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Comment by martin_a | Hacker News Reader

> Most of the expense for features like this is in the design and engineering, not raw parts costs. [...] might actually make the base bike less expensive

Yeah, I'm not sure about that. BMW wants to integrate heated seats in all models and only activate them through a subscription, if I remember correctly.

While that might streamline production and therefore lead to optimizations, I doubt that those will be passed on to the customer. But you now have more servicable parts, weight etc. pp. in ALL models with a chance that they break...

We've played enough of the capitalism game to know that this is not about the customer and a better price for him.

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I agree with your last sentence - but i doubt that the baseline price will be that much higher via added parts like heated grips (it's just a flexcable/flexible PCB under the rubber hand grip + external wiring). The gearshift lever sensor (piezo electric module) should also not be too expensive.

The expensive parts are the electronics sourced from 3rd party vendors (eg. the 6 axle IMU to enable cornering ABS, traction control, anti-wheelie control and so on which I guess is mostly sourced from Bosch, or the emission control). And of course meeting and proving conformance to all the regulation

Adding heated grips to a BMW F 850 GS is only possible by adding the "Active" package, which comes at 445 Euro. That also includes new driving modes and a baseplate for luggage, to be fair.

Nevertheless there's a hefty price tag for adding anything, before even buying/building the bike. If I was a motorbike company I'd not cut my margin on things like these.

Heated seats are a great example. How much does a resistive heating element and some connectors cost? What are you worried about "breaking" if you're not using the heated seats in the first place?

Do you have heated seats in your car right now? Go under your seat and and unplug the connector and tell me what happens. Nothing...

> We've played enough of the capitalism game to know that this is not about the customer and a better price for him.

Go drive a Mercedes S-Class from 1992 and a Toyota Camry from 2022 and tell me how capitalism isn't resulting in lower prices for the customer.

> How much does a resistive heating element and some connectors cost?

Probably 25 Euro, but that's not what anybody is paying for it. See the other comment, heated grips for a BMW motorbike cost 445 Euro and they only come in a nonsense-bundle to disguise the actual cost. What do you think will happen once cars are changing into "feature as a service"-platform? Enabling the car to have heated seats via a subscription will surely rise the base price more than 25 Euro.

> Go drive a Mercedes S-Class from 1992 and a Toyota Camry from 2022 and tell me how capitalism isn't resulting in lower prices for the customer.

What kind of shitty comparison is this supposed to be? Comparing a 30 year old high-class limousine to a current middle-class car? What's next? Comparing the Commodore C64 to the latest iPhone and blaming the C64 for its poor Bluetooth connectivity?

I mean…yeah the iPhone is a great example and the fact that you brought up that as an example shows that you are really close to getting it.

Your example did not make sense to me either so I cannot comment, sorry. If you want to "get it" about the IPhone though this article might help:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/12/phone-...

No, the comparison is bullshit.

We're not talking about 30 years of technological difference here, we're talking about two versions of the same model of motorbike here, but one has everthing stuffed into it and disabled by default, and the other one is reduced to what you need/wanted to have.

Macro vs micro view. Decades vs year to year.

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