Mercedes has become another company adopting a popular tactic in the gaming industry. The company will offer Mercedes-EQ electric car buyers the “opportunity” to pay a hefty annual subscription to get from 0 to 100 a little faster. Models EQS and EQE will be able to accelerate to 100 km / h 0.8-1 second faster.
As reported The Drive, Mercedes will charge $1,200 a year for such an impressive upgrade. This price includes increased traction and maximum performance of the Mercedes-EQ. In other words, without a subscription, the car has limitations that reduce the efficiency of the engines. And all this in cars costing from 100 thousand dollars.
It sounds like a parody of corporate greed, but it’s reality. Electric cars are equipped with electric motors, which means this is not some kind of physical upgrade that allows you to squeeze more horses – it’s literally a switch in the software. It does not require any cloud computing or miscalculations. The system does not connect to AI and does not mine cryptocurrency for your investments. It’s just that if you don’t pay a subscription, you get an analogue of the game without the ultimate armor for your character.
A similar subscription attempt was made by BMW this year, requiring users to pay a subscription to have access to heated seats. The owners reacted to this with discontent and piracy.
Both cases are some kind of surreal joke. A real dystopia. But corporate greed knows no bounds.