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Zero Motorcycles announced their groundbreaking new battery "technology", in which they sell you a large capacity battery in a motorcycle with powerful motors and advanced traction control systems, and then lock all that away behind a software paywall that you can unlock (for a fee) in their app.
https://newatlas.com/motorcycles/zero-motorcycles-2022-battery-paid-upgrades/
Zero is not the first vehicle company to do this sort of thing. Notably, Tesla sells vehicles with capabilities that can be unlocked via software "upgrades". This strategy is also common in the CNC machine tool industry; it's long frustrated machinists that they can buy a machine with all the hardware, but then have a sizable portion of memory, advanced motion smoothing, and other functions locked behind activation keys, which often cost several thousand dollars. In that industry at least, if you know the right people and have a machine with a common control, you can get what you need to unlock it through other sources.
I anticipate a similar approach in the vehicle market, which has long sold "tuner" chips and has a great deal of modding enthusiasts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIJiXNzpRMY
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 13 2021, @01:40PM
Yeah, sure. But like he said, some features can be unlocked with software update. I guess you can try to do that yourself or there is a group that does it for you. Whatevers. Maybe manufacturer can say that warranty is void but they can't brick your device remotely since they don't own it.
Putting in larger battery and restricting range is not all bad -- the battery in the device should really last much longer when operating in narrower band of discharge. Lower max power from the motor also reduces wear and tear. Probably most that want to pay less are happy with lower specs and if they want full specs, it's just extra payment away. And you have flexibility of doing this AFTER initial purchase and not need to swap actual hardware.
Anyway, this is not rent seeking, it's just features. It would be like Tesla locking the Ludicrous mode until you pay more ... but then buyers of this can decide if this is what they want in the first place. Basically, decide what you want and then decide if it's what you are willing to pay for it. Just don't get fooled by the "low end" price tag for the base model ;)