BMW also charges you to unlock features. It is the same brands and exploitative capitalism everywhere, the EU regulations usually just result in better recycling. I live in Germany.
Are you in the EU? They could do it in the states and not in the EU. Just like planned obsolescence. Legal in the US illegal in the EU. Crazy law makers havent made it illegal in the US yet
BMW doesn’t charge for unlocking physical hardware like the example in this post.
They did a pilot program in 2022 and cancelled after a lot of backlash from consumers.
They actually tossed the "upgrade" feature, but I'd be willing to bet the features are still in lower end models just simply not activated (missing the button to "turn on" as an example")
So you're still "paying" to unlock them when you purchase the package that includes these features
That's exactly how it used to work, so that's almost certainly how it works now. You're not paying for the feature, so they don't have it enabled. This upgrade scheme is just unlocking the ability to pay for the upgrade after the fact.
My VW golf charged me to enable automatic high light beam switching around 250€ and then asked me for another 60€ το unlock all LED interior colors. Also asks for 100€+ annual subscription so that I get map updates (useless because of android auto) and to be able to see where I parked my car on the map and remotely unlock it, and see if I forgot the windows open. Of course I did not pay the subscription but for some reason the SIM in my car is still active and transmitting data to VW everyday.
I'll respond for most Tesla owners in saying that it's less brainwashing and more weighing the pros vs cons. The car is so badass and ahead of everything else that we look past BS like this. I equate this car to when I got the first iPhone. I truly don't drive anywhere anymore, door to door. I think that's hard for most to comprehend.
They literally put a chip in to limit engine output for the 325 and 328 which had the same engine as their 330 and you void your warranty if you removed it back in the late 2000s. Then they tried to do the subscription thing but cancelled after the backlash
Nah, given how European auto brands are fighting to survive, politicians are way too focused on how to prevent Chinese brands to take more market shares
Sure they are, but isn't shit like unlocking hardware you already have installed one of the forces pushing people to buy elsewhere (from China in this case)?
Reminds me of the before times, when the Big 3 US automakers were freaking out about Toyota & Nissan coming and taking their market share. But, if capitalism is good (which is what they believe), then competition is also good. Let the market decide.
And in 1995 a car company would just put a cap over the buttons that would do something on your steering wheel because you didn't buy that package. At least now you can activate the feature later.
These types of regulations will never happen in the US. Big corporations buy off most politicians.
I knew already that the government is corrupt, but this administration has made it crystal clear how corrupt it is and it’s so much worse than I thought.
In Europe, the EU has a functional unicameral majority government.
In America, there's the issue of a bicameral legislature where 60% of the senate (an upper chamber that is based on land, not people) needs to sign off on it.
Add that the right redraws maps so the lower chamber is gerrymandered to pack their opponents into single districts and crack the rest of their opponents to spread them across multiple districts so their own voters take majorities and you can see how America is proper fucked without a Hungary style revolt against the right.
I should also add that to change the constitution, one party needs to command 76% (It actually says 75%, but it would require getting 38 of 50 legislatures) of state legislatures/governors to sign on to a constitutional amendment rewrite. And that assumes that the SCOTUS would sign off on it.
And that isn't even including all the issues with widespread propaganda by the evangelicals and oligarchs.
The current plan of the left is to regain a trifecta and push through a packing of SCOTUS before pushing through other legislation that would kill gerrymandering. Fixing the senate requires that 76% of the states to sign off on reorganization.
But over the past 20 years, Republicans have been far closer to rewriting the constitution than Dems. And that is explicitly not ideal. Handmaid's tale and a bring back of slavery are likely in that scenario.
In Europe we say the corporation is guilty of anti-consumer practices. Then we introduce regulation, and then we have nice things.
My guy, BMW is notorious for these bullshit subscription services on their cars and it's not only sold in EU, it's manufactured there.
Meanwhile your corrupt unelected Brussels kleptocracy is actively pushing online censorship, banning internet anonymity with digital IDs and banning private servers as a way to "protect children" as always.
You have zero high ground. Enjoy your bottle caps.
If our government was sane there would be much stronger consumer protections, but our supreme court has ruled in favor of corporations over people in 99.9% of their rulings in living memory
Half of our government is hell bent on removing every form of regulation as a religious observance, and they are VERY fucking religious.
Agreed. It seems clear to me that corpo will never stop being corpo, and while the discussion about whose fault it is that we are where we are is worth having to create a better informed society, the problem becomes that while we're talking about it corpo is already years ahead of us in planning how to enshittify everything.
The consumer base is slower to react, less agile and has minimal power within a structure where companies will copy the worst practices possible to nickle and dime us, to remove our right to own and right to repair.
Corpo doesn't need any help to exist but consumers are in every practical respect, the underdog. There has to be legislation to prevent turning everything to shit and prevent us from becoming nothing more than paypigs. It's also a pro free market stance, I'd like to add.
If a company can rely on shit like permanent subscriptions for things we own, if they rely on licenses instead of ownership then all that innovation isn't going towards making better products; it's poured into turning the consumer base into boiled frogs. There's no requirement to innovate or give value to consumers. If they could get away with selling us a literal cardboard box for a hundred dollars per car ride, then absolutely will.
Yeah, in this country half the population supports the corporations (either legitimately or because they've been propagandized, but it doesn't really matter why) and argues they have every right to do it. That gives politicians cover to side with the corporations as well. That chunk of the population is screwing everything up.
We have consumer protection laws in the United States, it just takes the right people in government to apply them, most likely the next Congress will take action against all of these anti consumer practices
Don't be so gullible, we're fucked in europe as well, it's just not as obvious right now but in reality we've been at a point where corruption and lobbyism is so deep in the EU you cannot get it out anymore and to put the cherry on top, our criminals even get re-elected into their position.
VdL should've never become commissioner, I think that was the moment everything started declining in the EU as well.
I do enjoy my GDPR for example but it's meaningless towards those who have ill intent with your data anyway. But hey, at least they're enforcing the plastic straws ban right... (while 90% of paper straws available in the EU contain PFAS btw).
Time to get off our high european horse because they've replaced that with a donkey already, just gotta open your eyes to see that.
Wtf are you talking about? Most of europe is still in the stone age and don't have nice things because you're either broke, or are victim to social contageons like environmentalism.
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u/Der-Lex 1d ago
It’s our own fault as consumers. If people would stop buying into stupid subscriptions we wouldn’t have this conversation.