BMW isn't going to lock non-essential, but desirable features behind a subscription paywall anymore.
In July last year, BMW started testing a paywall on its vehicles for specific features. For example, heated seats required signing up for an $18 per month subscription, a high beam assistant was $8 per month, and other options included a heated steering wheel and an artificial noise generator.
As Autocar reports, BMW's board member for sales and marketing, Pieter Nota, was asked about locking such features behind premium subscriptions. He explained that BMW intends to offer "software and service-related products" as functions on demand going forward.
However, when it comes to features such as heated seats, Nota said, "What we don’t do any more – and that is a very well-known example – is offer seat heating by this way. It’s either in or out. We offer it by the factory and you either have it or you don’t have it."
As to why BMW changed its mind about this, it's down to customer feedback: "We thought that we would provide an extra service to the customer by offering the chance to activate that later, but the user acceptance isn’t that high. People feel that they paid double – which was actually not true, but perception is reality, I always say. So that was the reason we stopped that."
In future, on-demand services, and any feature that requires transmitting data, will be where owners can be offered a subscription option. The examples Nota gives include downloading a park assist product or a movie to watch using the car's entertainment system.