According to a report from Jiupai Finance, on November 16th, Tesla's recent software update suggested that its front seat heating and wiper heating are about to become paid subscription functions.
A netizen said, "The car I bought is just a purchase of parts, and if the function can be used, there will be an additional fee. This has opened up a new idea for selling cars." "The brake needs to see a 30 second advertisement, which should be popular soon." "This refers to those who didn't have this function before and can pay to activate it. I already had this function when I bought the car, but can I still cancel it
According to Tesla's well-known whistleblower "green", Tesla recently pushed a software update for August 8, 2023. This update implies that front seat heating and wiper heating are about to become paid subscription features. According to its introduction, software updates show that front seat heating and wiper heating will soon become paid functions for new cars. It is currently unclear whether they are targeted at the 2024 model or only for specific market models. Regarding this news, the reporter consulted with Tesla sales, who stated that there was no relevant explanation. Currently, the front seat heating and wiper heating are standard equipment.
According to the Daily Business News, as early as 2016, Tesla proposed the possibility of multiple subscription services such as FSD (Full auto drive system) and seat heating. Now that multiple versions have been released, the FSD paid package offers advanced autonomous driving features such as automatic parking, automatic assisted navigation, and intelligent calling. According to financial report data, Tesla FSD generated revenue of $324 million (approximately 2.3 billion yuan) in the fourth quarter of last year, which is equivalent to selling approximately 10000 more Model 3 vehicles at current prices.
According to the Qianjiang Evening News, a car owner has purchased a Tesla Model 3 and found that the enhanced automatic driving assistance function on the car needs to be customized for 32000 yuan. This system includes functions such as automatic navigation driving, automatic lane changing, automatic parking, and intelligent calling.
Tesla has previously charged an additional fee for heating the rear seats of its entry-level models. Although the owner's car is equipped with this feature at the factory, they need to pay $300 to activate it.
In recent years, car manufacturers have introduced the concept of subscription services, which enable or disable various functions through software to generate additional revenue, but users clearly do not like to pay for what their vehicles already have.
Last year, Mercedes Benz launched multiple paid unlocking projects. According to the poster released on Benz's official WeChat official account, the owner can pay 4998 yuan to enjoy the rear wheel steering function for one year. In the same year, Mercedes Benz announced that it would launch a subscription service called "Accelerated Enhancement" for its EQ electric vehicle model. It is reported that users can unlock all performance potential by paying an annual subscription fee of $1200. After the upgrade, the time for different EQ series models to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph can be increased by 0.8 to 1.0 seconds.
Last December, Smart also announced the price of its subscription package function, which supports three subscription modes: monthly payment, annual payment, and permanent activation. Among them, the subscription price for permanently activating the front seat heating function is 1299 yuan, the steering wheel heating function requires 999 yuan, and the front seat ventilation function requires 1999 yuan. The above functions will be upgraded and opened online through OTA in the future.
In addition, BMW has also launched similar paid subscription programs. In the Connected Drive store in South Korea, BMW has also launched subscription services such as seat heating and steering wheel heating.
Regarding this, netizens have expressed that is the day far from spending money to unlock shorter braking distances?