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BMW Adaptive Suspension Can Be Added via Subscription. Suspension As A Service (SAAS) (www.bmwblog.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 13 points 2 years ago (4 children)

No, we need to legislate that you should be able to use the hardware features that come with your vehicle without a subscription. What will the average consumer do with encryption keys? Even then, you'd need to decrypt and rewrite the ECU or other system that controls this hardware to run your own version, and if that doesn't work, you'd need to have hardware to manually intercept communications between the suspension and the system verifying your subscription, and intercept the signal to always send an ok signal.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

    The hardware has full functionality from day one. The limitation is in what software you are using.

    Active suspension is not a hardware feature, it's software collecting data from sensors and by analysing the data being able adjusting the suspension to "optimal performance". Just because certain hardware can be controlled by software doesn't mean that you will get whatever software features you like to have.

    BMW would claim that "BMW Smooth Comfortable Cloud Ride Software" is included free of charge with the purchase of a BMW.

    BMW would also claim that they offer "BMW Hyper Advanced AI Premium Sensation Masculine Active Road Experience Pro Suspension" as an optional subscription for alpha males and people with too much money in their pockets.

    The outcome of what you are suggesting will be a slight change in the phrasing of the product offering at the most.

    With access to the keys, the owner can subscribe to the BMW solution, unlock the features in breach of the agreement with BMW by not subscribing or get a software solution for the car from another provider.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I never disagreed with that, I asked what the purpose of having an encryption key will be, you are creating some magical step between “subscribe to the software” and “don’t pay the bill” that doesn’t require modification of anything but somehow just requires encryption keys

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    In my experience there always someone willing to create everything from homebrew software to software activation. Especially if there's some money to make on it.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago

    lol thanks for the downvote. So you’re asking the average consumer to pay the grey market to write aftermarket untested software for their vehicle that will replace the car manufacturers active suspension software on their vehicle, and can be activated as such because they now have access to the encryption keys. That was what I was trying to ask in the first place. Glad we cleared that up

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