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BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards
- prtkgpt 6y agoBMW jerks deserve to be shamed. :P This claim is disputed.
- christophilus 6y agoIt would be interesting to see stats on aggressive driving by brand. My guess is that BMW drivers would be well near the most aggressive on the list.
- durnygbur 6y agoBMW sprays the dashboards of their cars with testosteron and sweat of 18 years old virgin girls.
- prtkgpt 6y agoThis claim is also disputed lol.
- joncrane 6y agoYou know the old joke: what's the most depressing (least fulfilling) job? Installing turn signals in a BMW factory.
- speedgoose 6y agoSuch a study exists for Finland : https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ijop.12642 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ijop.12642 You may find the full article on some Russian mirror website. I don't know whether HN allows us to name it.
- tonyedgecombe 6y agoThere was something similar in the UK. The upshot was be careful if you are crossing the road when a BMW is nearby.
- samizdis 6y agoThis is from last year, and is largely anecdotal, but it seems to reflect popular beliefs in the UK: https://www.petrolprices.com/news/bmw-drivers-the-most-disliked-in-the-uk/ https://www.petrolprices.com/news/bmw-drivers-the-most-disli...
- throwaway0a5e 6y agoThe results almost certainly vary by region (because regional traffic, weather and economic conditions impact who buys what). Measuring aggressiveness is going to be a measurement of outliers. For everyone weaving through traffic in their BMW without turn signals there's a gray hair putting along. For every Tacoma clogging up the left lane there's a Prius taxi hauling ass to the next fare. I don't think it's a very informative thing to try to measure.
- RedShift1 6y agoOver here Audi and Volvo drivers also know their way around the gas pedal.
- qz2 6y agoAdded BMW to my vendor shitlist.
- whimsicalism 6y agoIt wasn't already?
- qz2 6y agoI never factored them into my plans before. I have eliminated them now :) I drive a tiny little french thing with a chainsaw engine so probably not my market anyway.
- xiphias2 6y agoI have a BMW and buying a Tesla Model 3 in a few months. I think it's just BMW for the 21st century.
- seattle_spring 6y ago> I think it's just BMW for the 21st century For people that look at cars as status symbols, sure. Also maybe for people that think straightline performance is all that matters. All mainstream Tesla's are dogs around turns compared to even baseline luxury German cars.
- rconti 6y agoSorry, but this is both misinformed, and rudimentary "my first car forum" or "import vs domestic in the 1990s" level analysis of vehicle dynamics. To not even attempt to call out a car model or even a brand or generation, and just hand-wave "baseline luxury German cars", and not attempt to specify what type of cornering you're discussing here. The biggest problem a Tesla would have vs a competitive ICE sport sedan would be mass, which can hurt all vehicle dynamics; likely on the order of 300-400lbs or so (Model 3 LR: ~4k lbs, 330i ~3600lbs, Model S P75 ~4500lbs, 530i ~4000lbs). Of course it's worth noting that none of these vehicles are featherweights, and the extremely low center of gravity of skateboard battery pack vehicles helps them roll vastly less than one would expect, which helps a lot in transitions and steady state cornering. Regardless, both the Model S and the Model 3 are extremely well-balanced and the 3 is surprisingly nimble and adjustable. The 3 has a ton of grip, turns in sharply and gets out of corners FAST. I haven't driven a Model X so I can't say. Source: I instruct, I drive on the track, I own 2 BMWs and 1 Tesla, I've driven numerous BMWs and Teslas including the original roadster on the street and on closed courses. And I've been on car forums for decades and seen endless comments like this.
- seattle_spring 6y agoTake a Model 3 on an autocross track or even a windy mountain road. Then take any BMW or Audi priced $10k-$20k lower (and not the boat SUVs) and tell me which one is more fun to drive. Also, a Roadster is definitely not a "mainstream Tesla." I used that word to specifically exclude the Roadster, as it's $250k and a completely different discussion. I agree that using the term "dog" was an exaggeration.
- throwbacktictac 6y agoWhat echo chamber was the guy/gal behind this living in? Nothing about this sounds like a good idea to increase the value of the brand.
