I confess that I have wanted to write this report for several weeks and have been looking for information on the reason for its creation. And it wasn’t a long wait, thankfully. And it is so that before the obvious teasing, one waits (in many cases without success) for a counter-response that restores the balance, that shows us that common sense has not been lost, that we can believe that there are people capable of correcting situations that do not make sense.

You may recall that a few weeks ago we talked about BMW opting for a service model for heated seats in their cars. A model that though justified by the company as a measure of flexibilityI personally find it ridiculous. Charging for a feature as a service is something we’ve unfortunately seen in the world of software and especially games for some time now, and it seems that other industries have learned their lesson as well.

In the case of BMW, as we have already told you, The company charges $18 per month to use the heated seat feature., though it offers cheaper rates, such as $180 for a year and $300 for three years. This model is currently valid in Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and South Africa, although we can imagine that the company plans to expand it to other markets as soon as possible. And that’s right, who wouldn’t want to sell you a car, include heated seats in its price, and later charge for its use?

The good news is that we are of course talking about electronics, which makes the car, or more precisely the electronic part of the car, not so different from a computer or a smartphone. So if we talked about the first iOS 15 jailbreak last week, why wouldn’t a BMW jailbreak be possible? Well, nothing, really. And as we can read on SlashGear, this is already happening, there are already workshops that offer the option of unlocking paid BMW features.

Unlike the monthly payment offered by BMW, these workshops offer to unlock the desired features for a single paymenta much cheaper formula that has found the support of many users who are fed up with having to pay twice (once when buying the car and the second time at the conclusion of the contract) for one or more of its features, from the aforementioned heated seats to customizing some of the car’s sounds.

Of course, the solution is not perfect, it could void the warranty, and in addition, the unlocking and functions could be lost when updating the car software, just like it happens with other types of devices. Maybe garages should offer unlocking as a service? In this case, strangely enough, a subscription model would make a lot of sense and would actually offer added value to the user, something BMW’s proposal lacks today.