[nunobrito]

Imagine Ford deciding their cars must drive at 50% their speed when the engine oil is older than 2 years and at the same time forbidding users from changing the oil.

Yet there are always people justifying these type of awful practices as better for users. These aren't, the measures are only good for business.

[dghlsakjg]

Ford actually does this. They have something called limp mode for when sensors detect degraded conditions. They won't honor the warranty if you clear the code manually and continue operating the vehicle.

Many cars enter limp mode for when the ECU senses a possibly damaging condition. This limits the performance and capabilities until someone with a diagnostic computer can plug it in. Many times these diagnostic computers are entirely proprietary.

I'm not saying it is justified, but to pretend that other businesses don't do this is silly.

[nunobrito]

Well, that still wouldn't reduce your car speed by 50%.

And even for that case there would be a warning on the console and a mechanic would be able to inform what is happening. On this iphone case, there was no warning at all on the device nor there was any disclosure that they would be doing this to the phones.

You know this. In either case, thank you for the ECU info.

[bigfatkitten]

> Well, that still wouldn't reduce your car speed by 50%

It reduces your speed by much more than that. Varies depending on the model, but limp mode often won't get you go past 2nd gear.

[dghlsakjg]

> Well, that still wouldn't reduce your car speed by 50%.

It does actually. It limits your top speed, and your engines rev range to approximately half of redline or less. Typically you end up limited to under 45. Also, accessories and other options, like A/C are disabled. The only indication that you will get is the reduced performance and the check engine/service light (sort of how you might get a 'service battery' warning and reduced performance on a phone).

Again, not defending it, but pointing out that Apple hardly invented artificially limiting performance behind opaque warnings to prevent unwanted outcomes. Cars have had limp mode since before the iPhone was invented.

[K0balt]

Forbidding them from changing the oil? I personally changed my battery, I did not feel like it was forbidden.

Not even that hard.

For me, the firmware fix helped me limp through the 2 months before I finally got around to replacing the battery.

It made my phone that was flaky and unreliable below 40percent battery into a phone that worked slightly slower once the battery got low, but didn’t just randomly shut off during calls anymore.

I’d have preferred a toggle, but to be honest I doubt I’d have ever used “reckless disregard for remaining battery capacity” mode.

[theshrike79]

Have you driven a German car ever?

They are SO LOUD if you don't service them at regular intervals. They're even doing fancy tricks to make sure you're not faking the service.

[nunobrito]

Yes. I live in Germany, drive German cars and know the tech.

Regular service is indeed a bother. You know what I hate the most? In my oldish Mercedes it isn't even possible to change/update the hour without using a proprietary tool only available at official Mercedes mechanics. Since I refuse to pay premium cost for attending their mechanics, the clock on my car is always with wrong time.

And let's not even get into new business models like charging you a subscription to unlock the car to move faster or to unblock the heated seats. Indeed they also have quite "creative" ways to squeeze money and force to get new models.