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Why Your New Car's Technology Is Four Years Old
Lucas123 writes "While you can buy a 1TB hard drive for your computer for less than $100, Ford today offers 10GB. Don't expect much more anytime soon. Apart from the obvious — a car's development process can be four years long — the automotive industry also tends to be behind the tech curve because of a lack of equipment standardization. And, while it's possible for the industry to build modular infotainment systems that could be upgraded over the life of the car, there are no plans to do so. Instead, car companies intend to offer software upgradable vehicles through 4G connectivity and data storage and entertainment streaming through the cloud, which means they have to worry less about onboard hardware reliability and standardization."
They'd probably rather sell you a new car with fancy new technology than let you upgrade your existing technology.
There is no reason to have all of this junk in a new car. The only thing one needs is a USB charging port and an aux in for the smartphone to play audio through the cars audio system. Anything else the car does will be done poorly and until more standardization ensues, shouldn't be done. Where there is standardization, there is prosperity (USB, 3.5mm audio, Bluetooth, 12V power plugs)
Sig: I stole this sig.
Am I the only one that doesn't want a car that needs software updates?
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
The problem here is that you will loose a lot of the things which make the engines smaller (better managing of head-gasket displacement, so smaller bore and stroke to get the same amount of power), more efficient (direct fuel injection and stroke cycles), less polluting (no need for a leaded fuel to get burn and temperatures necessary for combustion not to mention the catalytic converters), quieter (see the previous reasons), and generally more pleasant to be around as I am not choking on the smog created by the engine when it is started up.
I, for one, like to have all of those things in my car and any future cars I wish to purchase. Of course those things will require special tools. Working on engines have always required special tools.
There is a certain amount of missing the forest for the trees in your statement, I feel.
International standard ISO 7736. Cars have had "modular infotainment systems" for as long as I can remember. My old Z car had an am radio, that later upgraded to FM cassette, then added a 6-disc CD changer, then when the changer finally died, yanked it all, installed a flip out 7" LCD w/bluetooth, NAVi, Pandora, etc. Every car I ever owned eventually got some kind of upgrade to the "infotainment system." What I see happening is bluetooth taking the show, and your phone does everything else, the car would only have an amp, speakers, touchscreen, and bluetooth, that is all, it doesn't NEED a hd, no 4G, no disks, no computer, nothing. Want an upgrade? Get a new phone, or may only need an app for that.
There has been enough time for it to have a known reliability - time enough to measure it.
It may well be that new tech is more reliable - but there hasn't been time to measure that. By the time there is, today's new tech will be tomorrow's old tech.
Accelerated life testing is all well and good, but sometimes there are new mechanisms that aren't kicked out by the old testing. Nothing beats time in grade like time in grade. Twas ever thus when life and liability is on the line.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Often confusing equipment they bought 20 years ago that cost thousands of dollars and comparing them against their modern counterpart that cost a few hundred bucks.
Interesting, I always assumed that it had an element of confirmation bias to it. "I have a hard disk from 20 years ago that still works" gets conflated with "hard disks from 20 years ago last 20 years", as they ignore all the disks that had failed.