See also: “rent-seeking”. The hardware has already been paid for by the owner of the vehicle (BMW’s are not sold at a loss), yet “a subscription” (rent) must be paid to access something which is already there.
https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/12/23204950/bmw-subscriptions-microtransactions-heated-seats-feature
Here, I’ll save folks the effort of doing a type type: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking
“Rent-seeking is the effort to increase one's share of existing wealth without creating new wealth.”
— hardware is already paid for, but money needs to keep being paid for it to keep working.