Reluctantly he coughed up the $8.50. The car then said, "I'm sorry Dave, Seatbelt yearly subscription is also expired. Please pay VW $200 to re-enable, or press the cancel button to drive without a seatbelt.

Dave pressed the cancel button with furious determination. The VW Bug sped off from his modest suburban house. It's high G wheels speeding up and zooming past Burb beaters and Bimbo wagons.

Unbeknownst to him a catastrophic situation was looming...

After fiddling with a few wires to override the seatbelt check the car announced - "Congratulations a new version of iOS has been released that will improve your car's performance 20% - unfortunately this version of iOS is incompatible with your quite old car and our car software, for security reasons, requires the latest version of the operating system to execute. Please purchase a new car, now available in Rose Gold! from the Apple Store at your convenience."

He was shocked. He checked the contract again and didn't see any sign of the car being connected to Apple. He was sure it was running Android. He tapped on the link on the screen to open the Apple Store. Something didn't look right: the copy was a bit off and the url was www.appleshop.com. That's when he knew his car had been infected by ransomware.

This just keeps getting better!

This possibly sensationalist article [1] on Vice discusses a motorcycle airbag vest that requires a subscription to work.

[1] https://www.vice.com/en/article/93yyyd/this-motorcycle-airba...

Last I checked, airbags are not required by any government nor are they a standard option on motorcycles. If you wish to wear one, either spend the $400 upfront or pay for the subscription for the months you do ride. The monthly subscription sounds just right for someone who can't afford $400 but can afford $12 to wear an airbag vest on their daily commute on a motorcycle. It's much cheaper than ending up in the ICU. Vice is trying to start some shit but the interviewee from In&motion sounds perfectly reasonable.

It's $400 upfront plus either another $400 or $12 per month subscription.

I don't see this company lasting long after the first crash where someone thought they were protected but were not due to payment error/ddos/whatever.

There's an LED on the box that says whether you are good or not. Seems like the check is only at start-up via a bluetooth connection so if you turn on the box and it's green, you're good to go.

If this is familiar to you then you're right, it's a riff on Philip K Dick's 'Ubik'. Brilliant book. Thank you.

http://sickmyduck.narod.ru/dick25-0.html search for "doorhandle"

Also amusing is the normalization: "Free!" He stared at her. "That's not economically feasible. How can it operate on that basis? For more than a month?"

Reminds me of "Unauthorized Bread" by Cory Doctorow

https://craphound.com/unauthorized-bread/

people have noticed the connections between unauthorized bread and ubik in the past - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25010352

That was also my first thought.

"Ah, fuck it", he said, "I'm not that drunk anyway."

calling a software driven car Bug is probably not the best idea !

but it might be the most truthful.