Electric Cars Are Already Upending America | After years of promise, a massive shift is under way

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 184 points – Electric Cars Are Already Upending America
theatlantic.com

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.

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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).

But you can’t. You need something to properly modulate the brake bias. You need something to translate the throttle to the motor. You need something to control the abs, stability control, etc.

Then, for cost savings, you need 1-2 simple screens to display information.

Bespoke retro/analog EVs will exist but they won’t be cheap because size they won’t sell well.

because size they won't sell well

Looks like a typo, so I'm not exactly sure what you're saying, but I'm going to guess you're implying that the public prefers smart devices to less smart devices.

I don't know if that's true, but my understanding is that smart devices tend to sell better because they're discounted and have better hardware features, because companies want to make money on selling your data (viewing habits, installed apps, etc). But I would have to dig deeper to look for evidence.

You need something... brake... throttle... abs, stability control, etc

And all of that is fine, and that's what many cars do today. That's not really what I or anyone else annoyed at.

Here's what I don't like:

  • cryptographically paired, essential components (e.g. iPhone and MacBook do this a lot to prevent third party repair)
  • infotainment systems that can't be replaced/bypassed because they also control core functionality
  • lack of diagnostic information - OBDII port isn't required on EVs because they have no emissions
  • tracking by manufacturer - if you can access your car remotely, the manufacturer can and will

Any of that should be opt-in, not a core part of the car. I don't want to be locked into an ecosystem, limited in my ability to maintain and repair something I own, tracked, or forced to use their janky software. I want a vehicle that gets me from a to b, and the manufacturer shouldn't know where a or b are, nor should they dictate what else I can do with the car.

I think we just haven’t seen the EVs hit the point where they are plentiful enough to be viable as 2nd hand vehicles that need innovative repairs.

It won’t be too long before we see current EVs stripped of their components and patched back together. Ford and others already offer their motors and control systems for purchase separately, so we know those components don’t require phone-home connectivity. It’s just a matter of piecing the parts together either homebrew or retrofitted to existing chassis that have been stripped and reassembled.

It'll take a lot of re-engineering to make a Tesla repairable...

Some EVs are more repairable than others though, so hopefully there are enough so people who want to maintain them like term (i.e. me) can do so. If I can manually service everything except the battery pack without specialized tools or knowledge, I'm a happy camper.