You literally just bought a Tesla that has a £10/month sub for premium connectivity and a £99/month sub for FSD (that you can't have).
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EV general discussion
- Thread starter Ricochet J
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I understand paying for some features, I pay for the Tesla Connectivity, but assuming you're able to connect to your car over WIFI/Bluetooth range it seems criminal locking being able to preheat the car behind a pay wall. Assuming you can't set a preheat schedule?
They do in their current form... but do they really need to?
There's no technical reason that the car couldn't:
a) Have a SIM slot which allows a user to provide their own connection
and/or
b) Use WIFI to allow a direct connection (I'd guess that the vast majority of remote connections are done when the car is parked at home).
Soldato
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I’d pay for that.
Yeah but I know beforehand and I'm fine with it. If they chop out the heated seats during ownership and tell me I have to pay, I'll lose me ****.
I'm waiting for Tesla to integrate Starlink into their vehicles, and the ability to make that into a hotspot -now they have V2L as well would make them great off-grid camping tools.
But you’d still have a Tesla…
The biggest cost isn’t the sim card, it’s maintaining all of the backend infrastructure, security, software etc. which enables it all.
I’m pretty sure most cars don’t have their wifi on when they are parked/sleeping/off to save power and prevent phantom drain.
The Tesla is ‘woken up’ via a command over the cellular network and it then connects to WiFi if available. You can communicate it via Bluetooth but that’s only basic commands like lock and unlock.
Pretty much all cars have a lime limited free period on their connected services. I’m pretty sure standard connectivity in my Tesla is included for 8 years now (early cars it was lifetime but that ended in ~2019). Premium connectivity is only 30 days and after that is £10/month.
You don’t need the latter mind and I’ve never paid for it. But standard connectivity is basically essential, 2/3 of the screen is dedicated to maps which stop working. You can hotspot your car to another device though so you wouldn’t necessarily need to hand musk a monthly fee.
Other cars are far worse though, I’m pretty sure polestar only include connectivity for 3 years at which point the built in nav stops working.
What car is it that you are talking about?
Don't Polestar et al include android auto / carplay? So it's less of an issue
Yes but ideally you want to use the built in nav because it preconditions the car for fast charging etc which car play can’t do.
I'm not disagreeing with that, and for live traffic maps - sure (although there are plenty of options which do that for free, so arguably those are not really necessary)
The rest of it - why?
And yet this problem is solved by:
There's no need for any backend infrastructure if this is how it is built. Hell, my Zoe had a dedicated button on the fob to precondition (which is probably the only thing most people actually use it for, along with checking charge % when on the road).
Yes, all of that backend infrastructure IS needed because of how these systems are currently deployed, but there's no technical reason why it needs to be that way, only financial.
Exactly this. Anyone thinking there is no cost for connectivity in modern cars are wrong. If you want live traffic information on your built in satnav, then that’s requires a lot of live data.
After 3 years my Cupra Born costs £59 per year to get the ability to see live traffic data, navigation and remote apps (climate, charging etc). I do not for one second begrudge paying this because it is effectively 16p per day.
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All that stuff comes included with KIA for 7 years. I use the app loads to set routes on sat nav, check the weather and set the climate whilst out so the car is nice when getting back in.
I also get alerts and texts from the car if it thinks something dodgy is happening or if I forget to lock it. TBH it’s a bit weird. Lol
I also get alerts and texts from the car if it thinks something dodgy is happening or if I forget to lock it. TBH it’s a bit weird. Lol
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Man of Honour
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Some Nissan connect services were free for the first three years then a small monthly fee, others are free for the first seven years. I pay £2.99 a month for "Navigation and Driving" which gives me TomTom maps and live traffic and car locator if you should forget where you have parked, £1.99 a month for "Convenience and Comfort" which gives me remote control (remote door lock/unlock, remote climate control, remote lights/horn. I think it's worth it and the remote climate control alone is worth it in the winter. Free for seven years are "Driving History and Analysis" (never use it as I have the third party "My Leaf" app which does that and much more), "Vehicle Health" and "Battery Manager". Always free is Nissan Voice Control, Nissan Help and Support, Android Auto/Apple Car Play integration and Amazon Alexa Home-To-Car Nissan Skill. I am still extremely pleased with my 2021 Leaf Tekna and still love driving it.
My BMW i4 went back to the leasing company today.
Shame. I really like that car.
Buy one?
Although given they got a fair bit of complaining about basic remote features being lost if you didn't pay, the most basic connect package is included for 10 years from new now.
just make sure it's not @MrRongCar 's i4 and you'd be grand
Guess who’s at BMW with an i4 I can’t charge
Soldato
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My ID7 is £120 after 2 years. Without the sub i only really lose live traffic and it doesnt show the charging stations on the maps, but you can still search for the local charging point and it still shows the charging stops along the route, i can still remotely start the climate, lock and unlock etc.
I would happily pay if the VW apps were any good, theres no trip logging for one.
Soldato
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I am more than happy for a charge for live traffic and live charging point info.... but basic satnav and remote climate control / charging status ... anyone suggesting that needs a massive backend that must be charged for is being disingenuous imo. Locking those features is deliberate because it's bordering on essential functionality for an EV (esp charging). they could have designed basic support using a tiny amount of data but they chose not to because it's an easy cash cow imo. The fact that some cars include it for free proves it.
So far I have gotten lucky. my 1st 2 years my remote control software was inexplicably extended for free automatically. this year I tried to extend .. but I couldn't due to a software issue so I called jaguar and they extended for another year for free.
I expect i will have to cough up at some point however. My BMW i3 OTOH has lifetime basic support which includes satnav albeit not live updates perhaps) remote charging info and preconditioning... you can pay more if you want more but it's not necessary for us
So far I have gotten lucky. my 1st 2 years my remote control software was inexplicably extended for free automatically. this year I tried to extend .. but I couldn't due to a software issue so I called jaguar and they extended for another year for free.
I expect i will have to cough up at some point however. My BMW i3 OTOH has lifetime basic support which includes satnav albeit not live updates perhaps) remote charging info and preconditioning... you can pay more if you want more but it's not necessary for us
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