An Audi owner shares how the vehicle these days is being highly software-based. Earlier when a person purchased a vehicle without certain features, the vehicle didn’t simply have those buttons. However, now the software-based systems are showing a message, “The function has not been purchased.” thus implying that the owner should buy the function.
A short clip of an Audi Q4 E-Tron was recently posted to the mildly infuriating subreddit. It received well over 110,000 upvotes and nearly 6,000 comments at the time of writing. Furthermore, the owner of the vehicle had decided not to purchase Audi’s tri-zone climate control, yet still received a “Sync” button in their brand new battery-powered SUV. And also, pressing it did do something—but not what they expected. Instead of just doing nothing, or, you know, syncing the climate zones, it instead caused a message to pop up on the screen indicating that the function had not been purchased.
Audi U.S. and U.K. both offer tri-zone climate control on the base trim. However, some markets offer tri-zone climate control as an optional add-on. In Denmark, where this particular owner told us they’re based, the add-on costs around $758 (5,114 Kroner). The owner acknowledged that they chose against purchasing it but didn’t expect to press the button to display a message.
Buttons for a reason
Historically, cars with unpurchased features simply had those blank pieces of plastic in place of a button. They couldn’t be pressed, and they didn’t look too out of place as they mostly blended in with the interior. Audi’s implementation here is kind of serving the same purpose, and while it sharpens up the appearance of the interior, it comes with a reminder that’s a lot more in-your-face than a blank button that you simply can’t press.
“Blank buttons aren’t rude,” wrote the owner. “This one is reminding me that I’m cheap.” Interestingly, the message doesn’t feature any sort of prompt to purchase the function. Many automakers, including Audi, are using over-the-air updates to push feature changes and even promote the sale of software goods. Possibly it all comes down to saving money on the production of physical hardware for the climate control system by equipping all cars with the same control panel regardless of features. There’s also the chance that Audi plans to add in-car purchasing at a later date. That much isn’t clear just yet, but whatever the reason, a message reminding you that you hadn’t purchased a feature in your premium EV would certainly irk enough folks.
Credits- The Drive
