Hacker News Reader

Comment by aejnsn | Hacker News Reader

Don't go buy a BMW anytime soon.

Have to recode the battery, and it's been that way for years.

Not sure why you got downvoted, but this is true. When you replace the battery in a new-ish BMW you need to recode/register the battery since BMW changes the way it charges the battery based on age and type.

I'm not sure myself. I am attempting to contrast one premium consumer product with another based on expectations. I think iFixIt and others knowingly sensationalize this stuff without looking for parallels elsewhere.

In the BMW community, we justify technical reasoning behind the battery coding of our automobiles' features, but apparently phones, with their comparable levels of complexity, are supposed to use AAA batteries because the company that makes replacement parts has a loud voice. Maybe I am mistaken, but this could be considered a double-standard. I am not apologizing for Apple, I have my own frustrations with the company lately, but I strive for consistency when I opine.

There are already COTS ICs for monitoring rechargeable batteries. These used to be built into laptop batteries when they were removable and swappable. Nothing prevents a phone manufacture from integrating the same into a removable battery to keep track of aging.

I profited from this:

Bought the code reader from AliExpress for $150. Then sold it locally once I was done for close to $200.

My biggest gripe was getting the battery in and out of the trunk.

Anywho, a half decent scan tool pays for itself.

Carly and ProTool are amazing tools too. :)

But then I’d be stuck buying software I couldn’t re-sell once I was done with it.

I’m also not the only driver and I like the idea of anyone borrowing it being able to pull codes at any time.

Even Chrysler is doing things like this. I had a hitch installed, super simple, all of the wires etc plug in to the appropriate places, but if you want to actually use the break lights, you need to visit the dealership to flip a boolean flag somewhere, otherwise the lights just don't work.

The only difference in a current Ford Mustang between making the in-dash vacuum gauge work for boost too is a boolean flag. So if you drop a supercharger on your N/A GT model, you can have your MAP sensor register in the dash as if the supercharger is OEM.

Isn't that like, terribly unsafe? A lawsuit waiting to happen imo, if someone doesn't check the brake lights on their trailer...

In my experience that is pretty common. My F150, for example, has daytime running lights ... in Canada. Another boolean flag, if I had a programmer I could enable them on mine.

brake.. I suppose.

Same with Porsche, but it doesn't actually hurt anything if you don't have the dealer install and code a replacement battery. The car doesn't nag you about it. The coding is primarily used to determine when the auto start/stop feature can be activated and for how long, but many/most owners turn that off anyway.

If Apple doesn't want to show the estimated health state for aftermarket batteries, that's fine, but they should have simply refrained from displaying that field. Displaying scary but meaningless warning messages just comes across as rent-seeking behavior. It will (or at least it should) encourage their customers to contact their representatives to support Right To Repair legislation.

I, for one, hate when my car is in the shop. That's why I haven't been buying BMWs.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com