BMW Responds to Fury Over Heated Seats Subscription Fee

[AVANTI R5]

BMW Responds to Fury Over Heated Seats Subscription Fee

https://www.thedrive.com/news/bmw-re...bscription-fee

BMW released a statement Friday to address the controversy over its in-vehicle subscriptions, called "Functions on Demand." In some markets, Functions on Demand charges owners to access preinstalled hardware, such as heated seats. The statement is addressed to the automaker's U.S. customers and downplays subscription services like these will play for future owners. The company said the added functionality on top of pre-existing hardware—like using a driver-assistance camera as a dash recording device—will be the bulk of what BMW offers in the U.S. This is in contrast to charging for the core functionality of an option that was installed/ordered from the factory, which the statement attempts to pour cold water on.

"If a vehicle is initially ordered with heated seats, that option will remain fully operational for the life of the vehicle," BMW said. It clarifies, "BMW Functions on Demand on the other hand is designed to offer premium features through software upload that use data and sensors from factory option hardware already built into BMW vehicles." The ADAS camera doubling up as a dashcam would be an example.

Hard buttons currently control some BMWs heated seats, but they're being phased out in favor of digital controls. BMW

BMW heard U.S. consumer response to charging for preinstalled hardware in the Korean and U.K. market loud and clear, then. The automaker notes in its press release that 90% of vehicles sold in the U.S. are ordered with heated seats anyway. That has implications: BMW might install heated seats in many of its cars in the future whether or not a customer asks for it. A subscription service could enable this feature if the customer didn't initially order it. In this way, BMW might be able to save money by streamlining production, but unless a customer actually orders heated seats in a car, they'll just be sitting around until they're paid for, via a subscription or otherwise.

Whatever BMW's future plans hold is something the automaker will not speculate on, however. But the fact that it clarified where it stands with these services is a step in the right direction. Keep in mind that automakers are doing things like this because they see it as a way to boost profitability. In the end, that money in their pocket will have to come from somewhere

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[AVANTI R5]

Their charging one time fee for car exhaust noise in the cabin. Monthly fee for Camera Images into Their Cloud. Monthly Fee heated Steering wheel. Forget the rest of top of my head. Stick it..BMW

[Scooby-Doode]

This subscription will surely go up every time the dollar gains strength. This is BMW's track record. Interestingly enough they don't ever come back and drop the prices once the dollar loses is strength. Typical BMW.

[godfather2112]

A subscription fee is ****ing ridiculous. If you want to install heated seats in a lll vehicles to reduce the cost and streamline but charge a 1 time activation fee as if it were ordered from factory, fine. But an ongoing fee? Get ****ed. I wouldn’t be surprised if the after market or Carly finds a way to just turn these on and give BMW the finger.

I feel like BMW is starting another dowsed spiral having started with the ugly front on the m3/4 and ditching dct for the ZF trans. Looks like the penny pinchers have taken control and it never ends well for the brand.

[Pre]

This kind of thing will get folks to never ever buy a vehicle from your company for just attempting this nonsense. What a joke. Selling a car ain't good enough then get ****ed.

[Pre]

This kind of thing will get folks to never ever buy a vehicle from your company for just attempting this nonsense. What a joke. Selling a car ain’t good enough then get ****ed.

[n2oiroc]

You can do subscription or pay the one time fee and it stays with the vehicle for life.

[White out]

I do not see the problem with this.

[godfather2112]

Originally Posted by n2oiroc

You can do subscription or pay the one time fee and it stays with the vehicle for life.

One time fee makes sense. I would be way too lazy and forget to call whatever automated and frustrating number to turn of heated seats in summer. I guess only caveat to that would be if in the BMW car app, you have subscription features you can toggle on / off and billing starts or stops when you do so. But realistically, what’s the cost for heated seat option? $500 maybe? I guess it could make sense if you’re someone who keeps a car for only 2 or so years.

But let’s also be honest, there’s a lot of people trying to be ballers on a budget and you use to be able to lease an entry level 3 series for less than a Honda accord.

[thill]

I think the fear is that:
- BMW (and others) will move towards a monthly/yearly subscription model for many features such as heated/cooled seats, CarPlay/Android auto (or maybe you pay extra for wireless), heated steering wheel, things like lane keep assist/additional safety features, etc. In other words nickel and dime you for what features you want.
- This would be in replace of paying up front for these items for the lifetime of the car.
- I doubt the price of the car would suddenly be a lot less.

Just a fear I think people have. Having said that Tesla is having some success here. If you want FSD (full service drive) you can pay it up front or a monthly fee (pay when you want it, turn it off when you don't). For the dual motor non-Performance model they let you pay extra to unlock additional power. Maybe this is the future. You pay for what you want and can enable it for a month or two, or pay for it upfront for lifetime etc.

