“You don’t steal a car” is a tweak to the infamous meme Piracy Advertising Campaign (Opens in a new tab) from long ago. It’s a silly statement, but it always encourages me to reply quietly in my head. Of course you can’t download it, but now you can download a very small part of the car. That’s the part that keeps your butt warm on cold Canadian nights.
A few weeks ago, I learned that BMW was testing a subscription model of a seat warmer. (Opens in a new tab) You will be charged a one-time fee of $ 18 per month for a Korean car, or $ 415 for access to a fashionable new beamer seat warmer. It’s grotesque, but it’s probably the inevitable result of the broken capitalist hell we’ve built for ourselves, and like most, it’s likely to get worse.
BMW’s subscription scheme is doubly terrible because the owner doesn’t pay for the extras, but it’s just the ability to turn on what’s already in the car. but, Wired (Opens in a new tab) The report reveals that knowledgeable drivers are learning to bypass these systems. In most cases, it’s still expensive, but much cheaper than what BMW charges, and, importantly, BMW doesn’t receive it at all.
UK based Richfield Motors (Opens in a new tab)For example, mainly Chip tuning (Opens in a new tab)— Modify or change the EEPROM to improve car performance — but you can also make other digital features available to the owner, such as paid heated seats. Interestingly, owner Iain Litchfield said that this kind of shenanigan is nothing new to the automotive industry. The automotive industry has a long history of restricting access to new car features, and in most cases owners are unaware that they are missing.
“When the Nissan GTR was released [in 2007] It was about 480bhp and the final version was about 560bhp, “says Litchfield. “All Nissan did was keep the turbo boost up 0.1 bar at a time. It was said that the exhaust and intercooler might have changed and it might be a little different, but it was the boost that really got excited. . “
The situation at BMW is different because it is continuous and open-ended. If you miss a payment, suddenly these wonderful Corinthian leather seats will feel terribly chilly early in the morning, even though the heaters are fully functional.
The concept of ownership is becoming more and more vague in the digital age. For example, games owned by Steam or Origin will be yours as long as your account is valid. As long as your account is valid, losing it will accompany all games. Movies are heading in the same direction, being purchased and “owned” on digital platforms rather than physical media, the music industry is going even further, and many people consume music through subscription-based services like Spotify. I’m just doing it.
But software and music piracy has been with us as long as computers and recorders exist, but it’s a relatively new phenomenon in the field of physical products. And that’s a problem that can potentially bite many people in the butt in some very unexpected way. Really interesting 2017 Deputy For example, Nebraska farmers have been forced to sue for piracy to crack the firmware of their large and expensive John Deere tractors, as embedded software prevents “illegal” repairs, according to reports. I did. This means that in the event of a problem, only John Deere dealers and authorized service centers will be allowed to do so.
BMW’s subscription model also invites questions about their long-term viability. What if BMW decides to end service support? Maybe it will release an unlock patch (maybe you have to pay, Also), But maybe it’s not economically feasible and just unplug it. Regardless of which path it (or any company) follows, relying on the goodwill of the company for the continued functionality of the product it purchased and paid for is not a wise and sustainable consumer strategy.
Heated seats are not in the exact same category as “The machine on which my livelihood depends is dead in the middle of a cornfield, the nearest repair center is an hour away and is stuck until next Tuesday.” .. But both reflect the mainstream way the digital world intersects the physical, suggesting the ugly consumer future we are building for ourselves.
