Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that there are no positive consequences of automatic updates. Rather, I was trying to point out the difference in perception of ow

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that there are no positive consequences of automatic updates. Rather, I was trying to point out the difference in perception of ownership between things like cars and our hardware. Regardless of benefits and drawbacks of automatic updates themselves, I regard that difference in perception as dangerous and damaging. To illustrate my point in terms of your analogy, if people could get free upgrades for their brakes that make the car safer, I like to think that they would still prefer to be given control over it, because they see it as "my car" and not "my car, but with brakes licensed from someone else". And I also like to think that they would object to arbitrary changes to the insides of their car with vague explanations of how the new insides are better.