Cars Are Pay 2 Win Too Now 

All we had to do as a species was to NOT buy the damn Oblivion horse armor.

'You wouldn't download a car' has officially come full circle to 'you can download upgrades for only $XXX'

-Did you buy the horse armor? -Yes. -What did it cost? -Everything...

Turn signals are one of the safety features people will happily opt out of, because so many of them aren't using it already 😂

Imagine you bought a house 100% and the home manufacture will only unlock the 2nd bathroom for a monthly fee....

I love adding in software to PREVENT a product from doing something. They had to add code, and add a function to the engine itself to limit and run at different abilities. It would literally be easier for the company to NOT do this. Disgusting.

Guy in car: you wanna race?! Guy in Mercedes EV: yeah hold on just let me pay my $60 fee and I gotcha 😅

This is why we need people like Louis Rossman advocating for the right to repair more than ever, the government and greedy companies wants *YOU* to own nothing and be (pretend is the right word in here) happy.

Time to go to that shady mechanic who unlocks my entire car

Your car won't start until after you watch an ad.

Lmao at Asmon thinking the government would ever consider stopping this. They can't wait until the have full control over your car. They look forward to it.

it's insane we made it to a point where if i go into a car dealership i litterly have to ask the salsperson "is that price tag in the window, for the complete car?"

Pay to win just got upgraded to pay to survive. Excellent.

What’s worse is they’re doing this everywhere. Industrial equipment, farming equipment, home appliances, etc. Plus you think you bought the item outright with all features yet advanced features are locked behind a paywall.

This will cause mechanics to charge a 200$ one time fee to remove the block but it voids whatever car warranty you have so you just wait till the warranty's over anyways.

Imagine driving to the hospital because a family member got hurt and they die because the car company said "You need to buy the battle pass for 60mph"

I wonder how many vulnerabilities there are in this system. I'd love to see hackers absolutely destroy this stuff cause you know Mercedes probably didn't put much thought into security when designing this.

The worst part is, currently if you complain about stuff like this, the main response is gonna be "Just don't buy a mercedes, buy a different car that doesn't do subscription stuff". But in another 20 years or so, pretty much all cars are gonna have this kind of shit on them, it just makes too much sense to include this stuff when you realize it's basically free money. And if you think other companies are not gonna include this, it doesn't need to be a limiter subscription to begin with, imagine if when you bought a car they also gave you a monthly subscription for cheaper repairs or free maintenance, everyone would buy that. It's all about slowly pushing the boundary until suddenly it's so fucked we have no way of going back.

In Central Europe we invented a brand new brilliant strategy to counter this, we just don't buy new cars... The green regulations and other nonsense made new cars expensive as hell and not that good to drive. It's not a coincidence that prices of used cars skyrocketed in recent years.

They could introduce a ''Car pass''.. after certain amount of miles driven, different things will be unlocked.. Let's say.. maximum speed, maximum available range, how long u can drive ur car within a day etc... :DD with different levels ofc..

The fact that it started with Todd making horse armor is hillarious xD

I remember when I first heard of it thinking "these people are so ill-prepared for how anti-consumer these video game tactics are going to be when it finally crosses over into mainstream markets." And here we are.

In a few years they're going to make you watch 5 minutes of commercials before your car will start. "You looked away from the dash screen for over 3 seconds, 90 seconds has been added to your 5 minute add break. For $99.99 a month you can subscribe to our express ignition 1 minute add break."

Sorry sir, your card was declined, so we had to turn your brakes off. Those were part of your monthly loot box. Edit: spelling

Would never buy something that makes me feel like I'm at a disadvantage

what really annoyed me is him saying you can customize your car easily now. this is not customizing you car at all you are paying money to unlock software block that prevents your car from going the speed it can. customizing your car is swapping out anti roll bar for a better one to improve handling because stock one is for comfort. these 2 are not the same. paying to unlock your acceleration speed is actually insane. i really hope eu look into this stupidity

I ended up listening to this "by chance." I don't listen to Asmon very often because I've never really appreciated his style and approach to things /shrug. BUT this was well done and well stated. I applaud you sir.

I learned this while riding on a motorcycle: acceleration and speed are EXTREMELY useful for emergency situations. If you look up and realize there is a semitruck careening toward you, while at a red light for example, you will be extremely happy you are able to avoid the accident with some zooooom.

One thing not mentioned is the concerning issue of this requiring the car to be always connected to the internet for the businesses to be able to enable/disable these features. This opens the door for tracking your movements at all times and for hackers to attack your car. Just wait until you can't even own anything and we go to an all subscription model for everything.

Tesla was the first one to introduce subscription for cars, but it was internet connectivity for the cars, which made sense since phones also require subscription to maintain internet connection. The subscription for actual car functionality, I don't know who started it.

