Electric Cars Are Already Upending America | After years of promise, a massive shift is under way::After years of promise, a massive shift is under way.
In the EV age, cars are no longer just cars. They are computers.
oh no
Stripping out a gas engine, transmission, and 100-plus moving parts turns a vehicle into something more digital than analog—sort of like how typing on an iPhone keyboard is different than on my clackety old Samsung flip phone.
stop
“It’s the software that is really the heart of an EV,” DeGraff said—it runs the motors, calculates how many miles are left on a charge, optimizes the brakes, and much more.
stop, please
Just like with other gadgets that bug you about software updates, all of this firmware can be updated over Wi-Fi while a car charges overnight.
noooooooooooooooo
“It’s the software that is really the heart of an EV,” DeGraff said—it runs the motors, calculates how many miles are left on a charge, optimizes the brakes, and much more.
Its all the worst parts of owning an EV.
Seriously, give me a mostly-dumb EV and I’m happy as a clam. The best parts of an EV are not the software (those are some of the worst).
A lot of “smart” devices are better off dumb.
It kind of annoys me when people say that expanded infotainment and self driving tech is an EV thing. It’s not.
LOTS of internal combustion cars are basically a rolling Android computer with OTA firmware updates. It’s been this way for quite a while now.
I’d rather have a real-time OS than android managing my car.
The car’s CAN bus is always driven by a highly available real-time OS.
The car’s infotainment is often Android-based.
Android (and to some extent Linux in general) is not suitable for hard real-time applications.
I can’t wait to not own my car anymore and have all features preinstalled but not working because I didn’t pay enough.
Audi and BMW are doing this for a decade. A friend has an Audi and he cracked the infotainment to have all the smart drive things and sensors for parking
Yo ho ho a new sea to sail under the jolly roger yaharr
An optimist I see
I never thought people would be rogering their cars. XD
Brings new meaning to the old “You wouldn’t steal a car” bs
XD Man, times have changed.
Wonder what they would do if found out. Would they brick the car remotely? Then would it be covered under insurance since the car is totaled if the CPU is bricked. That sure would be an interesting lawsuit to find out about the true ownership of a car.
I assume if you put custom firmware on the car, you’d either tamper with the antenna so this was not possible, or futz with signing keys so the car wouldn’t accept an OTA update from the manufacturer?
It’s an old model, doesn’t have an antenna.
This is trend is happening regardless of whether or not the wheels spin because of batteries or little explosions.
We need to push for consumer protection for all vehicles.
Yup, but it’s easier to lock down an EV because they don’t need to include an OBDII port (no emissions), so there’s really no standards they need to adhere to. So they just remove pretty much all choice at the start so people don’t get mad later when they remove features in future models.
ICE cars need to do it more slowly to properly boil the frog.
Also my car updating overnight and the update broke my brakes and I am dead the next day.
How is this a transition, though?
I had a 1981 four-cylinder Ford Ranger that needed it’s onboard computer replaced so the damn thing would stop shuddering while idling. The thing had a damn carburetor, this was prior to fuel injection. Still had a small “computer” inside of it.
Computers have been in vehicles and managing parts of vehicles for forty fucking years or more.
The real transition is deciding that the electronic sensors are cheaper than physical sensors, despite physical sensors (often) being more accurate and less prone to failure.
They need to convince you it’s different so you’ll eat the $50/month subscription.
And even further back than that, the B-29 used computers for the remote controlled defensive guns that would provide bullet drop compensation for the gunner.
And even further back than that, the USN had highly advanced mechanical fire control computers to assist with naval artillery targeting of moving and stationary targets.
Exactly. My Volvo S60 is internal combustion and is basically a rolling computer.
Shit, yesterday some software crashed and caused the power steering to go out while I was driving. That was fun.
Having computers isn’t the problem, having remotely controlled computer with cryptographically paired components and limited user-accessible diagnostics is. If they can effectively control the software, they can force you into a subscription to access basic features and require you to visit their dealers to get service.
Transition in the same way it is for all software these days. The difference is the expectation of always on connections, constant telemetry, and continuous delivery of updates. That’s quite a bit different than the software model used for your 1981 Ranger. Though it’s not specific to cars.
This headline is weird.
How can it be both “already upending” and “after years of promise”. They seem like mutually exclusive concepts
I like the technology but I don’t like the plans for implementation
That’s my stance as well. All of that sounds good to me, but it being a series of black boxes that I’m not legally allowed to fix or maintain is a nightmare to me. Worse them seen as a SaaS product because they hamstring us making subscriptions practically mandatory and worse allow for enshitfication in future.
in other news the economy is fantastic which is good because it means we can buy these vehicles and we have a president who is for the will of the people
fucking golden age for sure lets all buy a few electric vehicles
wut
Not sure if sarcasm or brainwashing.
