Thesis - On-Demand Car Features

chocolate_bar

chocolate_bar

New Member
Dear INSIDEEVs community,

E/E technology is the main driver for all other trends in connectivity, autonomous, shared driving and electrification. Improvements in it will create new use cases for a lot of fields.

One enabled technology are "on-demand car features" that can be activated after the car is purchased. Advantage for customers is a lower base price and the option of not having to decide on the spot. The idea is to offer e.g. an autopilot, additional range, digital radio, additional speakers and so on. A few car manufacturers are already on board and offering such features.

What do you think of that trend?

I would be very pleased if you can find 8-10 minutes of your time to fill out my short thesis survey on this topic, which I am conducting with a premium car partner (Guess which one).

Survey Link - On-demand features

//You can switch it on to English on the top right corner
//You can win a 50€ Amazon voucher
//That survey might will have impact on product decisions
__

That out of the way, I am happy to collect your thoughts on on-demand features.
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Two suggestions:
  • ‘High school’ is listed twice. I suspect the second should be ‘Some college’
  • Tesla is not a choice but I would also add ‘Chinese’
Bob Wilson
 
bwilson4web said:
Two suggestions:
  • ‘High school’ is listed twice. I suspect the second should be ‘Some college’
  • Tesla is not a choice but I would also add ‘Chinese’
Bob Wilson
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input!
True, Tesla would be also interesting. I went by sales figures in a certain market.:)
 
hobbit said:
I find the whole model of usable features deliberately disabled by someone else's software
demeaning and insulting, as do many others, and that's why people so often dig in and find
hacks to get around it.

_H*
Click to expand...

Thanks for replying, thats a very good point! Usually you have more time to hack a system than to design it. I think the overall goal is to find features that make sense on demand. E.g. features that would just significantly increase the initial purchase price like the Tesla Autopilot could be such.

Hacks are inevitable, but the masses will not have access to the system to edit or replace the infotainment code. Hacks on Windows for instance are way more... lets say... user friendly. :)
 

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I'm not filling out your survey, because I'm not going to watch the video that starts with some dancing woman. If you have information you want me to have before the survey, write it out and let me read it.......I'm not going to waste time watching a video with music and effects when I could read the information more easily, and faster. Sorry, but I dislike how text has been replaced by video - wastes my time and only adds to more noise.

As an aside, software-enabled features or operational efficiencies aren't new, as Hobbit said. If you want to tell me what's different about your idea rather than having me watch a video, I'd be interested.
 
Tesla offers "Premium Connectivity" $9.99/month that is an enhanced navigation map and in-car Internet:

Premium Connectivity provides the ability to access all connectivity features over cellular, in addition to Wi-Fi, ...​

So I just use my existing cell phone and don't worry about it.

Bob Wilson
 
BMW tried to charge an annual usage fee for CarPlay, and that did not go well and they had to abandon it. In this example it was due to the fact that it wasn't a one-time "activation" fee, and the fact that CarPlay does not require any maintenance so it was seen as a money grab by BMW.

As a counter example, my MINI Cooper SE has full rear fog lights, but I do not have the switch to turn them on. I would pay money for that feature, but it turns out dual-red rear fog lights are illegal in the US, but mandated in Europe. MINI must have decided it was cheaper to build all cars with them and then just customize the switch installed for each market.
 
Calliope said:
Everybody says that at the beginning.
Click to expand...

Its a big challenge, but cars will face that anyways as they become more and more connected.

Calliope said:
I'm not filling out your survey, because I'm not going to watch the video that starts with some dancing woman. If you have information you want me to have before the survey, write it out and let me read it.......I'm not going to waste time watching a video with music and effects when I could read the information more easily, and faster. Sorry, but I dislike how text has been replaced by video - wastes my time and only adds to more noise.

As an aside, software-enabled features or operational efficiencies aren't new, as Hobbit said. If you want to tell me what's different about your idea rather than having me watch a video, I'd be interested.
Click to expand...

It is not mandatory to watch that video, it should give you a tangible idea. I was not able to find a more neutral explanation. And please, you totally don't need to fill it out. I am happy to chat with you here, too. :)


bwilson4web said:
Tesla offers "Premium Connectivity" $9.99/month that is an enhanced navigation map and in-car Internet:

Premium Connectivity provides the ability to access all connectivity features over cellular, in addition to Wi-Fi, ...​

So I just use my existing cell phone and don't worry about it.

Bob Wilson
Click to expand...

That is only the base price. With that fee you are just in the club but you still pay a huge amount for the top notch extra features.

Puppethead said:
BMW tried to charge an annual usage fee for CarPlay, and that did not go well and they had to abandon it. In this example it was due to the fact that it wasn't a one-time "activation" fee, and the fact that CarPlay does not require any maintenance so it was seen as a money grab by BMW.

