BMW Is Giving Up on Heated Seat Subscriptions Because People Hated Them::The blowback worked—but subscriptions for software-based new car features will continue, according to a BMW board member.

  • Rufus Q. Bodine III
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    42 years ago

    Now you’ll pay for it with your privacy. Facebook can’t wait to their grubby hands on your cold ass data.

  • @RubiksIsocahedron@reddthat.com
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    142 years ago

    BMW: “But we’re going to keep the invasive data harvesting, though. I mean, Germans have never done anything bad with people’s data, right? Tell them, IBM…”

  • @goffredo@lemmy.world
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    22 years ago

    Does anyone know what the monthly fee for heated seats was? And what the permanent on option cost?

  • @skymtf@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    82 years ago

    I drive a car from 2000, it runs great, no spyware, no features in my car that I can’t use, all I need to is add Bluetooth to the radio and its perfect. I don’t really need a screen in my car to tell me basic information the dash gauges already tell me.

  • Blake [he/him]
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    92 years ago

    At what point do we say, “enough is enough, a collective of employees and customers is taking control of the company, you are relieved of command”?

    I am so sick of things getting worse and worse because people want to unfairly profit from selling us the solution to a problem that they caused.

    • Dekthro
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      32 years ago

      Yeah I know Tesla has it but I’m sure there’s many more. Don’t buy new cars.

  • Nusm
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    52 years ago

    Read all about it in this month’s issue of DUH.

  • @devious@lemmy.world
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    1072 years ago

    HA, I read the title and thought “what is going on? I love my seat warmers” - I completely overlooked the word subscription because it is absolutely absurd that there would be an ongoing cost to the consumer for a feature that provides no ongoing cost to the manufacturer.

    • @HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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      02 years ago

      no ongoing cost to the manufacturer

      The “ongoing cost” is manufacturing diversity. It costs more money to put heated seats in one car and not in another than it does to put them in all of them and allow the people who want them to simply pay to activate them.

      That being said, it is a fixed cost, and should be a one-time purchase. Or at least offered as an option. At least Tesla does this correcrly.

    • @Adalast@lemmy.world
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      132 years ago

      It occurs to me that all of these feature subscription models never seem to mention maintenance. Is that correct? Like, Ford wants to make a car that will deactivate the radio and blare annoying noises at you like you’re a fucking cat if you miss a payment, BMW and Lexus are gating performance and heated seats behind subscriptions and paywalls… But all you get is access. They arent going to fix the heated seats if a coil burns out. They aren’t going to fix a spun bearing you incur while using the extra performance you paid for. They aren’t going to repair a blown transformer in the radio. So you are literally paying for nothing. I am so glad I have an '07 Mustang Convertible. If I keep it maintained and looking good, the value will skyrocket when they actually standardize all of this abusive shit.

      Of course, then somehow “Cash for Clunkers” will come back and be even less “voluntary” and suddenly most cars made before ~2018 will be removed from the road and bricked.

        • @SuperSpruce@lemmy.ml
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          12 years ago

          No, it’ll become a hot enthusiast pick when everything is electric, especially if it’s a manual. There are a lot of car enthusiasts who swear by the “feel” of an ICE sports car.

      • gian
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        -42 years ago

        They arent going to fix the heated seats if a coil burns out. They aren’t going to fix a spun bearing you incur while using the extra performance you paid for. They aren’t going to repair a blown transformer in the radio. So you are literally paying for nothing.

        This is what a warranty is for.

          • gian
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            12 years ago

            I suppose not, but you are mixing two things: a subscription fee and a warranty. They are differnt things.

            I obviously agree that a subscrition model for a car hardware features, even if backed by software, is stupid but you are not paying to have it repaired if broken, you are paying for another thing: the use of it no matter how stupid the thing may be.

            • @Reyali@lemm.ee
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              12 years ago

              OP knows they aren’t the same thing. Their point was that if the subscription model came with promise of repair, maybe there’s a purpose/value in it for the consumer. But without that, it’s pure greed.

