Of all the contentious subjects in the car industry right now, the most contentious is probably subscriptions. Since people are already balancing subscription services everywhere else, it's not a fun thing to discover in your car, too. They represent a potential revenue generator for car companies, so they're continuing to investigate the idea. A new take on them comes to us from Ford with a patent that could make subscriptions less onerous, even if it doesn't solve the main issues.

 

What distinguishes Ford's subscription idea is that it won't be tied to a car, but rather to an account. So, in the same way that you can login to Netflix on compatible devices anywhere in the world, you could effectively do the same with a car. If you rent a Ford or Lincoln that has subscription-locked features, say, a new version of BlueCruise, you would be able to access that feature using your existing account.