Comment on Forget Netflix, Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription
some_designer_dude@lemmy.world 1 day agoThis has been true for decades with VW and other cars… I had my 2000 Jetta chipped and got all kinds of HP and torque. Some dude just plugged in a laptop, beep boop, vroom vroom. $600 please.
This just seems like VW cutting out those middlemen.
You probably made 10 times the EPA limit of NOx emissions though.
Funny enough, VW also got in a TON of trouble over (factory configuration) diesel cars cheating emissions testing.
I dont know if yours was a diesel, but those especially are known for being capable of remarkable power and fuel economy at the same time… IF you don’t care about emissions!
It still passed emission tests. The 1.8T engine (also common in Audis) was super tunable.
A long time ago my '76 VW Rabbit passed its emissions test in New Mexico. Granted, this was because the mechanic stuck the sensor up the tailpipe of his own car, but it was impressive accomplishment nonetheless.
If I could just train the cat to piss directly in the DEF tank so I wouldn’t have to refill the thing
Increased hp and torque while reducing efficiency. Good job.
A lot of dailyable tunes actually make the car more efficient, not less. Engine wear, and knock are the limiting factors.
fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
That’s tuning, and that’s different. There’s tradeoffs with tuning besides the obvious more wear.
Brkdncr@lemmy.world 1 day ago
In many cases there’s no extra wear. I paid $800 for a Ford ecu update that improves engine output but also retains any warranty.
I bet this has more to do with emissions.
SpaceCadet@feddit.nl 18 hours ago
You can’t change physics. More HP = more torque = more wear on the whole drive train. Also more boost = more stress on the turbo = it will fail sooner.
Also, back then, cars with the higher specced variant of the “same” engine almost always had mechanical upgrades compared to the lower specced engine: usually bigger brakes, a stronger clutch, and various other drive train components.
So while in many cases you could chip your car without much immediate harm, you were definitely cutting into various safety margins determined by automotive engineers who know much better than you and me.
Brkdncr@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
You have a misunderstanding of physics.
Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The id3 is electric though
Brkdncr@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Greedy.
SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Nah, some came with a little controller and you could change settings on the fly. The immediate benefit is better fuel economy on almost any mode.
lemming741@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I know GM and Toyota like to squirrel away a little extra fuel economy and a few extra HP because they don’t think you deserve it.
Steve@startrek.website 1 day ago
Its the same IMO, but instead of a go faster switch in the car, its remote controlled.
fishos@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Nope. With tuning you can bypass the safety limits as well. You can easily tune the car to be unsafe or suffer extreme wear.
workerONE@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You can damage a car with bad tuning but that’s not what he’s saying. I think the manufacturer will create an ECU map that delivers safe power, and then they will create a map with less power and then delivery the car with the underperforming map. Then, when you pay, they change to the map that makes more torque.
muntedcrocodile@hilariouschaos.com 1 day ago
The major tradeoff being that environmental regulations being unhappy.
workerONE@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It’s not different