OnStar is a safety system in many GM cars that can call for help automatically if you crash. It uses GPS to know where you are and connects you to a real person who can help.
The Porsche 911 is a fast and stylish car that can call for help automatically if you get into an accident. This means if you're hurt and can't use your phone, the car can still get emergency help for you. It's a special feature that makes driving safer.
Over the air updates mean your car can get new software or fixes through the internet without you having to take it to a shop. It's like updating an app on your phone.
The Hyundai Palisade is a big family car that has lots of space and cool gadgets. Sometimes, the features you want might only be on certain versions, which can be a bit confusing. So, it's good to check carefully what comes with each model before buying.
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Hey everyone and welcome back to the Straight Shift.
The podcast that cuts through all the automotive nonsense so you don't get screwed.
I have a story to tell you. If you remember last fall I rented a car in England as a part of our
transatlantic journey in my bucket list trip and when I booked it online I already knew that there
was an extra fee to use the built-in navigation system in the car. That was one of those clearly
listed things that they tried to upsell me when I was booking the rental reservation.
But oh navigation it's like an extra 20 bucks a day to know where you're going.
That's adorable. You know I have Google Maps. I'll survive. Thank you. So I declined it.
When I picked up the car in England, fired it up, the built-in navigation was there and guess
what it worked. I was like whoo-hoo free. Somebody forgot to push a button and it was lovely because
it was this British female voice to guide me through the countryside with at the roundabout.
Take the second to exit. I mean it was just delightful. It's what every navigation system
should sound like. But then when we stopped and turned off the car when we turned it back on again
poof. Gone. The navigation screen no longer came up. It said sorry this feature is not available
at this time. Contact blah blah blah. Oh so they figured it out. They turned it off.
Somewhere in a European server farm or computer decided I hadn't paid enough
to know where the hell I was going. So bummer. The reason I tell that story and if you haven't
seen the video of that trip you can check it out at drivingintheuk.com and I'll put a description
in the link. But it reminded me of what is really happening in the automotive industry right now.
Trends that we are going towards that are a little bit frightening. Cars are quickly becoming
software platforms. Meaning features can be turned on and off at the whim of the manufacturer
not necessarily you as the customer. So today we are going to talk about what features in your car
may only be available by subscription and which ones of those make sense. Which ones are kind
of in an iffy area I'm not thrilled about and which ones are just full blown bullshittery.
We're going to even name some names. I'll probably throw a few brands under the bus
but they've earned it because I want to explain why these systems are doing this why the systems
work the way they do and most importantly what you need to ask before you buy a car so that you
don't get ghosted by the navigation lady six months into ownership. So let's get into it.
One of the first subscription services available in vehicles was from General Motors and that's
OnStar. Most people have heard of it. It's been around since I think the late 90s and here's how
it works. It's designed to be an emergency services system. Every GM vehicle that is equipped with
OnStar which they all certainly are now they're embedded with a cellular modem so it works over
the cellular networks. It has a GPS receiver just like your phones so they know where your car is
and it has crash detection systems various sensors throughout the cars tied to the airbag system
crumple zones and of course there is a microphone and speaker system in the car. The benefit of this
is if you are in a crash the car will automatically detect the impact if it's severe enough if you
tap your own mailbox or little tiny fender bender that might not be enough to trigger it but if
it's serious it is automatically going to dial a call center where there is a human being who
has been trained not quite to the level of a 911 operator but very similar and they are going
to be able to send the GPS location get information from the car's computer as well as talk to you
keep you calm and they are going to call the emergency services police fire medic as you need
this is really great because in an accident things go everywhere in your car you may not
be able to find your phone you may be pinned you can't reach your phone to make that 911 call
you may be unconscious but the on star system will call for you and if they can't communicate
with you and know that you're awake you're conscious get an assessment of your injuries
they are going to have those emergency services haul but to get to your location and you can also
call them on your own maybe you're not in an accident but you're in a flood this actually
happened during the big flooding in texas just last year they handled about 4000 crisis calls
and supported multiple rescues there was an elderly couple trapped in flood water that
was able to use this technology to get rescue services to them and they were saved it's an
incredible infrastructure and this is one of the subscription things that i think makes great sense
super has one called starlink hunday's blue link works very similarly these are systems
that can literally save your life on star has answered over well over half a million emergency
calls since its inception and it gets more and more every year and they have literally saved
thousands of lives it's been shown that their involvement and the data that they can pass
