OPINION
You're safe - as long as you pay your subscription
A recent incident in US highlighted the indignity visited on a family in the midst of a catastrophe by the late-stage capitalism shenanigans of car subscription services – more specifically VW's car tracking offering Car-Net.
According to police, a mother pulled up to her driveway, took one child into the house and returned to her vehicle to take out her two-year-old, when hijackers pulled up, hit her, drove over her and sped away with the vehicle. The woman was rushed to hospital, and the police contacted VW to track the vehicle.
"Unfortunately, there was a delay, as Volkswagen Car-Net would not track the vehicle with the abducted child until they received payment to reactivate the tracking device in the stolen Volkswagen," the country sheriff's office said in a statement. According to one report, despite pleas from the police, VW could only say that the complimentary Car-Net free trial had ended, and they would only track the car if $150 was paid immediately.
The police, while all of this was going on, and a way to pay VW was being arranged, ended up finding the car and recovering the child, with the help of a 911 caller.
This isn't like the first few months of free Apple TV you get with a new iPhone lapsing. Your Netflix subscription, or even your News24 subscription, are not a matter of life and death. It's not even a pure third party, Cartrack-type of situation, where you willingly enter into a contract. VW actively prevented the police from rescuing a toddler in a hijacked car.
Business' aim is to provide value to stakeholders, while providing a service or product – no one is denying that. But at the cost of lives?
While VW eventually apologised, saying there was a breach of emergency process with the company that runs Car-Net for them, it's not just them who have problematic "subscription services" with their cars. Tesla's self-driving system is subscription based – so what will happen if some reason your debit order failed to go through – is your Model X going to crash into a bunch of kids as your autopilot is remotely switched off during your morning school run?
The way this trend is going, you will have to subscribe to have working air-con in your car, pay to remove pop-up ads on your windscreen, or be forced to wait 15 seconds to watch the new promo for the upgraded VW before you can rush to the hospital while your kid is having an asthma attack.
What a wonderful future.
Tweet of the day
#Eskom is 100 years old today. We wanted to do something special, so for all those who brought this once proud entity to its knees, here's a cake.(Jokes aside: we realise there are some good people in Eskom still trying to keep the lights on. We thank them for their efforts.) pic.twitter.com/r6nXz2eMtU
— OUTA (@OUTASA) March 1, 2023
Chart of the day
Massive #renewableenergy generation capacity coming to ????In only 2 months (Jan-Feb) in 2023, a total of 1073MW was registered with @NERSA_ZA. And the 1st five projects over 100MW.Reminder: In 2022, 1659MW were registered over the whole year. And only 86MW in 2021. pic.twitter.com/4DEtGwyOPP
— Gaylor Montmasson-Clair (@GaylorTIPS) March 2, 2023
Number of the day
The decline in the number of marriages between 2012 and 2021, from 161 112 to 106 499. Source: Statistics SA
Previously:
STOCK TAKE | Did MPs read the rail White Paper Cabinet adopted, and can Eskom offer some good stats?
STOCK TAKE | The cost of cybercrime and the state of the captured nation
STOCK TAKE | Eskom's tough lessons for a zombie apocalypse
STOCK TAKE | Spar's flawed thinking
STOCK TAKE | Nampak is boxed in a corner
STOCK TAKE | Steinhoff's unsettling future for shareholders, and Telkom loses its suitors
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