On the BMW Connected Car Beta Days 2020, they announced they will be introducing subscription plan for features that are already in the car but has not been activated, among many things. This is similar to what Tesla has been doing for some time with their autopilot system and heated seat.
What does this
mean for their customers? Their car is going to be fitted with all the
necessary hardware and software at the assembly line, but it will be unavailable
to their customers. The customers will be able to purchase some feature permanently
while other in subscription plan ranging from three months to three years.
The cars will have already built in features, such as, Adaptive cruise control, Automatic high beam, Lane keeping assistance, Adaptive suspension and comfort features, for instance: Heated seat, and heated steering wheel. They will be able to add more functions here and more flexibility for their customers, for example, "temporary bookings so booking in options of three years, for one year, or even shorter periods of time, like a few months." This means their customer will have control over when they want the features, for example, they can purchase heated seat only during winter.
Even when you are not using those features, the hardware to support it will
still be in your car such as, sensors for adaptive cruise control and heated
seats. Therefore, car will still weigh very heavy regardless of whether or not
you are every planning to use it. The weight will reduce the mileage for the
car as well. On the other hand, if you didn't fancy it when you were initially
buying it but later down the road you do, then this subscription plan will come
at your favour.
This is very much like microtransactions in games to by content that is already there to improve your experience. Microtransaction is loathe by many gamers because even after you have bought the game, you haven't got everything so you will need to spend furthermore.
BMW seems to be trying more to be like Tesla, with its subscription-based features where it will try to get as much money from you as possible. Tesla's cars are full of tech and you will not find most of the tech Tesla has to offer anywhere else. Those features are tied to software, so this mean they are remotely activated and deactivated just like what BMW is planning to do. This will attract hackers to jailbreak the features that are already in the car so it could be .
Jailbreaking is very popular among Tesla, especially when the car is second
hand and sold by third party. Just like when jailbreaking was very popular with Apple's
iPhones around 2010 when it was and still is considered one of the best tech
company in the world. This just shows how high-tech Tesla is and is BMW trying to head the same way?!
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