Technology

59288 readers

4251 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

BMW Stops Subscription Service For Heated Seats After Backlash (www.carscoops.com)

submitted 1 year ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

2 comments fedilink hide all child comments

BMW Stops Subscription Service For Heated Seats After Backlash::BMW believes software and service-related functions like driving assistance and parking assistance work well as subscription services

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] mattrick@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They’re trying justify it as being able to add on heated seats months or years after vehicle purchase, but they’re ignoring the fact that it’s not an option that you pay one time for but instead a monthly subscription designed to extract money from their customers for the lifetime of the vehicle.

I’m not the biggest fan of including hardware that’s only usable behind a software flag but if it’s a one time payment I can at least rationalize it as a way to simplify production. The spokesperson acting like this was actually meant to be a pro consumer move is bullshit.

[–] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Locking it behind a subscription also means they get to sell it to each new owner, so they can capture income from the used market too.

It's 100% anti-consumer. Its why they are still going ahead with it it for driving/parking assist. Other brands have also moved remote start behind software instead of a radio fob for the same reason.

A new income stream made possible by computerization. Expect to have to "hack" your car going forward. Luckily brands like comma.ai are already out there helping with the self driving part.