[thill]

Duplicate.

[mcarb002]

This is nothing new or surprising. For years a monthly plan has permeated into every industry you can think of. It’s called a “recurring revenue model”. Corporations love it. They got your card on file and can charge you every month regardless. Toyota has also introduced it now with keyfobs.

A great example of how this has played out is VHS, DVDs movies etc. You use to buy them at Walmart, then rent them at Blockbuster, now who the eff even thinks about buying an actual DVD? If you want a show or movie you best sign up to HBO or Netflix or whatever. At least back then you paid once to own that one dvd or rent/watch that one movie, now you’re basically forced to join a subscription to only watch like 5% of their actual content if that..

With how things are playing out, one has to be really naive if you think this is the extent of it and won’t find its way to things we take for granted in our daily lives. I can only imagine in less than 30 years from now you basically will need a subscription to get your vegetables and one for your dairies… I mean Blackrock is buying literally every house in America they can buy, I’ll be surprised if newer generations would even buy houses. It will be perpetual rent for them.

The future is trending towards the end of ownership.

[Russ_G93]

I think... its the oddest thing.. to make a switch.. that heats coils under your ***, be an extra fee. In this case, I fully expect a complete reiteration of any "Winter Pkg" available on the models price wise, *lower.* Its like they Hired people from the videogame industry *Activision* who specialize in microtransactions. You might as well Jerry-rig your own Switch to turn on the coils which is super simple to do for any car seat. Unless this causes a check engine light. Or some kind of "Error" sign on the headunit.

Its a ****ing seat heater, Not a satellite Service like Starlink lmao

[godfather2112]

Originally Posted by Russ_G93

I think... its the oddest thing.. to make a switch.. that heats coils under your ***, be an extra fee. In this case, I fully expect a complete reiteration of any "Winter Pkg" available on the models price wise, *lower.* Its like they Hired people from the videogame industry *Activision* who specialize in microtransactions. You might as well Jerry-rig your own Switch to turn on the coils which is super simple to do for any car seat. Unless this causes a check engine light. Or some kind of "Error" sign on the headunit.

Its a ****ing seat heater, Not a satellite Service like Starlink lmao

I really wouldn’t be surprised if Carly or similar app that plugs into obd port unlocks these features. Can’t remember if I used Carly or another one but I turned off the exhaust noise simulation and had mirrors fold when I locked the car. There seemed to be damn near an ultimates amount of features / programming you could do with those

[vapore0n]

https://9to5mac.com/2019/05/09/bmw-carplay-outage/

Many BMW owners have been unable to access CarPlay in their vehicle for the past several days, according to several reports on Reddit. This CarPlay downtime is seemingly related to BMW's ConnectedDrive service suffering from outage - and further shows the risk associated with locking these features behind paid options and subscriptions.

Old but goodie reason why not to use subscription services like that.

This week’s outage of ConnectedDrive and CarPlay is affecting users who paid for the one-time option at purchase, as well as those who are on the newer subscription-based plans.

yeah nope

[subyski]

So in these subscription BMW's are all cars in a model equipped with these items? So all 3 series have heated seats. I can see it streamlining the manufacturing process a bit but it just passes the buck to the consumer.

It's just unnerving that a mainstream car that is cheaper can have heated seats for "free" but a premium brand needs a subscription.

Special tech, like driver assistance, I can see a subscription. But now they are charging for items/features that have been around for 30+ years. For that, I want it to heat an individual butt cheek and my left third rib only.

[godfather2112]

Originally Posted by vapore0n

https://9to5mac.com/2019/05/09/bmw-carplay-outage/



Old but goodie reason why not to use subscription services like that.



yeah nope

Harvard Case Study: How to destroy brand loyalty. Current CEO is a jackass. Pretty sure it’s the same jackass who got butt hurt when customers voiced that the brand is no longer exciting to drive a few years back. Bean counters and this CEO will drive it into the ground, ugly front bumper and all.

[SubaDuba420]

Reading an article about the new Brembo Sensify brake system and this was the last paragraph: https://www.autoblog.com/2022/07/27/...-drive-review/

Once the Sensify braking system is out there and on production cars, Brembo says it can update and “improve” it via over-the-air updates. We asked why a braking system would need to be updated, and Brembo reps told us that it gives OEMs an opportunity to sell access to a towing brake package or racetrack braking software package (or any package they can dream up) as an after-sale item. If you thought we were entering subscription hell already, just wait and see what will come next. As for when you should expect Sensify to show up in production cars, Brembo says it’s working with a number of OEMs right now, and the earliest examples of it are scheduled for 2024 sale. As for which OEMs and which models, Brembo is remaining tight-lipped about as it finalizes Sensify tuning.