- samizdis 6y agoI couldn't agree more. It's a shame, too, because BMW used to run some slick ads and seemed to have a sense of humour. In the mid- to late-90s I worked at an online newspaper and BMW ran banner ads on April 1 for a few years, touting fake features such as laser zappers to keep flies off your windscreen etc. Not sure which ad agency they use now, but this live billboard thing is just damaging to the brand. Creepy, too.
- corty 6y agoCreepy, but in line with what the car itself phones home. If you thought Tesla was invasive in its remote control and surveilance, BMW is hell-bent on surpassing them.
- rriepe 6y agoThis had to cross a line because it was British, but then it couldn't be funny because it was German.
- Turing_Machine 6y agoRight. It's not just the privacy violation per se, it's that it's a sign the company is now run by idiots. I don't buy stuff from companies run by idiots.
- justinclift 6y agoThe executives from Boeing had to go somewhere? :)
- mrtksn 6y agoIt actually sounds like they hired someone from online ads industry, so the first idea was personalised ads through data collection.
- jamescun 6y agoWould this not be misuse of PII? You own a particular vehicle registration mark as much as you own a particular phone number, and both can reasonably be used to identify an individual (motor database verus telephone database).
- bluesign 6y agoIt is PII under GDPR for sure.
- unilynx 6y agoIt sure is if an IP address (with on average probably a shorter lease than a BMW) is considered PII too
- throwbacktictac 6y agoUK is no longer under the GDPR right?
- speedgoose 6y agoAbout one week left.
- jamescun 6y agoThe UK has left the EU however the Data Protection Act 2018 which implemented GDPR within the UK is still in effect.
- Veen 6y agoIt 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://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-at-the-end-of-the-transition-period/information-rights-at-the-end-of-the-transition-period-frequently-asked-questions/ https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-at-the-...
- hprotagonist 6y agolet’s have a knock down fight in an alley so i can convince you to wear these glasses for a second ...
- christophilus 6y agoWow. Straight out of Minority Report. It seems to me that this would violate laws of some kind.
- gambiting 6y agoI suspect they will argue that it doesn't violate laws simply because: the licence plate on your car is public knowledge, they are allowed to scan it with a camera, and since they provide warranty on BMW cars, they own the database that says if that specific car is covered or not. They don't even need to access any of your private information to do this, the two pieces needed are either public(the licence plate) or they own it(knowledge whether that car is covered or not).
- oakfr 6y agoJust because you're crossing public data with data you own does not mean you are not breaking the law.
- gambiting 6y agoOk, but then I'm genuienly curious - which laws are being broken? Licence plates in the UK can be scanned by automated machines owned by private companies, that's been established many times before. To request the owner data from the DVLA you need their permission - but that's not necessary here, BMW doesn't need to know anything about the owner, so no such request would be made to the DVLA. Then on the other side, they have a database of cars that they sold and which are still under warranty - again, nothing about owners, none of the silo'ed personal information needs to be accessed at all. If the car is not on the "warranty==true" list, then they show the ad. I assume the ad doesn't display anything like "hey john smith, your warranty is expired!".
- astura 6y ago>nothing about owners, none of the silo'ed personal information needs to be accessed at all I mean, they probably don't even have that information for half the cars they scan because the warranty belongs to the car, not the person who bought the car. The warranty is transferred to the new owner if someone sells the car. They will not know the owner of all private used sales and used sales through 3rd party dealers.
- durnygbur 6y agoI remember reading an interview with BMW designer that the obnoxiously huge front grills are a nod to the Chinese customers. Chinese customers wanted the drivers in front of them to feel intimidated, as if the car and driver behind wanted to eat them. Other premium brands like Lexus followed with this trend.
- everdrive 6y agoMakes me want to get a trailer hitch and do some brake checks.
- immigrantsheep 6y agoA nice old Range Rover or even better, a Lada Niva are probably great for that
- spacephysics 6y agoMakes sense seeing more and more companies taking china’s market more seriously given opportunity. In 10 years or less China will be the next global hegemony, especially if USD looses its reserve status. Tangentially related to the comment, but seeing more evidence of companies positioning themselves for such a transition.