on to first responders reduces the time it takes for first responders to get to your location
because they're better able to prioritize and triage they can know ahead of time did the airbag
deploy there's so much information that on star and these other systems can give to the first
responders that they are more prepared when they get to you and that saves lives so this is a
subscription that i personally think is well worth paying for after the free trial expires
especially if you do a lot of driving and especially if you have teen drivers
i love these systems they are absolutely phenomenal but of course things have evolved
over the years and now it's not just built into the car super system and hunday system they've
expanded it so that you have an app now on your smartphone that you can download and it gives
you even more control over your vehicle this is the benefit of cars being roving computers
they can not only interact with your smartphone simply from an apple carplay android auto standpoint
but now you can open your doors you can close your doors lock your doors make sure they're locked
you can remote start the car get the heater going this is great for people who live in places with
very cold weather it's so nice when the car is already warm already defrosted the seat warmers
are on when you get into that car in the morning to go to work it's absolutely fabulous when it is
you know 10 degrees outside there's so many other things that it can do it can also track the car's
location help you recover it if it is stolen in addition to all of those emergency services
that works through your phone where your phone is sending a command to the manufacturer's cloud
server via wi-fi or via the cellular networks the server then verifies your account make sure you
have paid for said services and then it does what you need to do and again i don't really have a
problem with those services it is kind of an extra add-on app not everyone may wish to use it
i personally think it's extremely helpful i'm not so thrilled that all that data gets collected
and the manufacturers are using it in ways that we don't even know about but you know unfortunately
that's the trade-off that i've talked about in previous podcasts about is your car spying on you
sometimes that spying can be helpful and sometimes it can even save your life
so i think those services can be well worth the money especially if remote start having
the carving nice and warm those things are helpful to you now we get into some things that are a
little more complicated systems like supercruise from gm and the blue cruise from ford these are
the hands-free driving systems that are continuing to evolve in vehicles you know it's what we call
self-driving cars they're not completely self-driving but the manufacturer has mapped out
certain highways in detail the car has all the sensors and the driver safety aids that allow
it to control the car to a certain extent so when you turn that on the car uses its gps to figure
out am i in a location that is approved for me to take over to a certain extent and if it is and
you've paid for it because it also verifies if your account is up to date then it uses all the
technology on the car to drive somewhat for you and it can receive updates over the air basically
the software can be updated through the airwaves being downloaded from the servers of the manufacturer
typically you get a free trial period because they want you to try this out and get hooked on it
and then wham they slam you with the bill for well if you want to continue this service you
have to pay blah blah blah and sometimes you can pay for it up front a lot of the time when you buy
a car that has one of these services you can pay for x number of years up front with ford i know for
example some of the cars come with x number of years of supercruise already built into the price
of the car and that will be on the windows sticker sometimes they don't because not everybody wants
that feature they have been pushing it pretty hard so always check to see if that service is
included because very often the dealers are going to try to sell you on it but you don't want to pay
twice for something that came with the car kind of like how they want to charge you for floor mats
like oh we added this protection package to the car that included rubber floor mats oh well you
know what i looked on the windows sticker and those rubber floor mats were already on the car
from the factory so i have already paid for them don't charge me twice always always check the
windows sticker to see what you have already paid for so they don't try to charge you again
but a lot of these features are are really very useful and you can choose to use them if you don't
like them then you can cancel your subscription you know unlike being able to cancel your subscription
to 2026 which is not necessarily started off so great but it gives you a little bit more control
over what features you want to use and i think it makes sense when that feature involves an outside
entity a service a call center we pay for things like netflix for streaming to get extra tv shows we
pay for things like pandora and we've been paying for satellite radio things like that for a long
time those we think of as subscription services but it starts getting into a gray area when
all of it is already in the car but you're just paying for whether or not to use it
i still think that the super crews and those systems make sense because there is a lot of
software involved with that and they are trying to recover their research and development costs
because it took a lot of money and continues to take a lot of money to develop those technologies
to map our incredibly complex road systems and to be able to figure out how do we handle this
in places where the signal might not be as strong or the roads are constantly changing
like they are here in charlie like i have no idea how those systems would ever work here
