For over a century, the automobile has represented freedom, power, and the thrill of mechanical mastery. The connection between driver, machine, and road defined what it meant to own and love a car. But in today’s digital era, a different trend is unfolding. Cars are no longer just machines designed to take us from point A to point B. Increasingly, they resemble something else entirely: smartphones on wheels.
Just?
Cars have been giant
smartphones{tracking and data collection gold mines} for years nowAds between gear changes in 3…2…1…
It looks like you’re trying to brake. You’ve used up this months braking quota. Breaking will be enabled again in two weeks. Please enter credit card details to upgrade your subscription to allow unlimited breaking*.
*Fair use policy, limitations apply. Braking is not available on all roads. If you’re using the brake to often, an additional braking fee might be applied to your credit card for each use. Braking fee and subscriptions do not include mechanical wear, new parts or checks by a mechanic.
Stop giving Tesla, Stellantis, and Mercedes ideas.
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Sadly yes and they’re mainly taking the worst aspects. Normal built in features like heated seats as subscriptions, dropping smartphone integration for their own far inferior dogshit UI and features, and so on.
Volkswagen is so bad at this! They have phone connectivity but they bog down the infotainment with they’re own crap software. The GPS is so bad it slowes down the whole system. I will never use vw maps. Ever. Just stop!
And Chevy just doesn’t have android auto on or apple play on their lower trim levels. But they do compensate by integrating Google maps at least.
Kia is the best though. Minimal proprietary software. Plug your phone in and android auto automatically comes up.
No need for data grabbing AA/Carplay shit in my car, stock ui works superior. But give people the option
My radio doesn’t even have a screen 😅
The only computer in my car is the radio, and that stays off most of the time. I’m honestly thrilled to not have so much tech in the car. Its nice to be able to fix nearly anything with some pliers, a multi-meter, and an adjustable spanner.
No engine control module in that thing?
Nope! Mid 70s MG, carbuereted. As far as I know it has a crank triggered ignition, ergo fully mechanical.
Edit: autocorrect assumed I no longer had this vehicle
Cries in atmosphere
Tuned to run slightly lean with an aftermarket catalytic convertor installed.
I do my best not to destroy the environment while still maintaining a vehicle I can work on myself
Lean burning increases mileage, but produces nitrous oxides.
Rich burning produces carbon monoxide, which eventually converts to CO2 in the atmosphere.
Unit for unit, NOx emissions are 265 times as damaging as CO/CO2.
https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/how-climate-works/some-greenhouse-gases-are-stronger-others
To successfully convert NOx, catalytic converters need a stoichiometric or slightly rich fuel/air mixture to the engine.
Guess i have work to do. Thank you 🙏
Indeed.
Unfortunately, no matter how well you tune your carburetor, just a change in atmospheric temperature is enough to throw off your mixture.
The only feasible way to adjust it fast enough to keep up with atmospheric changes is with some kind of fuel injection, an ECM, and an O2 sensor to provide the feedback needed for closed-loop mixture control.
Fortunately: https://speeduino.com/
It’s nothing less than a war against property rights.
They are pushing software into cars because they see copyright, and more specifically the DMCA anti-circumvention clause, as an excuse to retain their control over your property after they sell it to you. Rentiership is 100% of their goal, and providing useful functionality is nothing but an afterthought at best.
“Subscriptions” to hardware you already own is entirely FRAUD and executives of companies that engage in it deserve long prison sentences.
John Deere cough cough
we always flip off the John Deere plant as we drive by. Family tradition.
They’ve been. Demand your privacy back
Bill Burr calls it “driving an iPad”
Combining two of the things I most hate. Makes sense.
Yes, and car manufacturers are becoming SaaS vendors
Shit as a Subscription
Thank you
My car is basically an accessory that turns my phone into a car, yes.
the thrill of mechanical mastery
I remember people in the 80s/90s complaining that those pieces of shit were broken all the time. Not anymore IMHO. There was only thrill for a few car enthusiasts.
the automobile has represented freedom
That’s a part I never understood.
Cara are fucking expensive, they’re literally money drains. Unless you have that much money, you ainns having a car.
In Europe, bot having a car generally nis perfectly fine, you still can go everywhere easily as that place hasn’t been turned into a cars-only paradise
In the US, and countries that modelled themselves after it, you’re not going anywhere without a car. Public transit it shit at best and in many places completely absent. Want to try a bicycle? Good luck, you gotta mix in with the murder cars.
Cars do not represent freedom, they’re the opposite
Compared to walking or riding a horse they are freedom. They cost a lot, but also enable a lot.
i wish we had transit here, but that doesn’t mean cars are not freedom. Even in europe most people drive.
In Europe, not having a car generally is perfectly fine
In cities.
For those living in the countryside, not really, as distances are huge and public transport is rare (think a single bus that stops at a bus station a km or two away and passes maybe once every 2h) or non-existent.
That said, over 70% of people in Europe live in urban areas.
If the state of open source phones are anything to judge by, we will have open source cars at some point, except the foot brake isn’t working yet, so you’ll have to use the hand brake for now. Cars and phones both take a lot of resources to develop, and maybe you’ll be able to “de-Stellantis” your car at some point instead of going fully open source, but judging by the recent steps Google has taken to weaken de-Googling, I’m not sure how long that would last either.
The sad thing is ‘smartphone on wheels’ is a slur.
Smartphones don’t have to be soulless and uniform and enshittified and subscription based completely inaccessible and straight up anti-consumer/designed to fail, but here we are.
I really hope Slate takes off though (and they make a nimble hatchback some day). It feels like the antithesis of all this.
The simplicity of the Slate interior is fantastic. They developed a screenless touch screen that you can rotate without even looking at them. I wish I were in the market for this type of vehicle.
Interior photo
Yeah, that is so perfect.
Imagine a sedan or hatchback. It would be light as a feather (in terms of curb weight) and still feel spacious being so ‘clean’ inside.
Kind of disappointing Bezos is involved though.
