Comment by gruez | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gruez | Hacker News Reader

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>I think companies will start doing truly unethical things in the pursuit of this in the future. What if the dashboard could show ads before the car starts? It’s just a second of your time. What if a gas station network like Circle K could sponsor your car so it tells you to get a specific type of gasoline? Why not subscription for “optional” safety features that were standard? Why not a way to remotely disable cars with a warning light on the dash “for your own safety” until they visit a certified dealer? Why not coded car parts so the customer gets a “genuine product” and doesn’t “accidentally” install a cheaper generic counterpart? Why not pay as you go features instead of paying upfront? Why not track places you drive to with your car, the conversations you have in it, the people you call, and whether you drive with your wife and/or kids for behavioural advertising elsewhere? What about an eco mode subscription that saves you money when compared to not buying it, despite that it is always free with cars today?

>Maybe we could also disable some people’s cars to align with certain political demographics and identities, like we cancel, deplatform, and get people fired for slights online now? Could that paint us in a positive light in certain demographics? One client lost for a thousand gained!

All them can be theoretically done today. If companies are really chasing after "infinite growth", why are they leaving money on the table by not implementing those things?

The answer is obvious. There's nothing stopping them from making things arbitrarily shitty, but they don't because consumers will hate it and switch to a competitor that doesn't have those things.

>Maybe an auto-911 crash detection subscription? You wouldn’t want to be the mother whose kid dies in a car crash so you’d save $19.99 a month, would you? Anything if it moves more cars or at a higher marginal revenue, right?

Isn't this already a thing today? I think GM pioneered it with OnStar. I don't think there's even a car that does auto-911 today for free.

It is required in the EU. The mobile device only connects to the network in case of a crash. Of course, manufactures having to add a mobile device prefer to keep it connected continuously to use it for other things than required.

LTE-M/NB-IoT will solve this once it's activated on cell towers. Much lower consumption, it isn't paging the network at all times. They just have to shut it off when the ignition is off.

https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Low-power-cellular-IoT/W...

> I don't think there's even a car that does auto-911 today for free.

Ford! The SYNC system has had 911 Assist since the beginning of SYNC in the late 2000s. It uses your paired Bluetooth phone to call 911 in the event of an accident and plays an audio announcement to 911 based on vehicle information, then allows them to open the mic to the cabin.

https://youtu.be/g7xrKV3Lb74?t=67

> why are they leaving money on the table by not implementing those things?

> The answer is obvious. There's nothing stopping them from making things arbitrarily shitty

Two things to say about this: one, the laws of physics are stopping them, because developer time is limited. Two - there may be better ways to deliver growth right now, but over time there will be fewer such options.

> Isn't this already a thing today? I think GM pioneered it with OnStar. I don't think there's even a car that does auto-911 today for free.

So I guess then consumers aren't really stopping them.

> they don't because consumers will hate it and switch to a competitor that doesn't have those things.

Investors are not emotionally attached to a company, they will switch over to the ones delivering financial results this quarter. If that comes with consumer relations being irreparably damaged, does it concern an investor? They'll just hop to another company in the industry next. I said that this is an industry problem, and I meant it. It's not just one car manufacturer doing this, it's all being pushed towards doing it by the same force.

I think a lot of people have never traded even stocks in their lives and they don't see this part of it. Market-dominating companies about to enshittify their products are cash cows. And if they enshittify so much that they fall off the market, in a healthy market with many companies such as automotive, there will always be a company forced to enshittify to prop up its stock. It's not even just about sourcing investment - the net worth of the c-suite if often tied to the stock and they aren't looking to cash out when it's down.

Regardless, the overall effect is slowly making the whole industry hostile to the consumer. This is like private health insurance or life insurance - go ahead, switch to one that doesn't charge you a premium for your preexisting condition. And get your employer to switch. Not so easy when the entire market is guided by the same incentives that work against you, is it?

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