BMW to make owners pay for features like heated seats via subscription

Authored by driving.ca and submitted by tangre79

As the automotive world grows ever closer with the technology sector, vehicles are becoming more connected and reliant on software to work various features.

BMW’s latest innovations to this end are subscription-based upgrades that can be activated at will — or de-activated, if you don’t keep up payments.

From heated seats to optional safety features like adaptive cruise control and automatic high-beams, you might just have to keep on paying for it instead of forking over a one-time fee, if you want a Bimmer.

The software in the company’s current models will be fully upgrade-able over the air, just like in a Tesla, BMW announced in a recent Virtual Reality presentation. Some of the upgrades will be as large as one gigabyte and will take up to 20 minutes to install.

The options included in these upgrade packages can be turned on or off using the My BMW app, and while some are permanent, others are only activated for a specific period of time, ranging from three months to three years.

This isn’t the first time BMW has made people pay extra for services that should be free, or included, in the purchase of the vehicle. A few months ago, BMW tried to make people pay to use their cars’ Apple CarPlay, a service which is free from literally every other manufacturer.

With the activation and deactivation of these systems likely being set automatically – i.e. not overseen by a human service rep – this innovation could arguably prove dangerous, say critics, depending on the services enabled. Pulling safety systems out of cars when owners might expect them to be there, for example, could lead to some hairy situations.

d-o-z-o on September 1st, 2020 at 08:12 UTC »

As a keen BMW fan I'm happy to say fuck BMW with a big stick. Company have majorly lost their way in recent years. Good thing I'm into old BMWs anyway.

jayski128 on September 1st, 2020 at 07:14 UTC »

Fuck that stop leaking oil

marpro15 on September 1st, 2020 at 06:03 UTC »

People will need to start hacking their cars to unlock this stuff for free.