What if upgrades were done over the air, so you didn’t have to go to a dealership. And the base cost of the vehicle comes down, now that there’s a recurring revenue component?
I think Ford's system circa 2012/2013 did OTA updates, but the problem is that they stopped making updates.
Further, there was no modularity to the hardware running the nav/entertainment/app platform, so the hardware got outclassed very quickly for apps anyway, with no ability to swap in a more powerful system.
Which is ironic, because in the 2012 Fords, it's literally just a PC behind your dash, USB ports, hard drive, and all running Windows. It sucks that people are compelled to upgrade a $50k vehicle for lack of $1000 in PC components.
I can understand why that would be a business model, but I really think the vehicle is like a smart TV - nobody should use the junky built-in "smart" platform, but instead use platforms like CarPlay and Auto to bridge/mirror their modular phone capabilities into the vehicle. Vehicles in time just need something like the OBD standard for connecting external processing/info platforms. CarPlay and Auto are steps in the right direction, but.. more abstraction/standardization/modularity please.
Volkswagen has a system like this in production already with CarNet with subscription pricing for things like better voice control, tracking, and maps.
Would that change your mind?