OTA updates on vehicles terrify me. I say this having worked in tech almost my whole life
. Seeing bricked cars, frozen screens, features disappearing or modules not initialising/failing to update.
Also seeing more and more companies selling your personal data and behavioural patterns. It wouldn't surprise me if some manufacturers were going to do what smartphone companies have done before and actually start removing features or performance to entice upgrading. Testing the waters with subscriptions for heated seats has led to subscriptions for high beam assist (!) Parking Assistant Professional, M Adaptive Suspension (some of these are in different languages).
I totally understand real time traffic info, map updates and other connected functionality having some ongoing cost. However, all these are hardware features of the car and require ZERO data or platform access to operate. At least there is an 'unlimited option'. Wait until the unlimited option gets removed in some new feature update! This is now in 2024 AFTER they claimed they were going to totally not do this back in 2023 after the heated seat controversy
. Its a matter of time before they do what Peloton, for instance, does - ask the new owner to pay a 'reactivation' fee for all the shit the previous owner subscribed to on their profile.
Welcome to the future. Where are all those guys thirsty for TeCh?
