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BMW Seat Heater Hackers Wanted — Parallax Forums

BMW Seat Heater Hackers Wanted

BMW wants to charge $18/month to let you use your seat heaters. How hard could that be to bypass? A hacker's dream. https://www.newser.com/story/322942/bmw-rolls-out-monthly-fee-for-heated-seats-other-options.html

Comments

  • JonnyMacJonnyMac Posts: 8,912
    edited 2022-07-16 01:38

    Can BMW owners do a charge back for carrying that seat heater hardware that is adding weight and negatively impacting their mileage? :D

    DEF CON is coming up. They usually have a car hacking village. I'll bet this is a topic this year. I'm not going, but I will keep tabs.

  • BMW wants to charge $18/month to let you use your seat heaters.

    A monthly tush toaster transaction? 'Tis total tomfoolery!

    -Phil

  • YanomaniYanomani Posts: 1,524
    edited 2022-07-16 10:49

    I just can antecipate a view: a huge bunch of lawyers backing that new concept from BMW's "creative-incomes-department"-inception, behind the curtains; any profits the carmaker could imagine would result, from charging the car owners such a fare, would certainly be outpaced by a large margin, due hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of angry widows and widowers-plaintiffs, just prossecuting the german enterprise.

    A single first-case would be enough; the avalanche will soon become kind of a new hot-planetary-trend... :lol:

    https://britannica.com/story/is-spontaneous-human-combustion-real

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_human_combustion

  • Guess it'll be heater subscriptions in the winter, and aircon in the summer months.

    Oh, and pay the headlights sub overnight.

    Madness!

    I wonder if the fees include annual service and consumables costs? Filters,fluids, bulbs, etc.. plus free rapid replacement in-case of system failure (aka cold butt moment) ?

  • Hmmm, what does BMW and Klaus "you will own nothing and be happy" Schwab have in common.

    Craig

  • Customer of mine builds bus/coach seats. I bailed them out a couple of years ago when one of their obsolete control systems died. I had no option but to break out the proto board. They were amazed to see someone building a board right at the machine that they brought visitors in to watch :lol:

    So a couple of weeks ago, they called me regarding seat heaters. Their customer wants 2,000 of their existing seats retrofitted "urgently". I suggested the heat pads available on eBay but they want to build the elements into the existing upholstery and come up with their own rugged enclosure for the electronics. I'm really not interested but they won't let it drop.
    I asked how come seat heating for the bus driver is suddenly so urgent.

    They tell me that London Transport are planning to lock all of the windows open on every bus this winter but they want their drivers to be comfortable :neutral:

    Messed up!!!!

    Craig

  • JRoarkJRoark Posts: 1,214
    edited 2022-07-16 16:08

    “Comfort as a service”. Unreal. This means someone (Recaro, etc) is planning a complete retrofit seat. Sure, its probably $1500, but it pays for itself in 7 years.

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    edited 2022-07-16 16:38

    @"Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)" said:

    BMW wants to charge $18/month to let you use your seat heaters.

    A monthly tush toaster transaction? 'Tis total tomfoolery!

    -Phil

    This tacky temporal tail temperature tariff should be taboo!

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244

    My Nissan Leaf (all battery) is the first car I've had with seat heaters and a heated steering wheel (both free to use!). Seemed frivolous at first, but their intended use is to avoid/reduce using cabin heat, which uses 50X more battery energy and reduces range.

    ICE (gas) cars get free unlimited heat as a by-product of engine heat, but no such luck on EVs. It IS nice to have an instantly toasty tush & steering wheel, no waiting. I have never used cabin heat, not necessary in warm Los Angeles.

  • $415 for perpetuity.

    Sounds to me like a production thing. All cars will have heated seats as an already installed option. If you want the option with no hassle, pay the $415.

    Fanuc did this with their CNC controls. Every control already had all of the optional features but one had to pay to unlock each one.

    Craig

  • They tell me that London Transport are planning to lock all of the windows open on every bus this winter but they want their drivers to be comfortable.

