[RahulNagaraj]

Volkswagen is reported to be considering offering its self-driving technology on a pay-per-use basis.



According to a media report, Klaus Zellmer, the head of sales, marketing & after-sales for Volkswagen stated that the autonomous driving tech could be offered on an hourly basis.

He further mentioned that the self-driving tech could be offered at 7 Euros (US$ 9 dollars) per hour. This will allow customers the flexibility of choosing when to have autonomous driving, while also making it available for everyone.



Alongside the pay-per-use self-driving technology, Volkswagen is also planning to introduce a range of digital services on its upcoming electric cars. Some of these services also include mileage or performance enhancements for electric vehicles. These digital services are expected to be put into practice by the second quarter of 2022.



The software-related services for cars are said to provide a new revenue stream for carmakers going forward. Vehicle manufacturers say that future vehicles will become more interconnected, much like smartphones.

Source: Reuters

Link to Team-BHP news

[speedmiester]

So it's essentially similar to hiring a driver. What next? Pay a fee for the Airbags to work?
This is one part of EVs that I hate, with software ruling the roost, driving will soon become closer to using internet with privacy and security concerns.

Few questions that comes to my mind

• What happens when the subscription time expires and the driver is not paying attention.
• Will VW be responsible for any incidents during the time of self driving subscription
• For the subscription to work, the necessary hardware should be part of the car, can one buy the car without these hardware?

[twin-turbo]

I personally don’t understand the use of self driving tech. In its present stage, it only works on highways where driving is the most relaxed and requires the lowest effort. The same can’t be said for cities I believe. Therefore a charge for FSD or even a necessity can’t be justified right now.

[AkhilR]

BMW tried the subscription model with Apple Carplay and failed.Now tesla is offering premium connectivity as a subscription.If this model succeeds, buying a car could also be a subscription similar to how people use mobile phones with carrier subscriptions

[avira_tk]

This is one reason why the future will definitely be worse for enthusiasts, these cars are terrible to drive and come with all sorts of sensors that will malfunction, limited range and plastic all around.

VW must be the most overrated brand in the mass market, all I get from the fan boys is the "build quality". I'm reminded of that line from Snatch, "the weight is a sign of reliability, I always go for reliability".

These guys don't have a plan to sell cars, they're a finance operation, really disgusting how these scams are packaged and sold to us as a benefit.

[SKC-auto]

Originally Posted by speedmiester

This is one part of EVs that I hate

IMO, 2 technologies (EVs and AVs) are merging at the same moment, also it is easy to operate an EV with AV tech than traditional cars.

You can create an EV without AV, and an AV on an ICE platform. Waymo uses Pacifica van which is a PHEV for its AV taxi in Phoenix. What I am trying to say is let's decouple both these tech, no point hating EVs for an awful AV experience.

This article does not need to be published on EV subforum as I guess VW did not specifically say their AV tech will not be available on ICE cars.

[Arvi95]

Originally Posted by twin-turbo

I personally don’t understand the use of self driving tech.In its present stage,it only works on highways where driving is the most relaxed and requires the lowest effort.The same can’t be said for cities I believe.Therefore a charge for FSD or even a necessity can’t be justified right now.

Although of limited use in its current state, the major reason for automakers to roll this out in the present is just so that they have access to the huge volumes of real world data that is required to improve the tech. Exactly what Tesla has been doing for the past couple of years.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by RahulNagaraj

Volkswagen is reported to be considering offering its self-driving technology on a pay-per-use basis.

Can understand his predicament, Tesla has announced plans to increase the costs of self-driving to 14K USD and even at the existing 10 K USD, it's a lot of money. North America has probably longer highways and many customers want self-driving, more so the younger generation. It upset my son that we didn't order one when he got the car, it 4-5K CAD back then if I recollect. But I reconcile to the fact that had we have got Tesla shares instead of that Model 3, we could have bought a Ferrari now

Some of our members who work in this field are aware of the high R&D costs that go into this whole thing possible and improve continuously. It's not like charging for some silly feature like the apple car play BMW proposed but a very special set of controls. If added to the costs to the vehicle, not everyone will afford it, so, I will go ahead and instead subscribe for this. Remember, at most places, a cup of coffee on the highways is usually 3-4 Euros. So, I will welcome this new initiative

[gkveda]

I will rather appoint a driver who can drive the car safely for me and pay the same amount to him. This way, I can get satisfaction that I am helping a poor family to live their life.

