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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."
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.
Sell us a new car rather than a 64GB card to allow for more storage? I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked!
With so many cars being leased, then returned in two or three years, most people wouldn't bother replacing or upgrading anything in the car. How they can't develop a car with "hooks" for a new (eg, less than 6 months old) piece of technology is beyond me. These are top shelf engineers and I bet they could work wonders without the corporate red tape.
TFA mentions at least one challenge. Kit in automobiles have to be built for extreme conditions (temperature range, vibrations, chemicals, dust, etc). I can see consumers grabbing a cheap pc-grade harddrive and putting it into the vehicle then complaining when it gets fried. The car manufacturer would probably be blamed, much as Microsoft gets blamed anytime a program crashes on Windows.
Laptops are not left out in the cold to experience -20 temperatures for weeks at a time.
Laptops are not left out in the sun to experience 130 temperatures for weeks at a time.
Laptops don't experience the degree of shaking a car component does.
Laptops don't have a 6-10 year life expectancy.