also the buck teeth grills

BMW is framing this as a “one-time movie partnership”

What kind of people do you think are eating that up?

“Guys, it’s just this one-time ad, we had no intention of ever doing this again! Just forget about it for a year or so!”

It’s one-time in the sense that it’s this movie. Next one-time will be for the next movie

“It is a one time fee that you pay annually.” One of the best Portlandia skits.

Just the tip

I hope people take that as a contract and when they inevitably do it again, sue the hell out of them.

Not that it’ll stop this phenomenon.

Get organised folks, join your local socialist orgs (provided they are sane and not Stalinists and don’t think China is socialist).

I want off this ride, and that’s only gonna happen if we get involved, all over the world.

One reason this type of promotion may be becoming more common is that connected cars give automakers a direct path to the driver’s screen.

Once a person purchases a vehicle it should be theirs, not shared access with Automakers and their partners.

It hasn’t been that way for a long time. Every car since 2018 has some sort of black box in it that it records your driving behaviors, and that data gets sent to or sold to insurance companies who then use it to raise your premiums.

How are these black boxes reporting back though? Do all these cars just have a free SIM card built in?

I’m not sure about this black box, but in the EU, the e-call system is mandatory, so all new cars do indeed have a sim. Though it’s most likely not a card, but either a chip (iSIM) or just in software (eSIM).

They do in fact. It’s also how the app connectivity works in modern cars.

Typically a soldered on sim chip, or esim software. You can disable it on some cars, for example I was able to bypass it on my 4runner pretty easily. I lost the feature to find my car, lock doors or see its status using the Toyota app though but I am 100% ok with that.

They do. They hide it as an SOS system. “Only used in case of emergency.” It’s connected to GPS, sim like a cellphone that has at least 4g cell service to “call emergency.” I think Chevy used their Onstar connection. That’s always on, and the data text files can be sent without interrupting that service.

OnStar is the worst for selling data. They even record your body weight.

I think cunts who drive like cunts should pay more.
However, the real reason why cars have black boxes is repeated fraudulent claims by US law firms on “sudden acceleration”.

The last lawsuit ended because Toyota had black box data proving US drivers are shit and commonly hit the wrong pedal. Before that, they had to settle $1B to law firms.

Oh, I agree with that. People who drive like complete assholes should definitely have to pay higher insurance premiums, but the way that they get the data to determine who these people are is just a huge privacy concern for me.

One reason this type of promotion may be becoming more common is that connected cars give automakers a direct path to the driver’s screen.

“Wo ein Trog ist, da kommen die Schweine.”

A lot of manufacturers sell vehicles at cost price in the hopes of making it up in after sales (parts and servicing). Most EVs require very little regular expense (cabin filters, brakes and tyres), so they try to make up the difference in subscriptions and “value added” services.

Sometimes those “value added” services aren’t adding value to their customers; they are “adding value” for business partners.

You would think that a car that is sold at a premium price would be exempt from these nasty little scams.

I’m guessing the long term plan is to significantly increase the price of maintenance and updates then offer a cheaper plan with dashboard adds.

This doesn’t count as vandalism??

Or a felony violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act!

I don’t have a BMW.

An incomplete solution, but a good one.

For people who had forgotten the seat heating subscription

Why do they keep trying to pull this bullshit?, they’re a luxury brand, there margins should be pretty good without trying to nickel and dime everything

No amount of money can satisfy their empty fucking hearts and minds

There are no brakes on capitalism. It’s always more, more and more.

Have you ever heard of next quarter?

Because income sources like subscriptions and ads are stable, predictable, and that makes shareholders happy.

No matter what BMW tries to tell you in their press releases, they were never considered a luxury brand in Europe. As for German cars it goes more or less like this: Maybach >>>>>>> Porsche >>> Audi > Mercedes >>>>>>>>>>>> BMW > Volkswagen > Opel.

I’d argue that Mercedes > Audi

Same. Merc is top to me. BMW close second. I have a lot of respect for Audi, but only had experience with A3 and A4 Wagon. Both had very aggressive and stiff ride feel. Fun, but not what I want from a daily commuter.