- throwaway9980 6y agoYes, we’re in the midst of some ghastly thrashing that seems unrecoverable. A paranoid person might think that what we are doing to ourselves is being encouraged by some sort of outside force that has a lot to gain if the US implodes. But that can’t be, can it? No, no. Not possible.
- xwdv 6y agoI’m tired of trashy Chinese tastes gaining so much influence in the world.
- joefife 6y ago
- 1cvmask 6y agoMakes me want to buy an old mechanical jalopy that can’t be hacked as it is not “smart” and remotely hackable. Charlie Miller demoed remote hacking on a jeep while on the highway, and being hacked is now a lesser fear to me than being shamed: https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/ https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-hig...
- tyingq 6y agoIn this case, they are mapping the ANPR derived plate to an in-house database, so that doesn't help.
- speedgoose 6y agoI think such marketing departments are supposed to test their ideas on a sample of potential customers first. It would be interesting to know whether they did it for this marketing campaign, and if so what are the profiles of their customers.
- floatingatoll 6y agoEither 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-warranty-ads/ 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, only publically available information is used. “There is no personalisation visible on the advert and no vehicle or customer data is stored or retained.” “No personal identifiable information applicable to GDPR is used in the [Vehicle Detection Technology] process nor does VDT ever have access to any personal data.”
- tyingq 6y agoThat sounds like a weasel word version of "we can detect vehicle warranty status without using PII."
- bagacrap 6y agoI think they're saying they can't even tell if it's actually out of warranty, ie if you did buy the extended warranty you'd still see the popup.
- smarx007 6y agoMost likely they figured out that they are about to violate GDPR and altered the code to also show the notice to those who bought the extended warranty. I cannot imagine execs spending so much money on a project to shame both those who bought an extended warranty and those who didn't. In that case you can just put a static printed ad for the warranty.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- avianlyric 6y agoYou 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't have an extended warranty and display the advert. Then the only thing the advert would be giving away is that there is a BMW nearby that older than X years. Which anyone with a pair of eyes could figure out because the numbers of UK numberplates encode the issue year (thus the age of the car), and well, BMW's are pretty easy to identify just by looking at them.
- mcot2 6y agoBMW is on their way out. They have really lost their way. This is what happens when you move away from focusing on the product/craftsmanship and let bean counters in control.
- whalesalad 6y agoBMW is the most user-hostile car brand there is. They’re constantly seeking ways to squeeze revenue from their owners in slimy ways. (They charge an annual fee for access to car play, for instance)
- gambiting 6y agoIn US they are experimenting with locking almost all features of the car behind a subscription model, so the car leaves the factory in nearly "full" spec, but then you need to pay a subscription to unlock features. For instance if you like heated seats, you can pay a fee and have them unlocked for a year. Or a radar-based cruise control, or satellite radio, or sport driving modes - everything will have its own price. Their argument is that in US, something like 90% of all new BMWs are leased - so it's "great" for customers and for businesses, since you can now lease a BMW for your employee very cheaply in the most "basic" spec, and if they want some extra features they can pay for them themselves. Obviously, it's horseshit. But that's the argument they are using.
- m000 6y agoAnd I thought EA was bad...
- bkovacev 6y agoDo you have a source for this?
- gambiting 6y agoI do: https://jalopnik.com/bmws-new-feature-subscription-plan-idea-needs-to-be-sto-1844246264 https://jalopnik.com/bmws-new-feature-subscription-plan-idea...
- corty 6y agoNot only in the US. 15 years ago when aircon wasn't yet standard in Germany, they added it to all cars anyways and just deactivated the controls in software. So you still get decreased mileage from weight and friction for the compressor, increased accident-risk for the gas filling, but have to pay extra to get a bit flipped at your friendly dealer to use it...
- iridium_core 6y agoIn my circle (relatively young and educated people in a 2nd world country) Tesla has completely supplanted BMW et al as 'the exclusive car brand'.
