this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2026
714 points (97.7% liked)

Technology

81208 readers
4326 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
714
BMW’s Newest “Innovation” is a Logo-Shaped Middle Finger to Right to Repair (www.ifixit.com)
submitted 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) by Beep@lemmus.org to c/technology@lemmy.world
112 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
[–] LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz 10 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Until you're halfway through putting in new brake pads and realize you need a specialty bit and now you're stuck without a working car until you get that Amazon package.

[–] Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

At that point that bolt is getting destructively removed and replaced with a different bolt from the hardware store. Unless they have custom thread pitches, there's going to be an easy replacement.

Edit but I don't own a BMW and never will, my first car was the bargainest basement commuter car and my next one will be too.