No more lurking.

Hello all, long time lurker. Bit about me and why I decided to register.

I work at a major auto manufacture based in the US. I will not go into detail about my specific job title or what car manufacture I work for to remain anonymous. I also signed contracts to keep my mouth shut so this keeps me from being sued and out of prison.

This week at work something happened and it was an eye opener. I can't stay quiet about something I'm greatly against.

We are working on implementing firmware on all of our newer vehicles from 2020+ to force the "owners" of the vehicle to pay a monthly subscription fee to drive and operate the vehicle. If you do not pay the monthly fee it will disable the vehicle or could rack up late fees.

The company is doing massive lobbying to get older vehicles off the roads. Ex: making it unlawful to register a vehicle if it has over 100k miles and more strict emissions.

I will answer any questions but I will not be to specific.

This idea has been in the works and in development and testing stages for a few years already. We just recently got the deadline and beginning 2016 some cars will already be rolling out to distributors so they can test the idea. By 2020 it will be a reality.

I feel any company should be aloud to do anything they want and charge anything they want with the products they make and sell. But when the company is most of the market how do we defend against blatant abuse and sickening money grabbing campaign.

I feel when you are one of the leading giants in an industry it's because you set the example and give customers a fair product in return for their money. But this is blatant abuse and I have now realized it's not only in the Auto industry its in EVERY Industry.

Hi AutoInsider! Welcome to ATS! I really enjoyed your introduction and first post!

So, this automaker is going to install something in the 2020+ vehicles, and anyone who owns this type of vehicle is going to be forced to pay a monthly subscription fee or they won't be able to operate their vehicles and could pile on late fees, etc.

Ohhhhh, I cannot wait for other people to comment on this post!

There are people who would, possibly, commit murder over their vehicles. The classic car, or even just older car, enthusiast will be irate if they can't drive their cars anymore.

a reply to: AutoInsider
I understand your pain because I went through the same thing with my job and I finally had to retire. I tried keeping on with the good fight, but they are too big to fight alone and I found out the hard way that people will say they support you, but just as you call the charge, you will see yourself standing alone one the hill face a death squad.

I am giving you a link to my old thread. I made a decision to leave and was lucky enough to get picked up by a awesome company that was extremely supportive of me in my attempt to try to protect my patients. The problem was the beast must be fed, so while protecting my patients, the beast ate me.

My old thread

hello and good morning they should leave the classics alone and as far as being able to disable cars at will, that stinks. might even result in accidents? maybe they've factored in any such risks. sounds dodgy.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

Thank you for the link to your thread, you have wisdom and this is very rare in the modern world today. By wisdom I mean you have lived through these situations and have learned real experience. Thanks again for the wonderful link!

a reply to: RoScoLaz4

Classic cars as of now do not have anything like this and most don't have any type of computers running them if any.

Once the subscription is delinquent or late, the car will not just cut out in the middle of a freeway, right now it will know your place of residence through GPS and will disable only at home. This is not the final production this is just what has been developed as of now. I'm also sure you will sign a big TOS and Disclaimer taking away any liability from the manufacture for what ever consequence happens if the car does not run. Example if it disables blocking other cars in your garage or drive way.

They have though of many scenarios and are implementing solutions for you to call for example so you can move it with limited power etc. Nothing is final until its in production. Who knows what other violations of our property they can come up with and implement by then.

a reply to: AutoInsider

I look forward to more of your posts Auto, just so long as you do not claim to have to papers proving it's all Obama's fault. Promise me this Oh Autoinsider and you shall gain admittance.

a reply to: AutoInsider

Welcome AutoInsider

a reply to: AutoInsider

Welcome Auto! Although firmware, not so new (devices,printers,plotters,phones,tv's) in today's tech world..... I would venture to speculate that Google & Apple cars are on the forefront for this ludicrously; ) I'm sure Nissan has this in the making....

Nevertheless welcome aboard! !!

ETA. My colleagues all make fun of me for driving a 2003 (suv) hehe.. no thanks on a smart car just yet

a reply to: ReadLeader
Don't know how much longer my 2000 SUV will keep going, but I plan to stick with her as long as she does, and the poor old gal takes a beating every time we leave home. That old 6 mile long cow pasture, we laughingly call a road, shakes, rattles, and rolls her going and coming.

I would think the best way to stop this madness, is to just leave the vehicles in the showrooms.

We have to start taking some responsibility for the condition our condition is in, and stop just letting our rogue government and big business roll all over us.

The time has come to just say No!

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

I LOVE that I do NOT have a car payment- my SUV new was ridiculously expensive - but it is built like a tank! I j u s t recently put a blue-tooth in it for hands free and streaming music; still looks like brand new too! 2nd owner & the first had it only for 15K miles

Funny thing is, in 2002 my vehicle was 44K brand new- today's model starts at 51K (I would NEVER buy new) so not a huge difference in price, but a totally new style and the technology.... eeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

A wise man/woman once said "you can live in your SUV, but you cant drive your house"

LOL

Get a new odometer installed. Not paying this crap.

I wouldn't buy that car! & frankly, idk who would!!! Unless, you're right, we're all forced to buy it because everything else is illegal or whatever.