- peshooo 6y agoMaybe your country is moving up the food chain. In my eastern-European country it seems like every third car is an old BMW.
- iridium_core 6y agoExactly - BMW is the has-been German brand, that you can buy as a 10-20 year old import. It holds no cachet and is harder to maintain and less fuel efficient than other brands with similar features. Tesla is the brand that people aspire to own, that people snap their eyes towards on the street. In small towns, all of the owners of Teslas are known and prestigious individuals. Functionally though - Teslas are too big and too fast for old European cities. The Renault Zoe seems to sell well but is still very expensive for mass adoption.
- schmidp 6y agokids are also a pretty good indication. if for some reason my model 3 is not parked where it's usually parked, the kids of the neighbourhood come over and ask where the Tesla is. i'm not joking. nobody ever cared where my previous bmw mini, vw golf or land rover parked.
- janoc 6y agoTeslas fit just fine into European cities, they are no larger than BMWs or a VW Passat, not to mention the humongous SUV "tanks" that seem to be so popular. Tesla isn't that popular in Europe simply because most are not insane enough to spend 80kEUR for Model S - for that price one can easily have a Porsche or some other real luxury or sports car. And Model 3 is very overpriced for what it is. 55k EUR? For a compact car with mediocre range? Seriously? You can have a Porsche Cayenne for that price. Or two compacts like Renault Clio or even VW Golf. That is really only for die hard fans of the brand. Nobody else buys it here. Also, the network of charging stations is much less developed in Europe than in the US and most are paid (and pretty expensive at that!). Status symbols are cool but most people don't have Silicon Valley salaries here.
- offtop5 6y agoLast time I brought a used car ( from a dealership) , and was immediately inundated with dozens of extended warranty sales calls. I can't imagine this will be anything positive. Give it a decade and other advertisers will open the gate. File for divorce and dating ads will spam you at an intersection.
- giancarlostoro 6y agoI really wish personalized ads were criminalized. Lets go back to contextual (by location of ad) and general ads. The stalker big brother ad industry needs to be stopped.
- newyorker2 6y agoMy children (one is in High School and the other in College) don't get bothered by advertisements as much as me (are they desensitized?). I would rather pay for most of these "free" services if there was an option to simply opt out of having my data harvested.
- mkr-hn 6y agoIt's a paradox: anyone who can afford to pay to opt out is a valuable target for advertisers.
- walleeee 6y agoAgreed, although it will be an uphill battle. We are rapidly outsourcing governance to data brokers who will vigorously defend their core business model. Boycotts are likely a good place to start, at least until public institutions can be reclaimed, if they can be.
- offtop5 6y agoI saw an article here where a dating app was actually selling it's data to a broker , and then that data was being resold to the US military. Even more alarming , this appeared to target a specific demographic. I dislike online dating for an array of reasons, not being able to control my personal data is the top one. The only thing you can do is be mindful of how much data you give out.
- adav 6y agoI used to really like BMWs but they have lost their way in my opinion. Front wheel drive models, charging a subscription for Apple CarPlay, that 4-series grill, increasingly horrific customer service at dealers and foregoing their position as the market leader in handling and dynamics really rub me up the wrong way.
- sk5t 6y agoExactly, they’ve gone for luxury but not as well as MB or Audi who are now eating their lunch. To say nothing of Porsche taking the sportscar and sporty SUV market profits. CarPlay subscription is just offensive.
- patrulo 6y agoM2cs or M5c are still by far the best cars in their class. While I'm not a fan of BMW's new design language (think the 4-series, or the iX), nor their move to subscription-based features, it's still my go-to brand. Other (non-exotic) brands are either downsizing (2.0 engine in the new C63 AMG for gods sake) or going fully electric – and I like my v8 rumble in the morning.
- paganel 6y agoNot sure why you're being down-voted, the M2 and the M5 are among the best driver-focused cars being made right now (a dying breed, those driver-focused cars, but that's another discussion), but that still shouldn't excuse BMW for dick moves like this one (I consider it a dick move).