Both are shit and should be short term leased only.

There was a time German Cars, especially Mercedes, were an aspiration. Now they are disposable rentals.

Capitalism doesn’t understand “good enough”, only MOAR

Cos there are enough dumb people who are ready to pay for this shit.

Same with lootboxes in gaming, everyone hates them but there are enough people purchasing them so that the companies can keep pulling shit like this off.

I think it has something to do with the markets infatuation with recurring revenue streams. Everything is a subscription model now.

Id subscribe to more posts about that, also please like and subscribe to more recommendations on what to like and subscribe to

Line must go up.

they are doing this for two reasons:

1. Dropping sales from angry BMW owners fed up with poor reliability.

2. Dropping sales to Tesla.

3. Dropping sales because of poor EV designs

4. Dropping sales because they fail to establish value.

Almost like Firefox. cyberciti.biz/…/firefox-is-now-placing-ads-and-he…

It was not a paid placement or advertisement. We are continually looking for more ways to say thanks for using Firefox.”

LOOOOOLOLOL

I was actually going the but the new i3, but now that’s not happening. Guess I’ll have to wait for the new Polestar 2 insread.

Yeah… I was considering a Audi etron or the I4. Well choice is mutch simpler now. Same for my dad. He is considering the I7 but might hold off on that idea.

Well the e-tron, assuming you meant the SUV not the sportscar, sucks in terms of ride comfort. You’re better off with any old Audi non-Electric vehicle with air springs. For the other Audi e-tron (the GT), you’re better off simply getting the Porsche Taycan which is almost the same car, but from their sister brand that actually has a reputation to uphold, unlike Audi. BMW i4 is a significantly newer vehicle than either though, the Taycan and E-Tron are pretty outdated. This is all from when EVs were changing rapidly and 2 years made a massive difference.

There’s also unfortunately no direct replacement for the i7 if your dad wants to go electric 100%. The EQS is a weird shaped thing and reported to be plagued with quality issues that an S-Class or 7 series equivalent should NOT have (loose or creaky plastics, wtf Mercedes, you had that figured out decades ago and now you can’t do it anymore?) and Audi doesn’t even have an electric flagship sedan. But the current A8 is well due for a replacement being a decade old and the S-Class is due for a replacement in a few years, so they may well come up with new EV models in parallel to their new ICE models. For the recent GLC launch they also did a “GLC with EQ technology” which is not really the exact same car but electrified, but rather still a dedicated EV platform, just with familiar branding brought back. Hoping for an “S-Class EQ” personally, not that I’ll be buying one, I don’t buy new cars.

There are also the Chinese cars, but they’re not going to be any better than BMW. Some new Chinese EV, think it was either a BYD or Xiaomi, was being shown by a YouTuber who showcased how you can now stand in front of the frunk and tell the car to open the frunk (because apparently THAT needs to be a voice action now). That’s microphones on the EXTERIOR of your car now. Do we really think that’s not going to be used for targeted advertisements and other forms of tracking? Like you have a conversation next to your car and see ads about that?

My dad currently owns a etron 55. Wonderful car if you ask me just not my riding style. But the service from Audi is absolutely horrific over here. Big part due to the official importer for the vehicles. Services is non existent and surprise bills of 10K+ are common.

That would be a reason for me to steer away from Audi as well. However the car I got in mind is indeed the etron GT. In my opinion a much more premium car then the Porsche taycan. I have driven in both and the etron clearly wins drive comfort to me. Just Audi service is so bad…

The I4 would be a more nice middle ground for me but then BMW does this type of shit. In regards of driving electric. Yes that is a requirement. We have all been driving for 12+ years fully electric at this point.

The car manufactures that IMO becomes more and more interesting is KIA and Opel. Service is great cars are more serviceable hen other brands. And pricing is not half bad. Unfortunately they don’t make nice sporty electric vehicles yet.

