Heated seats as a service? BMW wants to sell car features on demand | Hacker News Reader

Heated seats as a service? BMW wants to sell car features on demand

arstechnica.com

24 pointsaronpye15 comments

I'm reminded of the apartment doors and coffee machines in a Philip K. Dick story that charged a fee each time they were used, and refused to operate when the protagonist was behind on his rent.

The door refused to open. It said, "Five cents, please." He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. "I'll pay you tomorrow," he told the door. Again it remained locked tight. "What I pay you," he informed it, "is in the nature of a gratuity; I don't have to pay you."

"I think otherwise," the door said. "Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt."

...he found the contract. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip.

"You discover I'm right," the door said. It sounded smug.

From Ubik, by Philip K. Dick. Published by Doubleday in 1969 http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1615

It also reminds me of “Unauthorized Bread” https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-...

No wonder BMW drivers are often seen as assholes. Being nickel and dimed for minor things after spending such huge amounts of money on a new car would certainly make me bitter and resentful.

Tesla really is changing the auto industry quite a bit. I wonder how much they would save if they made every 3 series with the fully loaded specs and locked them behind software? I imagine you could gain a lot of efficiency in the supply chain and the manufacturing process as the cars become a lot more fungible.

Oddly enough in 2010 I did some consulting with a Manufacturer in Spartanburg (;D). It took 24 hours to hack the control system and unlock all the features. Last I heard they'd decided not to go that path. I often wonder though, if it will come back. What I fear though is, Additional monthly service fees (ala their annual Car Play fee they were charging) ultimately adding to the cost of the vehicle.

They do exactly this with the heated seats, and of course, AutoPilot.

At least with software features that require a subscription to work you don't pay any penalty if you don't subscribe, assuming the software is running on hardware that would be there anyway for non-subscription purposes.

With a feature like this which involved hardware that is useless to non-subscribers those non-subscribers are paying a penalty of the extra energy their car uses to haul around the extra hardware.

As a matter of principle, I'd be fine with making it illegal to include such features on new cars. Any hardware you include in the car has to be functional without a subscription.

They could still sell a subscription seat warmer. They just could not include the hardware with the car. They would have to wait for the customer to actually order the subscription and then install the hardware.

Wonderful feature: to get nickel and dimed for everything after you spent $80K on a car. Best of luck with that, BMW.

I was under the impression that BMW already did that, and not many people were willing to pay extra for the turn signals package.

Brilliant business idea, IMO. Do you work in their marketing team? Round wheels, brakes, windshield wipers, window transparency - those could also easily become options costing hundreds of dollars each month.

The real problem is how we don’t own our things anymore. We don’t own the car or the heated seats - they are licensed to us under non-negotiable terms that are awful - how many stories in the first 3 pages today about apps snooping our clipboards and microphones?

Where do private property enthusiasts stand on this? Do they support the idea of these contracts as voluntary, or oppose them because it erodes the whole concept of private property and ownership?

In-app purchases of $500/sec for anti-lock brake engagement coming soon?

And $10k to wipe the last 8 hours of location data...

Stick to mainstream manufacturers even if you've the money. My Mitsubishi SUV has all the safety features I need that don't even come standard in the some of the mid-range BMW models that cost twice as much. Buy a Lexus if you want luxury!

I'm so tired of pretty much every car manufacturer offering jacked up extras that should just come as standard.

Trying to sell us on the idea that we can customise the car to our liking. Put out one version of every model car and just look people pick the color & engine size.

Don't own Tesla but god-damn do I like that every model is gonna be the same tech wise (excluding the Full Self Driving and battery size)

Not 300 different possible combinations.

Even Racing transponders run on subscription service now :/ https://www.mylaps.com/transponders/

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