with the amount of road construction and new roads that we constantly have
and the changes they're making to the existing ones so i understand that that makes sense as a
subscription tesla started a lot of the pay for features subscription services that a lot of the
manufacturers have started to take note of and are trying to follow in those footsteps one example
is mercedes in some of their electric vehicle models you can pay annually to unlock additional
horsepower it's like yes your car is capable of going this fast but hey if you want to go even
faster you can pay another hundred dollars a month or whatever it is i just made up that number i
didn't actually look up what the cost is because i don't really want to know it's i think that falls
into one of those gray areas because the car is already built to go that fast and it is much
easier in an electric vehicle because electric motors are a lot more capable as long as you
have the battery power to be able to deliver the electrons to propel the car at those speeds
it's not like turning on and off cylinders although don't get me started that they might
since they figured out how to turn on and off certain cylinders in your car like they do with
the hemi engine they do that for fuel efficiency but it wouldn't be surprising to me if they figured
out a way to turn off like hey you only get four cylinders unless you pay for you know two or four
more i can see them doing that but it's so much easier to do an electric vehicle because of how
that technology works tesla really normalized this with being able to pay for faster acceleration
because literally it's just how the computer is programmed to allow those electrons from the battery
to flow to the electric motor all of that can be controlled with software makes sense right tesla
was a technology company that started building cars they are still primarily a technology
company in fact they're building fewer cars now because they're so focused on building robots and
sending us into you know the iRobot future that isaac asimov warned us about but you're paying
just to unlock features that your car is already capable of but that can be a good solution because
most people don't necessarily need the super high performance model or maybe they just want to play
with it for a little while but you don't need it all the time that's what i do with netflix i don't
pay for a lot of the tv subscription services i wait until a show that i like a new season comes
out like when stranger things final season came out waited till it was all there paid for one
month of netflix binge watched the whole season and then turned it off again because i don't want
to pay for it on a regular basis if you could turn on and off some of that technology like the
more power more acceleration hey you know i want to do a track day or i'm going to go up in the
mountains today and do a little driving being able to turn it on for a short period of time would
actually be really cool and then you turn it off just to go back to your normal life and don't use
it now if you're paying for extra power i do think that they should have a package that you can pay for
that not only gives you that extra horsepower that extra acceleration all that extra performance in the
car but possibly comes with a subscription to a lawyer to get you out of the inevitable speeding
tickets that you will probably get testing out that extra horsepower okay fine maybe that's just me
but i think that'd be a good idea you know tesla has always had paying extra for the full self-driving
capability that's where ford and gm followed in their footsteps with paying for super crews and
blue crews mercedes did the same thing with this permission-based horsepower and it's not
you pay for every horsepower it's not like oh every additional horsepower is another 25 cents
they might do that but you just pay to unlock like a new level like in a game you're unlocking this
premium level of power to be able to access but you're still just sort of paying for a capability
that's already sitting in your driveway so i'm have mixed feelings about it obviously let me know
how you guys feel about that and would you use something like that or if you have an electric
vehicle that has subscription based turn on turn off these features let me know if you like it if
you use it do you pay for it and if you do do you feel that it's worth it well between 2018 and 2021
toyota did a little experiment with this and we know that toyota is not exactly a leader in the
technology world they do things very well they make cars very reliable they make them safe but
they are never on the leading edge or the bleeding edge of technology just why they have the reliability
but they had this little period of time where they were smoking something and certain models
were equipped with specific infotainment systems that had remote start functionality that was built
into the key fob so instead of going on to your smart phone and remote starting your car which
things like Subaru starlink and Hyundai's blue link do this was actually built into just your normal
unlock the damn door key fob i actually have an aftermarket one of those on one of my old old cars
specifically to get it heated up in the winter but toyota tied this in but then they tied it to
a subscription that expired after the trial period ended wasn't every model wasn't every trim
but here's what happened once the subscription ran out and you didn't renew it the key fobs and like
entirely started stopped working like you couldn't even unlock your car and get into it without paying
for the subscription boy did that go over like a fart in a space suit people were none too happy
about that so i don't think that was toyota's intention i just don't think they tested it as
thoroughly as toyota normally tests things they struggle on the technology side so they backed
off of that pretty quickly after getting what you would imagine is quite a bit of backlash
