New Jersey legislative bill is underway that subscribing to car functions should be illegal
In recent years, there has been an increase in the appearance of some functions installed in automobiles, such as the software necessary for autonomous driving and the function to heat the seat, as a 'subscription' with a monthly fee system. It has been reported that legislators in the state of New Jersey, USA, who were dissatisfied with the business model of subscribing such automobile-related functions, have submitted a bill to regulate them.
Car feature subscriptions should be illegal, New Jersey legislators say | Ars Technica
In 2021, Tesla, which develops self-driving cars, switched its full self-driving (FSD: fully self-driving) function from a purchase to a subscription format. In 2022, we have announced that standard functions such as navigation, maps, and voice commands for cars that have been purchased for eight years or more will be charged on a monthly basis, and will be used for the attitude of companies that are trying to collect fees permanently. dissatisfaction is growing.
There is a wave of subscriptions not only on the software side, but also on the hardware side. BMW is a notable example, with subscriptions for features such as heated seats in markets such as South Korea and the UK.
It is a topic that BMW offers a ``paid plan of about 2500 yen per month'' for seat heaters - GIGAZINE
In order to change this business model, Rep. Paul Moriarty and Rep. Joe Danielsen of New Jersey announced at the end of September 2022 that automakers and dealers in New Jersey would 'use the hardware installed in the vehicle at the time of purchase.' We have submitted a bill to prohibit 'providing 'use rights' of functions that
Although the bill excludes third-party services such as satellite radio and Wi-Fi, it does cover functions provided by manufacturers such as seat heaters, so if enacted, examples like BMW will be excluded. seen as a thing. This includes penalties of up to $10,000 (about 1.5 million yen) for first offenses and up to $20,000 (about 3 million yen) for repeat offenses.
However, this is still only a bill and there is no guarantee that it will become law in New Jersey. In addition, there is an exception that ``this does not apply if the target service is a continuous expense for the dealer, manufacturer, or a third party'', so for example, a navigation system that captures data from the cloud or a partial Like the self-driving function, there is a possibility that it will not be regulated if 'manufacturers, etc. must bear the cost of connecting and maintaining the server'.
Several automakers, such as BMW, have offices in New Jersey, so the bill will have a big impact on them. Ars Technica, who conveyed this information, wrote, 'I asked BMW for comment, so I will update this article if I get a reply.'
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