Latest grab by auto manufactures

[herm0016]

AT&T owns DirecTV, although they are trying to sell it off but no takers.

GM started it in the early 90s and it was sold off around 01 I believe. anyhow... point it bellyaching about OnStar as a pay service and comparing it to paying monthly for heated seats is a bad comparison. maintaining a network of ground stations and satellites or renting that bandwidth is expensive and ongoing. heated seats is cheap and one time.

 

[paulfun9]

Or:
Use your I phone, if you have one, to get accurate radar forecasts. As a farmer, I believe what I see (radar) over what I hear (some useless blabbermouth on a radio station).
I find the radio weather forecasts to be worthless. Most only tell you the current weather, which is kind of obvious lol

”currently its 84 degrees and sunny” WOW! THANKS!

Also, use your I phone for directions. Use “Maps” or another app to accurately give you up to the minute directions with traffic delays, construction, even police radar and stop light cameras.
Take the atlas and use it for kindling.

I get a laugh out of people who cant read a map and rely on thier GPS.
I was in Philadelphia not long ago. Had to get down Frankford ave. to drop something off. I had not been there for at least 20 years and was over on street road almost as far to the west as frankford ave is on the north east side. We had stopped for breakfast with some family members and I was given directions to go back to rosevelt blv and go south for a good bit then to turn left on a street ( sorry can’t remember the street) and drive to frankford ave then turn left onto frankford which would be going north, to get where I needed to be.
I laughed and pulled out of the lot turned east went 2 blocks over turned south and cut an other left a few more streets down. Came out on frankford ave about 3 blocks before my destination. Took all but 5 min and left my GPS/Cell phone addicted relative in disbelief! After we dropped everything off for kicks ang giggles we followed her directions back to her place. It was an honest 39 min drive down, over, and back up! So you go ahead and keep your phone, GPS and any electronic gizmo you want, I will keep my map’s my atlas and always know where I am.
Last year I watched my husband argue with my brother in law about which way was north. My husband had no compas, no phone, no map just his wits the time of day and the sun to guide him. My brother in law had his phone and swore my husband was wrong. They went back with a compass because it turned into an argument about how unreliable the cell phone is. Guess what my husband was correct and the cell phone GPS was way off again.

Janet

 

[Hay Dude]

I get a laugh out of people who cant read a map and rely on thier GPS.
I was in Philadelphia not long ago. Had to get down Frankford ave. to drop something off. I had not been there for at least 20 years and was over on street road almost as far to the west as frankford ave is on the north east side. We had stopped for breakfast with some family members and I was given directions to go back to rosevelt blv and go south for a good bit then to turn left on a street ( sorry can’t remember the street) and drive to frankford ave then turn left onto frankford which would be going north, to get where I needed to be.
I laughed and pulled out of the lot turned east went 2 blocks over turned south and cut an other left a few more streets down. Came out on frankford ave about 3 blocks before my destination. Took all but 5 min and left my GPS/Cell phone addicted relative in disbelief! After we dropped everything off for kicks ang giggles we followed her directions back to her place. It was an honest 39 min drive down, over, and back up! So you go ahead and keep your phone, GPS and any electronic gizmo you want, I will keep my map’s my atlas and always know where I am.
Last year I watched my husband argue with my brother in law about which way was north. My husband had no compas, no phone, no map just his wits the time of day and the sun to guide him. My brother in law had his phone and swore my husband was wrong. They went back with a compass because it turned into an argument about how unreliable the cell phone is. Guess what my husband was correct and the cell phone GPS was way off again.

Janet

I was born before GPS, so I can do both a map or a phone app, so I’m not sure what you mean.
BTW: My son goes to Temple grad school and have no problem navigating the means streets of Philly, either.
The one thing a paper map can’t do is tell you when theres a traffic jam or accident ahead, or a speed trap That has saved me a lot of time over the years. A phone app will redirect you around a traffic jam or accident, anywhere in the country, not just where you live.
So yeah, there ya go you roll your way, I‘ll roll my way.

 

[paulfun9]

Kind of like many tractors do with horsepower? Same engine, different tuning, to the tune of $1,000+

Don’t know that much about how the horsepower in tractors works but are they charging you a monthly fee to get more horsepower?

 

[paulfun9]

I was born before GPS, so I can do both a map or a phone app, so I’m not sure what you mean.
BTW: My son goes to Temple grad school and have no problem navigating the means streets of Philly, either.
The one thing a paper map can’t do is tell you when theres a traffic jam or accident ahead, or a speed trap That has saved me a lot of time over the years. A phone app will redirect you around a traffic jam or accident, anywhere in the country, not just where you live.
So yeah, there ya go you roll your way, I‘ll roll my way.

Well I guess I could have said it better, but it seems to me people who use those things and can’t read a map seem to have no clue where they are. It also seems they go the long way around to get places.
It also seems like they can’t function without it, almost as if without the GPS telling them to turn right or left they would get lost in thier own neighborhood!

Janet

 

[IndyJay]

Don’t know that much about how the horsepower in tractors works but are they charging you a monthly fee to get more horsepower?

Not a monthly fee, I was speaking more to the fact that everything required for more horsepower is already there and paid for, they charge extra to simply turn it on.

 

[Hay Dude]

Not a monthly fee, I was speaking more to the fact that everything required for more horsepower is already there and paid for, they charge extra to simply turn it on.

It’s true. I owned a Kubota M-135X (up until a few weeks ago) and still own a M-126X. Drivetrain-wise, both tractors are identical, yet you pay more for the M-135X because the fuel screw is turned up a little and maybe a little different PCM mapping. That shouldn’t cost a penny more, but it does.

I guess one could reason that more HP increases risk of premature driveline component failure, so they charge more based on warranty claims.

 

[MossRoad]

There is a lot of maintainable infrastructure for OnStar, it still uses satellites if there is no cell coverage. not much for heated seats.

GM piggy backed on their DirecTV, Hughes net and XM radio services under Hughes electronics for OnStar and now rents bandwidth from whoever owns those things now. Yes, GM used to own all that along with a bunch of other interesting businesses. they were once the largest satellite operator.

To be clear, onstar does not make or receive satellite phone calls. It can’t. It only uses satellite for GPS.

 

[MossRoad]

I don't generally need a compass when in a building or car. Although there have been a couple of time when in Super Walmart...

I've had one compass go bad on me. We use GPS to get close to a cruise point, then compass and pace the last 75 feet or so. Early one day I got my bearing from the GPS, took out my compass and headed west- WTF? The sun doesn't rise in the west!!! Somehow my compass had reversed it's polarity. I'm not sure how, but I was wearing a snow boarder's coat with magnets in the zipper cover, and suspect that I had gotten the compass too close to it.

Yeah, I bought an ice fishing jacket that floats if you fall in. It has magnetic flaps. I like it, but sometimes it feels like I’m in one of those screen bug doors they advertise on TV at night.

 

[MossRoad]

You will have to have one of these vehicles to get Ford Pass to work on your Smart Phone.

"The FordPass compatible vehicles are from 2017 onward, including: Ford Escape Titanium. Ford F-150 King Ranch/Platinum/Limited/Lariat Luxury/Raptor Luxury. Ford Fusion Platinum and Platinum Hybrid"

I have Ford pass on my work van. Kinda sucks. There is no remote start on the key fob. The van sits about 8’ behind my back on the other side of an outside wall, yet I have to use my phone or iPad to remote start it.

On the right side, at least I CAN remote start it if I want to, which is nice.