this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2024
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It's a shame that's not the default because while do find EVs interesting there's no way I'm buying a car that may stop working after a failed software update. Did early EV manufacturers feel the need to put as many bleeding edge features as possible in their vehicles to make them more alluring? Cause I can't imagine another reason to turn a car into a driveable smartphone.
The new EV only manufacturers often have a lot of tech bros involved. See, for example, how Elon Musk’s hatred for physical buttons led to even the glove box not having a physical latch to open it; you have to dive through menus on the center console to open the glove box.
Unfortunately even the legacy manufacturers are following the tech bros’ lead on this. Most new cars (even non-electric cars) are replacing physical buttons and knobs with touch-sensitive buttons or settings controlled only by screens or voice control. I hate it! I want to be able to reach over and adjust the volume or air conditioner without having to look at what my hand’s doing instead of looking at the road. To me these decisions are being made by people who don’t actually spend a lot of time driving their cars.
Of course, there’s also the part where manufacturers are licking their chops trying to add the sweet recurring revenue of subscription services to their hardware products, like BMW trying to make people pay a monthly fee to use heated seats in their car.
Don't forget GM rolling their own infotainment system that is tied into god knows what instead of allowing Android Auto and Car Play in a twofold decision to have shitty software and sell your driving habits for extra spending cash. That's for all of their vehicles.
Selling your data doesn't have anything to do with Android Auto or CarPlay. You can provide Android Auto and still sell your driving data just fine.
They can sell more. Using their maps? They can sell what kind of places you're looking up. Using their music app? They sell your listening habits. Have their app on your phone to take calls and texts? They can sell that data (likely not the contents, but the connections and frequency) along with whatever data their app collects about your phone.
On my truck they can sell driving data and the fact that I have an android phone. On their new systems they can sell everything.
You mentioned driving data specifically, and that they can sell.
Both volume and ac can be done without even reaching over, you have buttons on the steering wheel for that.
The buttonless glove box allows for setting a pin to open it, and you don't need to "dive" through menus, it's on the main screen, on a voice command, or again, as a button on the steering wheel.
There's much more obvious things to criticize, like the removal of the stalks, especially for blinkers, or the ultrasonic sensors, especially without a front camera.
And BMW subscription would save people money, but people panicked and now it's back as an almost 1000 bucks option instead of a 7 bucks a month "subscription" that you need 3 months of the year in most countries. And they never even removed the option of buying it outright...
If we don't fight all the subscriptions, eventually everything will be a subscription.
That's like, your opinion, man.
The BMW thing wasn't a panic. It was being incensed at being locked out of the hardware that comes with the car and putting it behind a paywall. If you can't see how ridiculous that is I'm not sure what to tell you.
Maybe just build it into the car and give people free heated seats. They're not really luxury anymore.
If putting the hardware in makes the assembly line simpler and the car is 2000 euros cheaper but you want to pay more just to remove the hardware, I don't know what to tell you.
Which Tesla has no front camera?
All of them (except the cybertruck, maybe?). I mean one on grill level, to see what's in front of you below the hood level. They do have one behind the rear view mirror, but that one doesn't see shit when parking (and you can't show it on the screen).
Once you have a microcontroller running things, adding new features is just a matter of software. Doesn't add to the BOM, doesn't complication production in any way. There's almost no marginal cost to techify everything, and the people who don't want those features can just not use them. The small minority of people who want a repairable car that they can understand and maintain in their own garage are undesirable customers who reduce after-market revenue.
While that may be your sentiment, it seems that for many people, especially in countries like China, having more smart features is a positive selling point.