It's all 2024, what is Audi's service like this? Is it too difficult for Chinese consumers to bring?

Kung Fu shooting

2024-05-27 16:49Posted in Guangdong automotive creators

Recently, Audi has been in a big trouble.

The reason is that an Audi A6L owner revealed to the media that he has been troubled by the renewal reminder pop-up window of the Audi Internet of Vehicles for a long time. Because I don't want to pay a service fee of 1188 yuan, Audi has long let the pop-up window of the Internet of Vehicles renewal, resulting in the other interfaces of the screen cannot be used, and sometimes even the reversing image cannot be activated.

Seeing this news, many netizens were also blindsided. It's all 2024, and the service of first-line luxury brands is like this? Should this car owner's plight be sympathetic, or should it be said? How should ordinary consumers respond to the "value-added services" of car companies? Let Kung Fu Motors take you to take a look.

(1) Misunderstandings between each other are due to too fast changes?

The owner's Audi A6L was purchased in March 2021, just over three years ago. Pay attention to this timeline, because the next three years will be too much for the automotive market.

When the owner bought the car, Audi gave him three years of in-vehicle networking services. Of course, the scope of service is actually very conventional, basically there are three plates, one is the remote control function, that is, you can warm up the car in advance or turn on the air conditioner in advance; The second is the remote positioning function, which is convenient for finding a car; Then there are some additional functions, such as maintenance reminders, vehicle tracking, emergency rescue, violation reminders, etc., in fact, most cars in that era had these functions, but there were few opportunities to use them.

For a car three years ago, these features are already good, plus Audi belongs to a luxury brand, and the annual service fee of 1188 yuan is not an exaggeration. After all, more than 400,000 cars have been bought, and paying more than 1,000 a year is not a problem for car owners, after all, ten years is actually more than 10,000 points.

But the problem is that these three years have changed too much. Before 2021, new forces were just beginning to emerge, and most luxury cars were equipped with Qualcomm 820A or Samsung Exyons 8890. But as the new forces began to exert their strength, many cars have been replaced with the updated Qualcomm 8155 chip, compared with the previous 820A, there are too many functions that can be achieved, after all, the performance has increased several times, and the price is also 3 to 5 times, not to mention the 8295 chip after that.

Not to mention that Huawei, Xiaomi, Meizu and other Internet companies have also entered the car machine, whether it is the interface aesthetics or smoothness, it is far from Audi's "ancient" car machine comparison. It's not that I can't afford 1188 yuan a year, but in this case, it is indeed a bit unkind to let these car owners pay this money willingly.

As the owner said, his Bluetooth key can cover part of the Internet of Vehicles function, and the rest of the functions are not used much, so I don't want to pay for it. In fact, the more core reason is that I still feel that these functions are no longer cool enough, and it will become a "big wrong" to pay for it.

Just like when Tesla first entered China, many people also spent 64,000 to install the FSD function, which is basically useless, but they still feel that it is worth it. Because the owner himself is not short of this money, it is very important for him to have a feeling of being a technological leader. And Audi's biggest problem is that it is to spend money to buy a technology backward, and it is normal for car owners to be reluctant to pay.

(2) "Mandatory" reminder, suspected of violation?

The owner doesn't want to buy it, and Audi wants to collect money, what will happen to things? Of course, it is to rely on their own abilities and "show their powers".

The owner's approach is very simple, that is, do not pay for it, and make do with it. No matter how many pop-ups you have, I'm really angry.

Audi is "increase efforts", every time you start the vehicle, the Internet of Vehicles "reminder" pop-up window will appear in the central control screen for the first time, if you don't close it manually, the pop-up window will always be, like navigation, radio This traditional sense of free functions can not be used.

What's even more terrifying is that if you don't close the pop-up window, even if you hang the reverse gear, the reversing image can't be activated, which is undoubtedly very inconvenient and unsafe for users who are used to watching images. In this case, I believe that most car owners have chosen to "convince themselves", after all, Audi owners are not willing to buy gas for a thousand dollars a year. But if you encounter a head iron, you can only stick to the end.

And this problem is difficult to evaluate, it is indeed inconvenient for car owners to use cars, but there is indeed controversy about whether Audi's practice violates the rules.

Mainland law does have relevant requirements for Internet pop-up window information, but it only says that the rights and interests of users should be protected, and users should not be influenced or interfered with in any form to close pop-up windows. Can Audi's "reminder" pop-up window be closed? It is indeed possible, but every time the vehicle starts, it comes like a shadow, and it does affect the rights and interests of users.

The concept of influencing rights and interests may not be the same as the definition of consumer in the legal sense. We may feel affected, but the legal meaning is not necessarily recognized. In this case, it is bound to be a protracted "lawsuit", which most people will certainly not be able to afford.

(3) How to deal with it? Open source and interception

So for us ordinary consumers, how to deal with this situation? The answer should be open source and interception.

First of all, of course, when choosing a car, avoid large-scale post-cost problems. Maybe now I think a thousand dollars a year is worth it, but after three or five years, I won't see it that way. Therefore, in the face of similar services before, Kung Fu Auto adhered to the principle that it would be sent for ten years before it was called. This kind of service for two or three years is more of a "please enter the urn".

In addition, it is necessary to "open your eyes to the world", in fact, the technology is developing rapidly, and the cost of installing some third-party "boxes" is actually very low. For example, the now very popular Huawei Hicar function (not necessarily Huawei's equipment, but the kernel is similar), basically a lot of car machine functions are realized at a very small price, and it is not bad to make do with it.

This is the source of wide opening, after all, the core of the old car does not have Qualcomm 8155, no matter how much you toss on this basis, it is of little significance.

Then there is the interception, as we said earlier, most people and manufacturers "can't afford it". In fact, there is another core reason, that is, many people regard protecting their own rights and interests as a "panacea" thing. For example, if the appeal is not to have a pop-up window for the car machine, rights protection may evolve into asking the manufacturer to "return the money". This is to consider only their own interests, not the interests of manufacturers.

Here someone wants to say, why should ordinary consumers consider the interests of manufacturers? But the crux of the matter is, if manufacturers do this harmless and not beneficial, do they have an incentive to do it?

Car owners can strive for no pop-up windows or fewer pop-up windows, or at least the priority of navigation and reversing images is better than that of pop-up windows, and I personally feel that the possibility of realization is still relatively large. After all, the appeal is reasonable, and it is difficult to receive this money anyway, and the manufacturer is likely to realize it for many reasons. But if you want to let the manufacturer directly send the back service, how to explain to those car owners who have already paid? Who will make up for the lack of income? There is a high probability that it will not work.

(4) Kung Fu shooting

The biggest feature of this era is that it is always changing. I remember buying a car five or six years ago, and many people felt that buying a joint venture SUV of about 200,000 yuan would make their lives complete. After all, this is the previous 300,000-level car, and the comfort and functionality are enough. But now with another 200,000 yuan, there will be more cars to choose from.

The progress of car machine and intelligent driving may be greater than this, and the products of three or five years ago are not the same dimension as now. It can only be said that based on the existing conditions, since the car has been bought now, minimize internal friction and get better service, what do you think?

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