As a counter example, my MINI Cooper SE has full rear fog lights, but I do not have the switch to turn them on. I would pay money for that feature, but it turns out dual-red rear fog lights are illegal in the US, but mandated in Europe. MINI must have decided it was cheaper to build all cars with them and then just customize the switch installed for each market.
Click to expand...

Exactly, there are three basic offering models: (1) pay-per-use (2) subscription and (3) full integration. Teslas Autopilot goes with number (3), you buy it afterwards and you have it forever. Mercedes also does not offer subscriptions, BMW did it and does it in a few cases but got bad media about it.

Homologation is tricky, and I even found differences on the offering of BMW Austria and Germany. The market needs time to develop I guess. Not many have a 100% clear strategy and are obviously just testing their offering, even more important it is to investigate the phenomenon.

cheers, people! :)
 
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chocolate_bar said:
but you still pay a huge amount for the top notch extra features
Click to expand...
What "top notch extra features"?


Edited to add that I went back and did the survey without the video......but the devil is in the details and most of my answers were "neutral" because "on demand features" is too vague to feel very positively or negatively about them - let alone ascribe any adjective to them like "fun".
 
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Calliope said:
What "top notch extra features"?


Edited to add that I went back and did the survey without the video......but the devil is in the details and most of my answers were "neutral" because "on demand features" is too vague to feel very positively or negatively about them - let alone ascribe any adjective to them like "fun".
Click to expand...

Depending on the car and market, Tesla is offering additional driving assistance features, rear seat heating, faster acceleration or infotainment upgrades. This digital membership does not give you any discount, it just enables such kind of upgrades.

If it is your perception its perfectly fine. I mean its also an important finding that people still need more experience with it.
 
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chocolate_bar said:
Thanks for replying, thats a very good point! Usually you have more time to hack a system than to design it. I think the overall goal is to find features that make sense on demand. E.g. features that would just significantly increase the initial purchase price like the Tesla Autopilot could be such.

Hacks are inevitable, but the masses will not have access to the system to edit or replace the infotainment code. Hacks on Windows for instance are way more... lets say... user friendly. :)
Click to expand...
Quite simply, as one of the masses without access to the system, if I've bought something I expect to be able to use it - all of it, now. I'd pay for a useful update if it is not on the vehicle now and is added in the future, but not to unlock a feature that came with the original purchase and was deliberately and cynically disabled by the vendor. I have completed the survey consistently with this expectation.
 
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chocolate_bar said:
That is only the base price. With that fee you are just in the club but you still pay a huge amount for the top notch extra features.
Click to expand...
I'm confused by this.

I already have a cell phone with data plan in a network well known for Interstate coverage. The Tesla offering is an additional $10/mo for nothing unique over my existing cell phone.

Bob Wilson
 
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Calliope said:
Yes, that's a known option, but it has nothing to do with the $10/month "premium connectivity" that you linked it to.

I too am confused......you seem to be talking about multiple separate things as if they are the same thing.
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The other way around. Actually I am stressing that those are multiple things. This connectivity package is mandatory for a number of digital features. On-demand functions or, as Tesla calls them, over-the-air upgrades cost extra. They are not subscriptions, you buy them and they are in the car forever. In Germany, you have the right to return a feature within a certain time. But only once.
 
chocolate_bar said:
I am stressing that those are multiple things.
Click to expand...
However, you said that $10/month was the "the base price. With that fee you are just in the club but you still pay a huge amount for the top notch extra features", but in fact it's not the price to be in the club at all.......it's a separate price for unrelated different things. You can be "in the club" and get those other features just by owning a Tesla, without paying that $10/month.

I still don't know what top notch extra features you're talking about with respect to Tesla, except for FSD (which isn't a thing yet, anyway), and increased acceleration (which I don't think of as "top notch", but I guess some people want it).
 
o_O:)
I said as follows:
"That is only the base price. With that fee you are just in the club but you still pay a huge amount for the top notch extra features."​

On Sunday I said as follows:
"Depending on the car and market, Tesla is offering additional driving assistance features, rear seat heating, faster acceleration or infotainment upgrades. This digital membership does not give you any discount, it just enables such kind of upgrades."​

I would like to understand you, but I bet the problem lies in my poor English. What I'm saying is that you have to pay a base price just for "premium connectivity" before you are even able to activate any OTA upgrade. But that may varry depending on the market. Base is meant in the sense of "before paying for that connectivity subscription you ain't get anything".

By top notch, I'm just referring to OTA upgrades to simply point out that you have to pay extra for the high-tech upgrades as Autopilot. So basically once again the same point:).

Whether this is really top notch or not, everyone can decide for him- or herself. I just try to flesh out a very technical topic. I do not work for Tesla. Wait,... you think that I am trying to sell you Tesla features? o_O

Maybe we can communicate on a factual level and not on a rhetorical one?
 
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