The German car-maker says its "optional power upgrade" is designed to give customers more choice.
  • grue@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    29·
    5 days ago

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

    That’s 100% a lie on VW’s part. What they’re doing is slapping a lock on hardware you already own (by virtue of having bought the car) and renting the functionality back to you. It’s literally theft and VW’s executives ought to go to prison for it.

    • Dynamo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      5 days ago

      I do agree that owning something should mean you own it and can do with it as you like. This does not sit right with me either.

      However, the car that you bought had presumably all information available, including the horsepower without the software unlock. If you bought the car because this fulfilled your needs, are you now being robbed because there theoretically is more horsepower available? Honest question: Are car motors not always limited to specific power outputs to reach emission, efficiency, or safety targets?

      Again, I agree with the sentiment that owning something should mean really owning it, but I don’t think people are being robbed or lied to in this scenario.

      • grue@lemmy.worldMEnglish
        6·
        5 days ago

        If you bought the car because this fulfilled your needs, are you now being robbed because there theoretically is more horsepower available?

        Your premise is flawed. The horsepower didn’t become available now; it was always available from the beginning – the physical machine didn’t magically change. That means even the most charitable interpretation is that VW deliberately made the thing artificially worse when they sold it to you.

        Are car motors not always limited to specific power outputs to reach emission, efficiency, or safety targets?

        Sure, but the bottom line is that either a tune falls within those targets or it doesn’t, and a tune provided by the manufacturer always will (because they have to conform to emissions laws, honor warranties, etc.). Since the higher-performance tune is safe, using the lower tune is just leaving performance on the table for no reason.

        It is not like a tune done by the owner or third-party that could exceed those limits at the owner’s risk.

        • Dynamo@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          5 days ago

          Thank you for the explanation regarding tune.

          Let me preface my response with this: I do not particularly agree with VWs practices here. It seems to be a way to make more money by offering a „service“ instead of having only a one-time purchase. So please don’t understand me as defending VW here.

          What I wanted to say with my premise is that the car that was bought is still the same car with the same lower horsepower that was advertised then. The car did not change and can be used in exactly the same way as when it was originally bought. Nothing was lost and no harm to the customer.

          If you do not want to support these practices (which I would definitely not!) and you own this car, you can simply chose to not pay them money and continue to use the car under the specs you had originally purchased it.

    • Dynamo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      I wanted to come back to your comment after I received some input and slept over it.

      Your point is that the customer, even though they bought the car under that impression that it has less horsepower, should now be able to unlock it for free since they own the car. If owning really means owning this should be possible and that is why you describe it as literal theft if the functionality is now being made available only through additional purchase.

      I fully agree with your point and was simply misunderstanding your comment.

      Thank you for the objective discussion. This helped me broaden my understanding of what ownership should be. I was very hung up on the point that existing customers still get what they payed for that I did not see the bigger picture what ownership should really mean.

  • wheezy@lemmy.mlEnglish
    7·
    5 days ago

    It frustrates me that software is used to artificially limit the potential of technology in order to extract profits like this.

    Somehow, instead of having so many quality of life improvements from an amazing technology, that eliminates so much prior scarcity that existed, we get shit like this that enforces artificial scarcity.

    And the only thing we can do is laugh at it, until it’s forced on us by every corporate overlord and we have no choice but to except it as the new normal.

  • 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    5·
    5 days ago

    everyone here seems to be mad.

    i’m happy that there is some barrier of entry to adding more horsepower to an already lethal machine. sure, it doesn’t affect rich assholes. but at least some won’t buy it. ideally, nobody buys the feature.