I can tell you it is a very strong and global trend in the automotive industry. They call it Software Defined Vehicle. As soon as we let one manufacturer have a commercial success with this type of bullshit, they will all immediately align to this new standard and it will be the only choice left to consumers. All the OEMs are prepared for it. It will happen in an eye-blink.
The only way this sort of makes sense is if BMW covers the cost of maintaining the suspension system. So your subscription is actually a subscription to a continuing service.
Just please don’t buy their shitcars.
Before: mild interest at best.
After: Strong interest in avoiding them.
But not buying a bmw isn’t enough. This will spread everywhere if it doesn’t get regulated.
Yeah there needs to be legal boundaries in EU and USA for this to stop. And it absolutely should be.
I can pretend I’m boycotting them but in reality I can’t afford one anyway.
Let’s roll out “Not-get-punched-in-the-face” as a service for rot economists. Only thing the need to do is not be vile dipshits ruining every part of life.
This is why you should be allowed to hack your car, but not only that, reverse engineered firmware should be freely available and open source, because the vendors and manufacturers can’t be trusted… and here’s why.
TL;DR secret sauce stupid, execs greedy, consumers subjugated, it’s dumb from every angle. Open firmware, NOW!!!
The excuse for these transgressions against the consumer is this: “certain digital features are premium add-ons, but we need to cut cost in manufacturing. We do this by putting these features in all cars and then put it behind a paywall for those who can afford the extra”…
Then why not just adjust the pricing for all and give everyone that feature? Because money, that’s why. Revenue stream go brrr. And before you say “developing those features cost money”, remember that the engineer have already been paid, the code is readily available and the physical features are already shipped with the car. It’s an arbitrary cost added for no good goddamn reason other than milking the consumer.
As it stands, there’s a cottage industry for hacking your own car, outside of the manufacturers power, that also pushes subscription services. In some cases you can’t even change the language of your car, unless you A) bring it in to a service centre and pay a lot for the “privelige”, or B) pay a comparatively nominal monthly fee of like $60 for the access.
Both cases are horribly stupid and shows how the consumer is being subjugated to such an extent that a straw has been permanently installed into their wallets, with the intent of sucking it dry in every way possible, which to me is solved quite easily:
Make all firmware for cars open firmware. “But what about security!?” I hear the executives shriek, as they grasp at their straws, hoping it’ll never stop leaking money. To them I say: what are you, IBM in the 70s?
For anyone whose been paying attention to pentesting - not only for computers , but also for car systems - knows that it’s just another example in a long, long line of examples of why the “SeCrEt sAuCe” fallacy is just that: a fallacy.
Buying simple, cheap little devices from some eBay seller means you could unlock pretty much every Tesla on the block, because, and this is important: you have no control over the authentication mechanism and the manufacturers have to get on that ASAP as they lobby governments to ban said software and devices, knowing fully well that they’ve now shoehorned it into the black market instead of letting people publicly test these things - which is dumb, because now you have to wait for the manufacturers to get their fingers out of their asses to fix the problem.
Much like Apple products, you don’t own anything. You pay a one time lease and pray that corporate doesn’t hand down a new spin-up curve for your AC system that’s better in terms of power delivery, because you know they’ll sell it to you for $2k as an “extra add-on”.
In as much, you have this spiritual corporate valet underling that will open your door for you and enable certain features, if you pay enough. They sit in your car with you, staring into the side of your face, reminding you with certain menu clicks: “you are our little bitch and there’s nothing you can do except give us more money.”
But if their firmware was publicly available, some Joe Schmoe could give you the same curve, and even give it out for free, because said Schmoe wanted his family to have access to better air conditioning without having to pay the toll. You’d basically be exorcising that spiritual valet back to the planes of hell from whence it came.
Hey, if you like this, here’s an idea, how about we democratically control these executives homes, their doors, their AC’s, through democracy? I’m sorry Mr Executive, but you’ve pissed off the masses, so now we’re turning off the AC so you have to sweat in your $30m beach property.
Oh wait, is that suddenly authoritarian?! You don’t say… and what in the blue blazes do you think this is? It’s a physical piece of property. The code should be gratis, complimentary, part and parcel of the sale. If they get to control their property, so should you. I can’t believe we still have to say this aloud.
In the end car manufacturers have to be stimied and slapped with anti-trust suits and the “sEcrEt sAuCe” fallacy needs to be defeated once more to give consumers actual power and control over their own property… it’s 2024 already!!! WHY IS THIS STILL A THING?!?!!
I’m with you. But good luck.
No one:
BMW: - seat warmers as a service - Apple CarPlay / Android Auto as a service - suspension as a service
BMW can get bent.
BMW should’ve known that this won’t work from their indicators as a service failure.
BMW indicators work fine, they’re just designed so that poor people can’t see them.
Gonna keep my 2008 not remote controlled corpo car.
