OV9

And when a feature breaks it’ll become a vehicle to refund the customer

Can't see that catching on. Seems like they're busy making ugly cars that dilute the core values and annoy customers. Although I'm equally sure that I'm wrong and that they'll make loads of money doing it.

Imagine buying your second or third hand BMW and having to shell out for the spec you want to work. Or will BMW just enable everything and sell the car outright to someone?

By then some nice Russian chaps will have hacked it and written some software to let you enable everything you want.

Ridiculous, unless they think no-one wants to own anything.

Dave!

So the hardware for every option is installed in every car, and whether the buyer has paid for the option or not, BMW will have paid to install it. Can’t see that working financially.

Rich B wrote: ↑Sat Jul 04, 2020 8:18 am So the hardware for every option is installed in every car, and whether the buyer has paid for the option or not, BMW will have paid to install it. Can’t see that working financially.

“Honey, turn the air-conditioning on”

<gets out Apple Pay>

“Do you want the full arctic Tundra or just chilly ?”

Dave!

Rich B wrote: ↑Sat Jul 04, 2020 8:18 am So the hardware for every option is installed in every car, and whether the buyer has paid for the option or not, BMW will have paid to install it. Can’t see that working financially.

Simplifies production though?

JonMad wrote: ↑Sat Jul 04, 2020 9:09 am

Rich B wrote: ↑Sat Jul 04, 2020 8:18 am So the hardware for every option is installed in every car, and whether the buyer has paid for the option or not, BMW will have paid to install it. Can’t see that working financially.

Simplifies production though?

probably a little, but you’ll still have all the colours and trim levels to manage, so it’s not as though you can just churn them out like washing machines.

It’s all part of their ploy to keep charging you money as once cars go fully electric there’s no additional profit to be made from servicing. Would sir like an update and 20 bhp? That’ll be £1200.

Repeat every year for the next 5. Or just buy from a brand which isn’t such a cunt.

Bmw and vw have done it for years with certain options like cruise control where the car already has fly by wire throttle as standard. All they have to do is check a box in the coding settings to enable it.

I’m sure there will still be plenty of physical options which have to be fitted separately by either factory or dealer.

Rich B wrote: ↑Sat Jul 04, 2020 8:18 am So the hardware for every option is installed in every car, and whether the buyer has paid for the option or not, BMW will have paid to install it. Can’t see that working financially.

Fairly similar to how mainframes used to be built. They were fully loaded and additional resources could be made available instantly by entering license keys.

Obviously can't do it with physical components, but if the majority of the features are software based, then it costs them very little, which I suspect can be recouped when less difference is needed on the production line. One infrastructure design covers all options, rest is software.

integrale_evo wrote: ↑Sat Jul 04, 2020 1:44 pm Bmw and vw have done it for years with certain options like cruise control where the car already has fly by wire throttle as standard. All they have to do is check a box in the coding settings to enable it.

I’m sure there will still be plenty of physical options which have to be fitted separately by either factory or dealer.

Cornering lights is a big one for vag group cars- for example Skoda Fabia SE with front fog lights already fitted to the model as standard can have cornering front fog lights optioned for £155. It’s literally just a setting change in the ecu, no extra hardware involved. At least cruise control you get an extra switch for your £195

Bmw have been doing this for years.

Mrs A F31 didn’t have the Bluetooth streaming enabled as it was an un-ticked option when it was bought. I recoded it with the bimmerlink app and it works a treat now.

Same for carplay can be enabled with some coding and a plug in antenna.

ETA - enabled a load of other things like cornering lights and enabled hidden I drive features.

Just seen that it’s $18 a month to activate heated seats in a BMW. What a joke. Welcome to the future. Clearly going to catch on because it’s a massive revenue driver.

Hopefully it’ll be easy to hack with a £20 plug in dongle off eBay

Yep, you’ll be able to buy a poverty spec 520d in doom blue for £3k in a few years and spend £20 on a bit of Russian hardware and end up with a fully specced 520d for peanuts!

integrale_evo wrote: ↑Thu Dec 08, 2022 9:04 pm Hopefully it’ll be easy to hack with a £20 plug in dongle off eBay

this!

Mito Man wrote: ↑Thu Dec 08, 2022 9:15 pm Yep, you’ll be able to buy a poverty spec 520d in doom blue for £3k in a few years and spend £20 on a bit of Russian hardware and end up with a fully specced 520d for peanuts!

This, it will be cracked in no time.