              • @Adalast@lemmy.world
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                22 years ago

                Close to my original point. It’s more like “I’m paying you every month and I am going to have to pay exorbitant repair fees so I can keep paying for the privilege of using it.”

            • @tabular@lemmy.world
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              12 years ago

              Is your point that warranty is part of the cost of the car and so they’ve already paid a substantial portion (for the lifetime of the car) of “the subscription”?

            • @jj4211@lemmy.world
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              72 years ago

              It is the point when the subscription is paid for lifetime, but the warranty is not.

              A subscription fee might make sense if it came with warranty coverage. If the fee is for using some heating elements you already have, but no promises they will actually keep working, then you are paying for something that doesn’t track any associated expense incurred on the supplier.

    • @Szymon@lemmy.ca
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      502 years ago

      The cost of things has detached from what it costs to put the thing in the hand of the consumer, to instead a model of “what is this worth to you”.

      • @captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        72 years ago

        Yeah we’re reaching the point where it becomes clear that the market can’t bear everyone charging the most the market can bear.

        People will pay extra for a luxury. People won’t pay the most they’re willing to pay on a luxury on every luxury they’ve gotten accustomed to at a reasonable price.

        • @Signtist@lemm.ee
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          72 years ago

          I hope you’re right, but I’ve seen a concerning amount of people say “It’s only $X, so why not?” so many times that it’s eating up a huge percentage of their monthly earnings.

      • @rumckle@aussie.zone
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        372 years ago

        Under capitalism it’s always been the case of"what is this worth to you". The difference is in the past if a company overcharges then a competitor could come along and undercut them (so long as the gap was big enough that it made financial sense).

        Unfortunately, monopolies, regulatory/government capture, vertical integration, marketing and cartels have gotten so far out of control that consumers are left with little choice but to suck it up. And most governments in the Anglosphere don’t really care.

          • @krakenx@lemmy.world
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            72 years ago

            No, we are suggesting that the automobile market is one of the few industries that isn’t a monopoly yet, which is why BMW couldn’t get away with it.

            But also, the automobile market is getting more concentrated so it won’t be long until the 4 companies left legally collude to force this stuff on us. Just like every other industry.

          • @rumckle@aussie.zone
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            32 years ago

            No, not everything in that list applies to every industry. The car market isn’t a monopoly, but it definitely has issues with government and regulatory capture (and perhaps others, I’m not expert in auto manufacturing). But even without those issues the nature of car making today gives it a high barrier of entry for new comers.

            And as others pointed out, the fact it’s not a monopoly leads to more unpopular ideas being scrapped.

  • BeautifulMind ♾️
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    262 years ago

    Seems a little bit like when your cell phone carrier disables the tethering feature on your phone and wants to charge you money to enable that. For me, infuriating to know that I’d paid to have hardware capable of being a wifi hotspot, then to be charged to use it. The “service” being provided amounts to first-we-degrade-the-thing-you-paid-for, then we-charge-you-ransom-to-get-it-back.

    • @atyaz@reddthat.com
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      2 years ago

      It’s frustrating since by using your tethered connection you’re using the same data that you already pay for. If there’s a limit on how much data, why does it matter how you use for it?

      • @Trxth@lemmy.sdf.org
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        22 years ago

        Because - assuming you don’t reach your data cap every month - you might be sharing your leftover data with somebody else who’s getting it “for free” as far as They (the carrier/provider) are concerned. They can’t control who/what devices connect to your hotspot, so They assume every tethered connection is siphoning data to a non-customer entity, potentially disincentivising “the leech” from subscribing to their own data plan.

        If They can steer “the leech” towards becoming a paying customer, then they can harvest (more) data & device activity from both users AND they have more active data plans (paying account holders) to boast about to their real customers - the shareholders - than they would have otherwise.

        It’s pretty simple really, you just have to think like an executive who’s fiduciarily beholden to lining the pockets of shareholders (as opposed to a business owner trying to provide a useful & mutually beneficial service to their customers). The latter do exist in the corporate world, but they are few and far between when you’re a publicly traded S-corp like most (maybe all?) of the major providers. It’s just the banality of societally-accepted evil at its finest (and yes; utter bullshit)