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Comment by bourbonjuggler | Hacker News Reader

I agree. Why bother creating a workaround for this problem? The easiest resolution to this is to spend your money somewhere else.

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I'll bet you a barrel of beer that all luxury cars will have all features locked behind perpetual subscriptions within 5-10 years.

"Great" thing about consolidated megacorporation dominated markets: you have nowhere to go if only three companies decide to squeeze more money out of you. And shareholders WILL demand that every car manufacturer squeezes more money out of you by locking equipment you own now behind subscriptions.

LOL, locked. There is no such thing when I have physical access to the computer.

Breaking DRM on that physical computer is illegal and good luck getting your modified vehicle insured if it fails the manufacturer bootloader lock check ;)

It sounds like you missed last 15 years of developing DRM technology and IP law.

My insurance company doesn't care about the infotainment center in my vehicle and DRM hasn't stopped anyone ever. Look at all the farmers waiving their middle finger to John Deere. When has anyone in the history of buying insurance been forced into a bootloader check? Never, you're making stuff up.

If I own the car outright, I own the computer and can do whatever I want to it. Seems like you missed all the DRM hacks, and think vehicle insurance companies do IP law.

> My insurance company doesn't care about the infotainment center in my vehicle

Driving habits and all the data tracking that will be standard in a few years will absolutely be critical to your insurance company, and it stands to reason that they would use any semblance of hacking any part of your car and thus risking the purity of the data (nomatter how unrelated) as a pretense to deny coverage.

What happens if the computer is destroyed in an accident? Nothing, because insurance companies aren't insuring driving habits, they're insuring property. People modify cars every day all day and can still obtain insurance.

I don't drink beer, but I would take that bet. No one has followed bmw into subscription model for Apple car pay. The only reason other companies works follow this model, is if it succeeds

I think real workaround would be getting in contact with your local congressperson and passing legislation outlawing the practice because this is a prisoner's dilemma that forced cooperation would fix -- the car market would be better for everyone including sellers if this was forbidden. But that kind of thing requires a functioning government.

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