Hacker News Reader

How much longer until buying a new non-subscription car becomes like buying a new non-smart TV?

There is some modularity there at least, I just got a fire tv for pretty cheap, but I never plan on letting it connect to the internet, instead I have a separate box which connects to my streaming apps. I feel like the situation with cara is worse.

On star and subscription services has been available for my whole life (35 years).

But there have always been alternatives without subscription services available. What would cause a change for alternatives to stop being available?

Even if there was no benefit from the data collected by the system to the manufacturer, they might still make it a default just because there are supply chain advantages to having a single unique design (with all the hardware & software for the "connected" bit) than maintaining a separate, non-connected SKU.

But of course manufacturers also benefit from the data collection and functionality the "connected" bit offers such as DRM, etc, so why wouldn't they mandate it?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com