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.
It’s not their right to decide if I get to work on my own property.
If you cant figure out how to get past this screw you shouldn’t be working on things. Mechanics have a million speciality tools, what’s one more little bit, doesn’t affect us the slightest.
So when I’m working on my car, and find I need to find a specialty bit to undo a single screw, and they don’t sell it anywhere in town and I have to wait 2-3 days for shipping (or 2-3 weeks if I order from overseas) then it’s fine cause I shouldn’t be working on my car myself?
Is this a BMW bot?
What happened to the right to own and maintain my own property?
Well, they don’t in this case either - they just add an extra step to it. You can buy a bit like that off eBay.