Digital Services

[RAL7004]

Not cheap – especially the fact that the digital assistant ("OK Honda") is obviously charged in addition to the data connection bothers me...

Source: https://www.honda.co.uk/cars/owners/my- ... ption.html

[RAL7004]

Here are the apps for mobile phones:

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/my-honda- ... 1499650147
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... .app&hl=en

[Joolsdc]

So you have to pay a base £39. And then additional services on top. “Free” first year for the safety/journey capability.
So i guess ok value. I suppose using my phone rather than the in car Wi-fi would be better value.
I wonder if they will package up? Or do offers

[Rei]

Hmm. The car locator is valuable because it reduces the cost of your insurance (tracker fitted). Had that on the Leaf. What do they mean £29/year "until third year", is it more expensive after that or free or just not available?

The assistant isn't worth £50/year. Surprised it isn't free for the first year to encourage people to try it.

The one-off £40 for the connected services is good though, a lot of manufacturers want you to pay every year for basic stuff that is pretty much essential in an EV.

[bogga]

So the car locator part, pretty much pays for itself would you say?

I suspect on the third year they'll want to charge a higher price, but they don't know what it is yet...

[rickwookie]

Honda can forget pretty much all I that if they want me to still go ahead with the purchase.

Nothing boils my piss more than this type of model whereby I give a company £30k for the pleasure of then having some additional hardware that does nothing that I cannot already do (better) on my (expensive already purchased) smartphone - smart assistant, media content, navigation, WiFi hotspot, etc. - yet then be tied in to addition subscriptions on top of what I’m already paying.

Do Tesla do this?!

[Rei]

Yeah, Tesla do it, you have to pay for all but the most basic connected services now. Some German manufacturers make you pay for everything.

Good point about smartphones, people won't pay for an assistant or navigation features when they can just use Android Auto or Car Play.

The locator part, I don't know, will have to do some quotes and see how much having a tracker fitted saves you. Maybe it pays for itself but that feature is free on the Leaf!

[RAL7004]

BMW charged their customers for using Apple CarPlay but after complaints about this, they took it back...

I fully understand when a manufacturer charges a fee for online connectivity. After all, this service comes from an ISP. Annoying are additional monthly fees for services provided by the car company - in this case, for example, the much advertised digital "assistant".
I am very curious to see if it will be worth it.

[rickwookie]

BMW charged their customers for using Apple CarPlay but after complaints about this, they took it back...

I fully understand when a manufacturer charges a fee for online connectivity. After all, this service comes from an ISP. Annoying are additional monthly fees for services provided by the car company - in this case, for example, the much advertised digital "assistant".
I am very curious to see if it will be worth it.

For comparison, when I pay Apple for my hugely expensive iPhone, I then choose which SIM to put in it, based on which provider gives me the best deal. I can even use it on my home WiFi with no SIM at all.
If I want to let anyone else use my iPhone, wife, kids, etc. Apple don’t then charge me a “second user fee”. Hell they can even install Apps I purchase on their own devices too with no additional fee. If I want to locate my lost phone, Apple charge no fee to subscribe to their “Find My” service.
Do you see the pattern? Honda obviously don’t.

[Rei]

When you buy an Android phone you can use all the Google stuff for free. Email, maps, file storage, voice assistant. You have to provide your own SIM or wifi but then it's all free. They do hit you with ads though.

I suppose ads in your car is something we really don't want, distracting and annoying. The ones who offer it for free like Nissan (although I hear they started charging) must just add it to the up front cost of the car. Well, Apple must add in the free iCloud and that stuff to the cost of the phone too.