- benjaminsuch 6y agoNot sure why BMW gets so much negativity. The past models of BMW were really boring. The design wasn't extraordinary that it could compete with Audi or Mercedes. But the new design of the iX and 4er models are very beautiful. I must say the new grills really appeal to me. It seems that the new design causes a similar reaction as Mercedes SUV design of GLE and GLC (Coupe). Mercedes took a new approach and got a lot of negative comments. But ultimately they set a new trend and their SUV's were a huge success.
- giantg2 6y agoMakes me want to mount my plate on a hinge and get an old power door lock out of a junkyard to use as an actuator.
- totaldude87 6y agowhoever in BMW, who thought this Public shaming "ads" might increase sales should be given salesperson of the year (add in marketing mozart if you wish) coming soon, near the traffic lights. "a smart bill board showing your debt and dues pending to the entire fckng world" "hello there, yes, you on the red honda civic with number plate xxxx, how are things going on in your bed? last night you searched for it and we are here to help" how the heck did we end up here, this makes targeted ads look like god send, and here I was thinking targeted ads were the worst to happen in tech :( ..
- paganel 6y ago> "a smart bill board showing your debt and dues pending to the entire fckng world" The "showing debt" thing I think already happens in China, too lazy to search for the exact reference right now but I remember reading something of the sorts not too long ago. Creepy as hell. Later edit: Found a quick reference (among many others, I guess): "Chinese debtors shamed with broadcast of names and faces on giant screens on May 1 holiday" [1] [1] https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2144690/chinese-debtors-shamed-broadcast-names-and-faces-giant-screens https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2144690/chin...
- YesThatTom2 6y agoThe people doing the “car warranty” phone scam are making more money and didn’t have to do any ML or image recognition R&D. In fact, their profit margin might be better because they don’t pay out ... they have zero post-acquisition costs! This shows a bug in capitalism: The scammers work less hard to make more money and will go out of business still in denial.
- pfdietz 6y agoAs if I needed another reason to not buy a BMW.
- hyko 6y agoLol at trying to shame BMW drivers. Do they do any market research on how their products are used?
- kergonath 6y agoWhat an excellent way of convincing me to never buy a car from them.
- lotsofpulp 6y agoI assume anyone willing to buy a BMW at this point isn’t possible to be dissuaded.
- imdsm 6y agoFuther into dystopia. How long until facial scans and personalised public adverts that go wrong?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- KingOfCoders 6y agoFor sure this needs special consent regarding GDPR, no clue about Brexit though.
- phkahler 6y ago>> BMW says that they won't store any personal or vehicle data in the system, But that's pretty much exactly what they're doing. They probably feel the need to claim this in order to not break laws, but saying "We didn't put information about you on a billboard" doesn't mean they didn't do it. This feels so much like fake news, I hope they actually do it.
- terrywang 6y agoDon't really care about manufacture warranty (3 years... Really? The service packages the dealers sell in Australia are tricky, especially condition-based engine oil change WTF). Self and trusted mechanic friend can take good care of the car (thanks to realoem, newTIS and bimmerPost, BimmerCode etc.). I didn't even buy (one-off A$395, LCI became subscription and later scraped) CarPlay for my original F87, because I bought F87 for driving pleasure, the engagement / communication with the car while driving it, don't have a spare hand to deal with the buttons or screen to be honest, not even music when doing spirited driving (50% of the time). I like the classic FR models with straight 6, missed a used 1M coupe (colleague's, gone while hesitating spending 65k buying a used car), ended up with a compromise, OG F87 (not bad, probably the best that money can buy at that time with everything standard except heated steering wheel). It's like 3.0 CSL, 2002 Turbo, E30 M3(straight four), E46 M3, 1M Coupe with the right size, proportion, front kidney grills (not like the new M4's), what timeless design should be like. Nowadays when looking at the modern BMWs on road, hope I can have a HUD to filter those :shrug.
- rconti 6y agoWarranties are fear-driven anyway, the expected value has to be negative for them to turn a profit. With CarPlay, you're not missing much. I had a Golf R with it, pointless. I badly wanted a 1M when new but it seemed like a horrible financial decision (even though it wouldn't have been!) and I'd have had to have let go of my Z3M Coupe that I still have today.
