In July, luxury automaker BMW started selling some new eye-popping subscription-based services in various countries, included charging drivers $18 a month for heated seats and $10 per month for a heated steering wheel, features that critics argued should be standard.
General Motors assured investors Nov. 30 it has no intention of charging its customers for those features, but it is certain that vehicle software, and the microtransactions it will allow, such as paying for cloud-based services, will be the bigger business for GM in the future compared with the sale of the hardware---the car---now.
Abby Andrews