[TrackDay]

Originally Posted by RahulNagaraj

He further mentioned that the self-driving tech could be offered at 7 Euros (US$ 9 dollars) per hour. This will allow customers the flexibility of choosing when to have autonomous driving, while also making it available for everyone.

Originally Posted by gkveda

I will rather appoint a driver who can drive the car safely for me and pay the same amount to him. This way, I can get satisfaction that I am helping a poor family to live their life.

This technology is most likely to be available only in Nations with a well laid out road network. The average cost of hiring a driver in the USA is $15.63 per hour while in Europe it comes around 10-12 Euros average per hour. This is what most google searches shows as starting rates. Comparatively it would be better to buy the subscription for an hour or two depending on how much we might need it. While hiring a human driver is an entirely different thing, this is indeed the way the future goes, less human roles in jobs .

[DeepCarTalk]

We are now in a transition phase of the whole automobile industry.

On one side we have IC engines getting phased out and getting replaced by EV

and

On the other, we have cars having more technology than ever before and we are caught right in the center to witness this whole new level of adoption, nurturing and converting.

Tesla charges 12k dollars for 'Full Self-Driving' and VW wants to charge based on time usage.
Let's do some numbers.

For this I'll take the example of my brother's usage who lives in Australia which has the infrastructure to support self driving tech.

His yearly run is about 15k Kms, which translates to about 41.xx Kms daily.

70% of his run is highway based where he actually uses autopilot on his Model S, so about:

28.7 Kms on the highway.

With the average speed of about 50kmph (toll and traffic brings down avg speed)
he covers this distance in around and about 33 minutes daily.

that's about 16.5 hours a month (Add 2.xx hours of extended drives over weekends)

So 18.5 x 9 = 166.5 dollars a month
or
166.5 x 12 = 1998 dollars a year.

On an average, he holds on to his car for around about 6 years, so:

166.5 x 12 x 6 = 11988 dollars


Tesla's one time fees of 12k dollars
vs
VW's usage based fees that meets Tesla's amount at around 6 year mark.

[carthick1000]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

It's not like charging for some silly feature like the apple car play BMW proposed but a very special set of controls. If added to the costs to the vehicle, not everyone will afford it, so, I will go ahead and instead subscribe for this.

+1 for the silly BMW carplay trick.

The subscription/buying as an add-on for such expensive autopilot features is indeed a boon for some of the business lease / company car users in the Netherlands. Here the benefit-in-kind tax is dependent on the catalog price of the car. If this autopilot like features are added after the car is registered, then the additional price will be considered as an accessory and hence benefit-in-kind tax is not applicable to the autopilot. This saves quite a large % of costs. This is very common in NL.

In real life, if I consider a usage of 30000kms/year and at 70% highway time (I don't think pass. cars are going to drive autonomously the rest 30% time, even in developed countries anytime soon) using autopilot at 100kmph, then 210hours of autopilot usage. Which means it costs about 210h*$9/h = $1890/year or ~$160/month.

Talking about the $9/hour translates to about ~1550hours of autopilot usage (if we suppose VWs autopilot to that of Tesla's $14k package).

So to breakeven Tesla costs of usage, someone with the above mentioned yearly driving has to have the VW for ~8 years. But I think autopilot is the least important feature when someone is buying an EV. So the decision for the car make/model/performance comes first and the model of subscription has not much say in decision making process of a potential buyer.

[Thermodynamics]

IMO, since the technology is still emerging, the service should remain premium. This would help technology development from a funding perspective and also from accountability perspective that would make manufacturers excercise rigor in providing a quality service.

Anyway, it is only a matter of time before it'll get commoditized. Some disrupter will come out of the blue and all manufacturers would be forced to feature ultra low cost subscriptions or they would have to draw entirely from commercials/suggestions by the drive.

[landcruiser123]

I hope it is a service like your Spotify (or equivalent music stremaing service) which keeps growing and improving. The only question is whether they have enough future-proof hardware to make significant performance improvements?

If local governments ban self-driving ability or restrict usage in certain areas, owners can choose when and how to use the service.

[roy_libran]

They would need to pay me for acquiescing to being subjected to Self-driving tech. Enough said!