Is it a lifetime subscription or is it just loan payments? Everything's getting so high tech nowadays that I could see it working as like a loan payment. I think insurance companies have things like that to measure your driving habits, speeds, and etc. Which are installed inside of cars too and can prevent you from going over a specific speed? Idk though.

Hello and welcome!

a reply to: geezlouise
I would pay a local Uber like service to transport me, even if it cost a little more, before I would allow myself to fall victim to these Mafia tactics.

Look what they have done to our homes, you never truly own your home. I know at least six people that lost their homes because the County over valued their homes, jacked up their taxes beyond what they could afford to pay, then sold their homes at auction.

Come on folks, how much more are we going to go along with? Pretend it is a damn flag or some stupid TV show they are trying take away from you, that seems to be the only time people seem willing to get up off their areas and do something.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

go to the carshows the little japas reprogram your odometer for like $40. uber adds up I've been doing it all year.

a reply to: ringdingdong

HA HA HA!!!!! I remember in the old days guys in high scholl charging 25.00 to reset an odometer for a 1970 chevelle or similar; to 12000 instead of the 150K it had on it...LOL

a reply to: ringdingdong
I was thinking more on the line of a community jetty, car pool, set up.

The numerbers have to be there to stop this crap in its tracks.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

not sure what community jetty is, but how would car pool be relevant? i had an idea for a mobile app some years ago where you could setup car pooling easily. not sure if it's available, but i gave up on it after a 4ft bongrip made had me considering some ... not so good consequences that would result.

i think people are mostly reactive, and contribute politically indirectly through their wallets. as in i can see this being implemented by the major manufactures, yet this shortly after giving rise to startup smaller companies who market on not making subscription mandatory. problem being there's a steep pricetag on getting into the automotive biz and successfully competing in the market.

we should just go Cuban and keep the older cars. talk about an effective political statement. you realize how much monies our economy gets from new car purchases alone?

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

Yeah. I don't think many people will put up with it... right now. I guess it could be our future though as awful as that sounds. My parents used to say that they didn't need car insurance to drive, and now they do, and they predicted that you would need health insurance too eventually. And then it happened. They were right, and all within the span of one lifetime.

Losing your home is awful. Owning a home is terrifically expensive to me. I kindof never see myself owning any property.

The trick is getting people to care about things. Media controls so much. There needs to be some kind of powershift, right? I knew this girl that was going to law school and she got an internship with a firm and she said she had to quit school and quit the firm because they were too "evil." They told her to lie, lie, lie. So then she changed her mind and went into the medical direction and is in now still school- but. but but! If all the good hearted people keep fleeing from positions of authority then we're basically handing ourselves over to an evil authority...? But what can you do... if going through school equals joining evil forces? Like what was she supposed to do? I guess lie and then try to do something different after you get over that hump. Start your own firm. But then, you're small and they're big and you get squashed. So Idk.

Then there's Bernini's tower- are you familiar with it? I think it's a great analogy for what is happening today and I think you might like it so I'll tell you quickly. This is a TRUE STORY. Bernini was a famous sculptor and best friends with the Pope, literally, of the late renaissance period. Boromini was an educated architect, but he was slightly socially withdrawn and not as popular. The pope wanted a tower and set up a competition for the local artists and architects... best design wins, right? Wrong. Bernini wins the competition (most likely due to his popularity with the Pope) but after he has mostly built the tower, it cracks... literally, like almost right down the middle, and it shows that it is unstable. He has never gone to school for architecture... and he becomes ashamed and runs off to hide in his embarrassment. Then guess who comes in to clean up Bernini's mess and build the tower? Yes, Boromini. Boromini cleans up the mess and builds the tower the way it should have been built in the first place.

So I hope you get the picture? I mean it's a shame that we might have to just wait for it all to crack and come crumbling down... but it's bound to happen if it's the same kind of situation that I just illustrated. Then when and if it does all come down, I hope that there are Boromini's around who care enough to help clean up the mess and make things right again. But you're right we shouldn't sit around and wait for it to happen. It's almost the same kind of thing that religious people do, sitting around waiting and accepting the terrible present conditions because the afterlife will make it all better again eventually. So circling back, the trick is to getting people to care about things that they normally wouldn't care about. And that requires getting in their faces a little, I think, and demanding their attention, and forcing them to look at things that make them uncomfortable but then showing them a way out to balance out the discomfort and etc.etc.etc. So politics, and media, lol.

Thank you for your contributions. It got me thinking. And I guess I do care, personally.

a reply to: ringdingdong
RingDingDong, my mistake I kept saying Jetty, when I meant Jitney.

Jitney transport vehicles carry usual!y carry 8+ people on a regular schedule, around the most frequented places around town. Similar to bus service but smaller and much shorter routres. There are private services much like a taxi, that will take you where you want to go, but because it often will have more than one passenger, and is going to different locations, you have to give them 24 hr notice.

My car is a 2000 that I bought in November 1999. I don't know how much longer they can keep gluing her together.

I refuse to sign on to a car payment, so I guess I should be looking at the auctions.

a reply to: geezlouise
Thank you so much for your post. I vaguely remember the story and so appreciate your reminding me of it.

I agree that it is very difficult to control a fire if you keep feeding it fuel. Shut off the oxygen supply if you want to shut down a fire.

We can say No!