yeah I remember when Netflix first started circa 2007,
IT COST $8 A MONTH
I was there for it. They would mail out DVDs and there were no due dates or overdue fees. You just drop it back in the mail when you’re done watching it and then you can rent more DVDs. The whole thing cost $8 a month.
that was the beginning of Blockbuster video going out of business. Blockbuster’s late fees and rewinding fees were an atrocity.
Here’s the thing. Even with inflation (which is exaggerated by companies when they jack up prices for consumers), they have less overhead now than they did when they started. They had to do all the DVD stuff by hand and now it’s all computers. So basically they just had a massive bump in their profit margins and just pocketed the difference.
Surprise surprise, better technology and automation replacing people doesn’t mean things become cheaper under capitalism, even when it fucking should.
Yeah as a programmer it seems that everyone around me underestimate by several magnitudes the amount of money and effort that goes into something like the Netflix infrastructure. It’s extremely frustrating because people always look at you with distrust when you say how much work it will take to develop a website. As a rule of thumb, the site’s apparent simplicity (for the end user) is correlated with the effort you put in.
That said, Netflix already had its infrastructure in place back when they had reasonable pricing. The recent greediness doesn’t reflect their costs suddenly going up, it’s just exponentially growing demand for profit and investors who want to cash in.
Disruptive technology doesn’t follow cost covering logic though. Covering costs is hardly interesting for investors. Netflix ran at loss to grow quickly and cement the market share.
Recent enshittification occurs because the market came to an understanding that the fight for the market share is over and now it’s time to satisfy investors.
But several things can be true at the same thing time. Infrastructure is expensive and investors want to maximize return of investment.
Imma have to stand up for geese here, I’ve known a few.
If you walk your dog past them every day, just throw them a dandelion leaf or two
After about three years, they’ll be your best mates
Then one day, you won’t have your dog with you, and you’ll realise they assumed the dog was bringing you to feed them dandelion leaves, and they instantly turn back into cunts
Car companies can already remotely disable vehicle functionality if payments aren’t made on time (disabling heated seats comes to mind). It isn’t beyond the realm of possibility for a self driving truck to repossess itself to the nearest facility.
This is an absolutely bonkers idea though. What if there is a child inside when the vehicle decides to repo itself?
I can see certain benefits, but as the parent poster mentions, what happens if there’s a child on the car, or, indeed, you’ve left something else important in it when it drives off. Surely it’s better for it just not to start, and keep a human in the loop for returning it.
I’d imagine that truly self driving cars will have occupancy sensors in them (they only cost a few dollars), and that you could collect your belongings from the dealer.
It’s not like the system is just going to randomly drive off without any warning, likely for the reasons you stated.
I can see them having occupancy sensors after the first lawsuit, but before then I’m not so sure. Collecting your belongings from the dealer could also be problematic; you no longer have a car, and the dealer could be a significant distance away. It’d be even worse if you happen to have driven the car far from home and no longer have a way to get back.
I suspect, and hope, they only patented it so they were tge ones with the patent, not to actually implement it.
It will absolutely be a thing once truly autonomous cars exist.
But, by the time the number of self driving cars reaches a significant portion of the vehicles on the road, owning a car will likely be on its way out in favor of subscription/fee services. That is if they’re ever sold in the first place.
Why own a or maintain a car when you can have one pick you up in a few minutes?
lemmyshitpost
Oldest
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.