Late Stage Capitalism

Fair points.

I strongly associate FOSS with right to repair, in my mental models. To me these topics walk hand in hand, and when I extrapolate from FOSS concepts I also end up extrapolating from right to repair concepts.

Yes, you can obscure slices of the system through non FOSS software. In which case, the thin layer of FOSS indeed wouldn't solve it. I'm assuming FOSS end to end, where the owners of the car can choose whatever they want for their car. And I'm sure many people would follow their trusted mechanics advice about flashing the FOSS OS in their 50k car. That's what farmers are fighting for in the US, for their hundreds of Ks tractors and trucks.

There's another layer of struggle under FOSS. And if we could have legislation passed that requires companies to release their e2e firmware under FOSS licenses, that screen wouldn't be a problem, and we'd be likely to be able to use the same CarOS just like we can use the same Linux kernel in so many different pieces of computing hardware.

Unfortunately, legislators are in the pockets of car manufacturers and their financeers, too. So you'd need a revolution to get that kind of stuff passed, unfortunately.