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Re:Renting Horsepower by gambiting on Thursday May 04, 2023 @03:19PM (#35820741)
A lot of people here think building a successful subscription based product is the absolute goal in life. To them Mercedes (and BMW and others) doing this isn't dumb - it's super smart and worth applauding. Otherwise you're just leaving money on the table /s.
Re:Renting Horsepower by olyjohn on Thursday May 04, 2023 @03:49PM (#35821143)
You put the /s, but I don't think this comment is inaccurate in any way. Some people really have enthusiasm for nothing but making money. No hobbies, no interests, no friends, no other goals.
Re:Renting Horsepower by matheusmoreira on Thursday May 04, 2023 @04:12PM (#35821438)
I'm very enthusiastic about making money too but I don't really want to sell my soul to make it happen.
Re:Renting Horsepower by wiseowise on Thursday May 04, 2023 @04:24PM (#35821568)
> Some people really have enthusiasm for nothing but making money.

As long as those people have morals, what’s wrong with that?

Re:Renting Horsepower by kingTug on Thursday May 04, 2023 @04:47PM (#35821836)
The people who seem most enthusiastic for giant bank accounts (read: billionaires) seem to lack these morals, by and large.
Re:Renting Horsepower by amelius on Thursday May 04, 2023 @05:15PM (#35822179)
The economy is based on too simple rules, hence unfair, hence this is what happens.
Re:Renting Horsepower by flangola7 on Thursday May 04, 2023 @05:22PM (#35822254)
Greed has long been understood to be fundamentally immoral by many civilizations and cultures throughout history.
Re:Renting Horsepower by airstrike on Thursday May 04, 2023 @06:00PM (#35822707)
It has also been understood to be fundamentally inherent to humanity as a consequence of our "need to survive", so trying to regulate it away is just inviting people to skirt said regulation

Since it's unavoidable, the best next thing is to design a system which takes greed as an input and outputs productivity. That system is called Capitalism and that is why it always wins.

Re:Renting Horsepower by bena on Thursday May 04, 2023 @04:15PM (#35821466)
Some people heard "A fool and his money are soon parted" and thought, "If I could make everyone a fool..."
Re:Renting Horsepower by PascLeRasc on Thursday May 04, 2023 @05:13PM (#35822163)
It isn't even enthusiasm, it's the most passive "doesn't make sense not to" type of reasoning.
Re:Renting Horsepower by throwawayadvsec on Thursday May 04, 2023 @04:26PM (#35821604)
honestly yes it's smart(doesn't mean it's kind), if I was selling 6 figures cars I'd do my best to milk customers in every possible way as long as it's still profitable in the long run

mercedes isn't selling baby formulas or epipens

plenty of other brands will take your 100 years of 3rd world salary to give you some shiny vehicle

should I cry for some pampered millionaires who just want to drive faster?

Re:Renting Horsepower by gambiting on Thursday May 04, 2023 @04:34PM (#35821691)
I find it really amusing that you think you need to be a millionaire to own one of these, but whatever - that's not a core of this argument.

The point is that everywhere outside of the powerhouse first world economies runs on second hand cars imported from those economies. I'd know - in my country most cars are ex-german cars. And then once we're done with them, they go to Ukraine(or they used to). Then after that they go to far east or Africa. Your 100k mercedes has 15 lives before it gets scrapped.

But you know what stops that chain early? If everything in the car has subscription and strong encryption to prevent messing with payment options, which "incidentally" will mean those cars can't be worked on by anyone other than the official garage. Wouldn't want anyone to pirate some subscription-only stuff now, would we.

I'm not mourning rich people wanting to drive fast - I'm mourning regular folks who will get these cars at 15-20 years old and find out that the heating seats don't work because Mercedes won't enable them on a "legacy" vehicle. Or it's from the wrong region so they can't do anything for you, sorry.

Re:Renting Horsepower by throwawayadvsec on Thursday May 04, 2023 @04:44PM (#35821804)
I don't believe that, I've met people living on minimum wage with brand new mercedes, and I call those people brain dead. Buying a six figures car only makes sense if you're a millionaire.

EV cars are most likely not going to be exported to have a second life.

Re:Renting Horsepower by gambiting on Thursday May 04, 2023 @05:08PM (#35822104)
>>EV cars are most likely not going to be exported to have a second life.

Well, that's absolutely inevitable given how things are going. It might not be in the next 10 years, but in 30? Almost certainly guaranteed.

Re:Renting Horsepower by callalex on Thursday May 04, 2023 @05:09PM (#35822109)
>EV cars are most likely not going to be exported to have a second life.

What reason do you have to believe that?

Re:Renting Horsepower by throwawayadvsec on Thursday May 04, 2023 @05:17PM (#35822201)
that's what's already happening
Re:Renting Horsepower by gambiting on Thursday May 04, 2023 @05:37PM (#35822425)
What is already happening? Quick look at otomoto.pl shows plenty of ex-German EVs being brought over here already, I don't understand what you're insinuating.
Re:Renting Horsepower by callalex on Thursday May 04, 2023 @05:44PM (#35822506)
There aren’t any 20 year old EVs to export yet…
Re:Renting Horsepower by atleastoptimal on Thursday May 04, 2023 @06:13PM (#35822852)
Everyone here is a temporarily embarrassed SAAS billionaire and god help anyone trying to step on their future hypothetical probable profit margins