Driving into a Paywall: The Subscriptionization of Consumer Vehicles

Abstract

This paper examines subscriptions as a mechanism for transforming consumer-owned vehicles into technological assets that generate rents for automakers. Our concern is the contingencies of how and under what circumstances this assetization is unfolding. The paper’s contributions are twofold. First, we analyze the sociotechnical and political-economic conditions that automakers are exploiting to transform consumer vehicles into rent-generating assets via subscription. These include governmental mandates and consumer demand for electric vehicles (EVs), and efforts to capitalize on limited advances in autonomous vehicle (AV) technology. Second, we argue that while the automotive industry has explored assetization, and even subscriptions, in the past, the paywalling of pre-installed functionalities is a distinct phenomenon likely to affect the wider ecology of automobility in ways that further entrench powerful and moneyed interests while undermining consumer welfare and the public good.