
BMW wants to charge a subscription fee to enable heated steering wheel - gbaygon
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/03/business/bmw-options-software-subscription-features/index.html
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hotwire
In Ubik by Philip K Dick, the door of his apartment won't open unless he pays
it five cents each time. Life imitates art.

 _“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 he tried the knob. 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.”_ _In his desk drawer he found the contract;
since signing it he had found it necessary to refer to the document many
times. 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 the drawer beside the sink Joe Chip got a stainless steel
knife; with it he began systematically to unscrew the bolt assembly of his
apt’s money-gulping door._ _“I’ll sue you,” the door said as the first screw
fell out._ _Joe Chip said, “I’ve never been sued by a door. But I guess I can
live through it.”_

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magicnubs
This is interesting. It seems like everything is going subscription-based. It
sort if makes sense in that software can be improved upon after sale and needs
to be maintained, but on the other hand a single but fix can be sent to an
arbitrarily large number of units, so with this model only the largest
companies will be able to compete in features and price.

With so many purchases to consider, and less and less time during which to do
it, I wonder when we'll get to the point that there are companies that sell an
_entire_ "lifestyle". You make $30k/year? Here's our bronze subscription
option. For $20,000/year we'll put you up in a spartanly furnished apartment
and with a servicable car and you'll get your staple foods and toiletries
delivered every other week. Whatever you have leftover after taxes is yours
for saving or spending. Make $150k? The gold package costs $90k/year and
includes a luxury apartment downtown, a Tesla and fresh vegetables shipped
twice a week!

~~~
magicnubs
Oh and also from the article:

> In some markets, BMW owners may also be able to pay for "authentic" BMW
> engine sounds that will come through the car stereo. In many BMW cars today,
> the engine sound is augmented inside the cabin with pre-recorded sounds from
> the stereo. These are tuned to match the engine speed and performance so
> they sound like actual sounds coming directly from the engine. This is done
> so that the cabin can be quiet during normal driving but occupants can still
> experience engine sound when it's wanted, BMW executives have said.

I'm not going to go as far as to say we've stopped building useful things, but
we really could be a post-scarcity society if we had our priorities right.

~~~
ajhurliman
Maybe, but social pecking order will always be a scarce resource, so I think
we're going to be on this track for a long time.

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gentleman11
We should be allowed to own our things again. Software locks that you are not
allowed to bypass proves that most of the important items in our lives are not
ours. The future might be a world where only multi billion dollar corporations
own property

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abeppu
Is there a product review site that includes a "you actually own it"
component? This should include aspects like:

\- Can it be repaired by someone other than the manufacturer? \- Does it risk
becoming a brick if their service shuts down? \- Does it require a continuing
subscription? \- Can the manufacturer disable it without your sign-off?

I would consult such a resource, but I also think that if an influential
product review site (e.g. wirecutter) were to specifically and consistently
identify these aspects when making recommendations to buyers, eventually it
might sway producers?

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alehul
Having an optional subscription to enable the heated steering wheel or
adaptive cruise control is bold (and probably a bad idea) because people want
what they buy to be 'a good value.'

Tesla has made me believe that software 'eating' cars is the future because,
by letting software take over capability from hardware, it allows for software
updates to improve earlier models of cars, making them a better value long-
term. The marginal cost of improving a car with a software update is
essentially nil for the manufacturer.

With that low cost per unit to deploy a software update that improves the car,
BMW choosing to hold it hostage and demanding a subscription fee is a bad
look, even if it's efficient for them. Having the steering wheel already in
the car with the necessary hardware (where the unit cost is for BMW) exposes
it as being a feature cheap enough that they can throw the necessary hardware
into every model.

Even if it made less economic sense, it would appear more valuable if you were
able to go to a BMW dealership and have the steering wheel swapped out for one
with heating enabled.

~~~
Yaggo
Tesla Model 3 SR+ were originally sold without rear seat heating. Later it
became possible to enable it for a fee, via the Tesla app. Few clicks and
voilá, suddenly you have rear seat heating.

So every car already had the hardware, obviously because it would be more
expensive for Tesla to produce two variants of seat elements.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
This model has been around for a long time. I recall a job back in 1997 where
I had to add code to permit a service person to enable a feature on a machine.
All the machines shipped with the same hardware for the reason you said:
manufacturing costs would be too high to make some with and some without.

I had never heard of this before so I asked if it wouldn't piss customers off
to see that they were just paying for some guy to come in and enter a code and
not to actually install anything physical. The answer was "it never has
before." We'd been doing it for years by that point.

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dangus
This will get a lot of well-deserved criticism.

However, I think there’s potential in this idea to overall benefit the
consumer.

The cost of options sometimes includes the fact that the carmaker has to
provide a separate SKU. Does a heated seat cost a lot in raw materials? No,
not at all, but a carmaker might have to lose time on the assembly line
changing the line to build a different variant. Or the dealer might lose a
sale if they don’t have the customer’s desired trim level in stock

Not only that, differentiating optional features are revolving more and more
around software (e.g. autopilot).

As long as this doesn’t become confusing or excessively expensive for the
customer, it could actually be a win-win.

Presumably, the base model could be cheaper, and the consumer could upgrade
the car later. Or, the consumer could pay for subscription features when their
job situation is good and cut them out down to basic transportation if it’s
not so good.

The consumer would also not be stuck with options that they decide later that
they don’t use often. Maybe they wouldn’t be stuck with entire options
packages that they have to go with just to get the one thing they want.

The devil is always in the details, so it could go either way, it just depends
how fair the pricing ends up being.

If you don’t think people will buy it, might I interest you in purchasing my
new TV show for only $3 an episode? You’ll own it forever!

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yostrovs
Hyundai charges a subscription fee for remote start built into their cars.
First three years are free, paid subscription thereafter. You have to use
their app to remote start. There's no button on the key fob.

