[Update]: BMW's feature subscription service is now live in some countries
 

Do you all remember the thread @[roxxor](contact:152092) created this time last year about BMW *maybe* beginning to make futures like automatic high beams and adaptive headlights or parking assistant subscription based?

Well, it's live in some countries it seems.

Original thread: https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1529207

Absolutely the hell not.

Attention people of industry - I realize subscription models are HIGHLY profitable, but I've had enough. This is crazy.

What happens if your parking assist subscription lapses while you're in the middle of parallel parking?

Don't worry, you'll be accepting a Terms of Service that absolves them of any and all liability.

That's why it's moving towards a subscription based model. Profits, profits profits.

First 100 engine starts free with purchase. Additional engine starts available for a low monthly price.

waiting the day that BMW sell their cars with 3 wheels and the 4th one ll be "optional" with some fee..

Yeah, this is absolute bullshit. How about offer a feature, I pay for the feature in full, then we go our separate ways.

It’s like BMW is trying to go out of their way, alienating their customer base.

For those prices I expect the car to be free. Keep a car for 10 years and you’re on the hook for $7800 to use the parking sensors? Get a fucking grip BMW.

Why not just offer customers the ability to buy options On-Demand? The customer owns the option after X months of payments or pays in full. Think of it like buying a phone which you can unlock after you've paid it off.

I of course can't ignore the fact that younger generations see car ownership as an annoyance. Subscription service for the vehicle itself is right up their alley so why not allow them to take their options with them when they rent a new car? Think of it as their own personal profile which they can plug into any vehicle.

I’m fine with parking assist being a subscription model. Consider it a tax for never learning how to parallel park in the first place :bellyroll

Or learn how to parallel park yourself for free. It would be a great incentive to develop skills you should have always had!

BMW 365. A la Microsoft Office 365.

Here are some ridiculous services they can charge:

1. Launch control -- 50 cents per launch or $20 a month
2. Radio -- 25 cents per song or 5 songs for $1
3. AWD system -- $90 a month during winter months or $30 in summer

Braking is unavailable at this time, click ABORT, RETRY or IGNORE

I hear ya. I’m 62 and simply ignore what I don’t like, including current politics.

My car has never had an OTA or map update - picked it up June 5. If they can’t deliver updates, I kinda doubt they could control the features on your car on a real-time basis. Sounds like bulls*it to me.

I’m 90 minutes from my dealer, so I plan to wait until first oil change to ask them to update maps and iDrive. I also plan to trade it in four years. Love my X5 but if things go south, I’ll pass and buy a Lincoln.

I NEVER pay for subscriptions, with the exception of Apple Music, which I love. $10 a month for any music, anywhere. And no car play for me - won’t pay for that subscription either.

With the push towards autonomous driving, will we even need drivers license' in the future?

At least make the cars cheaper....My 2013 M3 loaded was around $72,000. That's scratching the surface with a new M340!

You know what frustrates me the most about this? Used cars. Now they can build a almost forced money stream with someone who wants to have all the features that came with the car when they buy it used. Fucking scandalous.

Thankfully I'll still have some car choices without this subscription once my 335is runs it's course.

But then this brings future problems? You know how my car navigation has the option to have this nice traffic live updates and SOS button but nope doesn't work because the antenna on the car is to old for current cell towers. I think it's like 1G or 2G. So what's gonna happen when the car is to old to communicate with the servers? Unless from now, all future antennas will be backwards compatible but I still think they will eventually won't be. All services will become disabled? Or all services will all be unlocked?

It's not only BMW.

The Google Maps feature on my 2018 Audi S5 won't work past December 2019 because it's not compatible with the new hardware. :/

You want Radio? That'll be $100/month. Oh, that doesn't include presets. Having the ability to preset radio stations is another $15/month but you'll need the ability to tune stations....that's another $25/month.

Real question is now, when does this roll out to the US? Next generation 7 series? 5 series LCI? 3 series LCI?

If that's their plan I suspect this stuff will come back to bite them pretty well. Since the hardware is in place you'll see hacks pushed out to unlock these features without paying.

A person under warranty might not do them, but once the warranty is up and it is being sold used I see this being a serious damper to their planned revenue streams.

One thing is for certain... If this becomes their new trend then my first BMW that I have on order will be my last BMW. I am not renting my cars features.

These subscription-based apps are just a variant of something that's been around a long time, utility-based pricing; you pay for the features you want. But with the apps, you subscribe to the features you want.

Now that cars are a piece of software with wheels I think it's the direction the industry will go; whether we like it or not. It's the direction that the software industry seems to be going. A software product needs constant fixing and improvements. A company making the software needs a steady incoming money stream to do that.

A few years ago, Adobe moved to subscription-based products. It generated tons of negative comments from users; "I'm switching from Photoshop to Gimp." What was happing to Adobe was users would buy a copy of Photoshop and wait for 2 or 3 or more major version changes before they would buy an upgraded version.

Adobe made the switch in spite of the user comments and did quite well by it. IMHO, I think users did too; now all the Adobe products are getting updates to fix and improve things in a more timely fashion.

Originally computer software was never sold, it was given away with hardware, but you had to subscribe to support. For the most part, the software was useless without support. That's how companies got the money they needed to fix and improve their software.

Software products were sold for PC's when they come out. It's taking a long time, but I think industries realize there isn't a practical way to "sell" software.

Please don't shoot the messenger :D; subscription to auto apps is the future. It will get interesting if the auto industry opens its "software with wheels" products to third party apps.