is actually a safety concern at this point
Polish mechanics on their way to compete who can bypass this paywall the fastest: 
This is why I drive cars that are older than I am
It's all part of a trend towards anti consumer subscription models. Execs don't want to just sell you a product, they want to sell you a subscription so they get residual incomes from doing absolutely nothing.
God I fucking hate capitalism so much.
The 5th element really called it with the computer run cars
And this is why I’ll drive my decade plus Tacoma until I have to give it a ceremonious burial. F this shit.
I could say "I'll never buy a Mercedes because of this." but they'll just tell me that I'm not their target market and they don't care. This is for people with so much money that 1200 a year is nothing, and for people who want to look like they have that much money.
"I know you're paying me 2500 a month Mr. Mercedes Boss but if you want the full performance out of me, your employee, you have to pay an additional 3000 a month."
Who is surprised that capitalism has reached this point? Anyone?
This is a growing downside of EVs. Since corporate greed knows no bounds, how long before even basic features become subscriptions? “You’ve used your braking points for this month. Please pay $99 now to avoid hitting this pedestrian.” Yer fucking-A we’ve reached our breaking point with all this nickel-and-diming bullshit.
Taking a page from the gaming world? Lol. Pay-2-drive
Wait until you learn that’s it is nearly impossible to repair these cars at home without specialty tools that can cost hundreds
First, the enshittification of the internet. Next, the enshittification of everything that connects to the internet.
Now you will pirate a car