Is this true?
Tesla Is Turning Navigation Into a Subscription ServiceTesla Is Turning Navigation Into a Subscription Service
Tesla Is Turning Navigation Into a Subscription ServiceTesla Is Turning Navigation Into a Subscription Service
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Navigation subscription
- Thread starter KL0809
- Start date
The title is a bit click-bait-y... They still give 8 years of basic connectivity for free. After that you'll need to pay for that or premium, whichever you choose. Unsure if this applies just to Australia (where the article is posted) or globally. But yeah, I would believe it. Providing an LTE service for as long as the car drives costs Tesla money. I'm surprised they waited as long.
A car is typically a one-time buy, and should be a one-time cost to Tesla. LTE is something Tesla needs to pay monthly/yearly for something already produced and sold. Not great business-wise, especially if you never know when it stops. It becomes difficult to amortize. At least now it has an end.
A car is typically a one-time buy, and should be a one-time cost to Tesla. LTE is something Tesla needs to pay monthly/yearly for something already produced and sold. Not great business-wise, especially if you never know when it stops. It becomes difficult to amortize. At least now it has an end.
iamnid
Active Member
Very click-bait-y title. Also, it doesn't address what is lost if one uses their phone as a wifi hotspot. It makes sense that Tesla won't provide data for free forever. I can't imagine the navigation will actually stop. I think it will probably just not have traffic aware navigation and/or the maps won't update. But, honestly, I don't see why they wouldn't still give us access to updated maps via wifi.
In any event, $99/year for premium data which includes music, netflix, etc., is WAY cheaper than what is provided by other manufacturers.
In any event, $99/year for premium data which includes music, netflix, etc., is WAY cheaper than what is provided by other manufacturers.
I'm not following their logic where navigation is deleted by losing Standard connectivity, Tesla doesn't state any such thing. Turn-by-turn navigation works entirely offline, try it when you have no cellular connection. And map updates download over Wifi only. The only online bits to navigation are the traffic weights, Supercharger status, and POI search. Plus the visual map tiles of course.
EVRider-FL
Active Member
That’s how it works today, but the article is saying Tesla is changing that model. However, you still get free navigation for 8 years, so it’s not a big deal.
Not for the lease drivers. Owners may perceive this differently.
Whatever it may be, it’s not only Tesla embarking on that freaking subscription scheme; more and more brands jump on that bandwagon. Look at BMW.. heated seats, heated steering wheel, etc. Soon, we buy a >100k car and will have to consider additional periodical cost, only for the features that used to come with the car.
Ah but let's not conflate everything together. Subscriptions on heated seats are monetizing something that has cost the constructor once and is delivered. Providing LTE data to a car is a service that the constructor has to pay regularly. They are "just" transferring that cost to the car owner instead of providing it for free forever. I don't believe these two things are comparable.
I agree about the LTE facility. The manufacturer shouldn’t take that cost.
Still, my Volvo Estate has navigation plus visual traffic information, without extra cost. Once a year, the guy at the workshop updates the maps and off I go.
Perhaps I’m too old fashioned. The age gap seems to be playing up
iamnid
Active Member
I think the article is poorly written and incorrect. Navigation won't simply stop working, it will just lose LTE connectivity (i.e. traffic based routing, potentially map updates, supercharger status). As in post #4, navigation still works today in areas where there is no LTE connectivity... it just works in offline mode, which is what will likely happen when the 8 years are up. Additionally, if this is just Tesla passing on the cost of the data (which it probably is), I don't see why map updates wouldn't be offered via Wifi even after the 8 years is up. Simply put, it's illogical to think that your navigation would simply stop working after 8 years.
That isn't how the Tesla support page reads: Connectivity
The feature matrix shows Navigation is part of the Standard package. (Traffic, etc. is listed separate.)
Though this makes it less clear, and maybe navigation is just degraded:
We should start seeing what they actually do in about 2 years. (As older used vehicles they sell now will age out of Standard connectivity about then.)
iamnid
Active Member
I think we'll have to wait much longer than that. According to the article:
“All new Tesla vehicles ordered on or before July 20, 2022, will have Standard Connectivity features at no cost for the lifetime of the vehicle (excluding retrofits or upgrades required for any features or services externally supplied to the vehicle)”
We'll have to wait about 8 years to find out. I honestly don't care. The $99/year is a great deal for the streaming music etc. alone and I can't even tell you the last time I had a car that I kept for more than 4 years, let alone 8 years.
Nope, again from the support page:
And for example this used 2016 Model S for sale, Inventory | Tesla, shows this:
If they get and sell any 2014s or 2015s we could find out much sooner.
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