Posted on 07/15/2022 8:18:39 AM PDT by grundle
The company has launched a variety of subscription-based services in South Korea. North America has so far been spared
Some BMW owners will now have to pay US$18 per month for the added luxury of heated seats.
The company has launched a variety of subscription-based services in South Korea, Fortune reported. Other add-on features include US$10 per month for a heated steering wheel and a US$8 monthly charge for a driver safety feature. Each monthly feature is available at a discounted rate if drivers opt for a multi-year commitment.
Micro-transactions appear to be garnering popularity among auto manufacturers — although consumers have expressed opposition to the strategy. BMW says the pay-per-feature decision was made “because the majority of drivers opted against purchasing these options and it didn’t want to charge customers for things they didn’t use,” Fortune reported.
Critics say these features should be a permanent part of their car upon purchase. The vehicles already come with the hardware that controls these add-ons, so it seems unnecessary to use a software block to stop them from properly functioning without a monthly fee.
The company has attempted subscription based services in the past. In 2018, they introduced a US$80-per-year or $300 for 20 years charge for Apple CarPlay, however, the decision was quickly reversed following public uproar.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...
And they wonder why the prices for used cars are going through the roof.
Driving one’s BMW without heated seats is a return to barbarism.
They can kiss my cold a$$........................
I guess eventually they’ll charge for luggage - put a suitcase in the trunk, $30. Oh, you wanna open the window....? $10.
As mentioned in the article, the buyer is already paying for the hardware (you don't believe that BMW is putting in heated seats for free relying on monthly payments, do you?) and then paying a second time to actually use it. Nope, not going to do it.
If you want that muffler to work….
Wait till they charge for brakes!
You want to stop FAST, and NOW????
$250 or else.
(Heated Seats As A Service)
You will own nothing and be happy ...
So now cars will be subscription based? How much a month for the radiator? Air cleaner?
This is part of the road to “you will own nothing and you will be happy”.
Everything becomes a subscription service. The things which are available to you are simply available to you “this month” because you sent in a check “last month”. It can all come to a stop at any time. And, yes, your social credit score will be a factor.
Its correctly rendered as camel-case ish, HSaaS ...
When I’m driving, the last thing I would want as a practical matter, would be ‘Hot Crossed Buns’. That kind of warmth is going to make me too relaxed, bordering on becoming sleepy.
What next? a Jacuzzi Tub Driver’s Seat? No. Just wait till you get home.
The great thing from BMW’s point of view is that this $18/month fee can later be raised to whatever the market will bear.
Anyway, what’s the monthly fee for working windshield wipers? The article didn’t say.
Just wait until they start charging to use the brakes.
Correct, I should have put the a’s in lower case.
Suckers born every minute...
I guess they think their customers are too stupid to realize they can buy a car seat heating pad for about $30. Maybe they are.
This is really stupid. You can’t charge for something that is readily available on a Hyundai Elantra included. People expect more from a luxury car, else why pay more? It would have been much smarter to start subscriptions to stuff that people can’t already easily get, and something that isn’t easily hackable.
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