Did you pay the heated seats bill?

This is what I was pointing to. They are preventing owners from even doing simple things like reading/clearing codes. It's caused quite the stir.

 

Sure you can bypass a heated seat with a wire and switch, but I am betting there is a chip inside the seat that communicates to the ECU. So you have to remove the seat, open it up, run a wire from a powered location to a point passed the chip. The chip will then either be disconnected from the seat heating element or be connected and sense current when it isn't "ON". Either way it will likely throw an error and report back to the ECU, thus potentially nullifying your warranty. It also may stop working so you won't be able to adjust your seat.

The encryption on the ECU is meant to stop car thieves, so thinking it will be easier to hack than an iPhone isn't necessarily the case. The inputs and outputs are more tightly constrained, thus making it easier to protect than an iPhone, which needs more flexibility in order to be useful.

 

If you are paying a monthly subscription for a feature on a car and that feature stops working, is that a free dealer repair?

 

Yep .. I’m in the market for a smaller tractor (35 HP ) for Florida Property , and even if they don’t have that on the smaller tractors ( yet) ... as far as I know .. Fuck John Deere . I will never buy Green

 

I think you know the answer to that before you even posted

 

No, it's all to do with Deere not releasing any computer stuff to the public so no one but a dealer can fix it. That's why the older tractors and combines are going for a premium, because there's no bullshit electronics and you can fix it yourself.
Imagine having a thousand acres of corn ready to harvest and you're sitting there unable to move because of a computer glitch. No fucking way I'd be dependent on Deere / a computer knowing how things go.

 

Well, maybe.

Could make an interesting lawsuit if you buy a new car, pay a year's subscription for heated seats, and the heated seats stop working. At least that would clear up who owns what.

 

From what I understand the exhaust regen bullshit on all of the newer stuff is causing alot of the issues. I know our mechanics are pulling their hair out with the systems on the Kenworth tractors our frac and cementing groups use. All I know is that when I was growing up if a tractor broke down it was because a hard part broke. It is pretty difficult to make a diesel engine with a fixed vane turbo and a mechanical fuel pump stop working...

 

With a subscription, they could offer different levels of motor performance, right?

 

On my 2017 ram it had a subscription for a satellite radio thingy for one year that I didn’t use , don’t often listen to radio while driving . So I let that lapse .. but if I had to pay for my heated / cool seats or steering wheel or any of the other features I have I would be pissed beyond belief . And would never purchase a car that has that . My next vehicle will most likely be an AC Cobra replica so I have no worries..,they have none of that nonsense

 

How does the car communicate to the evil hive? Is it through the shark fin on the roof? Assuming you don't want radio can you simply deactivate the fin and be free? Inquiring minds want to know....

 

This is what gets me. This is one of the spins they try to put on it to justify the inconvenience but IMO the cure is worse than the disease.

 

Free as in none of your subscription services work after the current month / subscription period runs out? Sure. As far as the connection, same way they remote start, download updates, etc. Most likely a cell chip. I can open the app on my phone and tell you the location, ambient temperature, odometer reading, average fuel economy, and fuel range left in my wife's new Volvo. That is in addition to unlocking the car and telling the car when I want to leave within the next 15 minutes and have it get the interior toasty warm (or cooled). It can also run diagnostics on the systems in the car and report any issues back to the app (and Volvo as well I am sure). The service is included for 3 years, then you have to pay for it after that.

 

This is why older tractor trailer chassis are/were selling for more than new - something in the realm of 2007 and earlier was exempt from the new emissions shit they put on diesels so they were going for premium money (or at least were a few years ago when I owned a diesel and kept up with such things).

Tesla already did this.

I'm no engineer, but I think programming the system to turn off all options after so many failed attempts to connect to the Internet would foil your ingenious plan

 

True, but integrated into the dash is way more convenient, larger and one less thing to block the windscreen or become a projectile in an accident.

 

Ok. We might be onto to something here.

I’d pay an extra $50/month if it bumped me up to 800hp.

 

And drive it forever.

 

True just put an uncontrolled air path somewhere.

 

Its funny that you guys are arguing for gimmicks on the margins. These are all gimmicks, that sure, can be enjoyable, but literally anyone can live without. I'm not gonna say I'm at the level of irrational conspiracy, live in a cabin in the woods with no electricity guy... but I'm pretty adamantly anti-subscription model living. Its exhausting, another bill, another thing to keep track of, another thing nickel and diming you...

I got rid of cable tv recently and missed it for about 2 days. If I didn't have another family member's Hulu/Netflix, i'd just watch free tv apps on the Roku or free youtube. I don't want subscriptions for anything in as much as I can. I will fight it in as much as possible. if that means buying a refurb engine and daily driving a car from 2005 in 10 years, so be it. Anything can work with a standalone ECU that can be tuned. Fuck Ring, fuck XM, fuck Tesla, and fuck everyone else thinking about going this direction for anything.

 

As more and more driver assistance/emergency controls are managed by software, the software security will be increasingly challenging to access. Manufacturers are going to be trying to both protect their income streams and mitigate their liability. It’s only a matter of time for a few court cases to challenge the right to access those features. The manufacturers, finance companies, and insurance industries are going to all have a mutual conflict of interest with people accessing the software.