Interesting, I tried the etron 55 and it even had air springs, but it still just didn’t feel right to me. Didn’t absorb bumps well enough, but also didn’t have the kind of road feel you’d want for sporty driving. In comparison, my current 2007 A6 Allroad manages both better despite 400k km on the clock, possibly because it weighs significantly less. The interior it had also soured me on any and all new Audi products, though I guess the new Porsches aren’t any better when it comes to that. Fuck forcing a touchscreen for everything.

I’ll also admit I haven’t driven the Taycan or etron GT, but was more making an assumption based on the fact that in other shared platform cars I’ve driven, the Porsche equivalent was much nicer than the Audi one. Specifically, I owned a first gen Cayenne and it was so much better than its sibling, the Q7 that it’s not even funny. It was both more comfortable AND had better driving dynamics, you could just tell that a lot more thought went into engineering the Cayenne, whereas the Q7 feels like a big clumsy A6, even has the A6 C6’s interior. Similarly the old Panamera feels much nicer inside than anything Audi made at the time. I guess this trend has reversed then.

Idk, honestly I just feel like anything made in at least the last 6 or 7 years that has the four rings, is a downgrade from Audi’s past quality. I’ve been looking at BMW myself, mostly the G30/31 5 series in 540d guise since it’s an excellent engine and they’ve depreciated enough for me that I could get one this year, or wait a few more years and get the i4 since I don’t need a wagon these days, no longer need to take a stroller everywhere… And BMW was nice enough to still offer rotary dials for infotainment control in those vehicles, but now they pull this bullshit and I feel like continuing to drive old cars remains the right choice even if I don’t like the pollution or fuel economy. I don’t know how long I’ll stay loyal to my Audi, but at least I own the piece of shit, there’s no connectivity unless I buy a CarPlay module from mr12volt and even then it’s my phone that gives it the smarts, not the car itself.

I guess my plan to run my car into the ground should be updated to keep my car going until I leave this mortal coil. /hj

That is unfortunately expensive as time goes on. Parts have a markup, even third party. Unless there are a lot of others maintaining the same model parts will go out of production. You beet buy a lathe and milling machine.

I don’t even have a dashboard and the only electrical thing on my bicycle are the lights. If they can put ads on that I’d be really impressed.

“we are a premium brand”

my ass.

These “premium” German brands are all committing suicide. Rejecting electric cars, rejecting nuclear power, designing cars that look like puke, and doing everything to monetize your use of the car.

With incompetent leadership like this, those 8k workers being laid off from BMW is just the beginning.

German car brands are rejecting nuclear power?

I was really looking forward to my luxury German nuclear-powered car as well >:(

You don’t see them launching cars powered by their own onboard reactors, do you?

You are right!

suicide […] rejecting nuclear power

Uhuh. That plant in Romania that had to shut down, because the rivers are too hot.

And why is it so hot, I wonder

CO², nuclear didn’t help much against it.

You’re right, they should keep burning coal. Clean, beautiful coal, works no matter how hot it gets!

As if there’s not already entire countries with mostly renewable.

Nope, there’s not. Countries like Denmark which pretty much only produces wind power is completely reliant on importing energy from countries with a diverse energy mix, without which they would have blackouts every week.

They also need cooling for exactly the same reason and pretty much the same amount for the same power generation.

don’t worry, they’ll keep stoking nationalist paranoia and shift to defense. What’s the worst that could happen?

The premium is unfortunately not in the interior and infotainment experience, at least not these days. And I guess to non car people, the infotainment is what sells cars now.

The Germans still build the best* ICE drivetrains, the best chassis and suspension setups, to give you an excellent ride quality AND sporty handling in the same 2 ton family station wagon. Nobody compares, not even Volvo. But interior layouts have been going downhill steadily for like a decade now. And when it comes to EVs, you can’t really compete without being Chinese anyway. Other countries don’t have access to the same battery pricing, nor the same labor costs (to be fair the latter applies to both ICE and EV alike).

