software updates -Risk of buying a modern car
I was thinking … in how many years will we get cars which are functioning in an, from producer defined, time-frame? We already started getting “mobiles on wheels“ with the electrical cars so the logical step in increasing profits would be to crash the second car market selling a product which, similar to a phone, has a limited supported number of years.
Let me explain … I was reading the other day on Reddit that the owner of one of the most respectable car manufactures in the world with the slogan “Das beste oder nichts“ was denied the update of a 10 year old component as it was no longer supported. He was asking what he should do, as a 10 year car is from his (and mine) perspective not an obsolete product. As a previous owner of the same brand , can’t only subscribe to the same idea. A 10 year old car, might be “old“, but is functioning very well especially if you took good care of it. I sold my car a few years back after 12 years of ownership in a almost mint state with only consumables changed not because it was too old; loved the car still but we no longer needed it.
What happens with the new cars nevertheless is pretty interesting. The new electrical cars don’t have a large number of parts which require maintenance focus being shifted to the Battery and Software capabilities. I mean we have already manufacturers which incorporate the hardware in the car and sell the functionality as a subscription. That means the labor required to install that component is no longer billed in a classical way. It is being shifted behind a paywall … you as an owner of the car, no longer being owner of the full car.
That, I believe is only the first step in shifting to a fundamental change in car manufacturing. Corroborated with the fact that a car no longer needs to many parts in being build, we will see a shift what we get and how long will we be allowed to own a car. That sounds dramatic but let’s make a comparison with the phones we own.
There was a time, when you had moving parts, like batteries that you could change without any problem by yourself if you so chosen. The OS was a version that did not needed updates and phones generally were build like a tank. (looking at you Nokia). A few years back the shift happened with the apparition of smartphones. Suddenly you were no longer able to make simple repairs by yourself. The Operating System required constant updates and, depending on the producer, the support for it was cut off when decided from them. Only recently the EU impose a clear number of years in which the device is supported and managed to encourage some producers supporting their devices by up to 7 years of software updates.
Same as with phones, the cars are becoming software on wheels. You are being lured into the update cycle, with each big iteration, getting new functionalities into your new car. The question is for how long? Let’s take 10 years as an example. What do you do with your car after 10 years? Is it no longer functional? Most probably works perfectly fine, but if you don’t get any patches, you are stuck to a specific software version. The value on the second hand car market decreases because you are trying to sell an “outdated phone“. Then your solution is to drive the car for yourself until it breaks or sell it and lose money as it is no longer as valuable as it should.
I am a big fan of the electrical cars and do believe they are the future of transportation but we need to regulate the industry before it is too late. Buying a car is not similar to a phone as , after acquiring a house, is the second most expensive thing you buy in your life (there is having kids as well, but they are not bought:D ). When buying a car should be considered buying a physical product, with supported software attached not the other way around. Software should complement good hardware and be available to the entire duration of ownership. It might sound like an utopia but we should not forget that the car manufacturers are companies which depend on us , not the other way around. We should be the ones that decide what happens with something we bought , regardless if we are talking about a phone or a car.
Of course there is the matter of “You will own nothing and be happy“. Something that we hear more and more , after the book “The Great Reset“ written by WEF Klaus Schwab. It certainly seem so, starting from Books to Music to Movies continuing with phones and maybe cars and why not houses. It sound very promising but I can’t say I share it’s optimism. We are slowly losing our rights in owning the things in our lives and can’t say that we are more happy. On the contrary, we feel that slowly there is going head first into a wall of uncertainty as besides not owning nothing, there is also the matter of not having the money to do so.
If we will have it one way or another, only time will tell. I certainly don’t feel comfortable giving my credit card data overall when I want to own something and buying a car is no different. I expect when paying for a product that I can and should be able to do whatever I please without any guardrails imposed on it from a company or another.
What do you think? Join the conversation
Until next time, TFG