and i mean that was also during the beginning of the pandemic too so we were already all very
pissed off and at our wits end so do not test our patience at that point it was kind of interesting
so fortunately they have backed off that and are moving more towards the things on your smartphone
and i get okay if you want to pay for remote start having these things through the app
having a subscription okay i can see that not everyone's gonna want it and it is
more heavily software based than it is actual hardware the bmw tried to take it a little too
far they tried to charge just to use apple carplay when that first came out that did not go over
well either they backpedaled really quickly after the internet completely roasted them over that
but it didn't stop them from continuing to test out some serious subscription bullshittery
they offered a subscription in the european markets um the uk germany south korea a few
other markets around the world a subscription to heated seats let's think about that for a minute
the seat is already installed the heating elements in the seat that's already installed
all the wiring is already installed and hooked up and the little button to push it is already in
the car connected to everything the car is physically capable from the factory of keeping
your butt nice and warm why should you have to pay a monthly subscription to activate it
that's like a tushy tax i am not paying a tushy tax nothing has to connect outside the car
there is not a human involved in helping you keep your bum warm the car is fully capable of it
the electrons are already built into the battery this is not something that you should have to
have a subscription to do it's ridiculous they tested it in a couple of us markets very limited
oh did not go over well did not go over well so even in europe where they are a little more
tolerant of paying extra for a lot of things and things being subscription based they did
not like this either if it comes in the car all the hardware everything you need to make that
entire system work is already in the car you've already paid for it it's not like paying extra
changes the number of electrons running from the battery into the heating element to warm your
took us no that's already there so it's just absolutely ridiculous so bmw that was the epitome
of bullshittery before it is now also contemplating some bullshittery of their own with what is called
the frunk you may have heard of a frunk that is the storage space in the front compartment of
an electric vehicle because there's not an engine up there so you have this nice little extra
basically you have two trunks a frunk means front trunk you know real creative for this
contemplating and testing out charging you to access it space that is already in your car
they want to charge you to use air inside your car it's literally a molded storage bin there's
no cellular data involved there's no satellite there is no call center it's literally air space
already in your vehicle yet because it's an ev software has the ability to allow you to access
it or not and so they're kind of testing out should we charge people to be able to access a portion
of their car that they've already paid for really hope this is not going to actually get rolled out
and they will be coming to their senses very very quickly because i don't even think the
europeans would tolerate that we americans oh my god now i have already paid for this
cars are rolling computers and i have said that tesla was a technology company that decided hey
let's make cars now the automakers are car manufacturers that are saying hey let's be a
technology company and obviously there has been some rough going on both sides but now the cars
have embedded sim cards they do receive more and more over the air updates some of that can be great
if you don't have to take your car into the dealership just for them to do recall work because the
recall is a software problem and they can just send it to you over the air fantastic that is one of
the things that tesla owners love about their cars and i'm perfectly okay with going in that
direction where it's appropriate but they are using all that data to say how can we generate
even more revenue without spending any more of our own money just to let people use the features
that they have already paid for so when you go car shopping and you're looking at cars with all
this new technology especially if the dealer talks a lot about oh well it has starlink or it has
blue cruise or it has these cool technology features be sure to ask does that come free with
the car or is there a subscription is there a free trial to it if so how long is that free
trial for and what is it going to cost me when it expires and then find out hey is there a way if
i pay for say three years up front is there a discount on that subscription versus yearly or
monthly whatever and ask what stops working if i don't renew the subscription don't be surprised
if the average salesperson at the dealership may not know those answers so i would get them from
multiple sources a lot of dealerships have people who are delivery specialists and all they do is set
up all the technology in the car salespeople sell cars that's their job they don't necessarily know
the technical nitty gritty details so be sure to ask the technology people so how does this really
work and what will i lose if i decide not to continue with this subscription and then what
happens if you sell the car if you paid up front for say three years or five years or it came with
the car like that five-year subscription to the blue cruise that forward includes in a lot of vehicles
what happens to that if i sell the car can i cancel and get a prorated amount of money back
like you can with an extended warranty or does that money just go poof into the ether or is it
transferable if you sell the car privately to the next owner a lot of extended warranties are
