Who really owns your Cybercab?

On 13 November 2026, Tesla began taking orders for the Cybercab. It is a two-seat car with no steering wheel and no pedals.

It costs $29,990. Then it costs $299 every month, and a buyer cannot opt out of that fee.

Stop paying and the car stays parked. Tesla's own agreement for buyers says so in one line.

It buys the metal, the seats and the computer inside. The thing that makes the car drive is software, and the software is rented.

That is the idea of this whole course. A connected product comes in two parts: the thing you hold, and a service that makes it work.

The service runs on the maker's own computers, called servers. The maker sends its software to your car, phone or game from there.

So whoever runs the servers keeps a hand on the thing after you have paid for it. Most of this course is about what that hand can do.

Over five years, the Cybercab and its fee come to about $47,600. That is before tax, charging and insurance.

When you buy a wooden chair, you own it. Nobody can come back later and change what it does.

Much of what we pay for now is a licence. A licence is permission to use something, on the seller's terms.

Most apps, e-books, films bought online and game downloads are licences. The seller writes the terms, and the terms can change.

In November 2026, GTA 6 reached shops in boxes with no disc inside, only a download code. Some buyers found their code missing, or already used.

Some of those buyers say Rockstar's support line refused them a refund. Without a working code, the box in their hands could not play anything.

In July 2009, Amazon deleted copies of George Orwell's novel 1984 from people's Kindles. The company selling them had not had the rights.

Buyers got their money back, and Amazon later said it would not delete books like that again. But the books had gone from devices people owned.

Since 1 January 2025, a California law says an online store that uses the word buy must say clearly when you only get a licence.

A licence can change because the maker runs the service. Tesla's agreement shows how much room that gives a maker.

Tesla can change the Cybercab's monthly price with one month's notice. It can also shrink or move the zones where the car may drive, at any time.

Today the Cybercab can drive only inside Tesla's robotaxi zones, in eight cities in Texas and Florida. If a zone shrinks, the same car can go to fewer places.

Samsung will shut its News app on Galaxy phones in South Korea and India on 21 December. Its home-screen widgets stop that day too.

The phones keep working. One service that came with them just stops, because the company that runs it chose to end it.

On 31 March 2024, Ubisoft switched off the servers for its racing game The Crew. The game needed them, so it stopped working, even for people who had paid.

In 2022, BMW asked drivers in a few countries, the UK among them, for £15 a month to switch on heated seats already fitted in their cars.

Drivers were angry about paying again for something already in their car. In September 2023, BMW said it would stop charging to switch on parts that are fitted.

In each case the buyer held the thing. The company still held a switch that decided what the thing could do.

Selling a thing once pays the maker once. A fee every month pays the maker again and again, for as long as people keep paying.

Money that arrives every month is easier for a company to plan with. Investors tend to value a company more when much of its income repeats.

Tesla began selling Full Self-Driving, its driving software, in 2016 for up to $15,000 at once. Today it sells it for $99 a month.

Since February 2026, new US buyers cannot buy Full Self-Driving outright at all. It can only be rented by the month.

For a buyer, a fee can mean a lower price on the first day. The Cybercab costs $29,990 to start, not the price of a car with the driving built in.

A fee also means a cost with no end date, set by somebody else. The buyer cannot shop around, because only Tesla sells the Cybercab's driving.

Even Elon Musk, Tesla's boss, called the $299 fee too high on 13 November. He said it should be about $115 a month.

The same trade is everywhere now: music, films, phone storage, office software, games. A smaller payment, made for as long as you want it to keep working.

A maker writes its own terms, but it does not write the law. Regulators are the officials who enforce the law, and they can step in.

On 14 November 2026, Italy's privacy regulator fined Meta a record €805 million. Facebook's Android app had used people's phone photos without a specific yes.

Facebook asked once for access to the whole photo gallery. The regulator said that one yes covered several features, and people were not told clearly that photos would feed post suggestions.

Europe's data law says consent must be specific. A yes to one use of your data is not a yes to every use.

Meta says it strongly disagrees and will appeal. It has 60 days to make the changes the regulator ordered.

In the US, the car-safety regulator is checking how Tesla got a car with no wheel or pedals approved. It has not ruled yet.

By July 2025, about 1.3 million Europeans had signed a petition asking that bought games keep working after their servers close.

In June 2026, the European Commission said no to a new law for now. It chose a code that game companies may follow if they wish.

So the limits come from three places: the law, the regulators who enforce it, and buyers who push back, as BMW's drivers did.