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The New Audi A3 Is Amess With In-Car Subscriptions (www.motor1.com)

submitted 8 months ago by absquatulate@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

201 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So far there's subscriptions for cruise control, adaptive beams, various navigation options, apple/google integration and my favorite, dual-zone climate.

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[–] ramble81@lemm.ee 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Tesla was one of the original pioneers with FSD subscriptions. BMW had heated seat subscriptions but walked it back. They do have a subscription for the “drive recorder” camera but you can pay a one time fee to permanently unlock it so that’s at least acceptable.

Edit: incidentally the permanent price is the same as if you bought it on your car new.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

They do have a subscription for the “drive recorder” camera but you can pay a one time fee to permanently unlock it so that’s at least acceptable.

Edit: incidentally the permanent price is the same as if you bought it on your car new.

I disagree: if the physical hardware came on the car, the owner is entitled to use it (that's how property rights work). Therefore, BMW should be forced to either charge everybody for it as a standard feature or physically not include the hardware for the people who aren't getting it.

Hardware that's artificially locked behind DRM -- which is what being "activatable" by even a one-time fee after the fact really is -- is a direct attack on property rights and therefore entirely unacceptable!