VW introduces monthly subscription to increase car power

[Tell]

Interesting one. Probably come to Cupra / Seat may be if it goes down well.

VW introduces monthly subscription to increase car power

The German car-maker says its "optional power upgrade" is designed to give customers more choice.

www.bbc.com

Why Vag are increasingly locking down their systems to stop tampering nodoubt with income flows such as this one. Not just safety features they dont want compromised by "coding". But €s.

 

[tracktoy]

What I would add is they get a nice income stream from VCDS/OBD11/CARISTA to have access to the systems so maybe expect those cost to increase and in turn be passed on in higher subscription fees (which OBD11 Did just last week).

 

[East Yorkshire Retrofits]

Interesting one. Probably come to Cupra / Seat may be if it goes down well.

VW introduces monthly subscription to increase car power

The German car-maker says its "optional power upgrade" is designed to give customers more choice.

www.bbc.com

Why Vag are increasingly locking down their systems to stop tampering nodoubt with income flows such as this one. Not just safety features they dont want compromised by "coding". But €s.

They’re locking things down due to UNECE R155 R156, it isn’t an internal decision

 

[Tell]

I'm thinking when I get a new car I'll forget about coding. It was a wild west thing of the past.

With vehicle to grid just round the corner with your EV battery acting as a virtual battery farm for the grid. Tesla news and Octopus Energy news, people messing with the cars systems could bring the grid down like in Spain. Getting big boy stuff now beyond turning on the light show on the rear bar.

Whilst there probably isnt the real estate for the same number of solar cells on individual homes buying and selling off the grid and using your EVs battery does mean any possible meddling with the charging systems in the car or home battery systems once V2G takes off would / could cause power outage which security services would takes seriously. Connected systems needing to be locked down from tampering on safety grounds whether its personal safety of compromising safety features of the car or national energy security is another. Probably end to end security in the infrastructure to keep out hackers from the components.

(Octopus / Tesla news item is probably due I would guess to a fall out of Tesla with Octopus who are in the same game but that's another story but illustrates V2G elsewhere in the world)

 

[Syphon]

You're paying extra for a software change that would cost VW no more money to have running on the car from the factory, purely a money-grabbing scheme surely.

 

[Tell]

It's a bit like buying a fully specified computer but they have turned half of it off. If you want to use the fitted hardware you got to pay extra .The EV acceleration toned down etc. I can see why they lock everything down from tampering in the future with the Internet of things but this is providing modular functionality at a price point that's already built to the mechanics of the specification.

 

[tracktoy]

VAG, BMW and Merc have all factored into there business plans that they will make extra Income from renting / selling extra features. There was also some talk that if I paid for a feature and sold the car the feature would not transfer this article seems to imply not.

 

[Tell]

The fleet of PCP cars which they treat as they own them which they do if never bought outright with the balance paid. I reckon that's why they stopped selling the cars with optional extras it was easier to flog them on to keep them simple stupid. The VZ range or whatever the natty code is. Marketing stuff but also to keep the model range tight. Software control now means they can control the range via software. They need a moving display at the back to say what firmware updates the car has . Those that like to go dark could tape over it. Well nobody knows...