- terrywang 6y agoGood to know that I haven't missed much without CarpPlay :-) Agree, especially the standard 3 year warranty, useless. Combined with the basic service package (around 1500~2000 AUD covering 5 years with tricky T&Cs), the car would certainly start to have all sort of problems once reaching the 5 year old mark. 1M Coupe is hell of a car, I admit that I regret not buying one when I had the change (for A$65k - today it still worth that much, even more...). However, 1M Coupe in its stock form is way too firm for Sydney road condition (the manual will also be a pain getting stuck on traffic - if it's a weekend fun car, no prob at all), I felt a bit neck / back discomfort after 30 mins driving my ex-colleagues car, let alone the ride quality (passenger PoV), interior does not live up to its hype either (manual seat adjustment sucks). I am happy that I got the OG F87 M2 with all options as standard that I care (prefer OG M2's look in LLB and its interior - still poor for an entry ///M car at that price). Z3 M is a classic (unfortunately not available in AUDM), worth keeping. E86 Z4 M coupe was on my list when hunting for my next toy car (still A$52k+ now), love the S54B32 engine.
- ThePadawan 6y agoThat's funny, I like to shame BMW drivers too (for being dicks in traffic).
- threwawaysoff 6y agoIsn't it part of the sales agreement that the driver must act as an unreasonable, dangerous sociopath? Is there such thing as a nice BMW driver?
- fattybob 6y agoAm surprised that this is legal in the UK, quite shocking really
- 2Gkashmiri 6y agoso much for connected features
- PedroBatista 6y agoIt 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 decade at least.
- chokeartist 6y agoFor what it is worth, the 2021 models finally seem to have CarPlay as a standard feature, along with a digital dash. Basically parity to what Audi has had for years.
- moooo99 6y ago> 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 well equipped and fairly new BMW which includes those services. Not only can they get quite expensive (especially their incredibly pretentious concierge service), but their smartphone integration is awful at least (CarPlay is a subscription). The only connected drive services that could be remotely useful are so bad, they're basically unusable. > It’s starting to happen and will get even worse, BMW will have a tough decade at least. The only innovation BMW was able to come up with in the last few years is increasing the size of the front grill. I am not sure if BMW is incompetent, ignorant, uncreative or if they're just aholes (looking at managements behavior during the pandemic, that's certainly the case). I doubt that BMW will be able to maintain its independence as a car manufacturer in the long run, unless there are some dramatic changes in line. My guess is that they'll be acquired by some other car manufacturer, maybe Daimler (although they face similar challenges), but more likely some huge Chinese company.
- whydoineedthis 6y ago
- zests 6y agoThis is the uncanny valley between dystopian and genius. My vote goes toward dystopian because no doubt extremely targeted billboards or even posters are on their way. What happens when phones are constantly broadcasting your unique advertising identifier and everyone knows what you’re looking for before they even lay eyes on you?
- LinuxBender 6y agoThat is not really fair to whoever actually owns those billboards. Those poor things won't last a week without being hacked or remotely disassembled. How much do those billboards cost?
- fmajid 6y agoGood. I swore my 2013 335i would be my last BMW, they keep giving me reasons not to regret the choice.
- secfirstmd 6y agoI mean I know the UK just crashed out of the EU but surely there's a GDPR issue with this?
- neyme 6y agoThis gives a glimpse into their bright leadership who think that their drivers are some kind of minions who will be compelled by shame. This is pure class, BMW!
- InTheArena 6y agoYet another Reason why BMW is losing ground dramatically to Tesla. Jerk as a service rarely ends well.
- mikepechadotcom 6y agoI had to check the date multiple times, because this reads like an April fools joke, and/or satire article.
- __s 6y agoPhilip K Dick sure understood the things to come http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1825 http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1825 From Lies, Inc also released with quite a bit of variation as The Unteleported Man
- giarc 6y agoThis reminds me of the story in China and their social credit score. Apparently they will show your face on a billboard if you are deliquent (one example was if you weren't paying child support). And since they can track you using your phone, they only show the 'ad' when you are present in the space.