so ask that about the technology as well because these are now things that are costing you money
that you want to be sure you understand how this works we're already having to pay for
things that we don't use in the car a lot of the time simply because of the way the manufacturers
package options i'm working with a client right now who says i don't even want to think about
german cars because i don't like that you have to pay for this super expensive package on this
really high trim level just to get this one feature and i understand that all the manufacturers
package their features and they package them differently and it sucks when you have to pay
four thousand extra dollars to upgrade to this super fancy trim level with a bunch of stuff on it
that you frankly don't need just to get parking sensors or a backup camera or heated seats
and different manufacturers prioritize these features in their packages differently for example
your japanese manufacturers and your korean manufacturers they tend to prioritize the safety
features so you're going to get pretty much all the driver safety aids pretty much with the exception
of the cruise control the automated cruise control maybe some of the little more advanced ones but
your basic driver safety aids the electronic babysitters i call them tend to be on the base models
now because they have given up in our ability to drive and would just rather the cars be safe
whereas the german cars you have to upgrade and pay extra for these features because in germany
they teach people to drive and i guess their philosophy is if you really need these things
yeah we're going to make you pay for it maybe you should just learn to drive
so the different manufacturers prioritize different things so be aware of what features come
and different trim levels when you are car shopping and that can be extremely frustrating
to figure that out i'm a big fan of creating a spreadsheet but resources like edmunds.com
they really show you very clearly what features are in what trim levels you typically get a lot
of features for your money with hunday and kia although kia packages them rather differently
you have to go up to the top level of the tele ride to get a feature that is in the mid-level
on the palisade but then vice versa it's really weird so it's important to really know what
features are important to you which ones are must haves which ones are that'd be great and
which ones like you know i can live without that if it means saving four thousand dollars maybe
there's another aftermarket solution to that or i can just live without it and then really look
carefully at those subscriptions and understand what the capabilities are that technology how
much it's going to cost you how long is your free trial and is that free trial the full features
or is it just a free subset of features just to kind of get you interested and hopefully you'll
pay more always understand where your money is going and what can be taken away from you
so let me know what feature would you pay for now i might for example if they can build cars
just build one level of car do not give me different trim levels just build one level of car
and then maybe i do pay for just the things i want i could pay for heated seats just in the three
months of the winter that i might need it here in charlotte and then pay for the air conditioned
seats for the three or four months where i'm sweating my butt off and then turn it off when
i'm not using it just like i do with netflix that might be kind of cool i might not need
navigation so i might not pay for that that might be interesting but only if they can make the price
of the car itself less because we are already paying through the nose for the price of the car
i'm sure it's heck not going to pay for something that's already in the car just for the privilege
of actually using it so let me know what would you never pay for what would you want to pay for
have you ever had something expire unexpectedly that no one explained to you and suddenly you
couldn't use your car anymore it's not easy out there folks but understanding how all this stuff
works will help to save you money in the long run and as you know that's already my goal so next
time i'll see you in the straight shift drive safely the straight shift podcast is copyright
lienne shattuck the car check all views expressed by guest and or co-hosts or those of the guest
and or co-hosts and not necessarily those of lienne shattuck or the car check
About this episode
Exploring the growing trend of subscription-based car features, this episode dives into how modern vehicles are becoming software platforms where functionalities like navigation, emergency services, and hands-free driving can be activated or deactivated remotely. The host shares a personal story about a rental car's navigation system being disabled due to unpaid fees, highlighting the risks of subscription models. The discussion covers valuable services like GM's OnStar and Ford's BlueCruise, which enhance safety and convenience, versus questionable pay-for-use features like unlocking extra horsepower in electric vehicles. Listeners learn what to ask before buying to avoid unexpected costs and loss of features.
Cars are no longer just mechanical machines — they are rolling software platforms.
In this episode of The Straight Shift, The Car Chick® breaks down the growing trend of subscription-based car features and what it actually means for consumers.
From life-saving systems like OnStar and connected services such as Subaru STARLINK and Hyundai BlueLink, to hands-free driving tech like Super Cruise and BlueCruise, we separate the subscriptions that make sense from the ones that feel like a toll booth for your tushy.
You’ll learn:
How telematics systems actually work
Why emergency services like OnStar have handled tens of thousands of real dispatches
How Tesla normalized pay-to-unlock EV features
What happened with Toyota’s remote start confusion