The best part is all these optional features will make the base model more expensive because of all the additional microchips they'll add to control the features. Recall that Xerox instructed their customers how to jailbreak their own ink cartridges because of the chip shortage: new ink cartridges didn't have the microchips, so they couldn't wirelessly authorize the printer to print more pages upon being installed.

To be fair COVID is actually still terrifying now. I had eczema and didn’t put on lotion for a while and my skin got dry to the point where I had itch attacks before working out and I didn’t realize. Then COVID effected me barely a week later, then a few weeks after I was attacked by hives, chronic hives that last up to 6 month. If you don’t know what hives and a damaged immune system do, they react to temperature sensitively (mainly heat) meaning you are almost always hotter than normal, then if your brain receives any type of stimulus (excitement, stress, anxiety, fear, or working out) your body temperature gets incredibly hot in a hot flash and your skin starts to itch all over so badly that it isn’t even itchy, it just feels like you’re on fire and your nerves are burning right off your body, and it doesn’t stop until you calm down, it lingers and even can stack. This seems rare, and it is, but I have heard of a lot of other people also being effected with the same thing and a sudden spike in the sales of antihistamines like Allegra. Your immune system can get fucked and you can suffer 24/7 for up to half a year for it with the new versions of COVID.

Imagine having FOMO for that steering wheel. Truly pay to win.

I just figured out their plan. They want to produce a couple models, instead of dozens, and have features locked or unlocked to fill the niches of the different models they'd have. Instead of the company making BMW 520, 530, 535, they'd make a single car and the software would lock or unlock features to make the car 520, 530, etc.

I have a tesla, and they offer an acceleration boost for 2000 dollars. The only justification I can think for it is that its extra load on the motors, and batteries, and so that extra subsidizes the extra cost they may incur from warranty repairs. I dont know if that could be the reason from Mercedes. However, its a one time purchase on the tesla, not a subscription. I think it should be available as a one time purchase for some things. For me, Im happy with the speed I have already, so I save 2000 vs them adding it by default (assuming they would have to in order to subsidize costs of warranty repairs it may lead to). I dont believe its the job of the government to stop it really, as its free market. You dont like it, you can take your money elsewhere. If you buy a car, and they later try to remove a feature you paid for, then the gov needs to step in because you are being stolen from at that point.

Honestly all this makes me think, is that companies now want to make one model of car. And then have it be a low base pay but then a monthly for each convenience.

Some more Car fee ideas i start: 1) Window fee for 10$ a month you can open them halfway and for only 30$/month you can open them fully. Of course only the front windows if you want the other ones too you need to pay double.

Next step is buying a car, but the car doesn’t belong to you, but you still have to pay for everything. You will own nothing.

While it’s a stupid idea, and corrupt, this slight increase in acceleration does not relate to a safety issue…

5:50 so true, I actually had a physics teacher who can explain it great detail how having the option to go much faster is safer.

"How'd you customise your car?" "Nonfunctional"

Imagine you buy the new RTZ 10million90XT and you have to pay $149.99 a month to unlock ray tracing cores and half the VRAM.

Mercede's CEO probably spent all his money on Honing in Lost Ark, and when he had to get more for his new character he had the great idea to implement a similar system in their car so that he can fund his addiction and create a cycle.

Some EA employees found positions at Mercedes and carrying over their work portfolio.

I'm pretty sure this can be considered extortion (unless it's in documents you might sign). They are essentially holding part of your property under ransom for money. Just like the BMW heated seats subscription, the parts and tech are put into the car from the beginning, that you paid for, but now you need to pay extra.

Envirosci major here, my immediate thought when looking into this story was the tremendous amount of waste this would create. The features that people aren't willing to pay for just become dead weight. This is additional GHG emissions during the production process, and additional effective GHG from EVs and ICEs (if ICE cars have this subscription stuff in them) during transport due to the energy required to pull this dead weight along. If you have motors bigger than your spec that you aren't getting the most out of, them you're literally hauling another 300 or so lbs, which when you travel with this over time, probably adds up to a large quantity of GHG emissions.

The year is 2057, you're leaving work and driving home. It was a long day. It starts to rain as you turn to get on the highway. Your cars screen/HUD flashes a notification: Your power steering subscription has lapsed. You hold your wrist up to the cars built-in scanner and it scans the chip in your wrist. 60 federal credits have been deducted from your account, just enough to get you home and back to work tomorrow.

my only question is what happens if you take it your boy down the street and just get the blocker removed or bypassed because i doubt they designed it to be super secure like alot of the newer cars are atm.

Can't wait for the mercedes battle pass, I heard the Mercedes devs are adding the speedometer mod back to the car

the average age of a mercedes owner is 54, asmon is a very good life observer

And how much you wanna bet, someone months from now, finds out that paying them more does ABSOLUTELY nothing to improve the cars performance.

