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Some people are seeing this as a potential price-reducing move but this will result in prices going up. This will not result in savings for anyone.
BMW would see increased costs across the board because they are manufacturing cruise control radars, heated seats, and heated steering wheels for cars of consumers that don't even want those features. They will not only need to recoup those additional costs but will try make a big profit of this. It's as simple as that. The subscription model for features in cars means overall price to the consumer will go up for the same vehicle/functionality.
Also the fact that they can make second owners pay for features all over again is just greedy if not unethical. That 3 year subscription is clearly designed so they can double dip. BMW could also easily disable everything "unlimited" the first owner paid for every time the car is for sale at the dealership. Imagine going in to get a used/CPO car and having to pay new-car pricing for all the options. This will also hurt resale value, which again is bad for new BMW owners.
The point shawnhayes brought up about the subscriptions being disactivated in the future is extremely important too. What if when 4G is no longer supported they discontinue connected drive on your car and all of a sudden you can't use the heated seats or adaptive cruise for pretty much no reason?
Anything where the price structure for the consumer doesn't reflect the cost structure of the seller should be carefully examined. There are no ongoing costs for BMW with putting these features in these cars, so there shouldn't be ongoing payment by the customer to keep them active. Charging a subscription to unblock a feature where the hardware is already there is a deeply anti-consumer move.
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