- Lammy 6y agoPolice are doing this silently all the time. If anything I think we need more of this to finally wake people up to the reality of what’s possible so they’ll care to fight back.
- gruez 6y agoExplain? Are you talking about ANPRs in general or are they setting up billboards to shame people?
- A4ET8a8uTh0 6y agoIt is oddly amusing. I do not own one, but few of my friends do and the refrain seems to be, it is fine to own 'as long as it has warranty'. It is nice to see BMW leadership recognizing this.
- bencollier49 6y agoThis is illegal. Simple as that. It's obviously not going to happen. A person's warrantee is PII, so making it public will land them with a huge GDPR fine.
- Der_Einzige 6y agoAll this negativity around BMW and no one even mentions the word "money pit"? Besides the shitty anti-consumer practices, besides the lack of turn signal usage from average BMW drivers, these cars are still trash unless you're leasing because they are absolute money pits. Even the Germans in germany who own BMWs and religiously take care of them will have to deal with ultra expensive repairs and problems that one wouldn't find on a Toyota or Lexus. Germans over-engineer their cars. There are 10 bolts on an engine in a place where a competitor would use two Kinda cool though in a schadenfreude way, because BMW drivers are insufferable about "the ultimate driving machine" right up until the first repair bill comes and then they're suddenly much more interested in japanese naturally aspirated engine vehicles...
- cwhiz 6y agoComing at you from the same company that wants you to pay every year to use CarPlay.
- supernova87a 6y agoFor some reason I'm reminded of the story of the early British rail company, which, running out of ways to extract value on ticket prices, segmented their train cars into 3 classes and took the roof off the 3rd class (subjecting it to rain, unpleasant exposure) to scare 1st class passengers into not buying too cheap a ticket.
- monkeydust 6y agoSeriously if I see this show up in me 4 year old out of warranty X3 it will be the last BMW I buy. What marketing numpty thought this was a good idea...
- kevin_thibedeau 6y agoWhy would they have access to the number plate database? Surely that's a GDPR violation.
- andred14 6y agoNews to distract from the fact that the tyrannical UK government has locked everyone down for what data and science now show is clearly no emergency
- _Understated_ 6y agoJust to say, you may get downvoted to hell for your statement but fwiw I firmly believe this too now! I mean the non-science-y way this is being handled, not that this is to distract :) Edit: edited for clarity
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- sm0ss117 6y agoThis is a nightmare. Getting spammed by ads on my devices is bad enough. Now when I go out in public I get shamed for all to see. Targeted automated advertising has got to be banned outright.
- sizzle 6y agoApple car couldn't come sooner, good riddance iDrive and ye olde car manufacturers who can't work together to create a seamless consistently good experience when connecting your smartphone to a car and trying to use the damn car controls with your car being handed off your existing smartphone apps and data connection so they are ready to go immediately. Let me drive the damn car and not fidget with my phone or your distracted driving inducing touchscreen buttonless usability nightmare that is in fashion in cars today (see Tesla). In my Mercedes they charge thousands more for "hands free calling package" when my basic toyota comes with that out of the box. This upselling of basic tech functionality needs to end and I'm glad Tesla and hopefully Apple car disrupt the mired incumbents.
- corvuscorvid 6y ago"The pricks are on the inside"
- ssss11 6y agoNo one but the Sales and Ad Men need smart billboards.
- ppetty 6y agoThat’s a really hard sell, meaning difficult. Should I buy a BMW that seems — according to the manufacturer — to need an extended warranty? This also seems like a privacy issue, but only if you and one other car pass by the sign at the exact same time. The most prevalent spam calls on my cell phone are for extended warranties... this seems to cast BMW in the same light unless you really should get the warranty. But, full circle, if that’s right there must be a more reliable comparable car, right? I’m sure BMWs are great but I’d certainly shop alternatives knowing this looms after year 3 of ownership. I also wonder what this means for their certified pre-owned cars.