BMW's Subscription Scam - and it’s just the start…

You might have heard that BMW is planning to charge you for the privilege of using the heated seats already in your car, but it’s actually a lot, lot worse than that. But first, let me explain what’s going on in a bit more detail so you are all caught up. BMW has started offering “trial subscriptions” for a range of features you previously would have had as part of either standard or optional configurations - things like heated seats and steering wheels, adaptive cruise control, adaptive high beams, and speed camera locations, among others. These options aren’t exactly cheap either, with the heated seats costing £15 per month, adaptive high beams costing another £10 and the adaptive cruise control adding a further £35 per month.
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At the wheel website: atthewheel.uk

[@xXDeltaXxwhotookit]

The scary part on hacking the software would be if they add a 'safety' feature which gets disabled and then your insurance is no longer valid... either flat out, or they class ot as a mod you didn't tell them about.

[@MacTX]

I blame Tesla for this trend. 🙄 I don't think putting safety features behind a pay wall will get too far. Once those first couple people get hurt or killed because the safety equipment didn't work when they needed it because their subscription had lapse, you're going to see governments step in to nip that.

[@nian60]

Thanks for covering this.

[@christopherbrown3063]

So I guess indicators are on subscription.

[@te8828]

I don't know why I don't believe this BS for one second people are not gonna pay do use things that are already installed in their vehicles. The only thing people are willing to pay for such as myself are things that I already paid for such as the traffic flow subscription that people are not gonna pay for heated seats that stupid.

[@dnoble5692]

You paid for your car but you don't own it. You don't get to make the decisions on it, the previous owner decides what's best for your car. It's going to be hard to stuff this genie back in the bottle