BMW Is Giving Up on Heated Seat Subscriptions Because People Hated Them

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 1794 points –
BMW Is Giving Up on Heated Seat Subscriptions Because People Hated Them
thedrive.com

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.

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Seems to be harder and harder to get a new car without all those "smart" features. Soon, it might be impossible to find one at all, just like it's impossible to find consumer-grade dumb tv in the market right now.

It's why I am considering availability of public transportation when house-hunting nowadays. When my car breaks down, I hope to be able to NOT buy a new one. Ideally, for the rare occasion that I need one in the future, I could rent one.

I think they need the smart features to get a 5 star safety rating.

I mean, now with many cars being EVs, I'd rather have some computer in there to manage the battery, since I'm sitting on a bomb if that thing is mismanaged.

What you're describing is a Battery Management System (BMS), whose job is to monitor some key parameters of the cells and make sure they remain balanced. There's no intrinsic reason for it to be tightly integrated into an overarching system that performs surveillance or other high-level functions in a "smart" vehicle. This video by Great Scott explains the basic principles and he even builds a simple one from scratch, that would be suitable for something like an e-bike https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT-1gvkFj60

Sufficiently motivated people have been building highly performant DIY electric cars for several years with no Big Brother tech in the OpenInverter community https://openinverter.org/wiki/Main_Page

Yes, and they will tell "Look! Consumer DEMANDED those smartcars! We are only replying to a demand!"

Yeah, just like they did with station wagons. "Look! No one is buying station wagons anymore ^because we stopped making them^ so it's all SUV's going forward! Which cost the same to manufacture but we can sell for a higher price!"