Inside Faraday Future
theverge.com
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If you are renting your car, you cannot do as you like with it, and if you stop paying, you lose transportation. Today, if you own a car it might be an absolute beater if you don't maintain it, and it might be illegal to drive without insurance, but as long as you have gas, odds are it will actually run.
Further, I wonder about the subscription model as it is applied here. Many people buy cheap cars outright because they don't like ongoing payments. If the future is a subscription model, it seems they can raise the price whenever they like (market forces aside).
While I think the whole concept of owning a car is definitely something in flux (as it should be), I hope the alternative is not just "car + subscription" and ultimately paying a higher price in the end.
It's remarkably convenient and cheaper than owning a car if you don't drive that much. I can totally see this as the future – especially with self-driving vehicles.
I tried it for a bit in NYC but found that while it was useful for things like grocery shopping, most of the times public transportation was sufficient for my needs. For longer trips spanning multiple days, it was almost always cheaper to rent from traditional vendors. I can see it being useful if you live on the outskirts of the city or in more suburban areas, though.
Actually I think most cars (at least in Europe) are already rented (or leased, or payed for by the company, or...) one way or another.
If I understand correctly then what will be added is shared usage. That will make the 'ownership' probably cheaper.
They still have to pay for insurance though, right?
I can't think of any physical product out there which is only available as a subscription. The option to buy outright is always there if you want it.
Edit: I realize what I said above isn't quite clear. I meant that there's no category of physical product out there that's subscription-only.
Think about the cell phone model where most people in North America are on a subscription which includes the cost of their phone, or at least subsidises it. You can still go out and buy an unlocked phone.