[schwartzworld]

> the fundamental design driver is, I would bet, manufacturing complexity.

One of them. If it was only about manufacturing, they could just as easily make heated seats standard on all bmws.

I think a big motivator would also be the ability for owners to opt in at a later date. In most cars you only have the chance to offer an upgrade at the time of purchase. Making it a software thing means that I can add it on 6 months after buying the car. Or the second owner can add it on.

[regularfry]

The point is that they wouldn't have that marketing flexibility if they weren't going to do the technical thing for manufacturing reasons. Like, the marketing folks will be all over that crap once they've got the capability, but I doubt they would be the original reason it was done.