Something that I'm not sure was mentioned is that these companies are actually double/tripple dipping into your wallet with car subscriptions, because It costs the company to put the features in the car not for them to turn them on, So for every optional extra that needs to be paid through the subscription such as heated seat or increase in acceleration I can guarantee, you are ALREADY paying for these optional features as a part of the upfront cost to buy of the car but now you are ALSO now paying a subscription just turn it on, because otherwise they would lose money for every car the gets prematurely written off or the driver decides not to pay for the features they have.

Imagine a loot box system for this where you pull but instead a 🚗 car speed upgrade you get a minor bump in music volume 🤣🤣

The average age of a Mercedes customer was 54.7 last year so he was actually quite close lol

Na. Hard pass. Buy an old beater and use it until it breaks and fix it and use it again. Make sure its pre-tech era so it can't fuck you over. 80s or 70s is ideal, even a lot of 90s cars are useable long as it doesn't have an onboard computer.

Remember "You wouldn't download a car"? Yeah, people are literally gonna pirate DLC for their cars now.

do you enjoy dystopia fellow gamers?

Very very close Asmon, the average age of Mercedes owners last year was 54, so it may actually be 57 now, or the same or a little lower because of inflation

First the seat heater, now the speed. Next is limiting radio, while forcefully putting it in and have people be forced to have it, so they have to pay for it, and also pay to have actually use it.

In my state, if your car comes with a light, whether it's fog lights or a light bar on a roof/brush guard, it has to function whether you use it or not to pass a vehicle safety inspection. Point being, if the car comes with the feature, it needs to be functional to pass inspection. You can "remove" the light, whether it's physically or by painting over it, if it's on your bumper, but if it's there it needs to work, or not be there. I feel this situation should be that simple. If it has a feature built in, it needs to be functional to use the vehicle.

I think we all knew this was coming eventually but just didn't want to believe it. Absolutely atrocious.

Asmond: Speak with your wallet Also Asmond: Lets spend thousands on this anime game just because

In 2030: Door Unlocking: $20/month Door Locking: $30/month Ignition: $200/month Refill/Recharge: $50/use Brakes: $100/month Gas Pedal: $50/month First gear: $50/month Second gear: $75/month Fourth gear: $100/month Fifth gear: $125/month Sixth gear: $150/month Automatic shifting/transmission: $500/month Headlights: $250/month Brake lights: $400/month Left turn signals: $500/month Right turn signals: $500/month Simultaneous turn signals usage: $900/month Engine coolant flow or electric controller unlocker: $3000/month Horn: $50000/month Dashboard lights: $200/month Dashboard functionality: $4000/month Seat heater: $300/month Seat movements and flexibility: $8000/month Steering wheel unlocker: $900/month Trunk: $10000/month Transparent windows: $1000/month

Oh? You wanted a spare? 1.5k extra. Oh? You wanted the 6th gear in your transmission? 30 dollars a month. Oh? You want headlight usage? 10 dollars per month 😤💪 min maxing baby

25 years old japanese cars are the way forward :v

Yay. Now you can see your car grow. Like a child, or a pet.

Make it so that there are virtual mushrooms you can see through your Mercedes touch pad and when you drive over them you get an uncontrollable burst of speed.

I have a diesel truck that can resist a full EMP attack, you just push it and it will start, probably the lights wont work, but the engine will do as it is an old mechanically injected diesel engine, the same block of steel it's been running for hundreds of thousands of miles, been rebuilt and it just keeps going, just needed diesel and some steel, how much copper and rare metals do they need to mine too get these new cars running and they also need so much electronics and replacements very often, what's is the true green? Same truck/engine running for 40 years or having to change car every 5 years?

One step closer to owning nothing and then pushing your ability to travel based of social credit scores

Dude i just spend 30 bucks now my car is locked for the rest of the month

This is the reason there's a push toward EVs. If gasoline is outlawed, you will have no choice but to transition to this barely, if at all functioning dogshit.

If the car has 80k worth of optional features in it by default locked down behind subscriptions then they cant sell the car for for less than the value of those features, each sale still needs to be profitable or the shareholders will riot. This just means that the base model becomes the top of the line model price, and all the features that the top of the line model comes with now require additional recurring subscriptions too.

Drivers: My car is 'pay to win' now??!! Gamers: First time?

I remember there actually was a company that rolled out airbags as subscription service i believe LTT covered it like a year or more ago

Gives me nostalgia. I still remember jail-breaking my PS1. Glad they bring that back.

I work as a vehicle porter. Deal with alot of new vehicles. Pretty much all new 2023 and onward vehicles will be filled with these. Ford, gmc, and dodge all have it in the high end 2023 models.

internal combustion engines are pricier the more power (HP) they come with. it has always been this way. whats new with this one being a ev is the newly found monthy subscribtion plan attached to the more powerful car. it is weird paying it as a subscription.

