101–110 of 125 posts
I don't understand the European Union: they can force USB C on everyone but they cannot enforce standard screws?
"Why haven't they proactively legislated against this new thing I don't like?" is not a strong argument.
But FTA:
BMW really does want to use these to stop people from working on their own cars. It spells out in the patent that "the shape of the engagement recesses prevents the screw from being loosened or tightened using common counter-drive structures, e.g. by unauthorized persons." That's straight from BMW.
The second sentence is key: "unauthorized" can be woke-speak for thief, and this device doesn't seem to require a single key per car which has been a PITA for VW/BMW in the past.
The first sentence can then be edited to simply:
BMW really does want to use these to stop people from removing wheels from cars they don't own.
Before you object the thieves will just go get the tool: professionals yes, opportunistic, no.
This is enough of a real issue in some places there's a discount on theft insurance for car contents and parts when you have wheel theft prevention devices (e.g. wheel or hub locks). Granted, the insurers might not see this as actuarially meaningful, it might just be extra revenue from people who care about their wheels, but then you'd expect to see it everywhere.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having just bought a Mini Cooper, I'm in the initial free-services period of the ownership and honestly, if it's the $10 a month I suspect, I'm okay with it. Primarily for the navigation...it really is superior to the Carplay experience (a square in the middle of the round screen, vs a map that takes up nearly the entirety of the screen...IIRC, traffic, Weather, remote start, and voice control come along for the ride…
> it really is superior to the Carplay experience (a square in the middle of the round screen, vs a map that takes up nearly the entirety of the screen I haven't used CarPlay since I'm an Android user, but this reeks to me of a manufacturer developing a problem so they could seek rent for the solution. If there were no financial incentive otherwise, they certainly would have ensured the CarPlay experience was as nice…
I'm not a fan of subscriptions, but in this case, the $10 seemed like good value for features. the map is better, and it's much better integrated into the HUD.
It felt like you were getting more, unlike having buttons that don't work unless you pay...weird psycholgical difference between a subscription and being held hostage.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having just bought a Mini Cooper, I'm in the initial free-services period of the ownership and honestly, if it's the $10 a month I suspect, I'm okay with it. Primarily for the navigation...it really is superior to the Carplay experience (a square in the middle of the round screen, vs a map that takes up nearly the entirety of the screen...IIRC, traffic, Weather, remote start, and voice control come along for the ride…
No, it bloody well isn't, and I kindly request you stop with that nonsense. Remote start is a glorified CAN message paired with either a TOTP or HOTP message. That's it. There should be zero room for a manufacturer to justify inserting themselves in the middle except greed. Goddamn tired of solving problems only to see companies keeping the problem around for the sake of market segmentation.
By the same token, all ranges of Mini Cooper now have the B48 turbo 4...the top of the list had a bigger turbo and improved intake...the bottom two I suspect are identical with differing software.
I will happily take advantage of that when the car's out of warranty. (I have the base motor)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>What do you think happened with the Golf 3 engine design? They made the camshaft structurally weaker, so the engine will blow up more easily. Wow, talk about an oversimplification. The Mk3 moved from an 8-valve to a 16-valve engine; yes, this adds more valvetrain failure modes but also brings myriad other benefits, increased power, better fuel economy, reduced emissions… The idea that a carmaker would purposely engi…
>The idea that a carmaker would purposely engineer flaws into core engine components in order to drive future sales doesn’t make much sense. You need to realize modern business revolves not around one-and-done, but around recurring revenue streams. To the "business minded" the only thing that doesn't make sense is leaving money on the table.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Problem is if we bury our heads and drive old cars, when they give out and it’s time to buy a new car, all the news cars will have so much of this crap in them they will be unusable and you will be stuck with a lemon.
It's also basically impossible to have any EV that isn't an iPad on wheels. I'm not even opposed to the mod-cons, it's just the irreparability, lock-in, touchscreen-centrism and planned obsolescence they basically all shoehorned into their new platforms.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, anti-consumer sentiment is "you have to buy a different charger for each device and it becomes obsolete with the device". Factories in the EU means workers employed and taxes paid in the EU. It means a lot here.
> No, anti-consumer sentiment is "you have to buy a different charger for each device and it becomes obsolete with the device". But you don't? The other end of any Lightning connector is USB-A or USB-C. Works just fine anywhere. > Factories in the EU means workers employed and taxes paid in the EU. It means a lot here. So I guess going back to the original parent's point: if your company is producing stuff in Europe,…
Zero evidence was provided to support this, but I guess facts don't matter anymore.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's also basically impossible to have any EV that isn't an iPad on wheels. I'm not even opposed to the mod-cons, it's just the irreparability, lock-in, touchscreen-centrism and planned obsolescence they basically all shoehorned into their new platforms.
Good news! Slate. https://www.slate.auto/
That already is old news, lots of manufacturers do that. For example, the Passat 3B and later platforms introduced proprietary screws for the wheels and brakes, so you weren't able to change them yourself. Same for all kinds of sensors that will go rogue when the car is turned off and you change a sensor on the engine. All firmware gradually was modified each generation to allow less modifications and less self repai…
OK, now I remember - it was this comment:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38496499
... which I was very intrigued by and I tried to contact you via your web based email submission on cookie.engineer but it broke/failed.
Would you please elaborate[1]:
- who was the person who ran crimeflare, etc.
- Where can I learn about the lawsuit(s) that made them suspend this reporting/indexing ?
I am (potentially) interested in resurrecting these efforts but would like to have a better understanding of them first.
[1] email info@rsync.net if you don't want to respond publicly.