I know it's not BMW specific, YET, but dam.....brakes....

[Pre]

Next will be cruise control subscription. BMW be all "but this is out latest adaptive cruise control". Something like Tesla's autopilot deal. You don't pay a one time too expensive thousands purchase of it but you pay a monthly subscription.

Is anyone else sick of this? Streaming app subscriptions out the A? Everything there is, trying to go to some subscription based model? Greed personified. If people let them these mfr's will only offer lease vehicles in the future you pay monthly for. And when you aren't using it they will use it as an Uber/taxi service. It's getting old. BMW has lost me on this. The Apple Car Play thing I thought was S for them to even try it. They are just going to keep trying. People need to keep saying no. But most people are suckers who let marketing think for them.

[dwf137]

At this point there's still a no-subscription option. As long as that still exists, whatever, let suckers do what suckers do.

[heavyD]

Am I missing something here? This is only a thing in a few markets. BMW has already stated this won't be coming to Canada and I assume the USA by extension.

[SubaDuba420]

drip...Drip...DRip...DRIp...DRIP....DRIP
Mercedes will unlock your $100,000 electric car's full power — for an extra $1,200 per year
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mercedes-...170123047.html
-Mercedes-Benz will offer a $1,200-per-year "acceleration Increase" feature for some electric cars.
-The add-on boosts power output and slightly improves zero-to-60-mph times for some models.
-Car companies want to make billions by charging customers for features after they already purchased a vehicle.

Let's say you're tired of hitting 60 mph in only 5.3 seconds and want to get to highway speed a smidge faster. Is that worth a $1,200-per-year subscription to you?

Mercedes-Benz hopes the answer is yes.

The German carmaker now lists "acceleration increase" as an option for some electric models in its online store, The Drive first reported. The add-on feature will cost $1,200 per year and is "coming soon," according to Mercedes-Benz's website.

Customers who pay the fee will unlock between 20% and 24% more power output from their electric Mercedes. The upgrade will also boost torque and shave up to one second off of a vehicle's zero-to-60-mph time, Mercedes says. It'll be available for the EQE and EQS sedans, as well as the EQE and EQS SUVs.

With the upgrade, the roughly $108,000 EQS 450 4Matic model will hit 60 mph from a standstill in 4.5 seconds, down from 5.3. The EQE SUV gets the biggest improvement, from 6.2 seconds down to 5.2.

A Mercedes-Benz spokesperson did not respond to questions about when the feature will go on sale and whether it will be available as an up-front option.

As vehicles become increasingly internet-connected, car companies from Mercedes-Benz to BMW to Stellantis plan to make billions off of software services. That includes asking customers to pay up for features after they buy a vehicle. Some carmakers already offer capabilities like remote start and automatic high beams for monthly or annual fees.

But consumers aren't quite sold on the idea of paying extra over time for things that they think should be included up front.

In 2019, BMW scrapped a plan to charge $80 per year for Apple CarPlay after widespread backlash. Three-quarters of consumers aren't willing to pay a subscription fee for most car features, according to an April survey from Cox Automotive. They're particularly repelled by the idea of paying for heated and cooled seats.

If passed, a bill in New Jersey would prohibit car manufacturers from offering subscriptions for features that use built-in hardware and don't cost anything to provide over time.

Mercedes-Benz offers a host of post-purchase capabilities in addition to the upcoming power boost. For $35 per month, owners can start their engines remotely through an app. A one-time fee of $200 adds on a dashcam by tapping into a car's forward-facing camera. And there's another feature coming soon: For $16 per month, owners can buy "Beginner Driver and Valet Service mode," which limits a car's top speed.

Clearly, Mercedes thinks buyers will place a higher value on going faster than going slower. It's probably right about that.

[dwf137]

If passed, a bill in New Jersey would prohibit car manufacturers from offering subscriptions for features that use built-in hardware and don't cost anything to provide over time.

Well, if you live in NJ, I hope you've emailed your state representatives to make this law. Because this is bull****.

[4S-TURBO]

I love it. Good times ahead.

[Russ_G93]

Originally Posted by SubaDuba420

drip...Drip...DRip...DRIp...DRIP....DRIP
Mercedes will unlock your $100,000 electric car's full power — for an extra $1,200 per year
https://www.yahoo.com/news/mercedes-...170123047.html
-Mercedes-Benz will offer a $1,200-per-year "acceleration Increase" feature for some electric cars.
-The add-on boosts power output and slightly improves zero-to-60-mph times for some models.
-Car companies want to make billions by charging customers for features after they already purchased a vehicle.

So literally everything you could do yourself on any car you own now needs to be paid for, such is the new world electricity order lol