They’ll all die slow deaths. As EVs become mandated, Chinese companies will take over because nobody else can afford to sell cars for so cheap. The Chinese cars will of course have all the same infotainment issues like unwanted ads and they’ll be similar privacy nightmares, plus the prices will go up once you can only buy Chinese cars. It’ll be fun and we’ll all love it.

* Toyota Supra A90 used BMW’s B58 engine. That should tell you everything you need to know. TOYOTA didn’t bother coming up with their own engine for the chassis they also got from BMW. It’s been heralded as the modern 2JZ.

The Germans still build the best* ICE drivetrains, the best chassis and suspension setups, to give you an excellent ride quality

Dad has a BMW. It has a weird dampenung and steering adjustment to speed, so you’ll vastly underestimate how fast you’re driving. I won’t drive his car anymore.

That tends to be adjustable in cars now. Oftentimes the comfort setting is vague on purpose on a lot of cars. My Audi in comfort is fine if not a bit too soft for spirited driving on back roads, on Dynamic it’s perfect for that. It’s a 2007 Allroad though. Still has hydraulic (but variable) power steering and such.

When I had my 2019 C-Class, it felt just right for this type of driving, even though that one had steel springs and no adjustable dampers, but did have adjustable steering since it was fully electric power steering. It also felt completely at home cruising at 150-160 km/h (no autobahn here so I wouldn’t go faster than that usually).

Only BMW I ever owned was an E61 and that one also had superb road feel, though I hear the newer ones aren’t as good, since they do optimize for the highway rather than the curvy roads I personally prefer driving on.

In comparison, I test drove a Hyundai Ioniq 5, a small electric hatchback I thought would be sporty-ish, and that had zero road feel. Outright dangerous going fast into a corner with it, and with the electric torque it was certainly tempting to do so before I realized how little I know about its grip limits.

Hyundai Ioniq 5, a small electric hatchback I thought would be sporty-ish, and that had zero road feel. Outright dangerous going fast into a corner with it

The ioniq5 is not small. it weighs 4000-4600 lbs. Porker. That’s why it handles like shit.

The Germans still build the best* ICE drivetrains

Until the lease expires, then they are a nightmare to maintain. Money pits.

AUDI intentionally placed the timing chains backwards in motors so a high mileage timing chain replacement would require a full engine out and cost more than the car is worth. BMW used plastics in their pressurized fuel system with failure rates known after a set number of heat cycles, they are blowing up.

Plenty of non Chinese brands are on the EV train now.

I can buy an Alpine that it is, in every conceivable way, better than the cheapest VW EV (while being a bit cheaper, or the same price). How is this not a problem with German manufacturers specifically?

What are all the conceivable ways to you? Anyway, the Renault 5 is almost as much as the bigger id.3 neo here and we don’t have anyone selling the Alpine version as it’s more expensive than the 5 and thus too expensive for such a tiny car.

And all of these cost at least 4x as much as a similarly sized but lower power BYD does in China. That’s how much cheaper the Chinese can build their cars. When they sell the same batteries to Renault or VW, the batteries alone likely cost about as much as BYD’s entire car. And we can’t really produce these batteries at such scale here in Europe because of pollution regulation. China processes most of the world’s lithium and cobalt. Only hope we have is coming up with a magic battery chemistry that doesn’t come with a ton of environmental issues, but unfortunately Donut Labs is more than likely a scam.

The Germans still build the best* ICE drivetrains,

“Best” is a loaded word. “Best Horsepower for weight?” Possibly. Best reliability, absolutely not.

Agree about China overtaking market. Electric BYD is a huge ass SUV and costs 24k here. The next best option is a Dacia Bigster which is not exactly as good. Even so, dacias are populating my region due to low cost

if your car has internet access, it’s not yours

I mean, that’s really true of products in general.

I think that there are some real consumer law issues to answer where someone buys a product and then a manufacturer can control the product subsequent to the purchase. Like, say I buy a BMW with the expectation that I am not going to be seeing ads, based on the way it acts at the time that I bought it. At that point, I’m locked into owning that BMW. Then the manufacturer degrades my experience, maybe to the point where I no longer consider the vehicle to be the one I wanted.

