And the #1 issue that I personally have with this … central control implies communication and communication implies tracking. (This isn’t necessarily true but since the implementation will be opaque, it might as well be assumed to be true.)
If I were a government fleet car buyer or a fleet car buyer in an espionage-exposed industry, I would be very wary.
Communication also implies more exotic (remote) intrusion possibilities. It’s an unnecessary security exposure. Across a great many industries we have seen how time-to-market trumps security. In the rush to get a product or feature to market, horrible security blunders get overlooked - but not overlooked by governments and other criminals of course.
I don’t have a problem with features-by-subscription per se, provided that the alternative business model (paid for up front) continues to exist. With the latter business model, you can compare cars in a direct way - price v. features. With a subscription model, it is more difficult to do that (“confusopoly”).
With a subscription model, during the period of ownership, features can be unconditionally withdrawn or altered and/or the monthly price of the feature can go up and up and up.
I wonder how far car manufacturers will go with this. The linked article touches on the safety aspects of this but then there are the fuel economy / performance aspects (already mentioned above).
Looking at the bigger picture, what this represents is an attempt by car manufacturers to make their revenue more uniform (and of course higher!). With the existing business model, you pay a single large amount up front and that may be the last time you interact with them (possibly excepting a “free” 3 month vehicle check) for a decade or more. This, perversely, creates an incentive for the manufacturer to create crappy cars that become uneconomic to repair after not too long.
So, firstly, car manufacturers introduced service packages - to get you coming back every year (or whatever) to pay for your service. They introduced proprietary service software to make it more difficult for you to get your car serviced at an independent car service place.
Then they also introduced roadside assistance packages, typically paid annually.
So features-by-subscription is just the next logical step in order to get you paying every year between car purchases.