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Comment by NumberCruncher | Hacker News Reader

This is anything but new. In Germany BMW sells cars since years, where the engine power is throttled by default and the throttling can be disabled for an extra fee. Former colleges of mine are working on the business side of this, trying to figure out the sweet spot for the fees, managing marketing campaigns through every possible digital channels, etc. Serving the devil pays well btw...

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That makes more sense - it's like networking vendors who sell switches that physically have 48 ports, but you've only paid for 24 and for an extra license you can activate the remainder. It's easier for the vendor to manufacture and supply one single type of hardware, and it's more flexible for the consumer because if your needs evolve (you want to drive faster or have more ports) you can pay just for the upgrade and start using immediately, not a whole replacement.

Paying a subscription for a feature that doesn't require any effort om the BMW side (e.g. not the continuously updated infotainment system) is what makes this different.

An interesting parallel to this is the work boats used on a huge construction project here in Scotland, where they had to be limited to a certain speed to be used as crew ferries. Above something like 18 knots they are classed as "high speed ferries" and the relatively slim paperwork turns into a fat wad of legalese.

While it was possible to program the engine ECU to limit the power (and therefore speed), the operator deemed it legally safer and potentially less expensive to have the engines swapped with smaller ones, and store the original engines in one of the site warehouses.

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