    Has to be a COVID protocol. See this article:

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/470690/whose-breath-are-you-breathing

    -Phil

  • MicksterMickster Posts: 2,588
    edited 2022-07-17 19:44

    @"Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)" said:

    They tell me that London Transport are planning to lock all of the windows open on every bus this winter but they want their drivers to be comfortable.

    Has to be a COVID protocol. See this article:

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/470690/whose-breath-are-you-breathing

    -Phil

    Yeah, I omitted what I was told verbatim by London Transport :neutral:

    NZ...[shock horror]

    Craig

  • @Mickster said:
    $415 for perpetuity.

    Sounds to me like a production thing. All cars will have heated seats as an already installed option. If you want the option with no hassle, pay the $415.

    Fanuc did this with their CNC controls. Every control already had all of the optional features but one had to pay to unlock each one.

    Craig

    And then buy a new license if the battery died!

  • Ohskya, boyskya tovarich, new and wonderful ransomware oportunities!!!

  • Good one!

    Which would be worse..
    1. Can't get warm
    2. Permanent 'roast' setting...

    until you pay my fee!

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244

    I once dissected a small bicycle computer to put into a Hot Wheels car to give speed & distance information. It was the cheapest model in Vetta's line, with the fewest features. I had to hack the PCB to fit it in, chopping and rearranging a few components. Somehow along the way, I activated many previously unavailable features, only available on higher-priced models. That was a clear case where it was cheaper to make one custom SMT IC for the entire product line and access features based on which PCB it's soldered to.

    Apparently some Beamer bean counter genius has figured that it was cheaper to build set heaters all in and unlock them later.

    Hmmm... maybe my Corvair just needs a firmware upgrade to become a Porche!

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    edited 2022-11-25 21:41

    This is getting ridiculous, I'm sticking with my Corvair!

    https://www.newser.com/story/328388/mercedes-drivers-can-accelerate-faster-for-a-fee.html

  • When you think of theses exciting new ways of money extortion a bit more then you realise it really is ... nothing.

    I'd say they lag behind the much more important stuff that the average person is already forced to pay like food, water, housing, taxes, insurances or even burilas that are much, much harder to avoid than paying monthly fee for a feature A or B that is entirely optional.

    And no, I am not for it. I am all against it but there sure are many who will gladly pay so why not take their money ?

    One day every one will be forced to pay, in a direct way, just for breathing in air and that will be a turning point. That is something we should really start to worry about, not some small option for the ones who will never notice the cost.

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244

    @Maciek said:
    When you think of theses exciting new ways of money extortion a bit more then you realise it really is ... nothing.

    I'd say they lag behind the much more important stuff that the average person is already forced to pay like food, water, housing, taxes, insurances or even burilas that are much, much harder to avoid than paying monthly fee for a feature A or B that is entirely optional.

    And no, I am not for it. I am all against it but there sure are many who will gladly pay so why not take their money ?

    One day every one will be forced to pay, in a direct way, just for breathing in air and that will be a turning point. That is something we should really start to worry about, not some small option for the ones who will never notice the cost.

    Sigh.

  • The act of paying for literally nothing has already been perfected in the mobile game sector. They make it so you don't actually ever have to pay to progress, instead they psychologically exploit some 1% of vulnerable people into paying tens of thousands for literally nothing. Of course, to make paying the preferable option to just unlocking stuff normally, the actual game has to be no fun, which would seem to defeat the point, but apparently not. (Watch out for "auto play" buttons, the ultimate admission of defeat in the realm of game design...)

  • Hey, another game designer who hates mobile games!

    I would characterize current mobile games as having two objectives:

    • Getting the "whales" to pay cash to avoid playing the game, or profiting from their impatience.
    • Getting everyone else to click on yet another ad to increase the numbers and return from the in-game video ads.

    Early on, the mobile game companies realized that with free-to-play games, the only way to make money was to keep the user around for as long as possible. This led to strategies that would extend the time you got to another level as long as possible, with many, many interlocking "upgrades" to earn. They also brought in people from slot machine gaming, who knew the psychology of keeping people hooked (or "engaged") by giving out slightly unpredictable rewards.

  • Guess you should of bought a Mercedes

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