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From Ars Technica:
[...] BMW is planning to move some features of its new cars to a subscription model, something it announced on Wednesday during a briefing for the press on the company's digital plans.
[...] the Bavarian carmaker has plans to apply that model to features like heated seats. BMW says that owners can "benefit in advance from the opportunity to try out the products for a trial period of one month, after which they can book the respective service for one or three years." The company also says that it could allow the second owner of a BMW to activate features that the original purchaser declined.
From Roadshow:
These options will be enabled via the car or the new My BMW app. While some will be permanent and assigned to the car, others will be temporary, with mentioned periods ranging from three months to three years.
[...] So, yes, you could theoretically only pay for heated seats in the colder months if you like, or perhaps save a few bucks by only enabling automatic high-beams on those seasons when the days are shortest.
Also at Hot Hardware, The Drive, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, TechSpot, SlashGear & Forbes.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 03 2020, @08:14PM (16 children)
A $5 toggle switch and some wire will get your heated seat back.
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Friday July 03 2020, @08:19PM (7 children)
Yeap, it will be hacked in a couple of minutes
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday July 03 2020, @11:01PM (5 children)
But the BMW mentality.
BMW is virtue signalling that it's owner is filthy rich.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2020, @01:03AM
Exactly. The type of person that would save a few dollars to hack the seat isn't the type of person that would buy a BMW to begin with.
For instance I'm definitely too cheap to buy a BMW. There are much better options out there for the price.
That's why this tactic works best for expensive cars where the audience is a car enthusiast willing to pay extra for an unnecessarily expensive car in opposed to someone looking for the best bang for their buck.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2020, @01:54AM
It's not virtue signalling because there is nothing virtuous about being so rich you can be financially irresponsible to the point that prestige is gained by how far corporate dick is up your ass.
It's signalling, but sending a message that you're so big that you're immune to inefficiencies. The very idea is to be as stupid as possible, in ways that the average man couldn't survive financially for 5 minutes. Crystal encrusted laptops, phones, luxury cars. Add $5 million to an ordinary object without adding any actual value whatsoever. Not even value as art over time.
Instead of driving down the street throwing out cash, you're driving down the street throwing away cash at BMW for services from a device you already paid for. Unless, you naively believe that BMW sunk capital into each car to provide those services on the possibility of being paid for it.
This is like paying for an expensive steak, and then also paying $5/min to eat it. Not for any other reason than because you can.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday July 04 2020, @06:54AM
Corvette owners wave at each other, regardless of the age or condition of said 'Vette.
BMW owners judge each other.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Saturday July 04 2020, @11:38PM (1 child)
It's wealth signalling.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday July 05 2020, @12:50PM
Thanks... Much better descriptor.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Saturday July 04 2020, @02:27PM
Not so fast, the extra current draw on the system will be flagged as an error and the CAN bus will shut down all non-vital functions until the malfunction is corrected. Anomalously high temperature readings in the seat will lead to ground link interruption "to prevent injury from overly hot seats." Missing readings from the seat temperature sensors will probably be linked to ignition shutoff, for your safety.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 03 2020, @08:30PM (2 children)
Or get rid of the asshole that drives a BMW. Perhaps that should be a 3rd party option?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 03 2020, @08:33PM
Get rid of BMWs. Time to carpet bomb Germany again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2020, @06:40AM
Around here, the biggest assholes have all traded in their BMWs over the past few years and now drive Audi's.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday July 03 2020, @10:10PM (4 children)
You know what can't be hacked, though, is an explanation to your passengers why you bought a 60K car only to have a nigger-rigged Chinese fire-drill of a wire harness + toggle switch dangling from below your dash like you just hotwired the car and stole it.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday July 03 2020, @10:35PM (1 child)
It's even harder to explain why you paid 60 grand for a car, and the frigging "features" don't work when you want them to work.
That's beside the point that I think heated seats are for sissies and wimps. The windshield needs a defroster, pretty much everything else is extra.
There is one single sissified "feature" that I've run into in recent years, that I think is worthwhile. Heated hand grips on a motorcycle. Generally, if I can stay dry, I can stay warm. As long as the wind isn't blowing right up my pant leg or something, I'm good to go. But, holding onto those hand grips when it's cold? Hmmm. The kid's bike had them, so I switched them on, and it really improved the enjoyment of the ride. Yeah, I'll pay the 30 bucks for handgrips. I'm not paying BMW's never-ending subscription fees for heated seats though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 04 2020, @02:01AM
Fuuuuuuckkkkk you :)
Heated seats are not for wussies. Sometimes it's really fucking cold. Cold enough to inform your balls about how cold it is.
Setting that aside, it is certainly not a sign of a wussie or wimp to have air conditioned seats. If you have to be a wimp to have cold air blowing up against your crotch in 105 degree weather, than a wimp I am. Happily. Cuz I have cold nuts not sweating me a river creating a godawful swamp of heat, sweat, hair, and medicated cream.
That being said, I would only pay for it once. Fuck subscriptions.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 03 2020, @11:31PM
The nigger-rigged Chinese fire-drill of a wire harness + toggle switch is $5 and does the same thing as the BCM pinout#853f79jnf wire to the heated seat relay which is also probably made in a nigger-rigged Chinese bathroom.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday July 04 2020, @02:31PM
Our '99 Dodge RAM proudly displays one dangling toggle switch for the auxillary lights (factory headlights are damn near useless), and an in-dash drilled hole mounted push button to trigger release of the locked up seatbelts because the $400 module bit the dust years ago and after 30 minutes the belts lock like there was an accident, but we figured out that opening the door releases the belts, so the push button switch makes the computer think that a door pin switch is in the open position, giving us another 30 minutes of no locked belts until needing to be pressed again.
🌻🌻 [google.com]