Apple Inc. is canceling a decade-long effort to build an electric car, according to people with knowledge of the matter, abandoning one of the most ambitious projects in the history of the company.
Thank fucking god. Imagine the kind of monetization that would exist inside an Apple car. You think subscription seatwarmers are bad, and they are, but I can guarantee Apple had much worse in mind, and that most companies would simply follow suit.
What I like is that a bunch of idiots seemed to take offense to my comment which was meant more as a joke. I do admit I wasn't aware there were EVs with gears. Though this is mainly because I won't be in the market for my next EV for hopefully years. When I was looking into it, it was largely seen as unnecessary.
Yes, but historically the purchase of an option included the physical installation of that option and its associated hardware. Not just turning on parts of the car that are already in it, after you bought it.
To be clear, I don't think anyone is arguing that options should not cost money. We're arguing against A) recurring subscriptions, and B) paying more money to activate features already built into the car you already bought.
Exactly. At a certain point luxury features stopped becoming standard and that’s associated with them being cheaper to install in every car but them deciding to sell it anyway
For many options in cars, the sensors and electronics are already built in but disabled in software. It's cheaper to build while optimizing profit with options.
"Base model is this, but if you want seat heaters that's another $8,000$10,000, if you want lane assist, that's another $5,000 $25,000 and requires a 512GB storage bump for $2,000"
alt-text: actual Apple Mouse charging via its bottom port
(Interesting, this guy says it gains hours of charge in three minutes, and thinks Apple knew some would leave it plugged it at all times. Intentional sure but not exactly “brilliant”.)
Genuinely, this is the best news I've heard in a while for the reasons you listed. Apple is already fucking up the phone industry with anti-consumer policies that become industry trends. I shudder to imagine how deeply and irrepairably they would have fucked up the car market for consumers.