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BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

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Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#191

Post by whydoineedthis »

moooo99 wrote: post #159
PedroBatista wrote: post #143

It makes sense, BMW quit being a car company in the past few years. Now they’re just clueless assholes. I’ve seen it in their IT systems, their design teams are either on crack or got outsourced to 4 year olds and their product/sales gurus are a mix of bean counters incapable of producing an original idea and a bunch of lifers running on nepotism. It’s starting to happen and will get even worse, BMW will have a tough…

> Now they’re just clueless assholes. I’ve seen it in their IT systems, their design teams are either on crack or got outsourced to 4 year olds and their product/sales gurus are a mix of bean counters incapable of producing an original idea and a bunch of lifers running on nepotism. Can confirm. BMW used to be quite innovative, at least on the scale of German automakers, with their connect services. We have a fairly…

Idk, I was in a new bmw recently and thought it was cool. Driver assist to stay in lanes. Full touch dash across the entire dashboard. Verbal assistant worked well and was able to adjust settings intuitively.

I'm still too poor to buy one new, but it didn't seem completely without innovation.

Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#192

Post by iso1210 »

Veen wrote: post #61
Veen wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is until the end of the 2020 transition period. Thereafter it is not, but the Government intends to introduce similar privacy legislation. > The Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018), which currently supplements and tailors the GDPR within the UK, will continue to apply. > The provisions of the GDPR will be incorporated directly into UK law from the end of the transition period, to sit alongside the DPA 2018. https:…

I know it’s bad form to ask, but I’m curious why this is being downvoted. It’s factually correct so far as I can tell.

I guess it's the "government intends to" given how close to the end of the year is

Of course everything regarding the EU exist is a total mess, now, with just 7 days, 9 hours left - including Christmas Day and Boxing Day - so just 2 working days left - we've been told that there is a new trade deal with the EU, which may or may not be passed into law this year on both the EU and the UK side.

I believe that the appropiate laws and instruments are already in place to roll over GDPR into next year

Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#193

Post by itronitron »

avianlyric wrote: post #131
tyingq wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like a weasel word version of "we can detect vehicle warranty status without using PII."

You can probably guess without using PII. In the UK numberplate info is public, you can look up the make, model year and colour of a car just using it's numberplate, and anyone can do this. Using that info it would be trivial to detect a BMW car that was older than X years old. Where X is number of years the normal non-extended warranty is. You then just assume that any car older than the non-extended warranty doesn'…

They could also not do the numberplate look up and achieve the same end result by posting a billboard that just says 'Don't buy a BMW'

Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#194

Post by tomp »

chrisseaton wrote: post #179
tomp wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the product is changed with an update you don't like Well, you're just left with a 30-50k car with reduced functionality. And, to be honest, CarPlay functionality (or similar) is pretty much fundamental - music, maps - and there's a clear upside of having it integrated with the car (vs. the driver looking down at the phone while driving) and trivial cost ( cheaper that developing own software & OS). The reason I wa…

But this is the case whether you pay up front or as a subscription. So what is the upside to paying up front?

Ah right, I might have missed your point, if "subscription" is the only thing you're objecting to.

First, it's obviously a scam. I'm not getting extra value in exchange for money, the product is done. It's even worse than various software subscriptions - at least there your code is continuously being improved and updated to the latest version. Therefore, literally the only reason the company is doing that, is to scam me out of more money.

Second is the trust issue - and I'm not just talking about legal scams - e.g. changing terms and conditions in the future - which could in theory be solved via courts / customer protection laws (but in practice, won't be) but more about the fact that the car company has the ability to disable (parts of) my car! So I wouldn't be buying such a car (asterisk) even if they gave me a "special offer" of $0-forever subscription! They can still change the terms at any point in the future, and it would require massive effort on my part to fix that.

Edit: Having said that, paying $2k up front for CarPlay is also a scam - but at least it makes it easier to estimate the total cost/value of the feature, hence reducing the risk (and mental drag) of owning it...

Edit2: Btw, I have this objection with any "subscription" service... e.g. buying leasehold (subscription) house (although even buying freehold (ownership) house isn't without risk in the UK, you never know who has a preexisting claim on the property...)

(asterisk): assuming other options are available... which is the whole reason we must fight against this, sooner or later... in M$ Office and non-smart TVs, this train has already left the station!

Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#195

Post by itronitron »

mannykannot wrote: post #55
floatingatoll wrote: post #24

Either BMW changed their mind or overstated what they’re doing, because they are on-record contradicting this story: https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-news/bmw-targeted-warra... BMW has told Motoring Research its targeted billboard warranty adverts – which are claimed to use number plate registration technology to tailor public adverts to BMW drivers – do not actually draw upon vehicle warranty status. Rather, onl…

With this announcement, I hope that, by by helpfully bringing to people's attention that information such as the warranty status of your car is publicly available [1], BMW will annoy a broader group of people than just BMW owners. [1] Assuming that they are not outright lying here when they say "only publically available information is used."

well, certainly the information is publicly available after it's used

Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#196

Post by rwc »

whydoineedthis wrote: post #191
moooo99 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now they’re just clueless assholes. I’ve seen it in their IT systems, their design teams are either on crack or got outsourced to 4 year olds and their product/sales gurus are a mix of bean counters incapable of producing an original idea and a bunch of lifers running on nepotism. Can confirm. BMW used to be quite innovative, at least on the scale of German automakers, with their connect services. We have a fairly…

Idk, I was in a new bmw recently and thought it was cool. Driver assist to stay in lanes. Full touch dash across the entire dashboard. Verbal assistant worked well and was able to adjust settings intuitively. I'm still too poor to buy one new, but it didn't seem completely without innovation.

These things are common in similarly-classed vehicles and have been for many years.

Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#197

Post by chrisseaton »

tomp wrote: post #194
chrisseaton wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this is the case whether you pay up front or as a subscription. So what is the upside to paying up front?

Ah right, I might have missed your point, if "subscription" is the only thing you're objecting to. First, it's obviously a scam. I'm not getting extra value in exchange for money, the product is done. It's even worse than various software subscriptions - at least there your code is continuously being improved and updated to the latest version. Therefore, literally the only reason the company is doing that, is to scam…

> I'm not getting extra value in exchange for money

Wait, if you're not getting extra value from the product every extra month you use it, then stop paying the subscription! That's the beauty of it!

Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#198

Post by gifnamething »

moooo99 wrote: post #159
PedroBatista wrote: post #143

It makes sense, BMW quit being a car company in the past few years. Now they’re just clueless assholes. I’ve seen it in their IT systems, their design teams are either on crack or got outsourced to 4 year olds and their product/sales gurus are a mix of bean counters incapable of producing an original idea and a bunch of lifers running on nepotism. It’s starting to happen and will get even worse, BMW will have a tough…

> Now they’re just clueless assholes. I’ve seen it in their IT systems, their design teams are either on crack or got outsourced to 4 year olds and their product/sales gurus are a mix of bean counters incapable of producing an original idea and a bunch of lifers running on nepotism. Can confirm. BMW used to be quite innovative, at least on the scale of German automakers, with their connect services. We have a fairly…

BMW operate like a company that have given up on expanding their addressable market and now seek to extract as much value from it as possible. In a vacuum, this is common and makes sense, but not at the cusp of a revolution in that industry.

I spent a long time sceptical about that other car company. But I've realised I can never overestimate how much the traditional companies will screw up.

Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#199

Post by [deleted] »

tomp wrote: post #194
chrisseaton wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this is the case whether you pay up front or as a subscription. So what is the upside to paying up front?

Ah right, I might have missed your point, if "subscription" is the only thing you're objecting to. First, it's obviously a scam. I'm not getting extra value in exchange for money, the product is done. It's even worse than various software subscriptions - at least there your code is continuously being improved and updated to the latest version. Therefore, literally the only reason the company is doing that, is to scam…

[deleted]

Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#200

Post by csunbird »

gambiting wrote: post #156
avianlyric wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not wrong about them in theory having all the data they need to identify out of warranty cars. But if they are legitimately identifying out of warranty cars (I suspect they're not), then that doesn't give them the right to publicly broadcast the information to the wider world. Which I suspect is the crux of this issue.

But again, it depends what sort of information is broadcast. If the bilboard says "hey, driver of BMW reg number EK16 WHD, your warranty is expired!" then that's definitely a problem. But if all that happens is a generic BMW warranty bilboard appears whenever an out-of-warranty car drives past "hey, is your BMW warranty expired? Extend today!" then it's probably ok legally.

I mean, the next step after this feels like ads on the infotainment system.
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