Zach is exactly right about having better acceleration leading to safer driving if the driver is reponsible. I can merge on the highway in bumper to bumper with my c63 amg cuz i can get to 60mph so fast off the ramp

I miss the outro music is there any way to get that back

This is just a manufacturing connivance, as you need fewer variants to build, so makes it easier.

Research on road safety shows that lower speeds and acceleration decreases accidents by A LOT. Speed limited vehicles is a suggestion and even a law in some EU countries already because of this. But what worries me and AUDI already has this as a plan is AC for subscription. Back camera tiered subscription. tier 1 access, tier 2 fish eye full view. Radio functionality, bluetooth connections, seat heater all could be locked behind subscriptions. Basically our cars will revert to early 1950's standards in functionality until you pay up extra monthly. That is pretty much the direction they are going here.

8:45 There is. There is a wearable airbag thing for a motorcycle where u pay for a subscription, if u dont, it doesnt work.

Bring on the indie car companies and free to play driving. Can't wait for the mod community to make an airplane skin for the car

Imagine buying a home with an extra monthly fee to use the amenities, including bathroom

Someone will make a free to use car, but to use it in free state there would be adds, take you to other destinations before yours, cant use trunk space, sell your data, etc...

Aftermarket Upgrades, new software could be on a pyment basis. So you'd actually get an upgraded car when you payed, removing functions it not OK.

My concern is most the time shit goes wrong with computers in cars so what's to say it won't malfunction and disable something that will cause accidents.

if it was like power widows at the same cost as before or month that I could semi understand , but this is removing basic parts of your car then paywalling you on them. but to older people this is viewed as I always had to pay more for power windows now I can pick and choice forgating they removed most of the basic things to pall wall them.

Actually locking max power prevents systems from breaking. You can make pretty much any car go faster 20%, however if you do that it will basically destroy engine.

Mercedes be like: "This monthly pass includes 5 turbo canisters, 1 month air conditioning, 4 seat belts, and 500 Mercedes Coins than can be used to purchase vehicles perks online"

these car dlcs have been around for a while now, and its sad to see the older dlcs go out of fashion. i drive every day, and i don't remember the last time i saw somebody with the blinker dlc

Here's the thing. If you can afford to put every single bell and whistle into a car and sell it to people for a much much lower price, and then charge for extra's? You can afford to just sell the cars with all the bells and whistles working and fully functional at that lower price. This is just a money grab. Subscription fee's need to be outlawed at this point, at least most of them. It's getting insane. People are neutering their products just so that they can charge you more each month. Used to be that if you want a more powerful engine or heated seats it was an extra 500$ one time charge. Now it's 60$ a month.. for the life of the car. This is why I appreciate piracy. Is it bad to illegally download a game? Maybe, depends on what the company is doing to try to monetize it. If it's full pay to win, or absurdly expensive for what it is? No qualms. Is it intentionally missing huge aspects of the game that you have to pay for? No issue what so ever. Are they forcing it online only? I only buy it if it's reasonably priced. Otherwise, if possible to download. I might. Hackers and pirates get around stupidity like this. This is a software lock too, so people are going to just find out how to hack their cars now. Every time some stupid company puts an arbitrary lock on something with software, EVEN hardware. People find a way around it. Companies need to just be happy that they can still sell millions of products to happy customers who are willing to pay, and stop trying to limit their products so that the 3% of people that do hack it and play around with, can't. They weren't going to buy your stupid ass product in the first place, stop trying to force them. People are only going to get more and more resourceful in regards to this stuff. Once something is in someones hands and they've paid for it. They own it. They can do whatever they want with it so long as it's not endangering lives.

Imagine having to pay extra for the back-up camera, speedometer, and hazard lights package 😂

They have always had this. It was called the sport package. Or the limited edition. But you just paid a one lump sum of a few thousand dollars and that was it. Now they want to charge for the sport package in monthly installments. The base price of the car better be cheaper then.

the 'acceleration being a safety feature' take is a good one. Saved my ass many of times. This really plays into the whole "you will own nothing and be happier" model. A really slippery slope.

We are entering an ass-backward future where high tech sport car will have less performance than some hillbily's Ford Mustang who does his own repair and run on homemade gasoline since 2010.

Actually in the ‘90 Fiat in Italy was selling cars with only one side rear mirror. If u wanted the second one, on the right, u had to pay for it.

Hahaaa, the first sentences of Asmon are the exact same way I joked with a friend 2 years ago, literally Mercedes and a low amount of money, 3 wheels, steering wheel dlc. Bloody awesome !😂😂😂

Imagine going to the store for milk. You pay $5 for the jug, and the worker at the register says to get your jug filled you have to pay a subscription monthly 😳🤣

Phone firmware and updates like many OS updates are not behind a subscription.