I mean, if you think that $80/year is "gouging" then you are not in their target demographics. To wit, over the price of a new car (whether BMW or Kia), the $80/year does not begin to register.
>> I'm certainly in BMW's demo
No, you are not. Carmakers target people that will actually want to buy a new car. They do not target people that drive a 2002 or whatever rustbuckets, for obvious reasons.
My 1975 bmw 2002 is my fun, weird weekend car. I bought a brand new daily driver in 2017 and bmws were among the cars I tested. I decided to get a fairly boring, reliable daily and the fun weekend car, but I seriously considered going with a single car, which would have likely been a bmw m235i. So, yes, I'm in very much in their demo.
As I said before, the actual money involved isn't what would turn me off. It could be $1/year and I'd feel the same way. It's the principal of being charged an ongoing fee for something that doesn't require it. I'm happy to pay to change fluids in car, or pay to get data over an integrated radio because those are ongoing services that require the service provider to invest in maintaining or offering a service. Having carplay continue to work after they build the car requires bmw do exactly nothing.
I have no issue with bmw charging whatever they want for people to get a leather wrapped steering wheel. They should charge obscene amounts of money if they can get people to pay. What I have a problem with is bmw charging me again next year if I bought a leather wrapped steering wheel. I already bought the feature, I own it, they can't charge me again. The fact carplay is some code and a security chip from apple doesn't make it different from a steering wheel. The concept of ownership is being eroded.
>> Having carplay continue to work after they build the car requires bmw do exactly nothing.
You seem to think that carplay can automagically connect to the internet without any cost involved.
That cannot happen. It is a cell phone basically and needs a monthly plan just like your phone. Do you have free internet on your phone? No. So, don't expect free internet in your car, either.
>It is a cell phone basically and needs a monthly plan just like your phone. Do you have free internet on your phone? No. So, don't expect free internet in your car, either.
carplay does not include an LTE radio of any kind. It's a spec to allow an iphone to display content on the screen in your car over a lightning cable. Any internet data is transferred by the iphone using the existing data plan you already pay for. There are no ongoing licensing fees from apple and no reason it would cost a car maker any money to have it keep working. carplay works perfectly fine in cars that don't have their own cell radio connections.
If you boil it all the way down carplay is like having an hdmi port in your dash that displays your phone on the car's screen. If your bluray player had an annual fee for hdmi to keep working you would be annoyed at paying that too since there is nothing about an hdmi port that it makes sense to charge an annual fee for.
I don't think you understand how this technology works, so I will try to help here.
Briefly: some car manufacturers provide a car with a cellular connection. That is, the car can connect to the mobile network, just like your cell phone can.
So now, with cellular connection, your car can show you online maps, or play online music, or whatever services Apple CarPlay, or Google whatever, or proprietary solutions can provide. Just like your cell phone.
Now, I hope this is getting clearer. Is your cell phone usage free? No. You pay Verizon or whoever, a set, monthly fee for the usage. You probably also have a cap (like, 10G data/month). The important takeaway is: the service is not free. You pay for it, usually on some kind of a monthly plan.
Now back to the car. It needs the same cellular service that your cell phone needs. Given that your cell-phone usage is not free, it is kind of obvious that your car's cellular connection is not going to be free, either.
Makes sense?
Now.
So now, we know that there are things that are one-time cost (like, when you buy a car for cash), and then there are ongoing costs. For example, your car may need regular oil changes, checkups, and maybe a monthly fee for cellular, and another monthly fee for that Sirius thing.
Some carmakers may decide to sweeten the deal that is your car buying experience, by eating up the cost for any, or some of the above. Mind you, it still costs money to e.g. do the oil change on your car; it is not free; it is just that the manufacturer has decided to pay for it. The same logic applies to Sirius and CarPlay and OnRoute or whatever.
