Quote:
Originally Posted by spuntyb
Part of the appeal of digital systems should be the ability to apply OTA updates as software develops and improves. This gets more complicated the more physical buttons you have, so I can see why some manufacturers would want to migrate away from them. You could buy a physical car that ages, but gets upgrades and improvements via software over time, thereby prolonging the effective life of the vehicle. Obviously, there's a point of diminishing returns, but on paper it seems like a good selling point. However, other than Tesla, this hasn't really come to fruition. Digital displays simply become outdated and get redesigned with each generation of vehicle. Plus, to your point, it seems to weaken the safety profile of a car if the UI is completely new every few years, never mind the loss of physical controls.
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agreed.
I've also thought the car manufacturers need to work on a unified operating system that makes it easier for the user to transition from a BMW to a merc or porsche, etc. It would make it much safer for the end user because it would always be something they are familiar with vs. having to relearn a cockpit of a 3000lb hunk of steel. (well carbon and aluminum but you get the point)
billions of dollars being spent to redesign stupid things and then their is no money to keep it up to date because they moved over to a new system every few years. The capability and processing power of a cell phone far exceeds the computational needs of the "infotainment" and the functionality is far greater. Using that as a basis, you could keep more cars on the road for longer without having to write off a perfectly good vehicle due to an interface/hardware no longer being available.
the OEMs could develop their own apps for certain proprietary functions but there's nothing proprietary about 90% of the shit we need to access in a car (tuner, audio controls, seat controls, etc.). The OEMS also don't have the best programmers or UI people on staff so there is a wealth of benefit that could come from opensourcing and allowing third parties to take on the optimization of some of these universal functions.
obviously safety would be a concern, but there could be a "working group" that certifies and QA's the revisions