This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I never owned a car but if and when I do my FIRST choice is 'was this car made with telemetry? If yes, are there clear instructions on how to airgap it'
Also I would want to check the laws regarding the paint on the cars so if it is possible to give it a dazzle or AI confusing pattern. I cannot shield it from ALPRs, but I want as little visiblility against other cameras as possible... Of course doing that pattern makes the car stick out.
I pulled the cloud modem out of my car. It drives just fine without a connection to the internet or cell towers.
My '96 vehicle has no cloud and will continue to.outlive many modern ones.
Ive got over 350k on my 05' Toyota. I dread trying to buy a newer car.
I have yet to own a vehicle made in the 21st century.
I'm terrified of having to get a vehicle that requires software updates that eventually will stop receiving support. I'm also terrified of getting a vehicle with just generally shitty software. My gf's car has awful software and there's nothing she can do about it.
Just give me 90s era cars again. They last forever and they're easy to repair on your own.
I wonder how much cheaper a car without any crap in it could be today if they still manufactured them at scale
I know I may get flamed for this since it has funding from Bezos but take a look at the Slate Truck (https://www.slate.auto/). Not cellular modem so no tracking (other than app based things. They say like charging and whatnot but you never know). No carplay or android auto, not entertainment dash at all. Hell the windows are old school cranks for rolling up and down.
This, but as a compact and without Bezos.
There's lot to be said for physical safety features like side and curtain airbags, or better crumple zones that don't crush your feet, but those were pretty much standard by 2012 so you can have those without all the computer nightmares.
This is what the GPL was meant to fight against. Having boxes running software that is still under the control of the manufacturer.
Instead people complained that it was hard to use the code at work. YES. THAT'S THE POINT.
You just throw it out and buy a new one. Duh.
The cloud? I've owned many a vehicle who's company doesn't exist anymore XD No car should be tied to any cloud or connectivity crap for use
Saturn enters the chat.
Pontiac says "hello" and Oldsmobile is hitting on Saab.
Holy shit how did this comment make me feel so old. Saturn was the only one that came to mind but I recognize all of those.
vehicle … cloud
Flying cars sure turned out differently than we imagined in sci-fi.
We must create some legalisation on this else a buch of smart cars are going to turn into dumb bricks.
In contrary to what many are saying I don't think going back to plain cars is the solution. I think an open standard would be the solution here to provide an option to self-host or connect to provider.
Doesn't even need a technical solution. Could just be some law that in order to sell a vehicle:
A company has to maintain any cloud support for at least 20 years.
They have to put up a bond that will allow such services to continue even if they go belly up before those 20 years are through.
All vehicle features where cloud connections are not essential to their function must be operable without any cloud connection. So it's fine if after 20 years you can't pull the contacts from your google account to display on the car's screen, or if GPS map updates no longer work. But the door locks or seat heaters better not be cloud connected.
Enforcing 20 years of support would be difficult since they'd presumably be going bankrupt/closing anyway so they don't really have anything to lose.
Big automotive conglomerates won't go bankrupt.
If they do, your tax money will bail them out.
Bond.
In a sane world, there would be a law that forces certain types of features to always work.
Cloud connectivity can have benefits but honestly, 95+% of a car’s feature does not need the internet
We need a Stop Killing Cars movement
A lot of people don't realise SKG is a foothold in exactly that fight. If you establish precedent on something as "frivolous" as video games you can use it on much higher value thing too.
I still don't understand why people call the biggest entrataiment industry "frivolous" especially when some stories are better than many films i saw
In this case it's an advantage. If your enemy has a blind spot you exploit it.
It's a disadvantage here though, it means less people supporting it and politicians ignoring it more
Most cars throughout history have had zero need for the internet. I just hope it does not end up like video games, where they can sell an unfinished product and patch it later. Though there are benefits to that model, but recalls exist for a reason.
I just hope it does not end up like video games, where they can sell an unfinished product and patch it later.
Too late. This is already the case, I don't know of a single EV that wasn't buggy on release and still buggy a year or two afterwards as the manufacturer hunts bugs in a leisurely pace. It already is like in the gaming industry. Don't buy an EV that isn't at least one year old on the market or you will become their free of charge beta tester...
You buy a new one so the c level can buy another yacht
Is this article presuming that this isn't part of the plan? Auto manufacturers think our brains work like "oh no, my connected service was end-of-lifed. Guess I gotta buy a new car."
In response to some customer concerns of a dead battery resulting from the DCM continually trying to access the 3G cellular network, which is no longer available
https://www.theautopian.com/why-subaru-batteries-are-dying-all-across-the-country/
