Now even linked automobiles are embracing the subscription mannequin. BMW drivers in a number of international locations must pay $18 per thirty days for heated seats, reported The Verge. Front-seat heating is considered one of many optionally available add-on software program upgrades obtainable in BMW’s ConnectedDrive shops within the United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, New Zealand and South Africa. Also obtainable for an additional month-to-month cost is automated excessive beams (roughly $12) and steering wheel heating (roughly $12).
BMW drivers in these international locations received’t must take their automobiles to a service store to get the options put in. The {hardware} is already there — drivers will merely must pay an additional payment to activate them by an over-the-air software program improve on BMW’s ConnectedDrive platform. That’s additionally the place they will pay for different options locked behind an annual subscription, together with security digital camera alerts ($30) and entry to a web based music library ($213 a yr).
BMW hasn’t introduced plans so as to add heated seats to its ConnectedDrive retailer within the United States, however microtransactions aren’t fully international to BMW drivers within the nation. The firm beforehand confronted backlash after charging an annual payment of $80 for Apple CarPlay, which it in the end stopped doing. Still, the pay-per-feature mannequin is alive and properly within the US, the place BMW drivers must pay additional for quite a lot of software program upgrades, together with $50 per yr to entry ConnectedDrive and $200 per yr (after the third yr) to replace their automotive’s navigation maps.
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