this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2026
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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
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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.

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[–] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago

I think they just patented it because the system rewards patent trolls with thousands of patents, even if they have no intention to ever use said patent.

This is unpractical and will cost them more (replace all the tooling, rethink supply chain) than it will supposedly make them (rich customers would go to official repairs anyway, and poor customers will just get a copy from aliexpress)