Like, what is my remedy here? If the vehicle has OTA updates, I can never know what it’s going to be doing down the line, so I can’t make an informed decision. Having informed consumers is one of the basic requirements for markets to be efficient.

Maybe I could say “Well, that’s just a case of let the buyer beware. We’ll rely on reputation…some auto manufacturers will piss off consumers and those will be avoided”. But…if someone doesn’t buy cars that frequently, that’s a long iteration cycle.

I’m actually more concerned about video games. Like, if I’m a publisher, once I sell a video game, I don’t normally have more revenue coming in from it. But if I do have the ability to update that video game down the line. And I can update it to go harvesting user data, which turns it into a revenue stream. A lot of video game publishers go defunct on a regular basis or sell IP or whatnot, so there, even the “rely on reputation” route is more questionable.

I too have been getting concerned about video games. There is a lot of trust about installing software with no review, frequent updates, and runs at a system level, particularly for windows users.

Honestly, GNU/Linux isn’t better today from a user standpoint. I mean, Linux has the technical subsystems to sandbox software, yes — like, the move to Wayland makes isolating graphical software possible, where X11 imposed major limitations on one’s ability to do that. Various containerizing systems exist. But the typical software package distributed via Steam, say, in 2026, can see the filesystem as a whole.

Like, I can hack something up with something like firejail using that functionality that may-or-may-not work for a given game on a given system, but that’s not a real, universal solution for users. My mother is not going to do that.

Mobile OSes at least isolate most apps from most of the filesystem and some sensors, and provide some level of reasonably-accessible transparency into what apps can do. They still have their own issues that annoy me, like software normally being able to phone home with what information it does get. But that’s still way more isolation than a user who is playing a video game on GNU/Linux is getting.

Global, always-generally-available connectivity brought us a lot of nice things, but it’s also come with a lot of not-so-great things, and some of the not-so-great things is a loss of privacy and a loss of control over the things that we own. :-(

Yeah when I mentioned windows I was think specifically of the anti cheat running at ring 0.

Also, there are a few more hoops to jump through if the software is expecting a windows environment and you are running it via proton.

But yeah, I considered running all my games in a distrobox session, but quickly realized it’s so tied to the host that I would have to try a jail and like you said, the game may not work at all.

This sounds like something that should be illegal.

I’m willing to bet that these cars do not get software updates wirelessly though. You gotta take your car into the stealership for those. But ads? Instant wireless transmission.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Walk like an Egyptian…

Same company that made front-wheel-drives after promising it never would.

oh no, a car that doesn’t get stuck in 2 inches of snow, how terrible.

Where was this? And I would like to read the terms and conditions for purchase. I risk there is either a clause there for this and/or an entry way to file a complaint.

This poses an active danger. We are visual creatures. It will cause distraction.

US

This poses an active danger. We are visual creatures. It will cause distraction.

We are way past that point. Cars have had massive, phone shaped touch screens in them for years. Every year, more and more of the cabin controls are moved from physical buttons and knobs, that you can operate and adjust without taking your eyes off the road, to settings hidden behind multiple layers of menus on the gigantic touch screen. In some cars you can’t even change the direction of the air conditioning without accessing the touch screen.

Where is this? I am seeing a growing resurgence of buttons and knobs in recently built cars. And I have the impression of reading somewhere conventional controls are to be mandatory again because the screen based controls pose a distraction for driving.

I live in Australia.

As I walked out of my house, I made a conscious effort to take a peek on a few cars parked by the sidewalk and although many had the central console LCD installed, all had buttons and knobs to ajust and turn on and off things.

I’m in Europe.

Now I’m going to be on the look for the full LCD central console.

Nothing says luxury car like trashy ads on your dash

Never believe a megacorp.

“Surprise mechanic”

erm my car is not a billboard

the seat heater sub kept me away from buying a new one anyway

and maybe the rampant fires the media ignores.

