As an aside, with all the talk of cars going autonomous, it is perhaps a bit ironic that they are technically going the other way, no longer an independent autonomous machine but a network node easily rendered obsolete or even useless when cut from the collective by their manufacturer who maintains a brand-discrete network one uses to access features of the car; in short, the app. It's getting so intertwined that many, like BMW, are charging rent on the app and an owner has no choice but to pay the monthly blood-money to access the features on the thing he or she thought they bought and "owned".
Now, its gone a step further as Nissan has told owners in the UK of its older Leaf that they are pulling the plug on the app that the owner uses to access features like pre-heat and remote charging (a clever feature where the car charges itself on off-hours to avoid surge-pricing at charging stations). The reason is the feature relies on 2g which itself is having its plug pulled at the end of the year. This all from an article on the Beeb, so perhaps not 100% accurate on my part.
Still, here we are. A car whose entire life-cycle is dependent on the manufacturer. As the owner, you lose the functionality and value of your investment with no recourse as either the manufacturer holds you up, as in BMW, or the tech goes obsolete, as in the Leaf.
You have no recourse, and an otherwise functional machine goes to scrap because upgrades to the tech are impossible or the manufacturer doesn't want to be bothered anymore. The scrap and replace part of this incurs an environmental cost, that incurred in scrappage and more importantly in the manufacture of the replacement, so the environmental component of EV (or any modern car) is rendered a bit hypocritical.
Many of us are caring for our older vehicles that have none of these features and no umbilical to the OEM for as long as we can rather than buy into the current crop for just these reasons. We can fix them, we are the true owner, not the OEM, and it is perhaps more environmentally responsible over life cycle if our actions do not cause a replacement to be manufactured and our current ride doesn't yet go through the scrap/recycle phase.
I personally hope I can keep mine in good shape for the rest of my lifetime. I really don't want to be party to this, to have my automotive buying decisions made for me (or to be robbed at tech-point by the likes of BMW), especially at current pricepoint.
It's an interesting time, btw, as stocks of new cars are now replenished after the pandemic. These people are discovering that the buyer side of the marketplace is very resentful after being gouged by dealer up-pricing and the costs of all this tech passed on even if you don't want it. The marketplace is in a bubble right now, and a rogue maker (rumblings from Toyota are encouraging) of a reliable, capable, simple-yet-civilised "peoples car" would burst it.
I (and probably all of Gen-Zed) would love to see that!
Message Thread
« Back to index