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As more critical functionality in cars comes to be controlled by MCU/CPUs and software over ECUs and mechanical components, I wonder if software obsolescence wi

As more critical functionality in cars comes to be controlled by MCU/CPUs and software over ECUs and mechanical components, I wonder if software obsolescence will have a larger impact than potential chip failure from increased use. It's not hard to imagine a future where Tesla stops developing and pushing updates for cars after 5-10 years, basically forcing an owner to trade up as the hardware in older models becomes incompatible with the latest self-driving algos. It's also not hard to imagine a future where Amazon/Uber/Bigco own and update large fleets of vehicles, maintaining and renting them out much like AWS does compute cycles, taking the burden off the user to maintain their own hardware.

Slansitartop 9y ago
> As more critical functionality in cars comes to be controlled by MCU/CPUs and software over ECUs and mechanical components, I wonder if software obsolescence will have a larger impact than potential chip failure from increased use. I don't really see that. Once the software's out there and works, it'll work even if it isn't updated with the latest feature set. I can't really imagine the government changing self-driving car standards so fast that a non-updated car could not operate safely and would have to be retired. Any broken "cloud server dependence" would probably cause so much weeping and gnashing of teeth that Tesla would be foolish to try it, and again, I doubt the government would allow it for safety reasons.