It is important to realize that, whether it is the oil change or Apple CarPlay, these are ongoing things that the car manufacturer cannot provide themselves. Oil change is not provided by the car manufacturer. Rather, that is provided by dealerships or other independent shops. Same with cellular, car manufacturers do not own cellular networks. Rather, they will hook up your car to whoever provides the cellular.
Bottom line. Whether we are talking about the regular oil change, or CarPlay, there is a cost to it, and someone (the car owner -- who else?) will have to pay for it.
You seem to be confusing carplay with in car cell service. Carplay uses the phone's data connection and the car is just a dumb terminal displaying content from the phone.
In car cell radio should obviously have a service fee since there is an actual service. Carplay is a static, one time car feature.
Ok, so you want to get a new BMW. If it is a lease, that may be $500 or $1000 or whatever per month. That's after downpayment of $many, will be more without downpayment or trade-in or whatever you got.
BMW throws in a cellular connection ("BMW assist" or whatever they call it) for $0, for the first X years. Not sure how many.
You can also get carplay, free for the first year (I think)
But then after that, carplay will be like $80/year. That is <$7/month. How does that even register, never mind make any difference?
And what is the narrative here, like "Oh, I was looking at BMW and Audi; I bought Audi because of the BMW's price-gouging $7/month fee!".
Did that ever happen? May be, but it just does not compute. Far as I can tell, if you are concerned over $7/month, you will not be buying a new BMW or Audi. It just does not add up.
I’m not quite sure I understand the reasoning of your argument.
I certainly agree that if someone is buying a bmw they can afford an extra $7/month. But I think that the question is value as well as a sense of fairness. Just because someone has money doesn’t mean they will spend it arbitrarily for things of little value.
This does happen all the time (eg, natural water), but there is certainly a large group of people who don’t purchase based on this philosophy. This may contribute to their wealth level making them capable of buying luxury vehicles. I think so.
Arguing that people have the money to pay, therefore should pay, without evaluating the value of the item is silly and will lead to increased poverty. As the market will make more and more expensive things without value until an equilibrium is reached where the buyers can not afford it.
Do you find that you win a lot of arguments with this condescending tone?
At hand is the question of whether a buyer might reject paying $80/year to BMW USA in order for one bit to remain in the 'on' position to enable CarPlay--not provision of cellular service or anything further.
My suggestion is that not everyone says "oh, the lease is $800 a month, another $80 a year is fine." $80 is still enough that being charged $80 for a pencil, or a chicken sandwich, or whatever, would be outrageous. And leaving a bit flipped is incalculably less work effort than preparing a chicken sandwich.
FWIW: I've purchased or leased various BMWs and Audis over the last decade, and have rejected every offered subscription plan for pushbutton concierge, car wifi hotspot, etc., and have regretted paying more than $0 (on a one-time basis) for BMW's older iOS integration product.
>> My suggestion is that not everyone says "oh, the lease is $800 a month, another $80 a year is fine." $80 is still enough that being charged $80 for a pencil, or a chicken sandwich, or whatever, would be outrageous. And leaving a bit flipped is incalculably less work effort than preparing a chicken sandwich.
You are comparing apples and oranges, montlhy payments and yearly payments. "$800 a month, another $80 a year". How about being honest, "$800/month, another $7/month"?
>> FWIW: I've purchased or leased various BMWs and Audis over the last decade, and have rejected every offered subscription plan for pushbutton concierge, car wifi hotspot, etc., and have regretted paying more than $0 (on a one-time basis) for BMW's older iOS integration product.
Who cares about what you did or did not? Looks like you are here to congratulate yourself. Why would that matter to anyone other than you?
Or maybe you were stretching to get the car that you cannot afford. Who cares about adding 1% or 2% of the monthly price for something that is useful? Among people that buy luxury cars (myself included) I've not seen that. You need winter tires? Could be several thousands. Nobody blinks at $7/mo. I don't think you have been honest here.
>> I'm certainly in BMW's demo
No, you are not. Carmakers target people that will actually want to buy a new car. They do not target people that drive a 2002 or whatever rustbuckets, for obvious reasons.