[salex89]

Paying for features to be unlocked is not new, especially in IT, but with a car it just feels wrong somehow. The hardware is there, but not in a sense when you buy a PC without an OS, because that's a multi-purpose machine, you give it context. Heated seats are dedicated hardware, they're there for one purpose only, they're already in your car and you already paid for the expense of making them and continue paying for gas to haul those heavy hunkers around, increasing emissions. Maybe not much per car, but taking into account a bunch of cars, I just see this as reckless.

I can sure as hell guarantee they didn't charge them the same amount as regular seats with the hope of you buying their subscription. The software effort is likely next to none, if any.

What makes it even funnier is that the one-time payment for a steering wheel is 200 pounds, which is roughly what you would pay for it as additional equipment, if not less. Why funking around with the customer?

[mrkwse]

I'd expect there is significantly more software effort in adding the ability to lock them behind a subscription than actually implementing the toggle to turn them on/adjust the intensity.

[q-base]

One of the big differences to IT, as I see it, is to do with repairs/support. In IT, a subscription covers repairs/bugs. So what you are paying for is basically maintenance.

If we transfer that to cars, then the subscription should also cover maintenance/repairs of the physical parts - in this case the heated seats. But I am pretty sure it does not.