A decade or so ago the idea that electric cars might take over as they are seemingly beginning to was little more than a pipe dream. Today, in a similar fashion, it seems that the idea of subscription services for automobiles is in a sink or swim sort of phase. The idea has been met with quite a bit of hate but we wonder if some of you think differently. What services would you be willing to pay extra for on a subscription basis?
Interestingly, this concept isn’t a new one. Tesla has been charging a monthly subscription for its Full Self Driving software for some time now. For $99 a month, drivers get access to FSD if the vehicle already has Enhanced Autopilot. Those who only have basic Autopilot have to pay $199 per month for FSD.
The lure is that for those who don’t plan to own the car all that long, or use FSD regularly, the $12,000 price tag to keep the feature indefinitely might prove too rich. Other brands are taking note of this structure though and seem to be planning similar programs in the future. Recently, we reported on how Volkswagen is planning a number of pay-as-you-go features.
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To hear bosses at VW talk about it, owners could turn on autonomous driving features for specific trips instead of a specific period of time. If you’re like many workers who now spend the majority of their workdays at home, such a feature might be worth it. Financially it wouldn’t make much sense to pay monthly for a feature like FSD if you only drive your car a few days out of the month.
At the same time, one article in Autonews points out a big issue with the subscription concept at large. It says that it basically means that the automaker is saying “we already put in [and you paid for] all the stuff needed to make this desired added functionality work, but we’re only going to turn it on if you give us even more money.”
With those two sides of the argument exposed, how do you feel about subscription-based features? Are there any that you’d be happy to pay for? What are they? And how much would you be willing to pony up for them?
