Cars Are Rolling Computers Now. So What Happens When They Stop Getting Updates?

jeffw@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 612 points –
Cars Are Now Rolling Computers Now. So What Happens When They Stop Getting Updates?
wired.com
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Cars should just come with a big open socket up front, where I can buy (or build) my own infotainment system to install there.

...which is precisely what we used to have, before auto makers decided to insist that they should be enclosed in a swooping dash.

I'd be fine with a reinvention of the modular system with more digital I/O and connections to other features of the car. Let me buy something like a "Samsung Galaxy Drive" infotainment dash that embodies the "swooping dash" concept, or let me buy a pre-built shell that I can build out like a custom PC.

I can cram my car full of corporate apps, or I can run it on Linux. I would love to have the choice.

Any future self-driving capabilities need to be inside of their own dedicated system like an aircraft autopilot.

I mean, the DIN hole was a standard size but it certainly wasn't a 'socket' and anyone who had a Ford Focus that needed a Mercedes-Benz writing harness to plug up their aftermarket radio knows what I'm on about.