this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2026
640 points (97.5% liked)

Technology

81208 readers
4409 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
640
BMW’s Newest “Innovation” is a Logo-Shaped Middle Finger to Right to Repair (www.ifixit.com)
submitted 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) by Beep@lemmus.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
103 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] four@lemmy.zip 15 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Have they actually used it anywhere or just have the patent? Because I expect they won't actually use it anywhere, like with Sony's (IIRC) patent where you have to shout "McDonald's!" after watching an ad. Though I wouldn't be too surprised if they actually use it

[–] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 8 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

That's what's often missing from stories about patents: big companies churn out patents in case they ever need to use them in patent warfare against competitors. For the sole reason that the competitors are doing the same thing.

However, I doubt it that BMW would ever have a chance to use this particular patent on a competitor.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

Most of these employera pay employees a couple thousand dollar bonus for any patw t they get out there successfully, with zero limitations on actually implementing the patent.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 1 points 6 hours ago

It's not like it's going to prevent people from working on their cars, either. It's probably just for decorative purposes.