OTA and internet connectivity

[Tay]

Has anyone heard whether there was a plan to charge for OTA updates at some point or to request a monthly fee for internet connectivity?
I've asked about this and get the reply that it is all free for now but further detail is lacking.

 

[rbbarry]

Lucid won't say more than that... They won't put themselves in a position to never be able to charge for these updates or internet.

 

[HC_79]

Maybe early adopters will continue to get it for free for life or could be sold as a GT perk and Touring \ Pure have to pay $10 or $20 a month. It's certainly not going to be free for good though.

OTA should be free for life or when it's a physical hardware limitation preventing the feature \ improvement being added.

 

[joec]

Has anyone heard whether there was a plan to charge for OTA updates at some point or to request a monthly fee for internet connectivity?
I've asked about this and get the reply that it is all free for now but further detail is lacking.

No one knows for sure. Probably not even Rawlinson.

My guess is they will copy Tesla in this regard. Which is to say they will offer 1 or 2 years of free connectivity, and then charge a monthly fee from that point on. Likely $10. (Maybe early adopters will continue to get connectivity for free for life, just like Tesla, but I would not count on that.)

It will be optional. If you want to use CarPlay or Android Auto for maps, streaming music, etc. you won't necessarily need constant connectivity. You can just download things as needed over WiFi.

They won't ever charge for the OTA updates themselves. That would be colossally stupid. You want your user base to update as soon as possible. But at some point they will likely require WiFi to download those updates, even if you pay for connectivity. Because OTA updates tend to be pretty big, and that data connection isn't free.