There is a moral tradeoff here. If you outlaw this payment method, fewer people will own the vest and therefore more people will die on the highway. On the other side, it has the potential for people to forget and think they are safe when they are not.
Somewhat related, I would not want to buy an airbag vest where a bug in the code could result in a failure to inflate.
To be fair, you can buy the vest outright for $400. But I still think it's extremely dangerous for safety devices to use subscription models like this. Not to mention the sketchiness of giving something as mundane as an airbag the ability to phone home with whatever information the manufacturer decides is worthwhile.
To clarify from the vlog, the vest itself is $400 + subscription option ($12/month or $120/year), though the owner has the option to pay an additional $400 ($800 total) to fully unlock the vest without a subscription.
If the thing contains the ability to phone home to check for an active subscription, you can bet it's sending location and speed data all the time, regardless of the activation status.
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[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 28.6 ms ] threadSomewhat related, I would not want to buy an airbag vest where a bug in the code could result in a failure to inflate.
Also why link to a video of a guy reading an article instead of linking the article directly? HN can read.