~~~
jackson1442
I know my Kia fob doesn't have a remote start _button_ on it, but if I press
lock then trunk, it activates remote start. Perhaps that's an option on
Hyundai fobs? After all, Kia is owned by Hyundai.

~~~
yostrovs
Just tried but it didn't work. Thanks for the suggestion though.

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cerberusss
This could very well be the cheapest for the consumer. Considering BMW has the
highest maintenance costs of all brands in the USA, having a subscription fee
for certain features may very well be cheaper. That's assuming BMW doesn't
charge for a broken feature.

[https://twocents.lifehacker.com/the-car-brands-with-the-
high...](https://twocents.lifehacker.com/the-car-brands-with-the-highest-
maintenance-costs-over-1781639773)

~~~
Lammy
Does that mean they would cover all parts/labor expenses to replace a broken
steering wheel heater?

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adarioble
While I dislike “subscription everywhere” model, I suspect this could work
miracles for second hand market, allowing consumers to add options to their
purchase. I wouldn’t be surprised if these options are thrown in as “freebies”
to the first owner and free for a couple of years and then turn into
subscription.

~~~
ajhurliman
It bothers me that they're intertwining a subscription model for something
that shouldn't need a subscription (steering wheel heaters). If the car came
with one, it should just be available.

Adding this layer of abstraction complicates things and puts an unnecessary
burden on to the user to consider a complex pricing structure of what features
they want for what duration of time.

Between healthcare, airlines, music, and now cars, it's becoming ridiculously
complicated just to buy things. I don't like it when companies complicate
their pricing models to eke out a few extra dollars from those consumers who
haven't meticulously studied the pricing models to optimize their purchase; I
have other things going on in my life.

~~~
popotamonga
I stopped buying. Rent a nice bmw 300/mo taxes and full insurance included.
Peace of mind.

~~~
_alex_
how?

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dang
Recent and related:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23728200](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23728200)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23718101](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23718101)

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smabie
I think this is a great idea but for whatever reason, hardware that is
disabled until I pay pisses me off. I understand the logic behind it and it's
probably a win for both the company and the consumers. But it's still
distasteful to me. Anyone else feel that way?

~~~
windex
It's not just you. It's not a win for the customer although people might tell
you it is. Feels like dystopian sci-fi where people have to pay for everything
and own nothing.

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tonyedgecombe
So you have to pay extra to go round corners?

~~~
gentleman11
You will have to sign the nda before they will tell you

~~~
soganess
You're actually going to have to sign an NDA about not releasing the
draconian, ahem, I mean brave, err... forward thinking... terms of my actual
NDA. You see, I don't want you reusing those ideas without due compensation.
It just wouldn't be fair.

~~~
Shared404
Err... See there's an issue with that. Did you not see the NDA^3 that you
signed before signing you NDA NDA? It specifically states that you may not NDA
your NDA.

Oh no... I D'd my own NDA.

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johnklos
This is the dumbest shit ever. Of course it'll work for them because so many
of their cars are leased, so people won't want to bypass computer control with
a relay or custom firmware.

But the idea of installing hardware, then charging a recurring fee to use it
is just horrible. It's a sign of how capitalism is simply broken. It was one
thing when IBM did it on their computers when there were a few hundred or
perhaps a few thousand of them on the planet, but now we're intentionally
using resources to make things that may never get used, with no consideration
for the environmental impact?

So who's going to be running the "feature activation" servers for older models
when they're no longer "supported" by BMW? Do we really think BMW will simply
unlock the features on cars about to go out of "support", or do we think
they'll lock everything off regardless of what people have paid?

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sneak
The inability to receive future (prepaid) self-driving software updates on a
Tesla if I remove the GSM interface to prevent corporate tracking my driving
movement 24/7 is the main reason I am likely never going to buy a new one.

This sort of rent-seeking is really terrible.

~~~
duskwuff
Is there something I'm missing here, or are you really complaining that your
car can't download updates after you disabled its network interface?

~~~
sneak
Any modification to the car’s surveillance systems means that the company will
no longer service your vehicle.

If you prepay for an update, but modify the car to not track you, it is my
understanding that, network or no, it will not receive any service (including
updates) from Tesla.

