On Demand Features

Cookie_Monster

So seemingly this is the next big thing for manufacturers.

Freemium for cars?

Imagine a brand-new S-Class standing right in front of your door. You get in the car and drive off – at no charge whatsoever because you are using the basic version. The car is ready to drive, and all safety-related driving assistants are available, but the air conditioning, sound system and seat heating remain deactivated – and you cannot drive faster than 110 km/h. So that you as the driver can use additional functions and services, the features of the car need to be individually configured like a character in a computer game. For small surcharges, you can synchronize your own Spotify account on your smartphone with the Burmester sound system in the car for the length of the drive.

Even heard an example about all vehicles of X model type being 4wd, but locked to 2wd without subscription.

Good for manufacturer revenue and good for model type reduction and cost efficiency but good for traditional owner-customers v the newer trend of simply renting as required and never owning?

What do people think about this as a concept coming to automotive?

https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/taubenheim-13/taubenheim13blog/in-car-purchase-special-features-on-demand/
https://global.handelsblatt.com/companies/on-demand-automotive-features-add-up-to-billions-764132

Del2005

When they have that technology rolled out I'd say most people won't own a car. With autonomous driving who cares what features the vehicle will have, you call a vehicle and tell it where you want to go and let it do the rest.

OldMrBrennan83

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Can't see freemium working for items where there is a basic need (like transport).
Too many folk who only want to use the free service due to an actual need.