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posted by chromas on Friday July 03 2020, @08:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the cloud-to-butt-plus dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Saturday July 04 2020, @02:02PM (1 child)

    by Nuke (3162) on Saturday July 04 2020, @02:02PM (#1016100)

    These are not simple 'bypass with a toggle switch' systems - CANBUS, chips in components, and wiring looms more than an inch across.... very little of a modern car can be repaired by a home mechanic, even tuning one needs an ODBC scanner

    Just watch me then. In fact I've just come back indoors from repairing my car - I replaced a parking sensor.

    Ultimately, however it is controlled, a heated seat has a simple heating coil that takes high-ish power from the battery. If you take a new wire from close enough to the battery to be upstream of any electronics, you can do what you like with it and the CANBUS won't know. Connect it with a fuse and a switch into the seat heater and you'll have subscription-free heat. In case the CANBUS checks that the heating coil is still there, divert the original power line into an equal resistance made out of an old electric fire element, perhaps fixed under the car, and cancel the subscription.

    Adding switches and wiring to a car doesn't have to look like redneck work. I've done quite a bit of it and anyone who did not know the car would not realise it was modified. And I do have an ODBC scanner, cost me about $50, installed on a laptop. Your link is to a remote inspection camera BTW, not a scanner, but scanners are not hard to find.

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  • (Score: 2) by SemperOSS on Sunday July 05 2020, @01:22PM

    by SemperOSS (5072) on Sunday July 05 2020, @01:22PM (#1016496)

    Only, the battery will be chipped too so you cannot install one of those dangerous, non-genuine, third-party batteries from the aftermarket; and this chip will tell the rest of the electronics how much power is consumed and carmageddon will ensue.

    Printers and ink, anyone?


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