This is inevitable and you need to look 10 years or so out to see the end game.

As 5G continues to be built out (not for us to have fast internet, but for fast internet to be available to machines), you will see more and more self driving options pop up. As this is refined and polished you will see (at least the urban) market evolve to near zero percent ownership of vehicles. The manufacturers will retain ownership of all vehicles, or at least the majority in moderately populated areas.

Many people today own trucks for occasional use. Eventually you will subscribe to Ford or GM or any of the others at a certain level. It will be like a all you can eat buffet. At the bronze level you get access to regular sedans, small SUV's and small to mid-size trucks. Silver opens up full size cars and trucks and gold opens up 1-ton trucks and status cars like vettes... You will schedule the vehicle you need and at the appropriate time it will show up to your front door.

Dealerships in this model will become service and staging areas for the manufacturers. The same sedan might be available in multiple levels. A small sedan in the silver level might have seat heaters and nav system turned on.

It probably will be a decent system after a bit of tweaking.

Not sure what the rural areas will do but does anyone think Elon Musk is truly an idiot? If he just happens to have a large, well situated satellite network that can provide reliable coverage to the countryside he will own the market for self driving vehicles...

Still not convinced? The 2021 Ford F-150 will offer fold flat front seats as an option. Do you think Ford just realized that a few people get to their hunting/fishing areas early and would like a comfy place to snooze?

Or, is it just possible that Ford is preparing for a time when you hop in your truck, go to sleep and wake up in a different city 7 hours from now...


Just sayin...

Im sure your car insurance will go up as well too. You have all these sensors and equipment that would need to be replaced in a crash even though you never used them.

Just think, they could charge you a fee every time you use the brakes…
Oy vey, what a moneymaker...

Like I sad, you already have guys thinking people won’t own cars in the future. It’s total bullshit popular mechanics cover nonsense. Just look at the rental bikes and razors around major cities. They are beat to shit. As are rental cars. Which is why they sell them quick. If you are content with renting cars that are in whatever condition they arrive in, this “system” is for you. If you don’t mind surge pricing and availability, this plan is for you. If you don’t want your car to smell like weed, this plan isn’t for you. Self driving autonomous cars will work nationwide before this sales model takes lace. That’s my prediction. People like owning stuff. Especially in a nation as far spread as ours. This is a European model at best.

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Or, is it just possible that Ford is preparing for a time when you hop in your truck, go to sleep and wake up in a different city 7 hours from now...

You almost had me believing. Right up to 5his swerve to whackyville.

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So, where are you getting that info? I own a Tesla. It was very clear about the car coming with a certain amount of "free" supercharging, then it bills my credit card. Similarly, my "enhanced" data plan was free for a year, then I had to pay - again, made quite clear.

This video is worth a watch. It's one of many. Rich is definitely the most vocal. His videos repeatedly get taken down from YouTube from Tesla fans erroneously flagging them.

The basic gist of this particular video is that he rebuilt a salvage Tesla, got it re-certified, drove it for about one year, then Tesla turned off his ability to supercharge. Tesla will also turn off features when you sell a car, so that the new owner will have to pay for them again.

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Still not convinced? The 2021 Ford F-150 will offer fold flat front seats as an option. Do you think Ford just realized that a few people get to their hunting/fishing areas early and would like a comfy place to snooze?

Most likely because one of the engineers liked taking his date to the lake for the submarine races

I for one am amazed that some SF members continue to opine and receive "constructive criticism" from other members, thread after thread.

One piece flow in a factory and pull inventory system controls have made it efficient to create whatever a customer wants.

BMW does, to this BMW motorcycle owner, want to have a lot of my money. But I love the machine.