Comments by "Mikko Rantalainen" (@MikkoRantalainen) on "Toyota thinks they own your car." video.

@samjordan8800 I'm afraid that the only way to fix this is to introduce a law to require companies to clearly disclose all the optional features that do not work even if you purchase the item. This applies to cars and game consoles. And the disclose must be clear as in "Warning: contains asbestos", not some small text at the corner of some user's manual.
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100 dollars should get you a pretty good smartphone, not a keyfob.
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What do you mean, "next step"? VAG (VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda) has been doing this since around 1994 where they have OBDII connector and the publicly documented API has the bare minimum required by the law (only the data required to check emission/pollution control stuff needs to work). All the real data and configuration is done using the same connector with a proprietary protocol and the special device to support that protocol costs about $3500. The idea is that the dealerships will get this but nobody else, which allows dealerships to keep prices high thanks to service monopoly. Luckily, company called RossTech reverse engineered the protocol and later another company called OBDeleven re-did the work and the required tools are no longer insanely expensive. VAG cars since around 2010 require interfacing with this proprietary protocol to tell the ECU that the oil has been changed so using this protocol is not optional.
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Disabling the whole product is obviously illegal but you can still sell e.g. computers with trial version of virus protection software. The big question which may require new legislation is how you should disclose the information about such a features. I would prefer explicit "Warning: this feature requires subscription" stickers all over the interior for every part that is not included in the base price of the car. That is, allow having subscription only features but make it totally obvious to the consumer what they're getting.
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This is a good example of crippleware - software feature that is designed just to disable features that would otherwise work just fine. Old shareware software used to do this kind of crap. Make no mistake, this is just alternative pricing scheme. They want to have lower sticker price but don't want actually sell you the whole car for that price. But instead of saying it directly they start talking about "remote control service". Just decide if you're selling or renting. Sadly, it seems that the only way to make car manufacturers behave is to make a law that prevents "selling" stuff that's actually rental deal with heavy initial payment without declaring that as a rental deal from the start.
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@codegeek98 The 4 wheel steering is about making it easier to get the car to turn on parking slots. Mercedes EQS is pretty big car.
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I've heard this explanation many times earlier. I somewhat agree on software only features where extra cost is basically license fee. For example, once you talk about features that require hardware (e.g. heated seats in BWM) and the software is used to intentionally break the hardware without subscription, you're basically breaking the hardware that you pretended to sold to the customer. If you don't want to sell stuff to the customers and want to rent/lease instead, you should openly disclose the fact before the customer decides to take the deal. I think devices including hardware that's disabled by software should get extra environmental tax. Building hardware that's then disabled from the owner of said hardware is pretty far from sustainable design.
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@TheAkashicTraveller Unfortunately, in countries that enforce EULA shrinkwrap agreements, the software can do pretty much any restrictions it wants and as long as those are listed in the EULA, they are totally fine legally. I'm not saying that's good but the legislation in those countries allows it and the correct way to fix this mess is to start with giving less power to companies via patents and EULAs.
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Audi is a VW with slightly improved sound proofing and slightly higher interior quality + more sporty looking shape. Plus 50% extra cost.
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@Px4164 I think EQS has 4 wheel steering always but the feature doubles the amount of steering of rear wheels on subscription. Still, that's obviously crippleware as in "pay us to remove this restriction that we added by writing more software".
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