But companies always hold their promises…

To their shareholders…

Curious, what IS the best new car brand for privacy? Especially in the EV sector?

I’m waiting to see regular reviews of those slate trucks and maybe a second model year/iteration. And maybe waiting to see if they eventually get better range. Sure not having a radio or infotainment is overkill, and only hand crank windows is overkill, but for $25k-30k and no big screen, it seems quite reasonable if all I want is a reliable box that moves around.

That’s the allure for me. I can choose to buy what I can afford and then at a later date add other options myself as I want them or need them. But the range is an issue for me as a rural person where a trip to a clinic is 100 mile round trip. And if I need more, then it becomes a 200+ mile trip.

Right, the Ford focus I bought for $17k in 2018 goes 350 or so miles on a full tank. I want at least that much range to consider a replacement.

Plus yeah, we’re rural enough chargers aren’t everywhere. Hopefully the range will be better and more chargers in a few years… And probably will keep the focus for the long cross county road trips.

You’re not going to want to hear this but… Tesla. It’s always been Tesla. No ads, no subscriptions for seat heaters, no selling your driving data.

I beg to differ, see Mozilla’s “Privacy Nightmare on Wheels” report for Tesla

In short: currently all options suck

Hey, did you actually read that article you linked? It clearly states Nissan’s the worst offender, and Tesla’s privacy issue was that 2022 data breach where employees shared videos. I’m not defending Tesla, but let’s stick to the facts here.

Did you only read the summary or the full report on Tesla? I linked 2 different pages so you can have your facts straight

You’re talking about the brand that is paywalling the auto drive after saying they never would ?

Are people seriously this ignorant.

reuters.com/…/tesla-workers-shared-sensitive-imag…

Nazis lie.

Read up. Elon is not your friend: consumerrights.wiki/w/Tesla

Users see the word “Tesla” and hit the down arrow without considering context or data. Tesla is a terrible company, and Musk is an egotistical, racist manbaby; those aren’t the only reasons why I won’t buy a Tesla, but they are a big part. The truth is that every big automobile manufacturer is bad when it comes to infotainment user experience and data privacy.

I won’t buy a Tesla, and most people I know won’t either. But when it comes to the US auto market, Tesla is consistently rated as one of the best user infotainment experiences, specifically because of the things you mentioned. I know someone who bought the 2026 Nissan Leaf, and they love it. I’ve ridden in it a lot and I think it’s a great car… except for the user experience. Every time the car is turned on a pop up covers most of the console advertising satellite radio subscriptions. There’s no way to disable it. Nissan is widely known to be the worst when it comes to user privacy, too.

Slate has my attention and I want them to disrupt the market. I’m considering buying one for my next vehicle, with the range being the only thing that hasn’t locked in my decision yet. I take several long (500+ miles) trips each year, and I would prefer to avoid having to use Tesla superchargers as there aren’t any other fast DC chargers along the route.

Yeah 100%. Ever since Elon went Republican everybody wants to hate him. I don’t blame them. It’s sad and IMHO short-sighted, but these days nuance doesn’t seem to be a big part of popular decision making. So something like ‘he’s a weird guy who works his people to the bone and he has shitty politics, but he’s overall doing things that are good for our society’ is too much to ask from most popular discourse.

It’s pretty clear that the other automakers really do not understand vehicle computing on a fundamental level. Even the supposedly connected modern cars are still using old infrastructure with tons of little can bus modules everywhere each doing one thing. And they are all supplied by the usual handful of companies like Delphi and Bosch.
If any of the automakers took a page out of Tesla’s playbook, namely design your own hardware and software, and focus on flat out building a better vehicle rather than figuring out how to nickel and dime every user, they would make a killing.

This could also be solved with regulation. And probably should be solved with regulation. Basically say that automakers are prohibited from extracting any personal data from a vehicle including driving data or location data, unless a. The user explicitly opts in (and an opt-in may not be required for any other functionality), and b. Extracted data may not be sold or shared or used for any purpose other than providing services to the user (such as navigation). And that in-car screens may not be used for any sort of advertising or promotion, unless a. The user opts in (and an opt-in may not be required for any other functionality), and b. Any advertisement on the display must include a clear way to permanently disable advertisements in two clicks or button presses.

