There was the army commissary thing too: https://signalandsilence.substack.com/p/i-think-someone-hack...

This is up there with BMW charging a subscription for heated seats.

I don't see the appeal of heated seats, I've never turned the ones in my cars on. OK, I suppose when you've left your car in below zero weather it's useful.

Heated steering wheel on the other hand; that's heavenly.

I suppose if I ever find a BMW attractive enough to buy one despite this consumer-hating behavior (their grilles help me stay away), I'd figure out if I can unplug the seat from the control unit, and just plug it straight to a different power supply to get the heat. Or will they use something like HDMI's Digital Content Protection to prevent "heat piracy"?

Anyway it's all theoretical, it seems they've given up trying to pick your pocket for heated seats, but for other features they're still going to mug you: https://www.drive.com.au/news/bmw-admits-heated-seat-subscri...

If you do not have a garage and live in a cold weather climate they are fantastic. Heat up almost instantly when the engine might not warm up entirely to get the heat going for a good 15 min.

> when you've left your car in below zero weather it's useful

Yup. Getting back from any snow sport where you wiped out and all the snow decided your butt's where it's going to hang out sells the product.

I have some sorta skin condition that I can not stand either the heated seats and the heated steering wheel.

But my wife ... in winters, the first thing on entering the car is to activate the heatings seats. Some people like them. And yes I paid for the subscription (or a package that cost me a bunch but gave me everything all inclusive).

Turn it on on the passenger seat to keep your take out food warm while you drive home.

Also good for those of us with back issues. I use mine even in the summer sometimes for that reason.

They are nice in cold weather to "hold you over" on short drives before the air heating warms the car up.

My Civic remote start with the key fob will automatically turn them on when it's cold.

It's funny, I have heated steering wheel in my car (2022 Leaf), and when I bought it I didn't think anything of it. However, being in Scandinavia, when the first snow+ice came, I tried it and loved it instantly. Now I even use it on not very cold days, just because it feels nice. :)

I see you did not grow up going out to the driveway to start the car before breakfast :)

Grew up in a warm place. Currently my car sleeps in a relatively warm underground carpark of the apartment block.

It's like designed by Apple in California. Hard to understand winters then :)

Picking on Apple because I've had my phone shut down when i left it on the dashboard inside my stopped car.

We had to plug our (gas) car in at night. I don’t recommend it.

Yeah, we could tell from your original comment

it's quite useful in a convertible along with the heated steering and the neck warmer taking it roof down on a coldish day

I don't think either of those are consumer benefits at all. And the hardware was charged for when the car was initially sold - it was part of the total unit cost of creation. The subscription was a consumer hostile way of increasing spend with the brand. The genius' at BMW looked at Tesla's Plaid mode and FSD and thought they could replicate that model but failed to realise that people don't view their brands the same way - people treat a Tesla like a software purchase, but a BMW like an expensive toaster.

I think you misunderstand - they can charge slightly less for the car, and not actually charge you for that bit of hardware, if they're monetizing it differently.

No, I understand what you're saying. But they absolutely aren't doing that and there's no way they were eating the hardware cost as a loss-leader on future recurring revenue. The buyers paid for the hardware and then needed to pay for software to enable it.