For now, BMW is defaulting to a more traditional approach. If it requires a data package of some sort, it will probably have a recurring fee—and BMW says its customers are already comfortable subscribing to such add-ons.

Sounds like a fairly reasonable position imo, and that they listen to the outrage about heated seats (which tbh was ridiculous). I get the feeling that everyone who commented on this didn't actually read the article, lol.

Full disclosure: I own a fairly recent BMW and do like it a lot. Would I have bought it with subscription based heated seats? Maybe not, but I do appreciate other things like having a physical button to go into battery save mode and not having to dive 3 touch screen menus down.. or that it's one of the most powerful hybrids in electric only mode (though not anymore I think).. or being generally more dialed back when it comes to driver assist features.

That said I will admit that it has a physical button that tells me to pay up when pressed, to enable automatic high beam control.. though it's not like it was an advertised feature (got it used).