The fact is nobody wants advertisements on their car and they know that

Fuck all. Especially in Europe now if mandates you have a camera watching your face in all new cars

So late 2023 models is all you get

This is mandatory in America too, starting in 2027. It was passed hidden away in a “jobs act” in 2021.

nhtsa.gov/…/Report-to-Congress-Advanced-Impaired-…

Your linked article talks about the need to research the tech to stop impaired driving.

It’s not mandatory yet, as best as I can read it for now.

It’s not an article. It is a report to Congress detailing attempted compliance with a new mandate.

It looks like the mandatory compliance date has been pushed back. So no cameras next year, but if you read the recent report, that is the direction they are going.

nhtsa.gov/…/Report-to-Congress-Advanced-Impaired-…

They want it, duh. It don’t mean they’ll get it. Of course we can’t sleep on this either, so your warnings are fair. Thank you.

They already are. Driver monitoring using cameras that watch your face 24/7, though not mandatory, are already shipping in cars from Subaru, Toyota, Ford, GM, and Tesla. It may be more, but those are the ones I know of. You’re welcome, good luck.

Guess which cameras are getting the hammer or the duct tape?

Or buy used.

If this disease spreads, we’ll need to have a talk with the CEOs and the big investors.

They’re hooked into the drive system. That would just shut the car down. You’d have to also significantly alter the software and the modem. I’m with you though. I’ll be buying used and just be swapping the drive system for electric whenever that becomes the norm.

That’s free money for the buyer in a lawsuit.

We get all the downsides of private ownership with none of the upsides. Meanwhile, the billionaires get all the upsides of private ownership with none of the downsides. Fuck that!

You agree to the cameras when you buy the car, and it’s a system that is about to be mandatory under federal law? What would you sue for?

I can operate the car as I see fit once I take posession of it.

Whether the camera can continuing spying is up to me if the car is mine.

If the vendor has other ideas, they will lose in court.

The best they can do is try to condition services like warranty repairs, or software updates on my compliance, but that has to be tested. They may be compelled to provide some minimum level of service no matter what.

In other words, what’s mine is mine to control.

They would need to rent the car instead of selling it if they didn’t like letting go of it.

I am already generous. I don’t feel the slightest need to be polite or generous to someone or some entity, or a process, I didn’t like.

consumerrights.wiki/w/Category:Car_manufacturers

Not sure how I feel about this … sure it’s a very shitty practice in general. But on the other hand it only effects BMW drivers.

All BMWs need to be retrofitted with forced ads.

That’s the thing, other brands will see this and get the same idea.

BMW and Mercedes were the first ones to introduce a subscription to use things already in the vehicle (BMW with the Heated Seats, Mercedes locking engine performance behind a paywall)

Now we’re seeing more brands follow the same example, like Volkswagen locking EV battery range behind a paywall.

With BMW doing this, I assure you other brands will follow. I’m pretty sure Stellantis vehicles have been doing some form of this for a little while.

That is an ugly car. Why can’t EVs look like normal cars?

What’s a “normal” car?

Fair point.

The Canyonero

1990s styling

Was looking for a new electric car and had BMW in the rotation. That’s not happening now. Was already on shaky ground after the heated seat thing and now I’m not touching em.

On supported vehicles, starting the car brings up a banner on the Control Display, and tapping it launches a full-screen Spider-Man animation with music and ambient lighting effects. BMW says the feature is available on suitably equipped cars built after July 2020 and running BMW Operating System 7, 8, 8.5, 9, or X.

Ah, I see. It’s a feature! I’m surprised they’re not trying to charge a subscription fee to get ads on your dashboard.

Don’t forget a subscription fee to get rid of ads!

I have a feeling a bunch of folks are going to want to rip their modems out of their cars in the next few years.

This is a capital offense.

