Quote:
Originally Posted by yuicebox
@ Circuit Motorsports
I completely understand your concerns. If I were you, I'd be cautious to risk my custom tunes being openly shared also. That's your job, and I understand that.
The two things I want to address are as follows:
1. If you provide me with a locked tune and I feel compelled to flash back to my stock tune, or to a different tune (say from 93 octane to e85 and back), I will have to visit the shop. You can counter by saying "oh we can tune flex fuel" but that's not my point. Locking a tune isn't just about protecting your intellectual property. It restricts the mobility and utility of the end product. If I could buy a tune from you and put it on my vehicle-locked Openflash Tablet and then switch back and forth between it and other unlocked tunes, I would be happy to pay for a locked tune. @ shiv@vishnu - Can you tell me how your "tuner package" would affect this idea?
2. I could be wrong, because this is my opinion, but I personally don't think there's a big market for illegally shared, custom tunes from "big name" tuners. These tunes are typically designed for the specific vehicle and the specific mods, so there's not a huge benefit to sharing them with other people. Also, I like to think (possibly falsely), that the tuning community respects the notion of of intellectual property. I just don't see people running highly aggressive tunes that they downloaded from the internet that weren't even set up for their car. You could end up blowing up your engine because you stole an aggressive tune from a person who lives in Florida and you live in Colorado. Run to lean and blow your engine, that sort of thing. I just don't see REAL tuning enthusiasts being interested in sharing custom tunes illegally, and those are the people who buy custom tunes to begin with. Racers and performance junkies are typically more focused on having a leg up on the competition and having the best tune, rather than giving the "the best tune" away.
I get why you don't want to offer tunes to OFT customers, but I think you're really missing out on a market that's just begging for custom tunes, and who would be happy to pay and hesitant to share.
So that's my opinion. Thank you for taking the time to read it.
Respectfully,
Alex |
Completely understand everything you said here. Again, on your #2, we aren't so much worried about other people using your maps, as we are about amateur/pro tuners taking our tuning property and using it as theirs.
Just as an FYI - If you did get an Ecutek tune form us you would simply need a cable and a laptop to flash any map we made for you, or a stock ROM, to your car. Also, you can actually select maps on the fly using a built in feature of Ecuteks: you just select one of 4 maps we program for you car using your cruise control stalk. No need for a cable or a laptop, etc.
I also understand the ease of use with a flash device. We will keep an eye on the tuning world and stay updated with it as best we can.
I do appreciate your feedback
-Tristan