Comment on BMW Adaptive Suspension Can Be Added via Subscription. Suspension As A Service (SAAS)
mindlight@lemm.ee 2 months ago
So you purchase ordinary suspension but get active suspension that works exactly like ordinary suspension and cost like active suspension to service…
It’s time we get legislation that gives the consumer access to all key pairs used in the product they purchased.
kautau@lemmy.world 2 months ago
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.
mindlight@lemm.ee 2 months ago
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 suffrage collecting data from sensors and by analysing the data adjusting the suspension to “optimal performance”.
The software, “BMW Smooth Comfortable Cloud Ride Software”, is included free of charge! BMW also offers “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.
kautau@lemmy.world 2 months ago
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
mindlight@lemm.ee 2 months ago
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.