Adafruit: From Ultimate Driving Machine to Ultimate Rent-Seeking Machine: The BMW Logo Screw Patent.
If you haven’t already heard, BMW’s R&D teams have been busy “innovating.” Unfortunately, they aren’t focusing on the things that actually matter—like stellar engine performance or the legendary driving dynamics that gearheads love. Instead, the C-suite execs decided that the best use of their engineering budget was to design a proprietary security screw specifically intended to prevent BMW drivers from fixing their own cars.
As soon as the rollout for BMW dealers starts, Chinese toolmakers will churn out compatible bits and screwdrivers. They might even be on the market before the BMW dealers have them in the mail.
Ifixit does this with apple’s fasteners. I bet they have plans for the BMW ones now too.
My dad bought me an ifixit repair kit for my birthday or Christmas or something and it is absolutely up there with the best, most frequently used presents of the last decade. It had the weird Ring doorbell bit when I tore down Amazon’s spy doorbell. It has an odd bit for my ebike, it has all the computer and phone repair tools to crack open modern devices. This was more of a phone/tablet/computer kit. Maybe Ifixit or someone else will make a repair kit specifically for vehicles with anti-consumer “features”
Remember kids, every screw is a flathead with an angle grinder
$1.49 on temu
I’ll never buy a car that has subscription features
Until they force you. Like how pretty much all new housing developments have oppressive HOAs now.
The day when the only options are subscription based cars will be the day jailbreaking your car is as common as jailbreaking an iphone.
I am so happy to live in a non-HOA neighborhood…
It’s a choice to live there. And you have a choice on how you spend your money. No one is holding a gun to your head making you buy a shitty car.
it’s your choice to live there
I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not because that is an awful argument. The housing market isn’t this perfectly liquid thing where there’s always another house to choose from that fits all your requirements a reasonable distance from your workplace.
