The future of cars as computers

This has come in conversation with family recently, but I hadn't dug into the details. I knew BMW experimented with this type of thing for CarPlay/Android Auto activation but walked that back. This new proposal, is probably not surprising in a subscription driven world, but it does feel extremely greedy.

This was quoted from The Verge's article by Nick:

A monthly subscription to heat your BMW's front seats costs roughly $18, with options to subscribe for a year ($180), three years ($300), or pay for “unlimited” access for $415.

What happens when the car moves on to a new owner? Do they get all of the enabled features and the original owner carries those luxuries over to their next car? Or is the feature dead for everyone until a new subscription is started?

If I make an in-app purchase on my phone, I know that my next upgrade will bring that purchase with me. If that's the way BMW are moving, then maybe it's not so bad. But I would guess that purchase will be tied to the car making this a more difficult conversation when looking at the next model.

This isn't limited to BMW either, pretty sure Mercedes-Benz are looking for ways to eek more money out of their new car buying customers too.


More notable items
< Usher Tiny Desk Concert iOS 16 will show live scores from NBA, MLB, and Premier League games on iPhone's lock screen >