rant triggered...
That's a new thing; in the old days of the 60's to early 90's, they didn't install things with subscriptions and/or unlock fees; if it was an option, ordering it required the dealer to install it, or to order it from the factory with those specific options added. About the only exception was FM Radio... that was pretty stadard.
AC was a physical module not included unless you paid for it.
Heating was required by law in many states. Alaska, in the cities with Emmissions checks, the heater not working meant either having seasonal tags (can't be used from 1 Oct to 1 Apr) or not being allowed on road at all. It's essential for winter driving, and without it, the windows rapidly become opaque.
Alaska required dealers to ensure there was a working AM radio in new cars - needed for road closure notices and emergency instructions. Oregon expects you to have AM radio, same reason, but I'm not sure if it's required as it is in Alaska, but it is expected.
I remember emergency buttons (specifically OnStar) hitting in the 90s; a lookup shows OnStar being in operation from 1996 until 2024.
CB radios were available from the dealer in some models, nicely mounted into the dash, and a thinner than standard AM/FM above it.
OnStar was the first feature I recall being pay-to-enable and installed in all of the models it was available in. There are certain concerns about pay-to-enable... very few consumers like it, even as they use it.
It also ties into the Right to Repair movement; is it unlawful to unlock features without paying on the hardware that aren't enabled? Subscription radio, sat or VHF, you're basically renting the decrypt keys.
Of course, we're now renting (by streaming) visual content that you can't buy at all. The are pushing that way for radio services. You want to see it again? You don't just pull out your disk or digital copy, you pay for it again if the service hasn't folded up or has stopped paying for that older vid or song.
And I can store things 'in the cloud' while to store something off of my phone in an organized way is more involved.
And now, where I am, an video recorder won't work and they have a 'cloud PVR' which forces you to lose content you used to be able to keep - 2 months and its gone. So the large data storage doesn't matter, because you can't see the content after 2 months.
And in some models of cars, some features that I consider safety equipment are now something you *rent*.
This same society wants you pay repeatedly for services for a service (e.g. gone to the doctor, but in order to get to see the doctor and pay his fee, I have to pay a fee for a clinic to schedule my appointment).
And we have car purchases that come with a price. Only when it arrives, they'll try to jack you up for another few thousand or else they'll give it someone else.
We've got fast food places wanting to use surge pricing! Same with delivery services for parcels.
If you've never seen it, try to find a copy of Carbon 2185. In there, your characters own nothing. They have to pay a place to sleep at an exorbitant pricing and you can guy guns or other weapons by the hour. It's literally where we seem to be heading.
If we want to worry so much over how the Traveller vehicles and power tables are not accurate to 2020+, we should all recall it was written in the 1970s and it made some guesses and then made up the rest and built an entire tiered tech tree that they knew wasn't going to match reality.
Why people want to use our current tech level to try to shoehorn the decisions made 40 years ago into a fictitious universe...... I just don't get that.