Anytime a corporation or a politicians says they aren’t going to do something, it means they’re thinking about that subject, and they are definitely going to do it.

We make far more decisions to NOT do something, and if someone doesn’t want to do something, they just don’t do it, they don’t tell everybody. We don’t talk about the things we aren’t going to do, we talk about things we ARE going to do.

Years ago, I was in a national managers conference call meeting, and HQ started it by saying “If there are rumors of lay-offs in your office, shut them down. There are no plans for lay-offs at this time.” I don’t remember what the rest of the meeting was about, but we all walked saying “Lay-offs are coming.”

Sure enough, within two months, I was out of a job, along with a bunch of others. Within a year, several branch offices were closed. We weren’t worried about it at all, until they brought it up in the meeting.

If they’re bringing it up, they’re softening us up for it, even if they’re saying No.

Same happened to us at my job. Boss gave a big nervous speech recently about how we’re doing fine and not to worry and how the industry is suffering but we’re staying strong… yada yada going to retain everyone … have no reason to fire yada yada and the literal next week fired two employees for the stated reason of “not busy enough to retain”.

Everyone knew it was coming when he started the speech off with “I don’t want anyone to feel insecure about their jobs here”

We’re heading straight towards a cyberpunk future.

And not even a shiny, pretty, exciting one, ours is still half boring for some reason. I can’t even pin down what’s missing. It still feels like ours has wood paneling or something, but even that would be too '70s, which would still be a little cool. Maybe ours is too '90s? Our cyberpunk somehow still feels too analogue and not enough.

Its not a time period or quality issue but an ownership one. You can buy a new car but you don’t ever really own it fully.

And software, and movies, and books, and…

We live in a boring, ugly, stupid universe.

one of these days I’m going to spend a weekend going from dealership to dealership looking for a new car, and just wasting their time when I come across nonsense features like this

that Prius feature that beeps and distracts you from the road whenever you pull up to an intersection? that’s fucked up

those features that remind you to pay attention to the road because you have sunglasses on, and pull your attention away from the road to tell you that? that’s fucked up

the features that aggressively keep you in your lane when you drift to give room to an obstacle? that’s fucked up

I’ve never exactly been in the market for a bmw anyhow, but this is a great way to guarantee I will never want one.

You and me… same page

That’s a suspiciously specific promise to make.

One-time as in there won’t be another Spider-Man ad. I’m sure the next ad will also be a “one-time” deal as well.

I’m sure this will help beat the Chinese automakers

In case you are considering purchasing a BMW here are the models mentioned in the article:

BMW says the feature is available on suitably equipped cars built after July 2020 and running BMW Operating System 7, 8, 8.5, 9, or X

Feature?

It’s working as designed

That’s only in the US, I suppose?

I don’t think they’d get away with it in another market with a functioning society.

When my wife bought a new Mazda, the dealer made her sign a form that said the remote start app would only be free for one year. He told her it was just boiler plate; the remote start app would be free forever. I knew when she bought the vehicle the remote start app would be a monthly charge starting in precisely one year. lol!

My parents have a car with remote start, and I’ve never been able to understand what the advantages are supposed to be. The only time that they’ve ever used it was when they first got it, and were playing with it.

The advantages are starting your car remotely in the hot or cold months to pre-cool/preheat the cabin, defrost the windows, etc. and let the engine warm up for a couple of minutes.

I use it everyday in the summer and winter months. Cools/heats the car for 10min before turning off again. Also can be used to keep my dog cool if I have to pop into a place real quick.

I’m going to take a wild guess that you live somewhere that doesn’t freeze. lol!

Kudos to you. Where we live, it’s cold AF.

“Your” dashboard?

Our! Comrade.

What can I do about it? No point complaining

Ah ha, my clever plan has been poor and not being able to afford to buy a brand new BMW, has paid off.

A plan that is old as time. Wait til the pre own vehicle deals are in the newspaper

That is going to take a long time… newspaper…

No one buys BMWs, they rent them. I worked in this industry, BMW buyers were always broke ass.